Day 8, returning from Oshkosh

By 8:00 am we were in the air, leaving Miles City, Montana. It was reasonably clear as we passed Great Falls and on to Glacier National Park. We followed the highway through Logan Pass and crossed the Rockies and the continental divide going west this time. The views were spectacular looking at the sharp edged mountains, with snow in places.

We landed at Glacier International Airport for fuel and to relieve our bladders. On the tarmac was a Boeing BBJ 737 in anonymous grey and white livery. I suspect it was a private plane. Doug contacted flight control of our route back to Bremerton. They mentioned that a plane following our same route was 3 days overdue and could we keep an eye out for it.

Shortly after passing Kalispell, Montana, an emergency locator beacon signal started to warble on the radio. Doug immediately started a 360 degree turn remaining at altitude to try and determine the direction of the signal. He reported to flight control the location and pertinent information as well as when we stopped hearing the signal. We are not sure if it is connected to the overdue flight but we hope the information we provided was helpful. It is similar to when us cruisers here the emergency tone on our VHF radios of a mayday or pan-pan in our immediate vicinity.

We passed over Interstate 90 and through the Cascades and the familiar Mt. Rainier. There was a blanket of clouds from the west side of the mountains until SeaTac airport. We touched down at Bremerton airport. After cleaning the bug splatters off the windows and wings and tidying up the airplane and stowing it in the hanger we stopped at the airport cafe for a bite to eat.

While we were glad to be back, we thoroughly enjoyed our trip to Oshkosh. We want to thank Doug and Nancy for inviting us to share this adventure and airventure. It was an amazing experience.

Day 7, returning from Oshkosh

We left Outagamie Airport, Appleton, Wisconsin, shortly after 10:50 am. We say goodbye to Oshkosh, the Airventure, and Nancy, who is flying back commercial from Green Bay. The Boeing B-17 crossed the runway prior to our takeoff. It was a fitting last glance at the amazing air show and the impressive restored planes we saw flying during the last 3 days.

Imagine the Seattle Boat show on steroids with most of the attendees arriving by boat and having somewhere between 14,000 and 25,000 boats anchored around the outside of the show with dingies and small motorboats moving the sailors to and from their boats to the show. Add to that image several 100 boats of various sizes and types on display as well. The air show has the advantage of being on dry land (unless it rains, which it did during the show and at night). Rich and I decided that we have never seen anything before that would compare to this, from the restored aircraft, to the planes on display, to the planes of the folks attending and then to the aerobatics each afternoon. We could certainly relate to the vendors selling everything under the sun.

We started out with a course direct to Bozeman, Montana, cruising at 8,500 ft, speed over the ground is 120.7, airspeed is 130 knots so we have a headwind of about 9 knots. So unlike the trip out we are not making as good progress. We stopped at Aberdeen, South Dakota to refuel the plane and ourselves.

We planned to go to Billings, Montana, but we continued to fight headwinds (seems just like cruising), so we stopped at Miles City, Montana, a burg of 8,400 souls. We are staying at the Sleep Inn, a new hotel that just opened a month ago and the nicest place we have stayed at yet. Dinner was at the Ribs & Chops, where we had, yes, you guessed it, ribs and chops. Now we are watching the Olympics.

Tomorrow we want to get an early start to head west.

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Wisconsin drivers

As we were driving up to the airport at Appleton to get on the plane back, we saw this on the freeway. Luckily it was just a semi being towed backwards, but it did look very real at first.

Day 6 at the Oshkosh Airventure

Today was our third and final day at the Oshkosh Airventure. Having seen most of the booths we went through the 'Fly Market' section. It is very similar to a flea market but of course oriented to the 'flying crowd'. We saw many booths or tents with people selling airplane oriented T-shirts, DVDs, memorabilia, tools, nuts, bolts, carved wooden signs, hammocks, whirligigs for your garden, mattresses, jewelry, plus much, much more. Rich bought a digital caliper, LED work light some wire with alligator clip ends. We also picked up some souvenirs such as T-shirts, coffee mug, and I got a charm for our boat necklace. We also gotta Go Pro camera for the boat.

In the afternoon we watched another air show which included the only flying B-29. There was an F-18 that did low passes down the field, more parachutists and aerial aerobatics. The most interesting was the mock re-enactment of the bombing of Pearl Harbor with plenty of noise, smoke and fire.

Tomorrow we will be adieu to Oshkosh and over 25,000 airplanes and make our way back west.

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Day 5 at the Oshkosh Airventure

This morning we got up early to hear a talk by a former shuttle astronaut who is now working at Space X. It was a great presentation and we enjoyed hearing the talk and answering questions. It I was just getting out of college now, this is a company I would be interested in working at.

Today we went through the hangars full of vendors. It was like attending the boat show except since the focus was for airplanes and pilots we did not feel the pressure to look at everything. There were a lot of things that we were not interested in, which is very different from when we go to boat shows with the exception of the ski boats and ski boat paraphernalia. We skipped over hangar doors, riveting tools, information on flying in Russia, Dominican Republic and New Zealand, helicopters, aircraft instrumentation, flight schools, condos with hangars, alternators for airplanes, etc. we did stop to look at SPOT and GoPro cameras. We did stop by and say hi tonDan and Dave of Paraphenalia, who manufacture the "Softie", an emergency parachute for aerobatic pilots.

After we had gone through the 4 hangars worth of vendors, the rain started. It was time to catch a bus to the EAA museum while it rained outside. We got a chance to see Dick Rutan's Spaceship One as well as Voyager which he flew around the world non stop without refueling. Pretty amazing.

We returned to the main site and watched part of the afternoon air show, with included wing walking and an aerobatic helicopter.

Tomorrow will be our last day at the air show before heading back.

"I'm a basketball jones"....

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Day 4 at the Oshkosh Airventure

Today we went to the EAA Airventure at Oshkosh. This is the first time that Rich and I have been to this show. It is huge and today we saw only a small portion. 

We walked around the Warbirds area. Almost all of the war planes we saw are in current flying condition. We saw the Glacier Girl, a P-38 Lightning built by Lockheed. It was one of a squadron of planes that were flying from Europe to the US during World War II. They were running out of fuel and belly landed on a glacier in Greenland. The crews, disabled the planes so if they were discovered by the enemy they could not fly them. They then hiked to the coast to be picked up by a naval ship and returned to the US. One of the planes were discovered in the late 1990's and recently recovered, To recover the plane, they had to dig down 250 feet through the ice to get to the plane, disassemble it to bring the parts up and then return the parts to the US to put it back together and restore. The plane is now in flying condition. Pretty amazing. Other warplanes we saw include Dauntless Dive bomber, P40, P51s and many others. The P indicate pursuit. When the Army Air Corp became the Air Force, they changed the designator to F for fighter. 

We also saw exhibits by Embraer, Honda, flying cars, NASA, amphibian airplanes, Pilatus, plus many others. From 3:30 to 5:30 we watched the air show sponsored by Rockwell Collins. We saw warbirds taking off and flying simulated bombing runs, flying in formation, parachutists in coordinated jumps, parachutists jumping at two miles high in flying squirrels suits,trailing smoke so you could see them in the air, with parachutes being deployed to slow them down so they could land safely. We saw several aerobatics planes doing rolls, hammerheads, Cuban 8s, stalls, end over ends, spirals, tail stands maneuvers, individually and in groups including a group of home built planes known as 'RVs'. There was a lot of smoke in the air but the crowd was loving every bit of it despite the fact that it was 96 degrees and with the humidity it felt like 103 degrees. 

This evening we joined Doug and Nancy for dinner with some friends, Jeff and Jennifer. Jeff has a Great Lakes biplane that they flew to the air show from Florida.

Today was a fun day and we hope to see more tomorrow.

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Day 3 to Oshkosh

Early this morning the thunder and lightning started. It was predicted but we had hoped it would pass by quickly, which was not the case. Instead of getting up and ready for a taxi pickup at 7:30 am, we were more leisurely and did not arrive at the airport until 11:30 am. Given the choice of hanging around the airport or staying in the room, watching TV and surfing the web, we chose the latter.

I need to correct some of the information from my previous post on Mantako. The author was Sinclair Lewis, not Upton Sinclair, and it was 38 Dakota Indians, not 24, were hung on Dec. 26, 1862. Originally there were 303 Indians who were due to be executed, but 265 were pardoned by President Lincoln. This is per Wikipedia which I am trusting more than our taxi driver at the moment.

We left Mankato at 12:04 pm and we were able to slip between some cells but it meant that we flew west then north before turning east toward Oshkosh. Unfortunately, we missed the window to land at Oshkosh by 10 minutes. They have an air show in the afternoon from 3:00 to 5:00 pm and they close the airport for landing before the show so there is no traffic.

At 2:35 pm we were wheels down at Appleton, an airport just north of Oshkosh. Nancy, flew into Green Bay via commercial airlines from Seattle, picked up a rental car and got us. While we were waiting we were able to sample some 5 year aged extra sharp cheddar cheese (this is Wisconsin after all) and Rich bought us some to take home with us.

We are staying at a Motel 6 here in Oshkosh, a short distance from the airport and the air show. For dinner we went to Wendt's On the Lake and has their famous perch.

Now it is time to get some sleep. Tomorrow will be a big day at the Experimental Aircraft Association 2012 Airventure Oshkosh.

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Day 2 to Oshkosh

At 8:30 am we were starting our preflight of Whiskers, the plane. On the way to the airport we were joined by two gentlemen who were flying a Sikorsky Skycrane to Nebraska to support fire fighting in that area. The Skycrane has a lift capability of 42,000 lbs. To put that in perspective, it could lift Windarra, if the fuel and water tanks were empty. It is also between 7,000 and 8,000 gallons of water. Quite a splash. There was also a Caymen single seat, dual counter rotating, heavy lift helicopter, called 'The Hulk'. We suspect it is used for selective logging.

8:45 am was wheels up as we left Bozeman and headed east passing the Rockies and the continental divide. From the air we could see large gentleman ranch homes. Up some of the box canyons we see mining operations with settling ponds.

We passed over a smooth, green topped mountain, with deep v cut valleys heading down the slopes. Next we pass a river that cuts through the rock with steep vertical walls. It is part of Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area.

We crossed Interstate 90, north of Buffalo, Wyoming, near Lake De Smet. Doug has cell reception on his iPad and was able to receive and send email to a customer in the Czech Republic from 9,400 ft. Isn't that amazing.

For all of you who are fans of the movie, "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", we passed Devil's Tower in Wyoming. We came down to 5,500 MSL and flew clockwise around at 3 miles distant. It is quite impressive. Hopefully some of my photos will be decent. From looking at it, I would say that the scenes that were supposed to be on the top, when the spaceships come in and they play the notes to communicate were probably shot at either a different location or in a studio since there did not look to be enough flat ground on top that I could see. Still, it is quite an impressive site rising up from a relatively flat landscape around it.

After Devil's Tower we head towards the Black Hills of South Dakota. We take a clockwise turn around Crazy Horse monument. You can pick out the face and the top of his arm. Next we take a turn around Mt. Rushmore. This is the first time that I have ever seen it and it is an impressive piece of sculpture. It is also quite a tourist site, with a large infrastructure of hotels, restaurants and an amphitheater.

We arrived at Rapid City at 11:45 am local time for fuel, lunch, a chance to stretch our legs and to empty our bladders. After parking at WestJet we walked over to the main airport for salad. It was not gourmet but okay. Wheels were up at 12:40 pm. Before we took off we saw the Sikorsky Skycrane that we saw at Bozeman. I don't think they took the scenic route that we did.

We are 'cruising' at 9,500 ft. Below, the landscape is more brown than green, flat with trees close to the rivers and any homes or towns. Instead of the farm land being low and the hills rising above as in eastern Washington, Idaho and Montana, in South Dakota, the farming is on the high plain with the river flood plain below. We crossed the mighty Missouri River and the city of Pierre, South Dakota. As we pass Huron, SD, there is a lot more green fields in the landscape. Square and squares of fields instead of the circles we saw in Montana and Wyoming. Major roads lead off into the horizon, straight as an arrow either north-south or east-west. There are rows of trees along one side of some fields to act as a wind break I presume. We have seen a few wind farms along the way.

Just before 5 o'clock local we crossed into Minnesota, land of a thousand lakes on our way to Mankato, Minnesota our destination for this evening. Mankato was the home of Upton Sinclair for a period of time. He lived on the seedy side of town or so said our taxi driver. Mankato was also the site of the largest mass hanging in the US of 24 Sioux indians in the late 1800's. We are ensconced in a Comfort Inn for the night. Not sure where we will be having dinner.

The adventure continues....

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Mt Rushmore

Mt Rushmore or The Dead Presidents

Devil's Tower

Cue the theme for "Close Encounters of the Third Kind"

Day 1, a different type of cruising

Today Rich and I are experiencing a different type of cruising. Instead of being on the water we are in the air. We are flying to Oshkosh, Wisconsin to attend the air show. Doug is a partner of a Rockwell Commander 4-seat airplane and he is flying us there.

This morning we arrived at Bremerton airport at 7:15 am. We packed our gear, pulled the plane out of the hanger and prepared. The hanger is a bit of a man cave, complete with a couch, rugs, a small refrigerator, pictures on the wall, tools, etc. Once we were packed and the preflight completed we got in and taxied out. Rich is in the left seat, Doug in the right and I am behind Doug, as flight attendant and backseat pilot (oops).

At 8:14 am we were wheels up climbing to 5000 feet as we went over Puget Sound and then over SeaTac airport. As we continued east towards Ellensburg, we climbed to 9000 ft and up over the clouds. After a while we were able to see the top portion of Mt. Rainier.

So far it is a little like cruising on the water. You need to coordinate with the authorities on the radio and keep track of your progress toward the waypoints. Weather is a factor as well and so far we have been blessed with sun and smooth air. We have also had very little traffic as well. As the plane has an engine we are able to motor directly on our course, just as we would on Windarra on a wind less day.

At the airport in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, we stopped to fuel up at the self serve fuel station, very similar to a self serve gas station. It was a good opportunity for a bathroom break at the 'honey bucket' nearby. After fueling, we pushed the plane over to the side so it was out of the way and sat on the grass and had our sandwiches.

Soon we were back in the air again, heading to Bozeman, Montana. Doug moved to the left seat, Rich to the back seat and I sat in the right seat. After we were back at 9500 ft and on our course, Doug gave me a flight lesson. When you are sailing, you are moving in two dimensions excluding the rise and fall of the boat on the sea. In the air, you have to worry about your position in 3 dimensions. It was fun but a little intense after a while. We diverted around some storm clouds near Yellowstone, a good idea especially after we saw some lightening and virga, or rain that does not hit the surface. We could see farm circles, cars moving on the highways and long trains following the tracks. Here and there would be farms and towns. It is a view that not many of us get to see and we enjoyed every bit of it.

At just after 2:00 pm, we landed at the airport in Bozeman, Montana and taxied to our assigned spot. An attendant came out and helped us unload the luggage and secure the plane. A shuttle from the hotel came to pick us up. After settling in we went for dinner even though it was only 4:00 pm.

It has been a long day but full of new experiences and sites. Tomorrow we continue eastward.

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The Plane

Americana - 4th of July parade

On July 3 my cousin Bari and her husband Bob came to visit us on their return to Vancouver, B.C. after attending a Bar Mitzvah at Sun Valley, Idaho. We invited them to join us along with Doug and Nancy to see the 4^th of July parade through ‘downtown’ Bainbridge Island. Attending this parade was a first for us as well but Doug and Nancy assured us it was a fun happening, and indeed it was. It was also the first time that my Canadian relatives got a chance to experience a true piece of Americana and the Bainbridge Island 4^th of July parade fulfilled the expectation. A parade like this was not only a chance for kids and dogs to be part of a larger celebration but for adults to wave at neighbors and businesses to show how they are part of the community just as the celebration we saw in La Cruz but it was different in only the way that folks in the United States are different. I can’t put it in words exactly and I am sure my pictures don’t capture it either.

Bari, Rich and Doug watch the parade. We were able to have margaritas from San Carlos restaurant as we waited for the parade to start.

All parades must have a marching band or two or three or ... This was the Olympia Highlanders

This octopus even had sunglasses since it was a nice sunny day.

At first I did not understand the significance of bread, a toaster, small pads of butter and folks carrying large jars of jam. This is representing the Blackbird Bakery that specializes in a great piece of toast.

The two dogs in the sidecar were having a great time

The Intensely Vigorous Revolutionary Volunteer Dixieland Band

Bob and Rich watch the parade as it turned the corner and went up Winslow Way toward the ferry dock

No sunny day on Bainbridge Island is complete without a chance to see Mt Rainier

I feel like dancing...

Rich is definitely feeling better.

On June 27, he went in to have two stents put in the backside of his heart. The procedure was similar to his previous angiograms but instead of going in through the groin, they went in through his left wrist. The procedure took just under two hours. The cardiologist found plaque build up at three locations and used two stents to open these up. The stents are medicated to help prevent a reoccurrence of plaque. Rich was returned to the cardiac care unit with a pressurized cuff around his wrist and ready for dinner as he had not eaten since 8 in the morning. A health appetite is a good sign.

Today was his first day back on the treadmill and lifting weights. He said he was a little less winded at the end of his treadmill workout, another good sign.

In the next few months we will monitor and of course check back with the doctors before we return to Mexico. At this point we are very encouraged.

Our son, Jesse and our daughter-in-law. Rae, came up on the train and spent the past weekend with us. It was good to catch up on what they are doing. They also went through some of the camping gear from our storage unit and some boxes of Jesse's things. The downsizing continues.