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Our original plan was to park the aircraft in the big RV aircraft parking area. No camping is allowed next to aircraft parked in this area. Some friends from British Columbia (group of three aircraft) plan to park in the Homebuilt Aircraft Camping area, which is normally right next to the RV parking area, and you can pitch your tent next to the aircraft in this area. We were going to camp next to their aircraft. These three aircraft have been in Wausau, WI for a couple of days, waiting for things to improve in Oshkosh.

We fear that the aircraft parking may be in different places this year, and if we stick with Plan A we may end up parked a long ways from our friends. So, we are moving to Plan B - we will fly to Wausau as soon as we confirm that aircraft parking is open in Oshkosh, and the four aircraft will fly into Oshkosh together. We will all park in the Homebuilt Aircraft Camping area.

Given the field conditions, and reports of some aircraft damaging wheel pants when trying to taxi around, and that our wheel pants are fitted lower than most, I'll plan to remove the wheel pants and leave them in Green Bay. I'll put them back on when I stop back in Green Bay after leaving Oshkosh.

Hopefully we'll be in Oshkosh by the end of the afternoon.

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We made it to Green Bay yesterday. The weather story when I checked it first thing in the morning was lots of cloud, with marginal VFR conditions at the airports of interest. I filed an IFR flight plan and then we drove to the airport. Packing was a challenge. Tent, sleeping bags, air mattress for Terry, mattress pad for Kevin, folding chairs, tie downs, clothes, gifts for one of Terry's sisters, etc. We got it all in except the small beer cooler with the beer for the coffin guy. We pulled out two beer, and put then into a freezer bag with a cold pack and got them in.

 

I had planned to clear customs at Chippewa County, south of Sault Ste Marie, but when I called Customs they made it pretty clear they would be much, much happier if we went to Sanderson Field, which is much closer to their facility. Chippewa is an official Airport of Entry, so they couldn't refuse to come out there, but you sure don't want to have a cranky Customs officer, so we changed plans to go to Sanderson. The reason we wanted to go to Chippewa is that they apparently have food on field.

We got airborne pretty much on schedule, but the headwinds were stronger than forecast (no real surprise). I checked the XM Weather regularly, and the actual conditions at our destination and alternate airports were much worse than forecast. Sanderson Field was well below approach minima, and Canadian Sault, our alternate was below alternate minima, but well above approach minima. We had lots of fuel, and we could fly several approaches, then comfortably make to it other airports that had OK weather, but no Customs. As it turned out, the weather at our destination and alternate improved slightly before we arrived, and we picked up the runway about 3 miles back. The two Customs guys were extremely friendly and helpful, as were the airport staff.

Terry really, really wanted a hamburger, so the airport folks gave us the keys to their courtesy car, and directions to the West Pier Drive In. The car was on its last legs, and I barely got it started. It would crank and crank, then fire on one cylinder once, then maybe fire another cylinder. I eventually found the needed cadence of pumping the gas, and the rpm and rate of single cylinder firings gradually increased. It finally cleared its throat and started, but it wouldn't idle until it got warmed up. The muffler was shot, so it made a tremendous racket.

The West Pier Drive In was a real dive, with very cheap prices, but excellent burgers and fries. The serving gals would come out to the car to take your order, and bring the food out on a tray that hung on the window - it had probably been 30 years since I last did that.

 

When we arrived in Sault Ste Marie, the Green Bay weather was 100 ft ceiling and 1/2 mile visibility, which was much too low to even consider launching. But, while we had lunch we called one of Terry's brother in laws, and he said the fog was starting to lift, and we had a good alternate airport, so we launched. We were on top of cloud most of the way to Green Bay, and the cloud had lifted to a 2500 ft ceiling by the time we arrived.

 

Terry was excited to see Lambeau Field go by as we flew our approach into Green Bay.

 

We parked at the Executive Air FBO, getting the full red carpet treatment, and we were met by several of Terry's sisters. The aircraft will remain there until we do the short trip to Oshkosh.

Oshkosh has had a very large amount of rain the last few weeks, and the grounds are quite wet. They were just starting to dry out, when they had two more days of rain. They got more rain this morning, but once this system passes the forecast is for 3 and a half days of sunny skies. The EAA has modified the normal parking procedures, as much of the normally used grass is unusable yet, according to the official parking status info. The guy who manages the Vans aircraft parking area reports that he managed to get a few RVs parked on the higher, drier parts, but that much of the area is still too wet to use. He requested that people delay their arrival a day to give things time to dry out. So, we are definitely not going to fly to Oshkosh today. Maybe we'll fly down tomorrow, or maybe on Monday. I'll be keeping a close eye on the OSH field PIREPS page.

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It's been a busy few days. Tuesday I took the day off to finish getting the aircraft ready for the huge EAA Fly-In at Oshkosh. This evening I finished packing and pilling all the stuff in the trunk of the car. Tomorrow morning, weather permitting, we'll fly to Green Bay, WI, with a customs stop at Chippewa County airport, just south of Sault Ste Marie, MI. We'll spend a night or two with one of Terry's many sisters, then fly to Oshkosh on either Saturday afternoon or first thing Sunday morning. Terry wants to get the full Oshkosh experience, so she'll camp with me for a few days before bailing out to spend time with her sisters. We're really looking forward to the trip.

The weather forecast for tomorrow looks a bit questionable at the moment, with a low pressure area, associated warm and cold fronts, and some thunderstorm activity moving through Wisconsin and Michigan. I'll see how things look tomorrow morning and decide on whether it is feasible to do the trip, and if so, which route we'll take. If need be, we'll delay a day.

Update 6:45 AM 23 July 2010 - The weather story changed quite a bit overnight, with the convective activity now much further south than was forecast last night. We'll launch for Sault Ste Marie, MI in two hours or so, and then on to Green Bay. It won't be a very scenic trip, as we should either be in cloud, or be above an undercast layer for much of the way. But, there shouldn't be any convective activity, and the ceiling and visibility for the approches should be VFR, or close to it.

Update 6:00 PM 23 July 2010 - We made to Green Bay - it was a great trip. More details to follow later.

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I was in Seattle all week in meetings with the FAA, and got home yesterday afternoon. I spent most of today at the hangar, intending to work on a list of things that I need to do on the aircraft someday. I got partway through that list when I discovered two new cracks in the plenum chamber cover. I had already discovered and fixed two cracks in the cover in the last few months. Today I found and repaired two more. I almost certainly need to make a more robust plenum chamber cover, but that will be a big job which I would rather tackle this winter. I'll keep repairing cracks for the time being.

Note: The plenum chamber cover is a mod that I designed myself - it is not part of Van's design. The basic concept is working well, but I have learned that I need to make it from thicker material. I also need to make some changes in shape and size to move it a bit further from the cowling, as there are marks where it hits the cowling when the engine shakes like a wet dog during startup and shutdown.

While at the airport, I ran into a young couple from Glasgow, Scotland who had stopped for fuel in a C172. They had flown into Toronto by airlines, took a bus to Lindsay, then rented the C172. They have a big trip planned to Quebec City, Mont Laurier, and eventually will return the plane to Lindsay and then head back to Scotland. Sounds like quite the adventure.

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Border crossing procedures have gotten quite a bit more complicated since the 11 Sept 2001 attacks. I created the electronic manifests with EAPIS a few days ago, and last night I filed the flight plan for the flight to Watertown. I also called US Customs, as you need to notify them at least two hours prior to arrival and I figured time would be tight this morning. The lady I spoke with took down all the required info, then said:

"You'll need to call back two hours prior to arrival"

I responded "I'll be driving to the airport two hours prior to arrival. Can I call earlier?"

"You need to call at least two hours prior to arrival"

"It is more than two hours prior to arrival now. I was hoping that this phone call would be all I needed to do."

"You need to call two hours prior to arrival."

"Exactly two hours prior to arrival? That isn't very practical."

"You need to call at least two hours prior to arrival."

"It's at least two hours prior to arrival now."

"You need to call two hours prior to arrival."

It had become quite clear that I wasn't going to get any further, so I thanked her for her help and hung up. I called back early this morning, and fortunately ended up speaking with a much more helpful person. He already had all the info from the call I made the night before, and the call was over quickly. When we finally got to Watertown, the Customs officers who met us were very friendly and professional.

Today Terry and I had a great trip down to the EAA Chapter 486 Pancake Breakfast at Oswego County airport, Fulton, NY. The weather was perfect, and we got airborne on schedule at 8:30. Customs at Watertown was quick and friendly, and then it was off to Oswego County, landing at 9:45. The $7 breakfast was huge and tasty (two eggs, pancakes, french toast, sausage, ham, homemade donuts, orange juice and coffee).

 

There was quite a large turnout, with several interesting aircraft, including what I think was a Culver Dart with a radial engine (it left before I could get a picture), a beautiful 1940 Luscombe 8 and a Hatz biplane.

 

We managed to get to the USA and back without ending up in jail - mission accomplished. This photo shows us approaching the Canada-US border on the way home.

 

We are really looking forward to the trip to Oshkosh in late July. We've inspected all our camping gear, and we bought the local Scottish Irish Brewing Company craft beer (great tasting beer in the old Canadian heritige stubby bottles) that we will take to Chuck Swain's camp site to check out his coffin full of beer. This should be a cultural experience :)

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I headed to the airport today with the intention to do a bit of work on the aircraft. But, it was such a beautiful day that the closer I got to the airport the more interested I was in going flying instead. RV-7A builder Jim M. was at the airport, so I threw him in the back seat and we did a short cloud chasing flight. We tried as hard as we could, but those puffy cumulous clouds kept coming, and in the end we gave up and headed back to the airport.

Tomorrow, Terry and I plan to head across the border to the EAA Chapter 486 Fly-in Breakfast at Fulton, NY. I want to exercise all the cross border procedures before the big trip to Oshkosh, as it is much better to learn about any issues now than when on the way to Oshkosh. I haven't flown a private aircraft across the border since before the 9/11 attacks. I've crossed the border dozens of times since then, but our Dispatch folks have always taken care of all the customs details. They are a lot more cooperative with government aircraft than they are with private aircraft.