My original plan, weather permitting, was to leave Oshkosh on Saturday, and overnight in Green Bay to put the wheel pants back on and spend time with Terry. Terry spent the first three days on site with me, and took the bus to Green Bay Wednesday evening to spend the next two weeks with her sisters.

I've been watching the weather, and a low pressure system with quite a bit of rain was forecast to arrive overnight Friday night. It wasn't certain that the weather would be good enough to get out of Oshkosh VFR on Saturday, and I didn't relish spending the day trapped on site in the rain. So, I decided to leave on Friday, and at least get to Green Bay.

I packed up and got started just after 11 AM, and it took almost 45 minutes to get airborne, as only one runway was available for both departures and arrivals due to an accident on runway 36. Things were moving quite well at first, then there was a continuous stream of arrivals that brought departures to a halt for about 25 minutes. I kept a close eye on the engine, and all temperatures remained well within comfortable limits. The engine eventually started to run pretty rough, as the fuel in the lines ahead of the firewall started to vapourize. Selecting the Boost Pump ON smoothed things out. The issue had cleared up right after take-off, as the high fuel flow brought enough cool fuel ahead of the firewal to cool the system down.

I finally got to Green Bay just after noon. I quickly reinstalled the wheel pants, then checked the weather. It was clear that it would be a much more pleasant flight home today than tomorrow. I had a good night's sleep and was well rested. The weather was good, and there was about 10 kt of tailwind. I decided to head back to Smiths Falls after lunch.

The flight back was smooth and uneventful. There was quite a bit of cloud to climb through on the way out of Green Bay, but after that I cruised on top at 9000 ft in smooth air all the way home. The cloud petered out in western Michigan, and it was clear skies all the rest of the way home. 3 hours and 28 minutes from take-off to touch down. I landed with 1.5 hours of fuel remaining at normal cruise power.

The aircraft really needs to be washed, as it picked up quite a bit of dust while parked at Oshkosh. I also need to unload all the camping gear. I'll do all that sometime this weekend.