MrClean goes to Oshkosh

[MrClean417]

After a lifetime of loving planes and knowing about it I finally arranged a trip to Oshkosh for the EAA Airshow. Here aircraft of all shapes and sizes join what becomes one of Wisconsins largest towns if just for 7 days.
I left KAnsas City at 8 Tuesday and avoiding the flooded Missouriet a buddy of mine at Avoco, Ia. We then proceeded to Newton, IA and stayed at friends RC field. Did I mention we are making the trip on motorcycles?
Not so much of a feet as it is interesting. I apent the night in Newton in my everyday DIY Hammock Jung from a Texsport Padre Island stand. Things weren't quote right and it turned out 1 of the stands base legs was bent. Tipped over a couple times in the night.

[MrClean417]

We left Newton and headed to the National Motorcycle Museum for a quick stop edification and leg stretch then continued in to Oshkosh. Finally setup my Blackbird and Superfly. While hanging from the Texsport is low making a crawl in necesary. once in you'd never know you were any differently hung. Slept good but warm the first night. Turned on Shugs bluegrass and then some from XM and then must have fallen aaleep. My neighbors asked right of this morning if I was a big aBG fan. It had played all night

[Redoleary]

Oshkosh really is something. I've been to it a handful of times and its one of those things that is worth the effort. I used to go with my Grandfather so the place has special memories for me. I'm an airplane mechanic so that place brings out the "airplane geek" in me even a little more Enjoy your first trip to the greatest air show on earth.

[dragon360]

I think that this will be a must for pics!

[MrClean417]

I can't seem to link from Photobucket to anything on my iPhone. Keeps cutting off the address. I have some of the setup. Some of the bikes some of the flying. I watched the F-16 run off the runway. Watched a 1911 Curtis pusher fly And Sean Tucker fly. Everything else is gravy and there's lots of that

[Veto 65]

Oshkosh I would to go there some day. I'm looking forward to the pictures. Have fun.

[MrClean417]

Wish I had some plane pictures. I'm not a videographer though I took my camcorder and camera I spent most of the time just snapping a couple pics with my phone and enjoying the trip.

My Kawasaki Vulcan 900 LT pulled my Harbor Freight TagAlong trailer with the Texsport hammock stand strapped to the top just fine at speeds up to 80 mph (less by GPS the motorcycle speedo reads a bit high).
Here it is in front pic

Got setup with my Blackbird dbl 1.7 and Superfly hanging from the Stand. It's a little low but once you climb in and zip up you don't know any difference. A little more clearance to the Tarp would be nice but the weather was co-operative. I added a WallyWorld cheap tarp to climb in without stepping in the mud. Silly old Farm field.

It was a pretty day Sunday when we woke up so I took the pic looking out the crack. Had the doors shut as it was a little breezy and mid 70's I think when I went to bed

Couple more pics of the setup


I didn't know if we could have fires on the ground, so I brought my little barbeque grill which we cooked brats on one day and the rest of the time just stuck a duraflame log in the bottom. There was wood for sale, astronomically priced of course, but the nice thing about the duraflames are that when you're ready to go to sleep, just break the bad boy up. It'll flame real good for a couple minutes and then burn out quick. Anyways, after a long day in the dark of the night, it's nice to have FIRE!


Here's a panoramic of the Vintage area

And a pretty balloon pic.


Hey, an airplane with fire shooting out the wingtips


I watched the F-16 run off the runway. I walked constantly, doing between 5 and 10 miles a day. It's 1.5 to 2 from end to end of the displays and we covered that several times a day plus ran through the vender booths and such. Shoot, it was a 10 minute walk to the outhouses and 20 to the showers. There was so much mud that we ended up just taking our motorcycles out the south gate and looping around to showers near the East gate. The showers there were better but they only had outhouses for bathrooms there. The closer showers had better all around (newer) fascilities but it was surrounded by mud to get to it so the floors were muddy. It was amazing to go to Walmart, walk into the handicap stall and think you had died and pooped in heaven. I would have preferred a cat hole but you can't do that in front of 7000 other campers, and that was just in our pasture.

The night airshow, fireworks and wall of fire were just Awesome and made up for the lack of airshow Saturday which was shut down do to a storm front. It was interesting when the 50-60 mph winds hit. We had to walk back a mile and a half to the Ultralight field to see if our bikes were up (I had left the keys in mine) Luckily we parked with them leaning away from the wind so they were up. Getting back to the campgrounds we found that his cot tent was standing as it was using my Superfly as it's wind break and the Superfly was just sitting there shedding wind fine. I was lazy and didn't stow it. Probably did more damage with UV exposure then anything else But it was overcast 3 of the 4 days we were there. When the storm hit with such ferocity I figured I had just learned a rather expensive lesson. That it didn't cost me anything didn't depreciate the lesson any, I stowed my tarp and hammock and went back for the night show. Only takes 5 minutes to setup anyways and it wasn't going to get hurt sitting in the trailer. I took my extra Amsteel with me and we ended tied to the hammock stand and trailer luggage rack to make a clothes line to dry moist clothes and towels on. Keeps the clothes from stinking and let us have fresh towels every day. Funny thing is I was having problems getting it tight enough to hold heavy, wet towels. Tied it, tied it, put a towel on it and it would stretch. Finally, put a couple towels on it, walked around the front of the trailer and pulled it forward till it was taunt and kicked myself for being so silly as to take that long to get smart.

We road back from 80 degrees into the 104 degree Missouri air. 80 mph blow dryer. A fantastic trip that wasn't backpacking at all but was all Hammock time. Found that there is about a square mile of wooded area half mile up the creek bed from my house. Someone owns it but it's just wild un developed. Think I'll head up there when the weather goes from Nuclear to tolerable next month. Just a night out honing the backpacking skills.

[Amand]

Oshkosh is always a fun time. I have been there several times but wasn't able to make it this year unfortunately. The number of planes and people there is really something to see. Glad you had a good time.