Louisiana to Oshkosh 2015

[TimHicks]

Sunday July 19th at 7:00 I departed LA13 (my home drome) for OSH.
South Louisiana has been experiencing a rare summertime high pressure system that was keeping the normal afternoon thunderstorms at bay. Crazy hot. But easier flying.
See the pics below. I used an iPad with ForeFlight for navigation. And a solar panel on the dash.
All this gear worked perfectly. I was never worried about the iPad running out of power.
I planned three legs for the first day.
Home to 5A6 Winona Mississippi.
5A6 to Union City, Tennessee KUCY
KUCY to Tom Baker's place at Olney, Illinois KOLY

[TimHicks]

Re: Louisiana to Oshkosh 2015

There was a really nice FBO at Union City. They gave me a courtesy car, so I drove to town for lunch. The winds were picking up and the air seemed hot and bumpy. So I decided to just rest for a couple of hours at Union City's air-conditioned Pilot's Lounge until things calmed down.

[TimHicks]

Re: Louisiana to Oshkosh 2015

The last leg to Olney was serene. I crossed the Ohio River into Illinois and landed at the end of the day.
Super hospitality from Tom Baker, the airport manager and TCraft expert, allowed N96872 to sleep in a hangar and me to sleep in a hotel.

[M Towsley]

Re: Louisiana to Oshkosh 2015

Tim,

Glad you had a great trip. I bought my first Taylorcraft at Olney and that was when I met Tom. I couldn't come down that day due to a large storm system building to the west of me, though it kind of petered out later in the day.

[TimHicks]

Re: Louisiana to Oshkosh 2015

My plan for the second day was to depart early and fly to Campbell (C81) airport in Greyslake, Illinois to meet a friend of mine who wanted to see the TCraft and maybe go for a flight in it. Then continue on to Juneau Wisconsin, where I would spend the night.

But the best laid plans of mice...

I was flying North in beautiful smooth air where I could see forever, it seemed, when waaay below me I noticed a solid blanket of fog covering the ground as far as I could see to the North.

I was only 50 miles into my first leg. I had easily 4 hours worth of fuel. I knew that it was ground fog that would burn off in a little while. I had Foreflight showing me exactly where I was.

But, discretion is my only option. So I landed at a little 2600' cropduster strip called Tuscola right on the Southern edge of the fog and sat there while the fog crept over me. The cropdusters were active. So I felt a little bit in the way and little like Rinker Buck in "Flight of Passage". But they were nice enough.

A couple of hours later, the fog started to break up, so I pressed on North.

[TimHicks]

Re: Louisiana to Oshkosh 2015

Now I was getting into the cooler (though still hot) weather of the midwest. I loved flying across Illinois. It really did feel at times that time had slipped backwards to the 40's or 50's.

[TimHicks]

Re: Louisiana to Oshkosh 2015

I had a great lunch with my friend from Chicago. But the air was really too bumpy to consider a flight together. So I got some fuel and pressed on to Juneau, WI.
What a great FBO in Juneau (KUNU)! Wisconsin Aviation. They put N96872 in a beautiful hangar with a bunch of expensive-looking airplanes.

[TimHicks]

Re: Louisiana to Oshkosh 2015

This is what it looked like approaching Ripon on my short flight Tuesday morning to Oshkosh. Perfect weather. I couldn't take any more pictures after this because I got busy pretty quickly.

[TimHicks]

Re: Louisiana to Oshkosh 2015

There was a serious ClipWing there that I didn't get to see up close.
So much to see.

[TimHicks]

Re: Louisiana to Oshkosh 2015

Friday Morning, July 24th, I packed up the airplane and got ready to depart. Sometime in my leisurely preparations, I realized that there was a big line of thunderstorms in Iowa moving Easterly. I needed to get moving and get South of it or be stuck for another day.
So I skipped my first stop and went all the way to Bowling Green, Missouri (H19). I could see the weather out my starboard-side window almost the whole way.
I hadn't done any research on Bowling Green, and when I arrived, I realized that there was no FBO, no hotels nearby. But there was a kind pilot there who recommended Grand Glaize-Osage Beach on the Lake of the Ozarks because it has a hotel right across the street.

The nice FBO there was kind enough to offer me hangar space because there was some weather expected overnight.

[TimHicks]

Re: Louisiana to Oshkosh 2015

When I awoke at the Lake of the Ozarks, there was still some rough weather to the North. But I was headed South. So I got out of there before the weather moved over.
Again, without much research, I flight-planned for Almyra (M73), Arkansas because it was exactly halfway and in a straight line for home.
But when I landed there, there was no one there. And their fuel pump was not self-serve. So I called around and found that DeWitt (5M1), 12 miles away, had self-serve fuel. So I hopped over there.

After filling up, I set out on my last leg. The weather on the entire trip had been remarkably easy.
But on the last 15 minutes of my last leg, I knew I was back in the Deep South because it was about 1:30 pm and I was getting bounced all over as I descended through the cloud level.
I even had to go around on my first approach to my home field. But my second approach worked and I was happy to be home.

[M Towsley]

Re: Louisiana to Oshkosh 2015

Hey Tim,

That sleepy little airport in Tuscola, (Amish country around there), is where Julie Clark takes her T-34 for maintenance. At least she used to. The crop dusters kind of take over small airports around here with their operations. Most of the time they don't even use the CTAF, just plain dangerous due to the number of ops they have in and out of the small airports. They are like locust, they come, they spray and then they go until next season.

Thanks for sharing your story. Yes, many of the airports around here are like throwbacks to the old days.

[waltermrich]

Re: Louisiana to Oshkosh 2015

Thanks for sharing your story, it s very interesting, We were there arrived Thursday at 1pm with a J3 Cub and parked in row 69 of VAP, decided to leave Saturday because of weather expected on Sunday in Iowa, It is always a remarkable experience and so much to take in , whish we could have stayed until the end.

[M Jones]

Re: Louisiana to Oshkosh 2015

It was great to meet both you and Ryan on Thursday night Tim. Nice looking Taylorcraft!