Drrrrrip

Kaylee texted back and forth a bit last night. She’s having the post-trip let-downs. You know, the blahs you get when you come down from an adventure elsewhere and you’re back home now and you feel a little empty, like something is missing? I warned her about that before her first big trip overseas, because I know while some people are just glad to be home, others are wanderers. I was, still am a little bit, she is. So she hung out with a couple of friends and spent the night at a friends’ house. I don’t like not being able to be home and sit and talk to her when she gets back, just in time for her to leave for Ohio for a week for Vacation Bible School...

It rained off and on here at Oshkosh most of the day. Any time it would clear up, the hordes of airplanes would come in. The controllers were hopping. One guy made us laugh when he said “Bonanza, you’re killing me here, you can’t stop on the runway!” He had to have folks go around. A Mustang had to go hold over Warbird Island for a long time to let a gaggle of Cessnas in. The field was 2% full at the beginning of the day. Midway through the day I heard it was 25% full, and it was raining and IFR much of the day. Today after noon it stops raining and the sun is supposed to come out for the rest of the week, and I am guessing it’s going to be a super busy day to be in the air around here.

A CAF plane had an accident on takeoff down in Texas on their way here, and there is video of it going viral. No fatalities thankfully, but there were 13 people on board the C-47, the type of airplane I am going to get checked out in with Jordan Brown. Apparently they had too far aft of a CG, tried to force the tail up on takeoff, it wouldn’t go, they tried to horse it off the runway, it couldn’t fly yet, and they went off the side of the runway, and the plane burned to the ground. Everyone got out, a couple injuries, but out. I guess that’s the 8th airframe the CAF has lost this year, so insurance for the CAF is likely to become problematic. I don’t know what’ll all happen yet, but I know of four, and all four were naturally pilot error, a couple pretty bad moves (one was running it out of gas for heaven’s sake). They’ve been fortunate that I don’t think anyone was killed in any of them, but losing 8 airplanes in one year is going to be a real problem for insurance. It’s going to affect all of us in the CAF, I have no doubt.

It was my acquaintance Marty who crashed in the Venom that same morning. The part that haunts me a little isn’t the crash itself, but that his wife and kids were at the airport where he took off and had to be flown home afterwards. They think he had an engine failure/flame-out, tried to land it on a road, clipped something, and that was the end. Nathan said that’s why he sold the Gnat. In those single engine jets, if you aren’t high enough to be able to eject, you’re not going to survive an off-field landing most likely. He decided it wasn’t worth it.

This isn’t a very cheery post, but that’s what’s going on the first day. And hopefully that’s the end of the bad stuff for the week. Other than that, we’ve been setting up camp, hanging out, running around to get what we need, and eating. We went to “West End Pizza” last night and had some pretty good food there too. A new place to us. A group of 15 of us got in pretty easily, but that’s the trick. Restaurants are very full over here this time of year, and they don’t take reservations. First come first serve, and good luck, may the odds be ever in your favor. Twice in a row we’ve been lucky in the evenings, but the event hasn’t technically even started yet. So we shall see. lol

Right now our brand new trailer is having trouble getting the water heater to light off. No hot shower yet. Steve’s working on it, but so far...so wish us luck. Laura Wants a Shower now. ;)