Yesterday was hot. Hot, sunny, muggy, regular temp in the 90s, heat index I don’t know, but HOT. Everyone else in the campsite loaded up and went off to do things except Steve and me. I was invited to do a dawn patrol flight, but declined. I didn’t want to go out and get high stress and wear myself out when I knew I was going to be trying to fly in the show that afternoon. So I hung out and tried to relax and ate a little protein for breakfast, some eggs with ham and some bacon strips, and stayed hydrated, and just tried to be my best.
When it was time for the briefing, by the time I got there, I was drenched in sweat and nervous, but I found it. The Lead, Ginter, asked me if I’d ever flown at OSH before. I knew where this was coming from, so I looked him in the eye and said “Yes. I attended the ‘First time fliers at OSH’ briefing twice, with R+10, and then flew in the show with the L&O’s.” As soon as I said “R+10”, he relaxed, nodded, sat back, waved his hand and said “Fantastic”. I figured even mentioning R+10 would let him know I knew a few things, at least. Dave is on the schedule as “Rothenanger”, and he runs that briefing. You’d have to know SOMETHING to know he was known as R+10. :) So from then on, I was ‘in’. The 14 ship took off from Dubuque and flew all the way here, led by Todd Winemiller, and our group of 6 took off from here, led by Ginter. They put me and JP in the back as #5 and #6. Partly we were in the back because our Delta flight was meeting up with their Alpha, Bravo and Charlie flights, and we had to tuck in at the end. Partly I was in the back because I’m still new, and I couldn’t do much damage to anyone else back there. It gives them a chance to see how I do and make sure I won’t be a hazard for anyone else. I get that. And honestly, I loved it back there. The view was fantastic. I had 19 T-6s in a swarm in front of me, and we weren’t flying very close together for awhile while we were waiting to be called in and come fly. So I could actually look around and not just stare at the airplane in front of me. We were flying over the Lake (not my favorite place to be, but it’s pretty), flying over Oshkosh, and what a view. I was longing so hard for an autopilot and a camera. I did snap a shot off my nose, but I can’t share it anywhere, because…not cool when you’re supposed to be in formation with 20 airplanes to be distracted by taking photos. But I was at the very back, out of the way of everyone else, no harm nor danger, and I just snapped a quick shot of the planes and put it away. I did take the time to look around and savor the moment. Hand on the stick, canopy open a bit, look around and think “I’m flying a warbird with a lot of other warbirds at Oshkosh right now.”
For the critique, the formation we were in, was different than anything I’d practiced, and I didn’t have an airplane to really fly off of like normal. I was supposed to space myself appropriately at the end, but I didn’t know for sure which airplanes to space off of. So I tried it off the end guy up at the front, and tried to match JP on how far we moved up. Then I felt like I was wide, so I moved over to the next guy and lined up with him. That was the right one, but I didn’t know that until afterwards when we saw the photos, and there is one pass where I’m wider than I’m supposed to be by a fair amount, and another where it looked pretty good. So…there are videos and photos of me not in a good position, which makes me itch and twitch, but nothing I can do about it. I did fix it for the next round at least. If the weather holds out and we fly again today, I think they’re doing the same thing, and this time I should know where to go. We recovered back at Oshkosh, and I made probably the smoothest landing I’ve made in the Six in ages, barely touched down, kept the tail up, rolled it close to the end. I don’t think anyone got pictures or video of that, because most of the people I know were off of Runway 36 where the actual show was centered, and not on Runway 27 where the planes were taking off and landing. That’s why I was glad to get the formation takeoff photo that someone got of me & JP that I posted on Facebook.
Because we took off out of Oshkosh before the airspace closed, technically we were allowed to have back seaters. I didn’t know this until it was too late, or Steve could have come with me. But several of the wives went along. Also this year, Oshkosh is only flying the T-6s Monday and Tuesday. This is honking them off. Why fly the planes up here only to fly twice the entire week. They’re kind of insulted. So these two facts combined set the story I’m about to tell. lol Rick Sigfried, who is the president of Warbirds of America, came up to Todd’s T-6 as we were debriefing, gave a little speech about how glad he was to have us there, and to please come back, and that he had a token of appreciation for us and he’d like us to line up and give us each a challenge coin and a handshake. One per airplane, aka no backseaters. I got up there, and he hesitated and said “Oh, did you fly one in?” I just smiled and said “Yep!” and he said something like “well, good for you!”, and slowly passed over the challenge coin. He obviously thought I was a backseater, and I don’t really blame him, odds were sure in his favor to be right. But then about two minutes later, he come over and says “Are you Laura Stants?” I said yeah, and he put his hand on his head, he was a little embarrassed, he’d figured out who I was, and he mentioned how glad he was that I’d done Job’s checkout on the L-2, etc.
While we were up flying, I saw a thunderstorm off to the northwest of us. After we landed, and debriefed, the storm was closer. Spencer, Cameron and I put the T-6 away as best we could, tied it down, put the cover on, cleaned it up, put a fuel tag on the prop. It started raining, so we hid under the wings for a minute, then it quit again. We started walking home, and I called for a ride. The only person available was Zak, so he left to come get us in his truck. I thought then that the last time I tried to fly at OSH, however many years ago that was, he was the one who came to get me on a golf cart, and I was so upset I didn’t even hear him calling my name for a long time. This year I was in a little better mood. ;)
When we got back to the camp, a couple of people bowed at me, which was embarrassing, and a few clapped, and lots of people said congratulations, which was nice. One of the guys said that out on the flightline, they said at least five times “The men and women flying these planes”. They used to just say “men”, so I guess they changed that this year.
So all in all, I’m still both embarrassed that I was the worst out of position for awhile, for the people who know better, and I’m also excited and pleased that I flew in the big show, finally, you’re not going to be perfect every time, especially your first time, and I was still invited to come back and do it again today. Now if it’ll stop raining…
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