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Day 15 - Billings, MT to Everett, WA

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  Today is the last day of my journey across the country. I have seen many things, reconnected with old friends, and spent many hours in the sky. I started the blog with a reference to the Aborigines of Australia going Walkabout as part of my motivation for a Flyabout. Another related concept are the Songlines. In a book by the same name, Bruce Chatwin explains that aborigines could walk from one end of the continent along a given path by memorizing the song for the route. The song would be full of myths and allegories, but its tune and rhythm would be familiar to people along the route, even if they spoke a different language. When I travel in my plane, I follow a sort of songline as well. As I crossed Pennsylvania and headed into New England, I listened to the soundtracks of the plays 1776 and Hamilton . As we approach the 250th anniversary of the founding of the nation, I found many of the themes in these works applicable to both my travels and our lives today. As I complete th...
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Day 14 - Oshkosh, WI to Billings, MT, via Mackinac Island, MI

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I  managed to get to sleep earlier last night than other nights, but it was still almost 11 by the time I was lights out. I slept until just after 5. Although I tried to go back to sleep, no such luck, so I got up and packed away all my gear, including a very wet tent. Once everything was stowed in the plane, it was time to push the plane through the grass to the taxiway, then fire up the engine.  Last Oshkosh sunrise The rule is that no engines can start anywhere on the field until the tower opens at 6. Like clockwork, just a few seconds after 6AM, 4 Mustangs started their throaty roar in the warbirds area. There’s nothing quite like waking up to the sound of four Merlin engines ticking over. As if the aviation gods wanted to make up for the painful taxi upon my arrival, it was a quick 5-minute taxi to the runway, then less than a minute wait for takeoff. My plan for the day was to start the trip home by going the wrong way: I flew NE to visit Mackinac Island, a resort destin...
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Day 13 at Airventure 2024 in Oshkosh, WI

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Today was the first day on this trip when I haven’t actually flown and I must admit, I appreciated the break. I spent the night in my tent and did reasonably well. There are lots of lights and noises that tend to interrupt my sleep but at least this year I remembered to bring some blinders for my eyes so I didn’t wake up at 4 AM. I did wake up at 5:15, but I’ll call that a win. Since I was already up, I figured I’d get up and wander the grounds looking at airplanes. I always find it really peaceful to see everything most folks won’t as they’re mostly still asleep. This year, though, I was very surprised of the large number of people that were up and about before six in the morning. Part of this was because unlike in previous years, the FAA had set up a dedicated two hour departure window for this morning since the vast majority of people who’ve been here all week tend to leave on Thursdays.  During the special departure window, no new arrivals were allowed into the field, and they ...
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Day 12 - Wadsworth, OH to Oshkosh, WI

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As always, today was an exciting day with all sorts of unexpected twists. I woke up to find that airfield where I was staying was completely fogged in, which was unexpected. Fortunately, during the hour that it took me to get up and around, the fog burned off so that when I arrived at the airport where my airplane was located, about 2 miles from the house where I stayed, I was able to get in the plane and takeoff off right away.  A foggy runway Interestingly, as we were driving down the foggy roads towards the airport, out of the gloom ahead of us emerged a big black shape with no lights. We slowed down and saw that it was an Amish horse and buggy just trotting along the road with no lights. Certainly not something that I see every day. After taking off, I did a left 270° turn and flyby down the short runway so that Chris, Lisa and Lewis could all watch me go by. It’s the first time I’ve gotten to do that in many years.  My destination for today was to get to Oshkosh, which fo...
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