Day 3 - Drying Out

Day 3 - Drying out


This will be an unusual year for the AirVenture event because all the rain has saturated the ground and made aircraft parking on the grass impossible as of today, Saturday. We were fortunate to arrive Friday because today every airport for miles around is crowded with parked aircraft diverted from OSH. Our first night in the tent was under a deluge from 3 am to 6 am leaving a lake around the porta-potties and shower building. Our tent site was relatively - emphasize RELATIVELY - dry though I spent a half hour mopping puddles out of the floor. But the day was sunny and windy, good drying weather and as I type everything has dried out.





Because of the soaked nature of things this morning we went to the Hilton Hotel near our camp site and signed up for the all-you-can-eat breakfast ($12) they put on for the duration of the show. The hotel knows its market - they have a stunt biplane hanging from the lobby ceiling!





A soggy day was a good day for visiting the EAA Museum, which we did, and for visiting with and socializing with other lucky "propeller-heads" who got in to OSH early, which we did, and for sitting watching a few special arrivals that were allowed in, like a '30's era Sikorsky L-39 amphibian and a PRIVATELY-OWNED Viet Nam-era F-4 fighter. The highlight of the day has been the expansion of our camp site to accommodate two other tents; a Skybolt pilot (aerobatic biplane) whose camp site went under water and Steve Korta of CT Aeronautics. As is so often true of the small world of aviation, it turns out Gary Duff, the drowned-out aerobatic pilot, was once a captain with Flying Tigers whose flights I had worked in Viet Nam and Boston!!





Next two days should be beautiful weather and all those diverted aircraft should start coming in. We're looking forward to watching all the action begin in earnest!