Every January, the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) holds a ski plane fly in at its Oshkosh headquarters. The fly in is also a birthday celebration for Audrey Poberezny, the wife of the founder of EAA. This is not a fly in on the scale of EAA’s huge Airventure event in July. It is something a lot smaller, just as much fun and free! Rather than being held on the main Wittman Field, this fly in is held on Pioneer Field, a smaller strip alongside the EAA museum and laid out as a vintage airfield. Normally it is shut at this time of the year but it opens up for this event.
I had been wanting to get up to experience this for a while. It is about a two and half hour drive up from Chicago so you have to be sure it is going to happen. The birthday party goes ahead whatever the weather and the chilli cook for all attendees will be there along with the big birthday cake for Audrey. You might also see a few aviation notables around. This year Jeff Skiles was there. Along with Chesley Sullenberger, he is the co-chair of the Young Eagles program EAA runs to get kids interested in aviation.
Last year the weather was just not going to cooperate and there wasn’t snow on the ground. This year there was some snow a week ahead, a forecast for some more at the beginning of the week and temperatures were going to stay well below freezing for the foreseeable future so the airfield was likely to be ready. That just left the question of whether the weather on the day would allow the planes to get in.
Attending the fly in as a pilot requires some advance planning. Potential attendees had to register their interest and all had to receive a briefing on the procedures if they were to come. Since the field is effectively on the larger Wittman Field site and this remains open throughout the fly in, this briefing is important. This also gave the organizers some idea of how many aircraft to expect. Ultimately, over 30 pilots were briefed in advance. Now it was just down to what the weather would bring and whether the aircraft would be serviceable. If the temperatures get too low, things like oil lines can become vulnerable and so aircraft may be grounded.
When I left for the field, the weather was not looking great. It had just stopped snowing, there was some pretty low cloud and visibility was not good. However, it was supposed to improve. Most aircraft are expected to arrive mid-morning and leave early in the afternoon so I got there with plenty of time in hand. The volunteers were all just arriving and they were happy to welcome me into the hangars to see some of the great vintage aircraft on display.
They were quite surprised themselves to find a powered parachute in one of the hangars. The hangars are closed up for the winter so someone must have put it in there when no-one else was looking!
As promised the weather started to clear up. Of course, for pilots coming from any distance this might have meant they had delayed their departure. However, a number had decided to head in and see how the weather developed. One group, fourteen aircraft strong, was coming up from Poplar Grove in Illinois and they had decided to drop in and land on Lake Geneva for breakfast before continuing up to Oshkosh.
The arrival of the first aircraft was a relief, particularly to those of us waiting in the rather cold temperatures. The air temperature was around 10°F (-12°C) but a stiff breeze was coming down the field so it felt a lot colder. We were lucky as the following morning the temperature on the field was -12°F (-25C°). There was a fair amount of waiting before the next aircraft showed up and then suddenly there was a steady stream. A mix of production and kit built aircraft started arriving with types such as Cubs, Maules, Aeroncas and various marques of Cessna showing up.
A team of volunteers was on hand to marshal them into their parking locations. Marshalling a ski plane requires a different approach. First of all they have no brakes! Also, the directional control is a little more limited and with a steady wind they need more space to manoeuvre. Once in their spots, the crews were quick to protect the aircraft. Blankets over the engines and some interesting prop accessories were on display before the crews headed inside to warm themselves back up and get some of the chilli!
While most people were eating, I took the chance to wander around the parked aircraft. Having watched the aircraft moving around with relative ease, I hadn’t appreciated that the snow was actually quite deep. Once I started walking around in it, this became a bit more obvious. This would be an issue for the aircraft too - after sitting for a while, they can get a bit stuck. Some heavy bursts of throttle and even the occasional assistance from the marshalling team to rock them free was necessary to get moving again.
With the shortness of winter daylight, it wasn’t long after lunch before the planes were getting ready to head back out. A trickle of the early movers was soon a steady stream as everyone fired up and got ready to go. Two of the Cessnas had a hard time departing. The strong breeze down the strip was grabbing their big fins and stopping them from turning downwind which they needed to do in order to backtrack the runway. A healthy amount of throttle and a bit of speed plus some skid turns finally got them heading in the right direction.
The planes could only go one at a time. Each had to backtrack, turn down near the threshold and then come back up towards the waiting viewers. It was amazing to see the variation in take off performance. Some of the older airframes gradually hauled themselves off the ground. Some of the more STOL oriented airframes were off the ground long before they got to us. The strip itself is long so no-one was going to be having any problems.
Before you knew it they were all on their way again and we all jumped back in to our cars to try and re-establish feeling in our fingers. Then it was time to head for home, warm up and work out what to do with so many cards of images!
GAR wants to interact with its readers so if you have a question for the author or a comment to make on this feature, please click on the button below. The best comments will appear right here on GAR.If you would like to discuss using any of our imagery or feature content please contact us.