Hello, Chapter Members and Friends!

How was your summer? What was the most memorable moments? I hope you all had a great summer. Rob and I again went on our eighth trip to Oshkosh together. After my eighth year BFR episode, our 9th grand child born with pretty serious complication for my daughter -in-law, and battling with oil leak, brake problems and painting fiberglass on our plane till the very last minute, it was such a relief to finally leave for Oshkosh AirVenture.

We flew up to Dallas on Saturday to meet up with another RV12 for the two ship formation heading to Oshkosh. Sunday morning at 6:00 a.m. we departed from 16X (Propwash) for KOSH via KFYB, KLXT, KSFY and KHXF, where we could get mogas at the airports for our Rotax engines. Although the last stop before KOSH, KHXF was very close to Oshkosh, we refueled there so that we could take off from Oshkosh with an almost full tank without refueling at KOSH. It was my very first opportunity to learn formation flying. Taking off was not too bad but I was struggling to maintain the consistent speed and distance from the first ship. We stayed at KHXF for half an hour because of the information that all the planes were circling above the Lake Winneago because of a shower and funnel cloud at KOSH.

The other pilots were the American Airline Captains who helped my transition from Piper to RV-12. I was so tired from lack of sleep the night before and the concentration on the formation flying that I asked my instructor to be in my plane to land at KOSH. It was just like the NOTAM book says, of course. Our plane became the first ship in very tight formation with the second and “rocked” our wings in unison, which impressed the FAA on the ground. By this time, flying with bunch of planes around me in close proximity was pretty comfortable. Our assigned spot was purple on RWY 36, the very first spot. The cross wind was blowing us quite a bit, but oh what a sight to see the wide runway ahead of us, wide enough for two planes to land! Just before the purple dot, they instructed us to land over the yellow dot. It was a good thing the RV-12 can glide for a long time just above the ground.

Oshkosh was very pleasant and cool with occasional cold showers with thunder and lightening. I was so glad we were not camping this time. In the air show, It was impressive to watch one plane that kept flying in the rain where all the crowds were retreating into the tents.

The highlight during our trip home was ... buzzing the mighty Mississippi River. It was so wide and I felt free! It only lasted 15 minutes but it was a genuine joy of flying in the middle of the river. Sorry for the barges and big white birds in the trees on the islands. During the last leg, I finally got total control of two ship flying keeping the same distance, speed and directions flying through the cumulus clouds towering like skyscrapers. It was truly heavenly with Rob smiling at me in our RV-12!

Here is the Youtube video of our landing at KOSH:

Happy Flying and Building to You ALL!

Haruko Reese
EAA Chapter 187 President