To the Skies of Wisconsin

Part 1: Oshkosh

Rewind back to mid-July for a recap: I left Asia and flew to Oregon, savored ten straight days of wedding preparation and celebration, then caught an early flight to Denver where I sat in the airport for six hours hoping to get on a flight to Milwaukee. Did I finally get home to take a proper shower and get my first solid night's sleep in two weeks? Hell no. I got the last standby seat open on the second to last flight from Denver to Milwaukee that day, caught a bus to some parking lot, searched for my dad's truck that he left for me, crawled under it on my back with a headlamp to find the key he attached to the frame and finally started north. I then used my chicken scratch directions to drive about an hour and a half to Oshkosh, get into the EAA AirVenture grounds, and find our camp spot in the midst of an enormous event. Miraculously, I accomplished all of this without a cell phone. Let the festivities of the EAA AirVenture, or "Osh" begin.

For one week in July, every year since 1953, the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) has hosted a very grand fly-in. Back in '53, around 150 people showed up. The EAA AirVenture (it's fancy new name) has since become the largest event of its type, attracting over 500,000 visitors from all over the world annually. Lucky for us (mostly my dad, who plans his entire year around Osh), it takes place in, you guessed it, Wisconsin. The event itself is a combination of a fly-in, airshow, promotion site, aircraft dealership, and enormous gathering of aviation enthusiasts.

As many of you know, I grew up with a pilot. I have enormous admiration for people who who have found a passion and do everything they can to succeed and contribute to society doing what they love. For my dad, this passion is aviation. He's not just any pilot. He knew from the time he could walk that he wanted to fly planes. I'll spare you the details, but he has flown fighter jets for the Navy and the Air National Guard, been flying for United Airlines for over 20 years, owned and enjoyed a wide variety of personal aircraft since before I was born, and spent his free time doing private and commercial flight instruction, examination, and even building his own airplanes. He is the president of our local EAA chapter and shows ample participation in the aviation community.

Here he is, being a badass four times.

Although I can't claim flying as my own life passion, growing up in the vicinity of my father has given me a large appreciation for the aviation world. I have been going for rides with him for as long as I can remember, learned to hang-glide at age fourteen and soloed our ultralight trike by at age fifteen. I only recently took the time to achieve all the necessary steps to earn my private pilots license, which has been a lot of fun. Seeing the world from the perspective of a bird is something special. It's even more special that I get to share this part of my life with my dad, and I'm very grateful for that.

Upper left: Flying around in my bikini when I was in high school

Upper right: My dad building an AirCam in our basement (the white plane in the lower left pic)

Lower left: Two homebuilt airplanes flying in formation, piloted by my dad and my brother Matt

Lower right: Me at my first job, age 13 (very awkward) making $3/hour (I wish I were joking) washing that pretty plane behind me. The owner gave me an aerobatic ride at the end of the summer, which made up for the fact that my total income was about fifty bucks.

My dad and I flying his most recent homebuilt aircraft, a Highlander Super STOL

Now that you have a little background, let's get back to the event at hand.

I'll try to paint you a picture of what the EAA AirVenture is like. If you've been to a music festival, picture that, but instead of music and stages, there are airplanes and airplanes. And the people are older, generally less liberal, and most are men. However, the accommodation is set up in a similar fashion. Cars, trucks, tents, trailers, and campers are all lined up in an organized grid fashion, taking up a large area around the main event, surrounded by farmland and dotted with porta potties. This is exactly what the drive-in camp area looks like and it's located just outside the airport grounds.

On the other hand, located within the airport grounds is the airplane parking/campground. It's basically the same thing as the car camp ground, except it's for those hardcore pilots like my Uncle Rick (with the white hat below and not actually my Uncle) who decide to fly into the festivities. There were some 10,000 airplanes that flew in this past year. Rows upon rows of airplanes are parked next to the taxiway with tents popped under their wings.

Once you are settled and have found your friends (many of which you only see once a year, at Osh, so that's fun) it's time to experience what the AirVenture has to offer. There is an enourmous schedule of events including things like aerobatic shows, short take off and landing competitions, skydiving, and, my favorite, a school bus setting record speeds driving down the runway with a jet engine attatched. There are also workshops and forums available to attend. To keep spouses, children, and others entertained when exciting thing aren't happening, many companies (not necessarily aviation related) have promotion booths and little shops set up. It's impossible to walk away from the AirVenture without some free pens, t-shirts, hats, magents, etc. Maybe even a free GoPro or car if you're really lucky.

Each daily event is followed by a long walk back to the camp ground, reunion with the crew, and a fabulous grilled dinner followed by various shenanigans.

Osh 2015 at a glance:

After three days of breakfast, avaition overload, campsite party, repeat, we headed back home. At this point we are toward the end of July and I am planning on leaving for Spain on August 1st. That gave me about one week in Fontana to take a shower, do laundry, see friends, and repack. Oh but wait, the sky was blue, so I went flying instead.

Part 2: Trike Flying

Rewind back four years: June 2nd, 2011- My Peace Corps Omnibus arrived in Quito, Ecuador. There were sixty of us and we were all getting to know each other and having all those typical converstations you have when you realize you are about to spend the next ten weeks in a strange land learning how to try to make the world a better place with a bunch of people you don't know yet. It wasn't until we got the privilege of recess when Renee and I had one of those Step Brothers "Did we just become best friends?!" moments. Basically, we both showed up with frisbees and the rest was history.

Renee and I hitching a ride in the back of a truck somewhere in the Ecuadorian Andes

Renee is also from Wisconsin, currently a high school teacher in Milwaukee, and one of my favorite people on earth. We share an enthusiasm for sports and the outdoors, although she is way more hard core than I am, running marathons and other crazy shit. We both have the same sense of humor, taste for good cheese and hoppy beer, and we both say yes to damn near anything. She is quite possibly the most positive person I have ever met and I'm really glad she lives only an hour away from where I currently call home. Needless to say, when I asked her if she wanted to come down and go flying, she said yes like it was a no-brainer and this happened:

I just realized how romantic I made that last paragraph sound, so let me clarify that we have the same great taste in burly bearded men too. ;)

How would you spend a blue sky day?