Oshkosh Ones More
To fly in the United States – there was no need to persuade two friends to hair a Cessna and to join me to fly from the east coast to Oshkosh Wisconsin and back.
They both jumped on the idea happily and we start to plan the journey. The beginning was at WIFA flight School in Gaithersburg, Maryland (KGAI). The flight route included visiting a number of sites, we purchase airline tickets to the US and back, and we were ready.
To our delight, a commercial pilot with extensive experience flying in the United States joined us as a safety pilot who gave us peace of mind and professionalism; we experienced a relaxed and fun flight.
For financial reasons we landed in New York and made our way to Maryland in a rented car. It was rainy day in New York as we approach Maryland the sky became brighter and wonderful day show is face on the next day for us to start our flying. The Cessna 172 with a 210 hp engine was waiting for us. And easily take us four pilots to the sky.
The Air Force Museum – Dayton, Ohio
After few hours of flying we arrived at our first stop at the Air Force Museum in Dayton Ohio, the impressive museum in the four giant buildings arranged according to the various types of aircraft, missiles and spacecraft.
After a night’s rest, we aimed our aircraft to the famous SPORTY’S flight store, not before we did buzz over a basket factory designed like a huge basket. The store had its own landing field, and after the landing we taxi almost and parked almost in front of the entrance to the store. After touring the store we purchased some products and continued on our flight to Chicago.
Chicago the City of Wind
The next stop was in Chicago, we landed after nightfall in DUPAGE airport (KDPA). The next day we toured downtown Chicago walk along the Chicago River that passes through the city center and admire the big towers and Yaakov Agam Statue. and the impressive parking building in the center and particularly impressive parking for boats at the bottom of it.
Oshkosh, here we come
The next day we flied to Green Bay INTL (KGRB) Wisconsin, The town situated about 50 km from Oshkosh, a rented car was already waiting for us in the field, and luckily we discovered a problem with the front wheel, and after a few calls the plane was transferred to the dedicated care of a local technician. We spent the rest of the day visiting the beautiful Green Bay.
Driving to Osh Kosh was quite quickly and we entered the Wittman REGINAL airport in Oshkosh. A que of dozens of people stood at the door to buy tickets or receiving the entrance ribbon. The fear of a long waiting disappeared in light of the organizers’ efficiency. The line progressed quickly and within a few minutes we received the entry tags (the tickets were purchased over the Internet weeks before the event) and we began our two day visit in the site. It is difficult to describe the exiting of thousands of pilots and flight enthusiasts around you and everyone finds out what to do without pushing and certainly without shouting. Giant hangars full of merchandise and aircraft equipment from screw to all aircraft, equipment and accessories, games and toys. In another area there are huge tents where lectures and training are held. Little further stood Old airplanes, fighter airplanes from World War I, special planes, up to modern airplanes. Surrounding the site there is acres of lawns on which thousands of airplanes were parked, and visitors who have chosen to land in Oshkosh field, also built tents under their wing and lived there during the event.
The highlight of the event was the show. Aerobatic flight, structural flight, fighters, and more took place every day between 14:00 and 18:00, in addition there is also a night show flight on two days of the seven days accompanied by a spectacular show of lights and flares operated from the airplanes in the air, the event ends with a fireworks show.
The next event – Mackinac Island
Back to green bay airport, we were separated from the ground crew, checking that Cessna was fueled and repaired and took off to Mackinac Island in Huron Lake opposite to Michigan, the island rules is no motors vehicle are aloud that since 1898. The small airport (KMCD) is the only place on the island that can be reached with motorized plane. We called a taxi from the field to the town, and as you can imagine, the taxi was a horse and carriage lazily walking to the town. There we discovered a cute place on the lakeshore with a main street lined with small shops and hotels and their specialty is preparing fudge, it’s hard to ignore the smell of the horses but after a while we could ignore that.
We returned to the plane on one of the “taxis” and we even saw a process of replacing a horse, apparently “the laws of the Histadrut.” After a 15-minute flight we landed in the nearby town of Mackinac County airport (83D) on the main continent for a night rest.
The way back does we started our way back we couldn’t resist visiting the Niagara Falls, which are always impressive in their intensity and the splashes of water that rise from the amazing waterfall’s hit the water at the bottom. The Hudson corridor was our next event. The flight to New York was with little concern when we had to climb high dew to overcast weather forced us to fly over the clouds. The closer we got to New York, the sky became clearer and we could safely descend for the flight over the Hudson River. Flying over the bridges and the view of Manhattan from 1000 feet is an amazing scene, the height of the buildings and their different style proves that the human brain knows how to find solutions to any problem it encounters. We approached the lady, standing in the center of the island proudly. We flew around her twice before we continue to republic airport near New York to replace pilots. The second pilot did the tour of the Hudson River too before we turn to the end of our trip Montgomery Field in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Once again we made our way in the car back to New York. We spent the last evening in New York on a famous Broadway street eat a good meal and on the next morning we flew to the Promised Land.
