AirVenture 2022 | Day 1

July 18 | We got off from Sonoma Skypark just before 9 am today. I had planned to leave Sunday, but woke up Saturday night after two hours of sleep and started thinking about all the things I needed to do and remember before leaving. That was “game over” for any more sleep that night.

I postponed our departure until Monday and let my co-pilot Calvin know. I am flying out this year with Calvin Wojciechowski, who I have known for probably forty years. I first met Calvin when he owned the auto salvage yard in Sonoma. I always seemed to be going out there for one part or another for one of my cars, and he always seemed to have what I needed.

Calvin restored one Cessna 150 and is currently working on another at his home. He had been out to Brodhead and Oshkosh before with John Thomason, but had never flown out himself.

My wife Catherine and his wife Julie brought us out to the airport, we finished loading our baggage in the 182, and were able to get in the air to clear skies and beautiful weather, after a couple farewell kisses and a hug for my dog Tillie.

We made a long climb up to 11,500’ and went on oxygen, and were cruising along about an hour from our first stop in Wells, Nevada, when my phone buzzed with a text. Catherine had asked if I had intended to leave my wallet at home, which I had very carefully organized, loaded with some cash, and put safely away in my drawer in the kitchen.

Calvin was now on the hook to pay for fuel at our next stop.

Catherine finally figured out that she could ship it UPS overnight to the post office in Rolette, where I planned to stay on Tuesday. The complications were that I hadn’t gotten confirmation that a room was available there, the airport didn’t have fuel and the post office closed at 2:30 in the afternoon.

I figured I would work out the details as I went along.

We got to Wells and found that the winds were coming from every direction but that aligned with the runway, and were gusting 15 to 20 knots. Calvin and I looked for the windsock but couldn’t see it, so I entered the pattern for the only runway that would be into the wind. We found three windsocks after we landed.

Downwind was a little was a little bumpy, base was fast and final had me using full cross-control to stay aligned with the center of the runway. I was doing fine on the roll-out when I got a gust from the left that lifted a wing and had me wondering how long I would be spending in Wells before Catherine could come and recover me.

Things straightened out, and I gingerly taxied to the pumps, where Calvin was able to buy fuel, for the first of several times. The pump was one I hadn’t seen before and we couldn’t get the pump to start. We made a long walk over to the only people we saw at a fire services air attack base building and asked them. They looked at each other and then at the Air Tractors they used, which use Jet A, and said that they had never used that pump, but then asked if we had lifted the handle.

You know how this ended, after a long, hot walk back to the airplane and pump. We filled the tanks and left Wells behind until our return trip.

We were off to our final stop of the day at Rawlins, bumping our way past Salt Lake and over Wyoming. If you read my blog from last year, you know that Wyoming doesn’t like me.

At altitude, the flight wasn’t too bad, especially since I had engaged the autopilot and was just sitting there monitoring the cylinder head temps, looking out the window at the clouds and trying to stay awake. After flying out in the Stinson and my Scouting buddy Paul’s straight tail 172, this definitely felt like I was cheating. I didn’t mind too much.

I also use an iPad and Foreflight for navigation and weather, and was keeping an eye on the storm system racing me to Rawlins. It wasn’t all orange and red yet, but it was building, as it always does when I try to fly Highway 80 across the Rockies.

We had a tailwind the whole way, which would be a headwind on our return, and as I trimmed thee nose down for the descent to Rawlins, we were making good time over the ground. I am able to check weather with Foreflight through the ADS-B in/out transponder and used the feature of Foreflight that shows airport conditions, including wind direction and preferred runway.

I was able to flight a right-hand pattern to 29 and fly the 182 onto the runway, but turning around to back taxi to the intersection took full power and brakes. I gingerly (again) taxied to the ramp, where the airport attendant was standing in front of the parking spot I should use.

I parked and set the brakes and started to tie down when he asked if I wanted to park in the big hangar overnight. Looking at the approaching thunderstorm, I said yes, thinking it would be worth whatever the cost. We got the airplane pushed in, fueled for tomorrow and got our baggage out when he asked me, with a smile, if I had any trouble landing. I knew the density altitude was 10,000’ and the winds were gusting 20-25 knots.

Naw. Piece of cake. You know the aviator’s strut; all bravado covering the quaking, shaking knees.

He then told me that the airport would close tomorrow at 1300 UTC, which would be 7 am local, for crack sealing and seal coating the runway. It would be an early morning tomorrow.

After getting the courtesy car from another pilot who had just returned from his motel, and who had been heading to Oshkosh when he ran out of climb while taking off and landed off airport, we headed for the truck stop motel, got a room, dropped our gear, drove downtown through a driving thunderstorm to Buck’s grill, and had a couple chef salads for dinner and then retired for the night in anticipation of our next leg to North Dakota in the morning.

Just a typical day flying over the Rockies on our way to Oshkosh.