AirVenture 2022 | Day 4

July 21 | Thursday was up early, breakfast, and off to the airport. The sun was shining brilliantly and the painfully blue sky. We were looking forward to the flight to Brodhead.

We were off before 8:30 and started our climb to altitude. I had checked winds aloft that morning and found that they were better higher, and all headed directly to Brodhead. We got up to 9,500’, since we had used up all the oxygen coming across the Rockies, and leveled off, trimmed up and leaned out. The ground speed slowly climbed to 160 knots. I thought to myself that might exceed my “never exceed speed”, but the true airspeed at that altitude still only indicated about 120 knots, so we were ok.

The tailwinds continued all the way across Minnesota until finally dropping about 25 knots as we came up to the Mississippi River. Calvin had never seen the Mississippi from the air this far north and was impressed that it was relatively narrow.

We had clouds at our altitude ahead, so I started a slow descent since we were about 90 miles from Brodhead. We were trading altitude for speed again, so our ground speed was back up matching our speed across Minnesota.

Once we were under the cloud cover, we made the bumpy final ride to Brodhead. The 10,000 lakes of Minnesota turned into the gently rolling hills of Wisconsin, with the small family farms scattered along our route. Everything looks the same, so I was depending on the iPad, Foreflight and Garmin 430 to help us find the green Brodhead airport among the green Brodhead farmland.

We finally came overhead at 3,000’ and started our lookout for traffic. Pietenpol pilots would get a nosebleed if they flew this high, so I was looking for another spam can intruder. I kept hearing someone announcing their position in the pattern for runway 27, but finally heard that he was calling Albany traffic and not Brodhead.

We entered the downwind leg for runway 27, got everything slowed up and trimmed, made our turn to final, and put the 182 down on the grass for the rollicking, rolling landing at Brodhead. I felt like I was home again.

After taxiing to a suitable camping spot, we got the airplane tied down, after a quick trip to the porta potties, and set up our tents and camp.

We hadn’t stopped for lunch on the way since we had been making such good time at altitude, so we went looking for something to eat at the Chapter 431 kitchen. They weren’t serving lunch Thursday, but Sue led me into the kitchen, opened up a tub of chicken salad, and gave us a bowl and some crackers. That was after she offered to make us a grilled cheese sandwich, which I politely declined. People are very hospitable in Wisconsin.

I noticed that Jeff was peeling onions for the white fish boil Friday evening, so after we had finished our light lunch, Calvin and I went into the kitchen to offer to help. There was just a box and a half of onions on the counter, so I thought it wouldn’t take long.

Calvin and I started peeling onions, then Jeff went out of the kitchen and returned with what looked like a fifty-pound sack of more onions. This would take a little longer than I thought.

Peeling or cutting onions never really bothered me at home, but poor Calvin was crying like he was watching thee end of “Old Yeller.” (It has a sad ending.) With the three of us peeling, it didn’t take long to get enough onions done for the fish boil, and we didn’t have to go through the whole sack to do that.

We walked around the grounds and looked at Pietenpols and all other types of vintage airplanes for a while, then just sat and talked to other people who had come to the fly-in. As we were standing around the area where the Pietenpols were parked, I saw a Fokker D.VII come into the pattern and land. It was a surreal sight, because I have a D.VII project hanging from the rafters in my hangar that I had hoped to finish after I retired.

During the night in Rawlins, while lying awake after the most recent trucker went by using his jake brake, I thought about all the projects I had gathered over the years, and about which ones I realistically would finish before I was finished. I reluctantly came to the conclusion that the D.VII wouldn’t be flying in my lifetime, and had made the decision to put it up for sale at Brodhead and Oshkosh. I had typed up a sale flyer two hours before the Fokker landed, and had asked a nice young woman at the Kelch museum if she could print up a few copies for me to post. The Fokker landing at Brodhead was a poignant sight.

The Kelch museum put on a pulled pork and coleslaw dinner that evening, so Calvin and I were able to start our Midwest farmers’ diet. With the big breakfasts, brat or pulled pork lunches, and the Friday white fish boil and Saturday grilled pork chop dinner EAA Chapter 431 offers, I will probably put on several pounds before I even get to Oshkosh.

The rest of the day consisted of visiting with like-minded pilots and aviation enthusiasts, with conversation and watching airplanes continuing into the evening around the fire pit. We finally went off to our tents and sleeping bags, content with the beautiful evening and countryside, and wonderful companionship of Brodhead.