Made it home around 5:00 Weds afternoon. Earlier I had intended to fly but the weather looked poor today and that's how it turned out, with heavy rain and low ceilings. I stayed around for the Bill Pancake seminar and then sloashed my way through the mud to my pickup. Anyway, met some of the guys that post on this site (names escape me now) and just spent an enjoyable three days despite the hot then wet weather. Bought a few trinkets, had a couple of adult beverages with friends, talked a lot flying.....what more can you ask ??
Speaking of talking flying, after the forum a friend of mine and I were talking and I mentioned I hoped Bill Pancake would write a book sometime and put all that knowledge he has down in print form. I'm certain it would be a best seller with the Aeronca crowd.
Mike;
I'm at OSH today too. I wished that I'd known about the Bill Pancake seminar. I spent the morning trying to stay dry. I spoke to several fellow aeroncateers, but didn't get a chance to meet you.
Like one of the guys told me; the knowledge of working on and maintaining old aircraft is being losted.
You can get copies of the Oshkosh forums...just do a Bing search for Oshkosh EAA Forums....it's one way to keep up with the news even from the West Coast.
Mark Peterson
Harvey Field, WA
A copy of my old Chief website is preserved here:
I am sorry I missed you. I was able to leave about 12:15pm, just as soon as the field was declared VFR. I lost my vacuum pump, consequently, the gyros and auto pilot. Then over by Madison, I ran into a white wall. Dropped down below intended to land, but I was 1800 with good forward vis. With in about 30 min, things started to improve but we had a hell of a head wind. 91k ground speed in a PA28-235 plus it was hot and we were rocking and rolling all the way back to Arkansas. My grandson upchucked twice.
I also lost my no 2 radio. So I have work to do today.
Sorry to say I saw three misshaps. A C195 ground looped on roll out and broke a leg. It was a nice plane. A Globe Swift did a 180 on landing and slid off the runway backwards between two Mooneys who had just arrived in the Mooney mass arrival. Thankfully, there was no damage. The most spectacular, was a Cherokee on final for 09. He was too high so he did a 360 on final then went into a dive for the green dot. Estimates of his speed ranged from 90 to 120. He was coming down fast. Well he hit the green dot with his nose gear. How it stayed on is a testament to the Cherokees. He bounced about 25 ft into the air. Then he nosed over and headed back to the ground. The second bounce was about 10 ft into the air. The third bounce was only about a foot in the air but when he came down for the fourth one, the nose gear gave way. A puff of blue smoke came out of the engine and he slid to a stop. The occupants appeared to be ok.
We had several storms. One was about 3am Saturday morning. My tent laid over on its side from the wind but stayed up. I sat in the tent watching the tail tie down on the plane. Thankfully, I did not hear of any aircraft damage to the planes.
Glad I am back home. I got to go outside to the hanger to replace the vacuum pump.
I got back on Friday, left on Thursday about an hour before the F16 went off the runway.
Lots of rain on Wednesday, but overall a great time for my first time. Another checkmark on my
bucket list! The Sedan ran flawlessly, and only saw one other there, at the floatplane base. I was at the North 40.
I hung in through all the bad weather, then Friday morning decided not to be the guy who stayed for the next crummy weather to finally leave.
Great flying, with tail winds, to Aberdeen, Minnesota for Friday night, then Saturday made it all the way to Cut Bank, Montana. Only the last couple of hours got hot, bumpy, and lost the tail wind.
Friends in a Cessna tried Marias Pass Saturday afternoon, gave up, turned in the turbulance and were making over 175 knots ground speed as they got blown back out.
Next morning I pushed through the pass climbing in the lifts, lowering the nose in the downdrafts to get through them quickly. Ground speed got down to the mid thirtys at times but got up and over at about ten thousand, with fuel to reach Polson, MT. Again to ten thousand and I was down in Coeur D'Alene, ID. The Palouse was easy to Hermiston but got hot and rough for the hop to Madras, OR. Finally after a hot climb to eight thousand to get through the Cascades, I crossed the Willamette Valley and the Coastal Range in dead calm, cool, and clean Pacific air. What a thrill do finally have a comfortable flight and to descend into the lush green beauty of coastal Oregon. Home at last, home at last, a mighty long pull, but every mile a priceless memory.
flying.....what more can you ask 
?? 