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This is the chronicle of
the genesis of Bonanzas to Oshkosh from its beginning in 1989 and the
happenings along the way -
mostly my recollections with a little research.
An article on each flight appeared in the  ABS
Magazine (formerly Newsletter). I
will refer to the month and year of each article if you desire more detail
on each flight. I made all the flights except the last; a meeting of the prop
on 50T and a taxi light at Rockford prevented my joining that flight.
However I unloaded the camping gear from 50T, rented a car, drove
to Oshkosh and camped with B2Osh IV, participating every year.
Through my years as a
pilot I heard many good things about ‘Oshkosh’.
I chose not to attend for two reasons:
I did not want to go through the hassle of arrival as I perceived
it, and I dislike crowds. ‘Oshkosh’
represented both to me: a hassle on arrival and huge crowds of people.
Plus, except for my first year in the Boy Scouts, I never camped
out.
In 1986 I met and became
friends with Mike Ferguson, at the time Director of the Montana Department
of Aeronautics. Mike
completely changed my mind about ‘Oshkosh’.
I joined EAA and made my first trip to ‘Oshkosh’ in 1987,
staying in the Lake House of a local Rotarian.
From that first experience I could see I desired to camp with my
plane rather than miss the camaraderie enjoyed by associating with other
pilots camped with their planes. In
my ‘88 and ‘89 trips I found I was looking for other Bonanza pilots
and where they were camped. In
1989, visiting with Sam James in the ABS tent, I asked why we could not
work out something for Bonanza pilots to camp together.
Sam thought it was a good idea, but I would have to work on it.
He had not been successful getting Bonanza pilots to support a
Bratwurst and Corn Roast at the Basler Hangar.
All camping sites at
‘Oshkosh’ (now AirVenture) are on a first come first served basis; the
only way planes can park together is to arrive together. The first order of business was to plan a procedure to arrive
together. Pilots would be
arriving from various locations in the US.
A central staging base near Oshkosh was needed:
an airport near enough for a short flight but far enough away to
allow a formation to come together; an airport with a nearby motel, good
dinning facilities on the field, adequate parking space for aircraft
planning to make the flight, an FBO willing to service the aircraft and an
airport and tower that would welcome the flight.
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Record keeping was
simple in the first year. Original list of registrants. |
Don Sturm, a Bonanza
pilot from Valparaiso, Indiana suggested Rockford, Illinois as a location
with all the facilities to be a perfect place to stage the
flight. At the time we did not know how perfect the selection would
prove to be.
The flight grew to numbers never dreamed of originally.
At the ABS Annual Convention in Colorado Springs I posted a notice asking
for interest. The notice had pull off tabs with information to
contact me. Ten pilots opted to make the flight. A few
cancelled, but two pilots from  Germany asked to join us. We met
the evening before departure at Rockford. We
arranged a block of rooms at Howard Johnson’s for $39 and planned to dine
at the St. James, a very fine restaurant in the Terminal Building. Having
selected the staging airport, contact was attempted with
‘Oshkosh’ about a group flight arriving.
We could obtain no answer to our request for information
how a group of aircraft should or could arrive.
Nineteen people and 9 planes arrived in the evening prior to departure and a great
time was had at the St. James. We
departed as planned early the next morning to arrive at ‘Oshkosh’ as
the airport opened. A story
and pictures of that flight can be found in the January 1991 ABS
Newsletter on the ABS CD. The
interest from that article really started B2Osh as we know it today.
On returning to Mineola I
again tried making contact with EAA about a group of Bonanzas arriving together
so they might park together. Notice
I said group, not formation, as we planned to land as single aircraft with
the group arriving over Fisk and Ripon.
With mail and phone calls to EAA I accomplished nothing.
From the story in the ABS Newsletter I began to receive phone calls
and faxes from ABS members desiring to join the flight in 1991.
In the spring of 1991 none of us had email.
Phone, mail and Fax were the methods of communication.
By June of 1991 thirty-five planes had registered for the flight.
The registration fee was five dollars. The
planned dinner and briefing were in the lobby of the terminal and served
by the St. James Restaurant. We
had 90 people signed up and to have that numbered catered I had to
guarantee the number to the Restaurant.
Weather became a factor. By the time of the diner 60 people were
present. The details of
how this finally was worked out are in the story of the flight in the ABS
Newsletter of October 1991. We
grew in one year from 19 people to 90 people and moving 90 people to the
airport at 5 AM presented a radical change in transportation needs.
As in the first flight
‘Oshkosh’ had no idea we were arriving as a group. We never received a reply to our request how the tower would
handle a group of airplanes arriving together.
We tried every contact but could only receive an answer that gave
the standard arrival route for single aircraft..
As we had no clearance to land other than single planes a plan was
devised to fly in waves of 5 in left echelon and space as single planes on
downwind and base and land as single aircraft on expected runway 27.
The departure at
Rockford, the arrival over Fisk and Ripon went as planned. Flight lead was given clearance to land on 27.
It was at that time the tower realized the flight was a group of 28
Bonanzas. We were given a change to right downwind 36.
Flight Leader Hank Canterbury properly and promptly relayed the
message over the group frequency, but lack of formation discipline and
training was readily apparent. I
was lead of the second group  With
good pilot awareness on the part of the entire group all landed on 36 and
taxied to parking. I had
contacted someone to be on the ground to assist in keeping the group
together but communication with the volunteer ground handlers did not work
well and still someway we managed to park as a group.
B2Osh II was the real learning curve for our group and especially
for the Oshkosh Tower and Ground
Handlers. For more on B2Osh
II see the article on page 2861, October 1991 issue of the ABS Newsletter.
On returning to Mineola I wrote Tom Poberezney concerning the
safety of the manner in which ‘Oshkosh' had handled the group flight
of 28. This time I received
complete cooperation from ‘Oshkosh’.
As planning started for
B2Osh III, I received a detailed plan of arrival, go-a-rounds and runway
changes. The plans used
currently evolved from this first formal arrival procedure.
This plan started our first formation flights using the three ship
take-off and formation flight from Rockford to Oshkosh.
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