Around
the Field
Two guys
from Ogden, following the Missouri River, and flying friends to
breakfast
Story and photo by Jack Hodgson
Each year about this
time, everything aviation blossoms in our small community here at
Wittman Field. Even so, normal lives go on, seemingly undaunted by all
that surrounds them.
A half-dozen boys are
throwing around a football on the North 40 taxiway. A really big brat
grill is servicing the Cessna pilots at the west end. Folding chairs,
sun umbrellas, cameras, radios, bikes, and aviation fans gather along
the fence, watching the planes land. A twin does a fine job S-turning,
to stay behind slower traffic, and gets a big round of applause as it
comes over the numbers.
Tom Cox and Ralph
Baughman are two guys from Ogden, Utah.
They made the trip here
this year in two days, stopping overnight in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
When asked if they had any excitement on the trip here, Tom says,
"None whatsoever, thank goodness."
Tom has been flying for
"oh, about 55 years." He has great memories of those early
flying experiences. He learned in the military in Columbus, Mississippi.
"My first instructor
was a gentleman named Ken Moore. He was a civilian California Eastern
Airways contract guy. I remember him very well. I learned to fly in a
T-6, the first airplane I ever flew."
Ralph has been flying for
47 years. He learned in civilian training at Pullman-Moscow Airport on
the Washington-Idaho border. He remembers his first instructor, too.
"I sure do. His name
was Mike Rust. He never could talk softly; he was always yelling. I can
still hear him yelling.
"It was an old J-3
Cub. He sat in the front seat, and I sat in the back. He’d turn his
head and yell. He didn’t need to turn his head; hell you could hear
him if you were on the ground."
Tom built the RV-7 in
which he came to AirVenture. It took him 18 months. He finished it in
January 2005, and he flies it all over the country. Ralph came in his
1976 Beechcraft Bonanza V35B.
Jerry Hockman and Paul
Clohan are from Martinsburg, West Virginia, and this afternoon they’re
enjoying the day, sitting in canvas folding chairs next to their planes
in the North 40. This is their fourth time to AirVenture.
Paul came in his red and
silver RV-8, and Jerry is in his 182. For them, one big challenge of
getting to Oshkosh is the weather.
"We had to go almost
all the way to Nashville before we could turn west and go up around St.
Louis, in order to get up north, because there was bad weather in Ohio
and Indiana.
What is the appeal of
AirVenture for them?
"Just always meeting
somebody new all the time," says Jerry. "It’s always
something. I mean if you fool with this many airplanes, you’re gonna
come up with some pretty interesting people."
"The camaraderie of
little airplane drivers," says Paul.
A couple of years ago the
guys took the scenic route on their way to AirVenture.
"The trip we took up
the Missouri River," says Paul, "is probably the most
memorable flying I’ve done."
"It was the Louis
and Clark thing a few years back," says Jerry. "We went up the
Missouri River. We flew low, right on the river, all the way to Great
Falls, Montana. That took a couple of days. Of course we dropped down
through Wyoming, and into the Black Hills of Dakota. So that was pretty
memorable."
"That was a fun
trip," says Paul.
 |
|
Mike Flannery from
Cincinnati, Ohio with his Cessna 182. Photo by Jack Hodgson |
Mike Flannery is
sitting beside his Cessna 182, reading the WWII history The Wild
Blue and keeping an eye on the arrivals.
Mike arrived at
AirVenture 2006 as part of the large Cessna group on Saturday.
This was his first
formation flying, and he says all of the organization, training, and
preparation made him feel very safe during the flight.
He’d do it again.
"Oh, absolutely. I think this is gonna be the start of a
tradition."
His airplane is a 1964
182G he purchased in 2000. He lives in Cincinnati, Ohio.
He flies it a lot during
the year. About twice a week, he says.
"I’ll fly people,
usually for breakfast. I find little, out of the way, small-town
airports that have restaurants on the field. That’s sort of my
hobby."
"I’ll take
friends, neighbors. My last flight was with a friend’s father who had
just turned 70. I took him up for his birthday, and he brought two of
his grandchildren."
Like so many, he has a
strong memory of his first visit to the EAA convention almost 10 years
ago.
"I drove up with my
wife and my youngest son. And I felt like a kid in a candy store.
Looking out as I got closer to the airport. Just about every kind of
aircraft was in the air; it looked like bees."
You can e-mail Jack at atf2006@aroundthefield.net.
