Two guys from Nashville . . . and an e-mail from Kansas
Story and photos by Jack Hodgson

Herman Southerland & Bruce Thomas

Herman Southerland and Bruce Thomas are well equipped for visiting AirVenture. Their North 40 campsite is set up with a generator, which right now is charging the cell phones, running a camp stove coffee pot, and more. They’re hunkered down in a pair of camp chairs keeping an eye on the sky.

Herman and Bruce are from Nashville, Tennessee. They’ve been coming to the fly-in for about seven years.

The 5-1/2 hour flight this year included fuel stops in Mattoon, Illinois, and Rockford.

"Mattoon has a good patty melt," says Herman.

Their home airport is John Tune (JWN), and Herman is a member of EAA Chapter 419 in Murfreesboro (MBT).

Bruce works in aviation. He’s the flight engineer on a 727 for FedEx. He’s philosophical about the reality of the Oshkosh experience.

"It’s hard to describe it to people who’ve never been here. It’s overwhelming the first time you come up here. But after that, you sort of figure out your game plan. You can’t see the whole show in one week. You have to just keep coming back every year, that’s the only way to see the show."

Some of the guys’ memories of past EAA fly-ins include the G-5, the military C-17 ("that C-17 put on a real good show"), and the Concorde ("I enjoyed seeing that").

What did they want to see this year? "We were gonna come anyway. They could have the same air show every day; it wouldn’t matter."

Barney & Sarah Rahal

We got an e-mail: "How about interviewing Barney Rahal and daughter Sarah Rahal. They are camping in Row 3 under the wing of their Cessna 172. I’m the father and grandfather who didn’t get to go with them this year."

So we took a ride up to Row 3.

Barney gave me a funny look when I drove up and asked for them by name. But he laughed when I told him about the e-mail.

Barney flew here this year from his home in Andover, Kansas, by way of Kansas City to pick up Sarah. She’s a college senior in Liberty, Missouri, near Kansas City.

This is their fourth year in a row to the fly-in, but they’ve been coming off and on for many years. Sarah’s first visit was when she was in fourth grade.

Sarah is obviously pretty tuned-in to the aviation world. But she’s been waiting until finishing school before starting flying lessons.

Barney’s first time to the fly-in was in 1974, when he was just out of high school; he and his dad came in a C-210.

"We didn’t have much in the way of camping gear. We just put a sleeping bag underneath the plane…and it rained that night. I think we just stayed one or two nights that first trip."

This year, they flew to Oshkosh in their 1975 C-172, which Barney also uses in his work doing aerial pipeline patrol.

Barney is building an RV-6. He’s just closing up the wings, and has bought the quick build on the fuselage. How much longer to finish it? "Well I really wanted to bring it back next year. So I’m pushing hard to see if I can do that."