This was my first time staying in the dorms.  It worked out great.  The buses were easy to catch to and from the show and only cost $1.25 each way.  The rooms small and no frills — there was a common bathroom down the hall,  no air conditioning.   But the price was right and the mosquitoes didn’t carry me off like they would have if we’d been camping!  On the second day I noticed a Styrofoam package of food in the microwave from last semester, I guess.  I didn’t dare open it to look.  Scary!

The show itself was fun as always.  We went through the vendor buildings each day and talked to the usual suspects about their latest stuff — Dynon, TruTrak, Advanced Flight, as well as some companies I haven’t talked to before like ForeFlight and FreeFlightSystems.  Good stuff.  On Friday, my Dad stopped by and we had lunch and walked through the RV parking area.  I pointed out how certain aspects of my plane will be similar or different than the ones we were seeing.  He asked a lot of good questions, like ‘Do real pilots fly tailwheel aircraft?”.  Yes, its true.  :)  After that good discussion we watched the airshow together and then he had to get back on the road to get home.  Good visit.

By Friday afternoon, it was time to start planning the details of getting back home to North Carolina.  David filed IFR and got a departure slot for Saturday morning.  He had been trying the whole time we had been there to get fuel, but the trucks wouldn’t taxi on the ground that was so soggy from all the rain.  When the plane was packed and ready to go we pulled it up to the taxi way and waited for the fuel truck.  By the time that was done our departure slot was long past, but we cranked up and got in line for an IFR departure.  While waiting in the queue for more than 30 minutes, David noticed the voltage gauge was only reading 12.8 volts (13.8 – 14.2v is considered normal).  We tried a couple things to check the alternator and quickly decided it was dying.  Taking off with a sick electrical system, IFR no less, is not a good idea, so we notified the tower that we had problems.  They directed us to taxi across the field to the FBO for help.  We ended up at New View Tech.  They were very generous with their advice & tools and helped us determine that the Plane-Power alternator with only 200 hours on it was indeed kaput.  I got a phone number from the Plane-Power website via my Android phone, but nobody answered — everyone was at the airshow.  What a perfect opportunity to prove the usefulness of Twitter to David, the Twitter skeptic!  I sent a tweet describing our dilemma and within minutes had some people trying to help, primarily @EAAUpdate.  A couple minutes more I had a cellphone number for the Plane-Power display booth on the other side of the airfield.  David called and discussed out problem with them.  They offered to swap the bad alternator for the display model they had at the booth, so we took the shuttle bus across the airfield and did just that.  Afterwards we checked the weather again and learned that there were no more IFR departure slots available.  The only option was to leave VFR after the airshow ended in a couple hours.  So while the airshow went on overhead, we installed the new alternator and made arrangements at BMI, which would be our destination for the night.  The rest of the day went as planned.  The Holiday Inn in Bloomington seemed pretty upscale compared to the dorms!

The next morning we departed IFR from BMI and went direct to EXX.  By the time we crossed the Appalachians, the cloud build-ups in the area were getting pretty tall.  At 11,000′ we had to deviate around several of them.  Approaching EXX, we were in the clouds below 4,000MSL and broke out about 700′ AGL.  Since David’s home airport, SE GSO, does not have an approach, he left the plane at EXX there until the weather lifted the next day.  Another adventure to Airventure complete!  Thanks David!

Here is a video (NOT MINE) that does a great job of capturing what Oshkosh 2010 was all about.  Enjoy!

Exam preparations included getting The Book and attending a two-day class put on by the Greensboro Amateur Radio Association.  The class concluded with the Technician exam ($12 fee).  Once you get a passing grade on it, you are allowed to take the next level test (General), in the same sitting, for free.  The Tech exam was all I needed for the APRS, but I’m a big fan of free, so I tried it.  It was a whole ‘nuther level of HAM, that I had not prepared for, so I was not surprised when I didn’t pass.  But, I got the entry level license which was the objective, so mission accomplished.