This year my son Paul decided to fly to Oshkosh with me, so we chose a
direct route from Los Angeles to Albuquerque, Kansas and Southern Wisconsin
where we met up with Paul Mc Allister and his daughter Kristi as well as a
Long EZ flyer, Jim Price.
The trip to Wisconsin was flown with one landing for fuel.
Next morning we flew three planes in formation into Ripon - Fisk - Oshkosh
and spent three gorgeous days in Oshkosh, sleeping under the wings. On the
way in - right over Fisk I called an engine failure to the formation and
while you'd normally pull up to gain altitude and get to optimum gliding
speed, I chose to push down away from the formation. Switching to reserve
quickly fixed the engine failure (at 1800 ft it ought to ...) and we
continued straight in for a landing on 36 right. Next time I will not only
fill the aux tanks with fuel but also pump over into the main tank.
On the last day in KOSH I asked my son where he would like to visit on the
way back and he said "the Bahamas". Two days later we were in Marsh Harbour
on the Abaco Island and went snorkeling.
The return flight took us through Tallahassee, Florida then El Paso Texas
and a safe landing home yesterday. This trip has added 60 hours to the now
840 hours of flying in my Europa. The Rotax 912 has never missed a beat nor
has the Europa ever shown any malign behaviour. She is a true Magic Carpet.
Looking forward to meeting some of you at our local fly-in "Copperstate"
later this year.
fly safe,
<Thomas, N81EU>
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