Oshkosh 2022 Adventure – Arriving at Oshkosh

After arriving at Kenosha, I spent a day of reorganization and relaxation. My hosts were extremely accommodating and helpful with planning the actual arrival in Oshkosh.

As part of the overall planning, I was supposed to fly into the event with Niki from Niki Rotor Aviation, the designer of the fantastic Kallithea gyroplane. That is why I met with Niki, Megy and the family for a nice dinner where we clarified the last details of the next day’s flight.

Arriving at the Ultralight Field in Oshkosh is fairly simple procedure, but there is a set schedule for various types of aircraft, so rotorcraft are not supposed to be flying there until 11:30 in the morning, until 2:00 in the afternoon. With that information in mind, we planned our departure from the Kenosha area in such a way as to put is at the entry of the ultralight pattern very shortly after 11:30.

I also had to stop by Timmerman Airport to pick up my passenger, Niki, whose hotel was closer to there than Kenosha. Arriving here was a short hop from Kenosha, and you only must watch out for the Milwaukee’s Charlie airspace.

Another concern was the potential of some rain, but as it turned out we timed our flight perfectly. There was a quick sprinkler while we were waiting at Timmerman for our welltimed departure, but beyond that the weather was perfect.

It was supposed to take us around an hour to reach the Oshkosh area, so when time was right, Niki and I strapped in and took off.

As we were zooming over the luscious Wisconsin landscapes, Niki noticed that I am pushing the aircraft a bit more than in is usually recommended. We weren’t in any hurry so I just pulled back on the throttle a little. As I was analyzing my actions, I realized that the previous 4 days of hard riding have put me in a “high cruise mode”, as I call it, in which getting to point B on time becomes a narrow goal. It also puts you in a state of mind in which you are so in tune with the machine, you feel more comfortable squeezing that extra bit of power out of the aircraft. It is also important to mention that it probably took me a good half a day of flying to reach that mode, and it will probably take me few local flights before I get back to my normal “observation mode”.

When close enough to the ultralight approach entrance, I made my radio calls and dripped to 300 feet AGL, as prescribed by the annual Oshkosh NOTAM. I have to admit that I was well prepared for this approach. I have seen almost any video available online, and had my ForeFlight flight plan well charted with custom waypoints at key locations as described by the NOTAM.

So, here we were approaching the airport, following the prescribed pattern, seeing the expected landmarks, Fisk approach fixed wings zooming over our heads… We were in Oshkosh, baby…

What was surprising was how much smaller the traffic pattern felt when compared to the feeling I got from watching the videos., and I was barely moving at 55 knots.

In order to get the full experience, we did one low pass over the ultralight field and did a full circle over the ultralight domain. Saw the sea of campers and parked airplanes, got the lay of the land…

We landed on the second pass, and immediately were approached by flight line personnel who were extremely helpful with information and assistance.

As I was parking Hummingbird, I noticed a yellow gyro zoom by, and later recognized Michael Trudell’s Magni M16. This was his third trip from California, and has been a great inspiration for my own adventures.
Soon after Niki linked up with Megy and her family, so I lost him in the crowd of aviation enthusiasts. I, myself, met with few old friends who are regular Oshkosh visitors, walked around the Ultralight booths, and really enjoyed the feeling “just being there”.

Later in the evening we all got together and really enjoyed the night air show – it is something to see.



I can confidently say, this was a very successful day of “airplane watching”…