States Visited So Far FLORIDA MISSISSIPPI ALABAMA LOUISIANA TEXAS OKLAHOMA MISSOURI ARKANSAS KANSAS NEBRASKA IOWA SOUTH - DAKOTA MINNESOTA NORTH- DAKOTA WISCONSIN [ILLINOIS INDIANA MICHIGAN OHIO PENNSYLVANIA NEW YORK]

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After an uneventful journey I covered the trip to Oconomowoc in under two hours. I had been sent an invite and the coordinates by email from Scott Jaeger, a local Trike flyer. (The position of private fields is not covered on my database). The field just outside the town was about 30 miles to the west of Milwaukee. The surrounding area was covered in lakes of all sizes and was pretty impressive countryside from the air.

Down below was deserted except for a pair of radio control flyers relaxing in the sun. I circled and landed; they immediately introduced themselves as retired flying nuts and Chuck, the taller one, piled me into his car and took me up the road to phone Scott Jaeger.

Scott had arranged with Bob the owner for me to camp and rest up a few days until the Oshkosh fly-in. Oshkosh lay 65 miles to the North and hosts the biggest general aviation meeting in the world. Thousands of aircraft fly in from all over the USA and other parts of the world, and is so big an internal bus service runs throughout the show to ferry the visitors around. I had been invited to fly in and give a talk about my journey. LEFT: Chuck, Larry, me, Bob and Young Joel

Bob arrived soon after to welcome me and immediately pointed to an empty caravan /trailer alongside a hanger, his children used it and Bob invited me to use it instead of my tent during my stay. There was a hose pipe outside for washing and a toilet nearby, ideal! I later struck a deal with Bobs young son Joel I took him flying and he loaned me his pedal bike and tiny motor bike, this way I was able to follow the one mile track around the corn fields to the farmhouse to take the occasional hot shower and phone home.

My Home from Home

In the hanger next door was Larry Rather's plane and he had the hanger fitted out with a fridge [which just happened to be full of beer] together with a pizza cooker and an old TV set. During my stay I shared this with a group of chipmunks and a mouse family who didn't seem to care whether I was there or not and took it in turns to raid a huge packet of chips [crisps] and carry them triumphantly away right in front of me. At night in the caravan was no different and I was often woken in the early hours of the morning by them all fighting over my All Bran and Raisin breakfast cereal. The worst problem was the mosquitoes. I have never known any so persistent, death is the only way to stop them. (Yours or theirs? - ed). Even spraying your skin isn't a guarantee - miss a small patch and they find it, these little devils even bite through clothes. To offset them though are the magical fireflies which appear by the thousands for a few hours at dusk and look like Christmas fairy lights flashing away to each other. They are totally harmless.

Larry, my hanger host, is a Corvette fan and had just retired. This gave him lots of time to drive around in his veteran open top sports car and also invent a new type of Pizza cutter of which he was justifiably proud. Meanwhile Rick Saenz arrived to fly his newly acquired Quicksilver. Rick works for the famous Harley Davidson motor cycle company and one day arrived on a not yet released 2001 model he was testing. Before flying off for the day he waved at the machine and invited me to try it out in his absence so, needing no second invitation, I got Bob to film me while I posed up and down the grass runways like a kid with a new toy.

They Both Fly!

During my stay I went into Milwaukee with Rick and Bob and visited the Miller beer plant and the Harley Davidson factory. Both were very impressive, especially the Miller tour where free beer was handed out at the end. Harley were too mean to hand out free motorbikes, but I did get a T shirt signed by Mr Davidson especially for me. Harley invited me to fly into their annual rally in York Pennsylvania but I had to decline because it was only a few days before I was due to leave Florida for England.

Scott, Dean and Randy

I had not met many Trikers at all on this journey and here at Bobs field I got together with Scott ,Dean, James and Randy[who flies a British Trike]. Trikes are few in the USA, the majority being fixed wing machines, whereas in the UK it is the opposite with the vast majority being WeightshiftTrikes. Scott and James hangered at Bobs field and Randy and Dean had their own strip alongside their home a few miles away. Rick also had his own strip outside his house up on a hill which looked like a rollercoaster from the air and felt even worse when I landed one day, hitting a mound halfway down the strip [the top of the hill] and being launched back into the air to return to the earth with a bang; thank goodness for Mainair suspension.

One hazard for pilots and drivers here is deer wandering into the wrong areas. They can do a lot of damage to the paintwork or even kill the pilot or driver. They are hunted as a way of life and the licence is easy to obtain, but usually only one kill per person . I met one family, who asked to stay anonymous, who had rescued a tiny fawn from a swamp. They had contacted the animal welfare people who were not interested and told them to leave it to die. Here it is ok to kill them but is illegal to help them; this family, at their own expense, took the fawn to a vet who saved its life and would only take cash as payment so that there was no record of him breaking the law. If a deer is hit and injured or killed by a car the driver must inform the authorities, and if he wants the meat, he has to skin it and remove the head in front of the police before taking the carcass home. A roadside abandoned deer carcass is pretty common in Wisconsin. The fawn now has the name Buckie and lives with the families cats and dogs in the barn and kitchen, it is very strange to see him climb in and out of the cat flap long legs first.

Soon it was time to head off to Oshkosh, 65 miles back to the north. I flew in early one morning following the highways as instructed and dropping down to 300 feet five miles out. During this show period this area has the busiest air traffic in the world, often landing 3 aircraft side by side on the same runway. I quickly taxied off the runway and found a camping spot before looking around. The Ultralight section is a very small part of this incredibly massive show, there are areas for just about every type of aircraft ever dreamed up, all lined up, thousands of them. This was much bigger than Sun n Fun where I started my trip.

The next day I was given the place of honour alongside the HQ and the seminar tent and at 2.30 stood up and gave my speech. I didn't notice anybody sneaking away, but I caught one lady fast asleep sitting up in her chair; at least I couldn't hear her snoring over the display aircraft noise outside.

After 3 days of walking miles checking out the hundreds of exhibitions and sales stands I was ready to fly on but by now the weather had closed in. The next day the boss of “Warp Drive Propellers” Dale, and his Sales Manager Darrel, helped me adjust my prop to a higher more efficient setting. I wont use anything but Warp props they are made of carbon fibre, in the USA ,and are as trouble free as is possible to get. Of all the Ultralight Propellers I have seen and used they will take the most punishment.

The weather continued to give problems for a few more days until finally the wind died enough for me to get airborne and leave the area, heading back towards Oconomowoc before proceeding on south to Chicago then east to a friends wedding in New York state. The next night back at Bobs field we had a BBQ and I said my good-byes to a great crowd of people and the next morning at 6am, Bob, Wendy his wife, and the family together with Rick , arrived to see me off.