AirVenture Isn't The Only Wisconsin Fly-In This Week
By ANN Contributor Christopher Armstrong
Consider it a warm-up, a chance to visit an intimate gathering
of pilots and enthusiasts before heading on to Oshkosh. Although
AirVenture 2004 is the big event of the week here in cheese
country, both the Tailwind and Brodhead fly-ins are held each year
the weekend before Oshkosh. Together, they provide a remarkable
contrast between your neighborhood aviation event and the biggest
air show in the world.
More than 20 Steve Wittman-designed aircraft were expected at
the Baraboo airport Tailwind fly-in. By Saturday night, 15 were
already on the field. That evening, more then 30 people had
arrived. Many of the attendees knew each other from previous
fly-ins, from reading each others emails and from reading articles
in the Tailwind Times, a paper mail-out that's now becoming an
online newsletter. Even before the Internet conversion is finished,
there are 300 subscribers to the traditional newsletter.
That's one of the things you notice about smaller events like
Baraboo. They're big enough to satisfy your eye candy addiction,
but small enough so you don't feel lost in the crowd. Instead of
people rushing about like ants (sorry, Klyde), there's time for
talk - stories that last more than five seconds.
The finished airplanes included Tailwinds, a Buttercup replica
and a one-of-a-kind custom four-place Tailwind derivative. A nearly
completed Tailwind project on display in a hangar at Baraboo was
the focal point for talks on building, customization and flying.
The group of about 30 people headed to a local restaurant for
dinner and more building and flying stories. A more formal banquet
was planned for Sunday evening.
The gathering at Brodhead was significantly larger, with several
hundred people arriving on Friday and Saturday in more then 50
planes of all types. They included more than 20 Pientenpol Air
Campers/Scouts. Many of the attendees camped at the airport
overnight in tents under the wings of their planes or beside their
cars or campers.
Several of the hangers at Brodhead are veritable aircraft
museums, packed with planes, engines and parts from the 1920's on.
A red hanger with PIETENPOL painted over the door contained three
finished planes and two projects under construction. Spruce spars
were being routed to size along one wall, ribs were being trimmed
to size in a corner, and a wooden fuselage for an Air Camper was
being laid out on a work table in the back. Every shelf contained
antique engines, props, and airplane components. A completed
Demoiselle replica was hanging from the ceiling over the other
planes and projects.
The heart of these "type fly-ins" is getting to know the people
who share an interest in one particular type of aircraft. At the
Tailwind gathering a family had driven up from Texas towing their
camper, stopping to learn about Tailwinds from builders. A
grandfather from Michigan shared details of his Tailwind project
with a Mazda Rotary engine installation. A builder who had
developed cowling, spinner and instrument panel molds had samples
of carbon fiber parts that he had available for sale for builders
to examine.
At Brodhead, William Wynne gave a forum on using the Corvair
engine in Pietenpols or other airplanes. His Corvair-powered Zenair
601XL flew up from Florida. A trucker from Mississippi drove in to
study Air Campers to see if it was the right project for him.
Around every plane there were discussions about some aircraft
component, a great flying story being told, or a construction
secret being reveled. Three planes seemed to be flying the pattern
constantly with no two quite the same. They were all very
interesting antiques and homebuilts powered by engines as diverse
as the Ford model-A, radials, Aeronca v-twins and 6 cylinder
Corvairs, so no two planes even sounded the same.
Many of the attendees at both these fly-ins stopped in on their
way to Airventure. The world's biggest fly-in, with 750,000
visitors and over 10,000 aircraft, is different from the small ones
primarily in the amazing variety of planes and activities
available. The vendors who are there to take advantage of the huge
concentration of aviation consumers. Starting at the south end of
the flight line, you have the ultralight and light planes flying
out of a grass runway. Moving north you next come to the vintage
antique and classics planes, followed by the Theater in the Woods
where nightly entertainment is available and awards are
presented.
With so much to see, do and buy at AirVenture, it would be easy
to overlook all the small gatherings of builders and flyers around
individual planes. They share flying stories, building and
restoring tips, and point out the unique features of thousands of
airplanes. Once you get under the wing of a plane, and start
talking to somebody from a thousand miles away, Oshkosh and the
smaller fly-ins can be hard to tell apart.