If It Can Fly It's Probably Landing Here Now

Two gleaming Citations sit on the ramp, waiting for tugs to bring them to Cessna's display. Next in line, a Bonanza sits, baking on the tarmac. Behind them, the extreme far end of general aviation: an Extra 300LP. This is a popular arrival time at Oshkosh, and for pilots and planes that can only mean two things: hurry up, and wait.

Out Along The Runway...

The pilots landing are battling a stiff crosswind. Factor in the often-abbreviated patterns, the unusual ATC procedure, and the wide range of machine performance, and now throw in the varied skill levels of the pilots, and there was quite a show. The 99-degree heat sapped airplane performance, too. Some of the landings were beautiful, but some ran to the other extreme. And there was no shortage of volunteer landing critics on hand.

"Jeebers, look at that guy," someone said as a Cessna rocked out of a hard left base to final turn and then banked hard right to correct for a crosswind. Then back to the left again -- he overcorrected. Down along the runway he went oscillating wildly from left to right till he finally was out of runway and options, and went around. "That's his third time." For the Cessna pilot, fourth time was lucky; he had it all together, his crosswind correction was just right, and his tires kissed the runway like a tentative father kissing his firstborn. Down, safe.

There was no time to dwell onthe travails of the Cessna, for the next plane was upon us, a Diamond DA-42tdi, which displayed the type's (and it's pilot's) short-field chops. He had to make the same hard turn as the Cessna, and the Diamond has those long, slender wings. Not what you want to be thinking about close to the ground: is my wingtip reaching out for terra firma? If the pilot was thinking about it, he didn't let it rattle him. The Diamond smoothly rolled level, and thumped onto the runway with Austrian solidity. "Oh, he's a pro," one of the critics said, and others agreed.

Prangs, And Rumors Of Prangs

A truck towed a damaged airplane by, a forlorn derelict. The red plane's belly rested on the trailer, and the cowling area betrayed evidence of impact. "I saw that RV go in," a pilot said, shaking his head. "He stalled in from about 70 feet. He got out OK but the plane's gotta be a mess." We snapped a picture of the unfortunate "RV" going by; when we looked at the picture later, the unlucky plane was a George Pereira GP-4: the elegant triangular tail of the wooden speedster is a give-away.

Aero-News has learned that the owner and pilot of the GP-4 was Jim Simmons of Cheshire, Connecticut. His wife Betty was with him; they both escaped unhurt, but the machine is substantially damaged. A member of a GP-4 chat group reported a telephone call from Simmons, in which he said he stalled the airplane at about 300 feet on his base to final turn. He started recovering with full power at the first sign of the stall, but wasn't quite able to recover in the altitude he had.

"He wanted everyone to know he considers the mishap to be his fault and not a problem with the aircraft or the design," the message posted to the GP-4 Builders And Pilots Group said. Simmons has hull insurance on the aircraft, a relative rarity in the experimental world.

There were rumors of several other prangs, but the thread in common was this: like Jim and Betty Simmons, all the souls on board, are still on board their unhurt, mortal bodies. Losing an airplane is sad, especially one that you poured heart and soul and thousands of hours of labor into. But as Christian Kerr, one of the pilots of the unique Dornier 24-ATT, told us, when we asked him about flying a unique and irreplaceable airplane, "It's only a machine... every I've flown with passengers I've carried something unique and irreplaceable." He has a point. It might be hard or costly, even heartbreaking, to have to replace a machine, but it's possible.

And The Beat Goes On

While we were watching the sad promenade of Simmons's GP-4, more airplanes arrived. Do you celebrate diversity? If so, Oshkosh is the place to be. The Citations had been towed away but the small traffic jam of new arrivals included a B-25 (or perhaps I should say PBJ, because the Commemorative Air Force has the plane painted in an attractive Marine Corps blue scheme), a pair of Tecnam Light Sport Aircraft, and a jaunty red and white Zenith CH601. Overhead, the Griffon Lionheart prototype, in its unmistakably bright Ford Mustang yellow finish, maneuvered for landing. (You can tell a Lionheart from a Beech Staggerwing several ways, but the easiest is the absence of interplane struts. Watch Aero-News this week for more Lionheart news!)

As we leave, four or five planes are cooking in the summer heat, waiting for a tow. Hard-working volunteers, ranging from people who look like they might still be eligible for Young Eagles to some very old eagles indeed, are marshalling them carefully and systematically. Out on the runway, more planes are landing. And somewhere here, Jim Simmons is waiting for news from his insurance company.

Welcome to Oshkosh. Welcome to Airventure 2005.

FMI: www.airventure.org