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.

FMI: www.airventure.org