Each year, the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) hosts a fly-in event in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, called “Airventure”, but those who’ve attended for many years simply call it “Oshkosh”.  Mention “Oshkosh” to any pilot or any flying enthusiast and they’ll likely know of this fantastic event.  It is a gathering of vintage, homebuilt, military (active and historical), commercial, business, ultralight, helicopter, modern, and future aircraft -- all in flying condition!  There are airshows every day, vendors of all kinds, seminars on many subjects, and airplanes as far as the eye can see.  Approximately 11,000 airplaines fly in and around 600,000 people attend.  For this one week, the Oshkosh airport is the busiest airport in the world.  Given my love of flying, this is one of the greatest experiences I know!  But as much fun as it is, it’s also not without its risks.

My Dad and I attended Oshkosh last year and had an absolutely great experience.  Getting there is half the fun because we get together with friends to fly in formation on the way to Oshkosh and also to arrive together at Oshkosh so we can all park together.  The group is called “Bonanzas to Oshkosh” (B2OSH) and is made up of mainly Beechcraft Bonanza and Baron types of airplanes.  We had a crazy experience with 148 other airplanes for the B2OSH arrival last year, but that’s another story…

This year, we planned to fly to Oshkosh again and join the “mass arrival” with the B2OSH crowd.  Around 135 airplanes were signed up, so it promised to be a fun time with old and new friends.  At our first refueling point, we met up in Rock Springs, Wyoming, with eight other B2OSH airplanes. The group included the Brown family: Damon, Sarah, and their son, Duncan in their twin-engine Beechcraft Baron N8910U.  We got to know them last year and learned that Sarah’s side of their family is also a distant cousin to me!

We flew right wing formation with the Brown’s Baron from Wyoming to Nebraska, where we stayed overnight, then on to Rockford, Illinois, where all the B2OSH airplanes gather before making the mass arrival to Oshkosh.  One really neat moment was when we were flying over the unpopulated countryside of Wyoming, one person in our flight asked Sarah to describe what we were seeing below.  Sarah is a Ph.D. geologist (and her husband is too) and she’s authored 12 murder/mystery books with a geologist as her main character.  Sarah described in great detail what kinds of rock, sand, and prehistoric lake formations we were seeing as we flew along. Even on my summer vacation, I was getting a college-level lecture on geology while flying along at 11,500 feet!  It was amazing to see the landscape below with new understanding of why it looks the way it does.

All 135 planes arrived in Rockford, Illinois, with a fun party and breakfast the next day.  We attended a briefing where we were told that due to weather concerns, the flight would be delayed until the afternoon.  We waited for around four hours talking with our new friends and having fun talking with Duncan -- he’s 25 years old and a great friend who is always smiling and laughing.  All pilots and crew were called back into the briefing room to be told that the weather wasn’t going to work for our mass arrival flight.  We were on our own to make plans.

We ended up flying in on Monday to Oshkosh along with so many other airplanes on the famed “Ripon/Fisk” arrival which is the “road in the sky” that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) designs for the arrival of all those 11,000 airplanes.  

After landing, we set up camp right next to our airplane on the grass and spent the week exploring and walking until our feet were almost numb.  Just like last year, we didn’t come close to seeing it all in just one week.

People attending Oshkosh are free to come and go according to their own schedules.  The Browns had decided to head back home to Santa Rosa, California, on Thursday, July 25th.  Thursday afternoon, my dad and I were talking with some friends and overheard someone else talking about the Browns.  It was only then that we learned that their plane had gone down in Nebraska near the airport where they intended to refuel on the way home.  They had all died in the crash.

We could not believe this news, but it was confirmed by local Nebraska news sources.  Days later, the National Transportation and Safety Board (the NTSB: they investigate airplane, train, and commercial truck accidents) released their preliminary findings for this accident saying that no fuel was found in the fuel tanks and a witness on the ground heard the engines “sputtering” just before the crash.  It appears that they ran out of gas just short of landing at the airport and did not have enough power for a controlled and survivable off-airport landing.  

Damon, Sarah, and Duncan were a flying family; they all had their pilot’s licenses.  Damon (the father) was known to be very detailed and careful about flying.  Many heartbreaking conversations among our flying group of friends centered on the struggle to understand how they could have possibly departed Oshkosh without enough fuel (they even ordered 28 gallons of gas there before their flight).  They should have had enough fuel to fly over 800 miles, and this leg of their flight was only around 630 miles.  There are many additional details about this tragedy that we cannot understand.  The final determination of the crash should be published by the NTSB next July or August.  

My heart has a hole where I especially miss Sarah and Duncan.  I didn’t know Duncan’s dad Damon very well, but Sarah had promised to do some crossword puzzles with me, and Duncan was always so nice to me.  I’m sad that they’re gone and miss them.

My dad and I left Oshkosh on Friday morning on our way to Albuquerque, New Mexico. Then we flew back home to Oregon after spending a few days with my grandpa in Albuquerque.  On one of our legs toward Albuquerque, we had completely clear skies as far as the eye could see; not a cloud in the sky for 300 miles in any direction.  Then, out of nowhere, a series of long, thin clouds appeared right in our flight path.  We had talked with Sarah about these kinds of wave-based cloud formations earlier in the week.  There was absolutely no reason for those clouds to be right where they were.  My dad and I agreed that this was Sarah saying hello to us from the other side.  

Flying is one of the greatest and most exhilarating challenges I know.  I love the freedom, views, experiences, adventures, and even the planning that goes into a cross-country flight.  But I now understand more about the risks of such an adventure.  We do everything we can to prevent accidents through our planning and attention to all the details, but “gravity always wins” my dad often says.  Pilots learn from the mistakes of others -- my dad and I now take a little more time and opportunity to review our fuel planning for any flight, even just a local lunch run.  

The Browns have “gone West” into the sunset and across the horizon, and we wish them good tailwinds and clear skies for their journey.