A Journey Thru The Waupaca Land to EAA City

It was one of those last minute planned trips that usually work out to be the best. Thursday morning March 11 came with the hum of Dean Turners Adventura to the Merrill Airport. A brisk 12° welcomed Dean to the area. I understand it was in the single digits as Dean departed Lake Nokomis. Dean taxied up and warmed up as I finished my preflight. We were shortly airborne to Wausau to meet up with the rest of our squadron. We had Paul Buss and Shnowske in the Avid, along with Helmut Jungermann in his Challenger, Dean Turner with his Adventura and myself with the Mini Max.
The wheels were up out of Wausau at 8:45 am with a nice send off by Dan Marlenga wishing us all a good flight! The weather was great with clear skies and light northeasterly winds. Our first stop was for fuel and a brief warm up in Waupaca. When we were fueled and warmed up it was wheels up again at 9:45 for Oshkosh. Our game plan was to form a group so that Wittman field would take us as one flight for easy arrival procedures. Lake Poygan came into view with a small 4 acre hole of open water. Dean just couldn't’t resist taking a closer look with his Adventura Amphip plane. When Dean had his fill of float dipping in liquid H2O we all formed a single file formation for our final destination - Oshkosh. Oshkosh tower was called and instructed our four planes to call a 1 ½ mile final for runway 04. As we taxied up to Basler’s FBO the manager called the lineman for wheel chocks and tie downs. We were amazed at how friendly and accommodating Baslers were. Before the door of the office closed as we walked into the building, the manager of the FBO greeted us with a warm and friendly "Hello" and "How can we help you fellows?". I explained that we were here for a few hours to see the EAA Museum, but did not have any ground transportation. Since the noon hour was approaching the manager suggested lunch, so off we went to Friar Tucks with the Line Man courtesy shuttle taking the five of us. The manager also made sure we had the phone number of Baslers in case we had any problems, as well as the phone number for the EAA Museum bus which would pick us up after finishing lunch. At this point we were feeling right up there with the big boys. As we finished lunch the waitress was kind enough to call the museum shuttle for us. When we arrived at the museum, Timm Bogenhagen, program administrator for government programs, heard of our arrival. Timm took the time out of his lunch hour to give us an unexpected Behind the Scenes tour of the EAA and all of their offices including Tom’s. Yes, Tom Poberenzy. We also were introduced to Troy Toelle of EAA Chapters and Mary Jones, Editor of EAA’s Experimenter Magazine. Mary and Timm mentioned to let them know when we were ready to leave the museum because they would give us a personal ride back to Baslers along with a brief photo shoot. See Aprils Experimenter for details. As we left the museum with a few souvenirs, Timm and Mary gave us all a ride back to Baslers as promised. Mary shot a few pictures and they both saw us off with our northwest departure for home.
The weather was still perfect, light northeast winds and clear skies. Our return home pit stop would be Waupaca for more fuel and off to Wausau we were, along with final destinations of Merrill for Steve and Lake Nokomis for Dean. The short trip ended up to be a great one; one of those that your put a star next to in your log book. The trip had all the right ingredients, warm welcomes at Waupaca and Wittman Airports, an unexpected personally guided tour of the EAA offices with Timm Bogenhagen, nice visits with Mary Jones and Troy Tohle, great weather, good lunch, and great camaraderie with fellow friends and pilots! It was one of those days that went too fast for our slow airplanes. Thank you Timm, Mary and Troy for the great day!
Paul Buss, Helmut Jungermann, Steve Krueger, Jim Shnowske and Dean Turner.