Date: Tuesday, July 31, 2001, 10:23:34 AM Subject: Flight back from OSH Howdy y'all, We are back in Scottsdale, AZ, departing to Santa Barbara today, after having flown from OSH, with landings at Clarinda, IA (KICL), Buffalo, OK (KBFK), Woodward, OK (KWWR), Las Vegas, NM (KLVS), and KSDL. The flight from OSH to ICL was mostly at 1500 to 2000 ft. AGL because of low-lying clouds. No T-storms, just low clouds. It was a very pleasant flight: because of the low level, we had excellent, close views of the farms underneath us, with their red barns, while silos, and the surrounding green corn and soybean fields. We overnighted in Clarinda, with friends of my wife's family, and were treated very well; we even got to enjoy a country fair. Our departure the next day was delayed some because the clouds were at 600 to 900 ft. AGL; only after they rose to about 1500 ft. AGL were we able to depart. Flying SW, the clouds gradually rose, and became more sparse, and we were able to climb up through a large blue-sky hole. The rest of this leg, all the way to Buffalo, OK was at 6500 ft., in sunshine, with clouds below us becoming more sparse and eventually disappearing, but with increasing amounts of headwind, the closer we got to Oklahoma. The GNS530/430 has an AUX page on which the current winds, TAS, and density altitude are computed, based on input parameters which the unit defaults to the current or most recent values -- only the barometer value must be updated manually. During our flight, I use that page fairly often; I even use it to get very accurate winds on base and final to landings. Access to that particular AUX page requires a two-click twist of the big knob, a two-click twist of the little dial, and an "enter". Since I use it so much, it occurred to me that one of the panel buttons should be configurable as a "soft button", allowing the user to jump to a favorite page or two. Perhaps I'll send this off to Garmin as a suggestion for improvement. We spent a couple of nights on the farm near Buffalo, OK. I gave our friends a sight-seeing flight of their wheatfields, pastures, and farm house property. One surprise was that there were so many ponds of water -- from the ground, they are not very evident and the area seems very dry. We departed to Woodward, OK for refueling. The folks there, D&D Aviation, are very prompt and offer a good service. They provide jet fuel service, too. Apparently, some large companies are starting to use WWR as a depot for their jet flights and business is picking up. There is a plan being discussed to extend and/or increase the available runways for even larger jets. Leaving WWR, we then flew to LVS, flying at 8500 ft. There was no weather to speak of, though beyond LVS, at Albequerque (ABQ) there was a huge T-storm buildup. Approaching LVS became very interesting: as we approached and declared our intentions at 10 nm., an experimental plane was on final, and a couple of Albatross L-39's were approaching from the NE in a "critical fuel" situation; so we gave way to them. Then, as we were on base to rwy 17, a Challenger called in at 10 nm. so we made sure to keep our airspeed up and "expedite" our taxi off the runway. As we secured, deplaned, and waited to talk to the lineman, the Challenger landed and taxied in. Imagine this sight at Las Vegas, NM (a little, podunk of an airport, without even a soda or vending machine): an experimental plane (I don't know what kind) tying down before the storm hits, two L-39s sitting, waiting for a partial refueling, a Piper Cherokee 6 waiting for a full refueling, and a Challenger 604 idling, while their crew hands off some documents, boxes and other stuff to the local company man. It turns out that the two jets were returning to Deer Valley from Oshkosh, but had to make lots of little stops since they were flying around storms, and needed long runways to depart with full fuel, so were departing with only partial refuelings. We refueled and departed, and struggled to climb out at density altitude of about 8000 ft.; the actual altitude at LVS is something like 6100 ft. We climbed up to 10,500 ft. and watched our WX500 display very closely, since there were huge T-storm buildups around ABQ and NE of the Phoenix metro area. If we followed our GPS-direct plan, we would have been flying straight through some T-storms. After checking in with the FSS, we decide to fly due west or even a little north of west, and then head for Winslow. There was a very strong rainshower that we flew through, after which we had some down and then upwinds. The upwinds were fun, but the downwinds were scary, especially when the plane is in a full climb just to maintain altitude. After the rainshower, we turn left towards Payson, and are in a 10-20 mile gap between the T-storms. From there, it's clear sailing, though we have to drop below 8500 to remain below the clouds. In a few hours, we'll start our remaining leg home to SBA. We just have to wait so that three hours after our departure from SDL, we arrive at SBA with the marine layer clouds having moved offshore. This usually occurs somewhere around noon, during late summer. This Oshkosh trip was great! The trip was made more manageable for our family by having several stops along the way, where we get to visit with friends and relatives. The things I did not like about OSH was the lack of shuttles for Saturday and Sunday, and even after they supposedly started up the shuttles on Monday, the north-to-south shuttles were very irregular and hard to catch on any kind of timely basis. On the other hand, I really enjoyed getting to see all the different kinds of planes, especially all the homebuilts and kitplanes. I also enjoyed "window shopping" in the Exhibit halls. The boys liked seeing and hearing the P51's takeoff (loudest airplane they've heard), seeing the B1 bomber flybys, and seeing the C17 flyby (it's amazing to see such a huge plane maneuver). I bought a handheld Yaesu radio for my wife as my anniversary gift to her, for her use while she's finishing up her private pilot and beyond that. The Yaesu representative thought that this was like buying her a chainsaw for Christmas, until she spoke up and said that she's actually a student pilot and can really make use of it. As for the flying part, in conjunction with the GPS530/430 pair, the WX500 were indispensable for our flying safely around the T-storms for this entire Oshkosh trip. The S-Tec autopilot was also of tremendous value in reducing the effort of flying so many two and three hour legs. -- Best regards, Alan K. Stebbens , N4184R, PA32-300, SBA