Well, we made it back from Oshkosh, and what a trip it was! If you ever get the chance to take it in, I highly recommend it.

The trip itself was great, as we flew over some very interesting terrain both on the way down and on the way back. The weather was good on the way down with no deviations from the planned route. Although the trip back did see some changes in plans due to weather, we made it down and back in 2 1/2 days each way. We flew for 26 hours on the return, with a little more on the way back and a little less on the way down. Our group consisted of 5 planes and 8 people, with all but one from our club.

Oshkosh itself is the Mecca of aviation for this 7-day event, and you’ll see anything and everything to do with aviation there. It is truly a sight to see.

Traveling to an event like this in a group is certainly the way to go if you can. It made the trip very enjoyable and took the pressure off when trying to make decisions on things like weather. Ken Beanlands’ experience on this trip was a great help to those of us who hadn’t made a trip like this before. Everything from border crossings to understanding the Oshkosh NOTAM was made easier by his experience.

After flying for 13 years, I finally had the pleasure of receiving my first ramp check. It was after landing in Lethbridge from Havre, Montana, on Sunday, August 3rd. We were in the customs box, and I was preparing for that procedure when a Transport Canada inspector informed me I was about to be checked. I finished the customs deal and then proceeded to go through the ramp check. They are actually no big deal if all your paperwork is in order. I would certainly encourage you to take the time to check that all your documents are in order and available for inspection. The inspector was quite friendly, although very thorough. We’ll attempt to put together a presentation for a future meeting both for this topic and our experiences at Oshkosh.

I would like to thank Ed Wozniak for offering to sell the club a used laptop in great condition for a very reasonable price. Ed has also donated a projection screen to the club; thanks for that, Ed!

Guy Christie has stepped down as the Website Administrator due to time constraints. I would like to thank Guy for all of his hard work and the time it took to get the site to where it is today. Ed D’Antoni has offered to take on the role of administrator and will be continuing on where Guy left off; thanks for that, Ed.

Gordon Hill, retired fighter pilot, will be speaking at the September meeting, so plan on attending. I’m certain it will be a fun evening.

There is still a lot of summer fly-ins going on, including the Lethbridge Sport Flyers Breakfast on September 6th. I hope to see you out and about enjoying the summer flying season.

See you soon!