Formation Flying

This is the chronicle of the genesis of Bonanzas to Oshkosh from its beginning in 1989 and the happenings along the way - mostly my recollections with a little research. An article on each flight appeared in the ABS Magazine (formerly Newsletter). I will refer to the month and year of each article if you desire more detail on each flight. I made all the flights except the last; a meeting of the prop on 50T and a taxi light at Rockford prevented my joining that flight. However I unloaded the camping gear from 50T, rented a car, drove to Oshkosh and camped with B2Osh IV, participating every year.

Through my years as a pilot I heard many good things about ‘Oshkosh’. I chose not to attend for two reasons: I did not want to go through the hassle of arrival as I perceived it, and I dislike crowds. ‘Oshkosh’ represented both to me: a hassle on arrival and huge crowds of people. Plus, except for my first year in the Boy Scouts, I never camped out.

In 1986 I met and became friends with Mike Ferguson, at the time Director of the Montana Department of Aeronautics. Mike completely changed my mind about ‘Oshkosh’. I joined EAA and made my first trip to ‘Oshkosh’ in 1987, staying in the Lake House of a local Rotarian. From that first experience I could see I desired to camp with my plane rather than miss the camaraderie enjoyed by associating with other pilots camped with their planes. In my ‘88 and ‘89 trips I found I was looking for other Bonanza pilots and where they were camped. In 1989, visiting with Sam James in the ABS tent, I asked why we could not work out something for Bonanza pilots to camp together. Sam thought it was a good idea, but I would have to work on it. He had not been successful getting Bonanza pilots to support a Bratwurst and Corn Roast at the Basler Hangar.

All camping sites at ‘Oshkosh’ (now AirVenture) are on a first come first served basis; the only way planes can park together is to arrive together. The first order of business was to plan a procedure to arrive together. Pilots would be arriving from various locations in the US. A central staging base near Oshkosh was needed: an airport near enough for a short flight but far enough away to allow a formation to come together; an airport with a nearby motel, good dinning facilities on the field, adequate parking space for aircraft planning to make the flight, an FBO willing to service the aircraft and an airport and tower that would welcome the flight.

Record keeping was simple in the first year. Original list of registrants.

Don Sturm, a Bonanza pilot from Valparaiso, Indiana suggested Rockford, Illinois as a location with all the facilities to be a perfect place to stage the flight. At the time we did not know how perfect the selection would prove to be. The flight grew to numbers never dreamed of originally.

At the ABS Annual Convention in Colorado Springs I posted a notice asking for interest. The notice had pull off tabs with information to contact me. Ten pilots opted to make the flight. A few cancelled, but two pilots from Germany asked to join us. We met the evening before departure at Rockford. We arranged a block of rooms at Howard Johnson’s for $39 and planned to dine at the St. James, a very fine restaurant in the Terminal Building. Having selected the staging airport, contact was attempted with ‘Oshkosh’ about a group flight arriving. We could obtain no answer to our request for information how a group of aircraft should or could arrive.

Nineteen people and 9 planes arrived in the evening prior to departure and a great time was had at the St. James. We departed as planned early the next morning to arrive at ‘Oshkosh’ as the airport opened. A story and pictures of that flight can be found in the January 1991 ABS Newsletter on the ABS CD. The interest from that article really started B2Osh as we know it today.

On returning to Mineola I again tried making contact with EAA about a group of Bonanzas arriving together so they might park together. Notice I said group, not formation, as we planned to land as single aircraft with the group arriving over Fisk and Ripon. With mail and phone calls to EAA I accomplished nothing. From the story in the ABS Newsletter I began to receive phone calls and faxes from ABS members desiring to join the flight in 1991. In the spring of 1991 none of us had email. Phone, mail and Fax were the methods of communication. By June of 1991 thirty-five planes had registered for the flight. The registration fee was five dollars. The planned dinner and briefing were in the lobby of the terminal and served by the St. James Restaurant.

We had 90 people signed up and to have that numbered catered I had to guarantee the number to the Restaurant. Weather became a factor. By the time of the diner 60 people were present. The details of how this finally was worked out are in the story of the flight in the ABS Newsletter of October 1991. We grew in one year from 19 people to 90 people and moving 90 people to the airport at 5 AM presented a radical change in transportation needs.

As in the first flight ‘Oshkosh’ had no idea we were arriving as a group. We never received a reply to our request how the tower would handle a group of airplanes arriving together. We tried every contact but could only receive an answer that gave the standard arrival route for single aircraft.. As we had no clearance to land other than single planes a plan was devised to fly in waves of 5 in left echelon and space as single planes on downwind and base and land as single aircraft on expected runway 27.

The departure at Rockford, the arrival over Fisk and Ripon went as planned. Flight lead was given clearance to land on 27. It was at that time the tower realized the flight was a group of 28 Bonanzas. We were given a change to right downwind 36. Flight Leader Hank Canterbury properly and promptly relayed the message over the group frequency, but lack of formation discipline and training was readily apparent. I was lead of the second group With good pilot awareness on the part of the entire group all landed on 36 and taxied to parking. I had contacted someone to be on the ground to assist in keeping the group together but communication with the volunteer ground handlers did not work well and still someway we managed to park as a group. B2Osh II was the real learning curve for our group and especially for the Oshkosh Tower and Ground Handlers. For more on B2Osh II see the article on page 2861, October 1991 issue of the ABS Newsletter.

On returning to Mineola I wrote Tom Poberezney concerning the safety of the manner in which ‘Oshkosh' had handled the group flight of 28. This time I received complete cooperation from ‘Oshkosh’. As planning started for B2Osh III, I received a detailed plan of arrival, go-a-rounds and runway changes. The plans used currently evolved from this first formal arrival procedure. This plan started our first formation flights using the three ship take-off and formation flight from Rockford to Oshkosh.

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