In many ways, my AirVenture experience at Oshkosh this year was one of my best. On the day before the official opening of the show, I won a Garmin 496. It was during Garmin’s press conference where the new top-of-the-line GPSMAP was introduced. The contest was to guess closest to the number of handheld aviation GPS units Garmin has sold since it began selling them. The actual number is something more than 360,000. I was off by some 70,000 but closer than any of the other entries. Not a bad way to start an AirVenture.
And this year, I followed through on a promise and flew in to Oshkosh in my Cardinal and camped under its wing in the “North 40.” The camping went much better than I (or those who know me) expected. Even with a number of storms, including one that blew tents over and sent one cart wheeling down the row of parked airplanes, I stayed relatively dry. Camping with a “gaggle of 16” airplanes connected with Women Fly and sharing meals and entertainment made for an I’d-definitely-do-it-again experience.
