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Our Trip to Oshkosh

Gemini Sparkle

Key Takeaways:

  • The pilot embarked on a rushed flight of his experimental "Melmoth 2" to Oshkosh, immediately encountering challenges like a monsoon requiring improvised tiedowns and an inflight engine issue (failing magneto).
  • Throughout the journey, the pilot was repeatedly assisted by the unexpected kindness and generosity of the aviation community, including a lineman, a local pilot lending parts, and EAA mechanics.
  • Upon arrival at Oshkosh, minor mechanical issues resulting from the pilot's hasty pre-flight work were discovered and collaboratively repaired with expert assistance.
  • The 3,200 nm trip highlighted both the aircraft's experimental nature and the strong camaraderie in aviation, concluding with the somber news of the Hughes Racer replica's fatal crash.
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There was a long list of things that needed to be done to Melmoth 2 before leaving for Oshkosh. One was to get a coat of paint onto the airplane. This I barely managed to accomplish in time, using roller, brush and a marine paint formulated for sailboats being finished, I suppose, at the ends of Alaskan docks, remote from air compressors. This type of paint flows out amazingly smooth, as though sprayed, if you apply it just right. I managed to do so in some places and not in others, but the result didn’t look too bad, on the whole, if you stood far enough away.

I luckily found, as the day of departure approached, that I could delete things from the to-do list without actually doing them. This discovery sped my progress considerably.

Peter Garrison

Peter Garrison taught himself to use a slide rule and tin snips, built an airplane in his backyard, and flew it to Japan. He began contributing to FLYING in 1968, and he continues to share his columns, ""Technicalities"" and ""Aftermath,"" with FLYING readers.

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