Oshkosh! Nebraska

OKS

6/22/03

(The usual drill - click on the "thumbs" for full size pictures.)

Sorry to disappoint if you were expecting experimentals, acrobatics, warbirds, aviation vendors and waves of general aviation planes.   This is the "other" Oshkosh located in the Nebraska panhandle about 1.3 hours from Boulder.   According to the Oshkosh website, the town was founded by people from the original Oshkosh.  No mention was made if they were trying to escape the annual hordes of people descending on their small town.  Well, they managed to establish a much smaller town - not many airplanes, no children's clothing company but an airport that is literally right next to the town streets.

It was a warm, sunny day but hazy.   The Hairballs decided to sit still for 30 seconds in a pose in front of '65T after preflight was complete.  The flight took us out over the plains which are green from all the rain we've been having.  It's a nice change from this time last year when it was hot, dry and wildfires were burning all over the state.  We tracked to the Gill VOR,  then Sidney VOR and then into Oshkosh.   Like I said, it was a hazy day as you can see from my pic of the South Platte river as we approached Greeley. 

Sidney, NE was hopping, as it usually is on any nice week-end day, with lots of people flying in to hop the shuttle to Cabela's.  If you're flying in the vicinity it's a good idea to monitor 122.8 to try and get a fix on everyone coming and going.   Nebraska takes a lot of grief for being flat and there is a lot of farmland,  but at least in Western Nebraska it's not unusual to run into interesting topographic features such as ridges, buttes and small canyons.

The airport literally sits directly adjacent to the town with a cafe just across the highway.  As usual,  we didn't eat there but it did appear busy.  That could be because it's the only game within a 20 mile radius, it's very good or both.