Each year has its own surprises and rewards. Each year is a new adventure. For the first time since EAA AirVenture has been working with us we utilized Runway 27.

As always, B2OSH was preceded by formation training sessions. Everyone was encouraged to participate both for initial and refresher training, currency being necessary for safe formation flying. Replacing GWO was an outstanding formation clinic at Grayson County, TX (F39) hosted by Wayne Collins and led by Mike Babler. Designed to bring pilots to the four ship formation level, rain unfortunately limited the practice to two ship training. The hallmarks of the clinic were the number of exceptionally well qualified safety pilots (a 1:1 ratio) and the wonderful sense of camaraderie and fun that balanced the stress of the training (see article by Larry Gaines in the June ABS Magazine).

Subsequent regional formation clinics were hosted by Paul Carroll and Elliott Schiffman at New Bedford, MA (EWB) - article by Phaedra Hise Hargis in the North East Bonanza Group Newsletter - and by Bob Flansburg and Larry Gaines at Redmond, OR (RDM).

Summer weather in the central part of the country can be unpredictable, but Saturday was a generally uneventful flight for most arrivals. Once again the rendezvous was at Rockford with a great hospitality room at HoJo - shrimp and cheese platters, snack foods, beer, wine and soft drinks running until 6:30. Following was a buffet dinner. While the food service left a lot to be desired, it did enable all the overnighters to spend quality time together. The meal was followed by a wonderful video and talk by "Bosco" Bostick, a former F15 Instrument Instructor and F16 Thunderbird pilot. Telling us that swept wing jets are capable of only two aerobatic maneuvers, loops and rolls, the various combinations of these maneuvers in formation was incredible. Little known, for example, was the constant shifting in position of the aircraft in diamond formation while doing a roll and loop so that the formation would always look perfect to the spectator from the changing perspective.

Sunday again was brutally hot and humid, but this time with clear skies and outstanding visibility, a welcome change from last year. While we had over 80 aircraft registered at one time, the last minute cancellations brought our final number down to the high 60's, the lowest number in the last few years.

Once again, Lt. Col. John "Weebs" Wiebener held a flight leader briefing at 11:00 a.m. followed by the noon briefing for the entire flight. As in our Letter of Agreement with the FAA (LOA), Weebs called OSH tower and was given the news that we needed to use Runway 27 because of unfavorable winds out of the southwest. This runway is not in our LOA, had never been used by us before, handles only two aircraft in formation (no taxiway to use as a third runway), so we had never planned for it. This gave Weebs and the Tower Chief, Manne Torres, only ten minutes to come up with a game plan. The route was slightly revised and we spread the right wingman wider on base leg so that he would fall in behind lead turning final. Seemed reasonable.

Taxi and runway line up were uneventful. The flight was probably the least eventful in recent years except for one older Bonanza having difficulty maintaining 140 kts. catch-up speed. Uneventful, that is, until the last five minutes or so. What we failed to anticipate was the crowding that would occur squeezing 40 odd elements into the space previously occupied by half that number. Yes, there were some "S" turns on final and more than a little stress for some of the elements, but we had only one go-around and all landed safely. Obviously we will have a better game plan and LOA for runways 9/27 next year.

Heat and humidity remained brutal at OSH. Many had difficulty working on their tents for more than ten minutes at a time before resting in the shade under the wing with a cool one. Thunderstorms that night were followed by cool, fall like weather the rest of the week, a welcome relief.