"Around the Field" at the 1998 Oshkosh Fly-in, AirVenture 002

Here is an excerpt from Volume One of "Around the Field: The stories of the people places and planes of the Oshkosh Fly-in". Excerpt from Tuesday July 28, 1998.

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Serious bragging rights are involved here. Karen Seamans' brown & white 172 is parked in row three. "There was one other plane here when I arrived, but it left for awhile, so I'm claiming #1," she says, smiling.

Karen lives on the field at Seamans Airport in northeast Pennsylvania. The airport was built in 1946 by her husband who was a long time Oshkosh attendee until his death last summer. Karen, who is a 5th grade teacher and CFI, is back at the convention this year with a friend who she is introducing to aviation. "I think his eyes will pop out when he see all this," she says.

On Sunday Karen bought a bicycle at the Walmart. "I couldn't get a rental car, so I got this instead." She's trying to figure out how to get it into the baggage space of her plane. "If I take off the front wheel it will fit. You think?"

George is a retired forestry worker. He flew his 32 year old Cessna 150 to EAA AirVenture Oshkosh from his home in Pelahatchie, Mississippi. This is the ninth year George has flown the 150 to the convention. He has attended the fly-in every year since 1975, except for '83 when a family emergency kept him away.

Flying the little red and white 150, which George says, "is really just a single place aircraft," to aviation events is nothing new to him. "I take it to fly-ins all over the country."

Steve McNall had a spray bottle of cleanser and was scrubbing the cowling of his beautiful, blue & white RV6. His was one of the first two planes to arrive in the parking area near the new north taxiway. He arrived early to the fly-in this year, on Saturday, to lend a hand as a volunteer.

He took three days to fly the RV from his home in Ramona, California, near San Diego. On Thursday he only made it as far as Arizona, where he stopped to wait out some weather. On Friday he reached Nebraska which left him a quick three hour hop to Oshkosh. "A lot of bugs," he says while lovingly scrubbing the plane. "It musta been 'cause I was flying so low over Iowa. If I'd have been higher there'd have been fewer bugs."

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Learn more about Volume One of "Around the Field: The stories of the people places and planes of the Oshkosh Fly-in" and other books about AirVenture, the Oshkosh Fly-in here.

General Aviation, Flying, Airplanes, EAA, Experimental Aircraft Association, Wittman Field