Bill Crawford’s Flightlab Blog

It was a Tuesday morning at AirVenture, this past hot July. More specifically, it was Ben Bailey’s birthday. Ben, his wife Michelle, and I had flown out three days earlier in their Cirrus. We’d launched from Plymouth in the soup, dodged the red blotches on the miraculous radar downlink, and ended up, one pit-stop later, well ahead of sunset at Menominee, Michigan, just north of the Wisconsin border. Next day we drove down to Appleton and the comfortable Raddison Hotel. On previous AirVenture trips I’ve always stayed at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh dorms, world famous for threadbare towels, scratchy sheets, and zero cross ventilation. This life was better.
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