Day 39 - Harbor Springs to Green Bay

Tony Cacciarelli • Jul 23, 2020

Making my way to

Oshkosh - July 23, 2019

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Ready to go

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Some light cloud surfing

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Triple-digit ground speed in an ICON A5!!

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Cubs on parade

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Hotel right next to Lambeau Field

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Original Instagram Post

I was a little delayed getting out of Harbor Springs. There were some showers and clouds that came through in the early morning and outstayed their welcome.

Once I was on my way there were some lingering clouds that I climbed over as I passed Beaver Island and after I got across Lake Michigan and into Wisconsin I was able to drop back down and stay under the clouds. I also caught a great tail wind and was doing over 100 knots ground speed, which is about 120 mph. Nice change from all the headwinds and 55 knot ground speeds I've been hitting!

At one point I saw a whole cluster of planes on the nav display. Turned out to be a flight of 12 Piper Cubs that were flying from Oshkosh up to a small airport for a picnic lunch. I was tempted to just merge in with them. Maybe they wouldn't notice I wasn't a Cub?

Shortly after that I did have to make an emergency stop at Cherryland airport. Not because of anything with the plane. I had to use the bathroom. 😊

Made the quick pit stop and flew the last 30 minutes to Green Bay airport.

There wasn't a lot of traffic going into Green Bay, so the whole approach and landing were straightforward. Picked up a rental car and got checked into my hotel right next to Lambeau Field. I'm also now on Central Daylight Time, so I got to set my watch back an hour closer to my home time zone.

Had a nice dinner with some ICON folks and tomorrow I'll fly down to the seaplane base and check out the show!

😀👍🏼

This was the first day where I had a consistent tailwind that was strong enough to make a real difference in my flying time. Most days I seemed to have a headwind that was slowing me down, so it was good to feel like I was really moving.

I also liked seeing the group of Piper Cubs flying together. That gave me my first taste of what Oshkosh might be like.

One question I get asked is what if I had to go to the bathroom while flying. I'd considered this and did a few dry runs a while back (pun intended).

Bottom line is the configuration of the seats in the A5 made any sort of...maneuver...pretty much impossible. Plus, I still had to keep flying the plane.

This day was the first time I'd run into this situation, but I was able to quickly find an airport along the way and take care of business. Another great reason to have lots of small airports!!

My hotel in Green Bay was one of the few that I booked in advance. I'd tried to book a hotel in Oshkosh earlier in the year, but those were either sold out months in advance or going for astronomical rates. So, I decided to stay in Green Bay and fly down to the show.

I wanted to choose Marriott properties whenever possible, since I have rewards with them, but in smaller towns I'd have to go with whatever was available.

Since my plans could change at any time, I ended up not booking hotels in advance. I had already eaten the cost of one hotel room when I wasn't able to go to Austin as planned, so I decided to just deal with it as I went along. It's a risk, but worst case I could always sleep in the plane.

But, this room was booked in advance since I knew I would be stopping for Oshkosh. My rewards paid off and got a great upgrade on my hotel room. I'm not too picky, but it was a nice change from some of the placed I'd been staying.

I'd made arrangements to meet up with some folks from ICON for dinner. It was great catching up with people I already knew and meeting some new ones as well.

Full disclosure, ICON did provide some sponsorship funds to help with my trip, which I was incredibly grateful for. But even if they hadn't I've been very happy with the company and their ongoing owner support. Plus, they're just fun people to hang out with.