Places that we've camped with the RV-6A

2000: Washington Island,  Oshkosh
2001: Sun 'n Fun,  Watervliet,  Washington Island,  Oshkosh,  Abilene
2002: Sun 'n Fun,  Three Lakes,  Phillips,  Washington Island,  Oshkosh,  Iron Mountain
2003: Rebel's Bluff,  Rough River,  Washington Island,  Oshkosh,  Torchport,  Paullina,  Kentucky Dam
2004: Sun 'n Fun,  Phillips,  Washington Island,  Oshkosh,  Petit Jean, 

Note: Distances quoted are straight line from ETB, West Bend, Wisconsin.
Washington Island (2P2 129nm)
Somewhat uneven grass strip.
Camping by the plane during Fish Boil weekend.
No showers, but Lake Superior beach is about a mile.
Town is about 2 miles, with taxi service available.
There's a great all-you-can-eat perch fish fry at the Holiday Inn (that's a restaurant, not the hotel chain).

Oshkosh (OSH 39nm)
Usually, the 6A is with the other 200 RVs in the showplane area.
We camp with the Chapter 18 group under the trees in Paul's Wood.
Since it's only a 45 minute drive for us, Sue usually brings the car with more equipment than we can get into the RV.
In 2000 86CG was not painted. Removing the cowling always draws a crowd!

In 2004 we camped in the new home-built camping area, behind the rest of the RVs. It was a bit of a challenge finding somewhere to park the truck, but it worked out OK. Just before Osh, I attended the RV formation clinic at Mason City, Arriving at the show in a 12 ship formation was a thrill!
As you can see from the photo, we had some rain at Oshkosh in 2004.

Sun n Fun, Florida (LAL 972nm)
In 2001 we put the 6A with the other RVs & camped in the main camping area.
After the fly-in, we continued down to Key West, then up the Atlantic coast to Kittihawk & Ocracoke Island.
2001 Sun 'n Fun trip report


In 2002 we camped by our airplane in the homebuilt camping area.
Before the fly-in, we stayed a couple of nights on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi.

In 2004 we returned to the homebuilt camping area.
We visited several Air Parks in Florida & Georgia on this trip.
Had to deal with thunderstorms, rain & wind during our first couple of nights at camp.

Watervliet, Michegan (40C 110nm)
Camped overnight at the airport for EAA Chapter fly-in.
No shower. Washing facilities in the chapter building.
This was an overnight stop on the Lake Michegan circumnavigation.

Abilene, Texas (ABI 856nm)
Survived 75 mph winds at the Southwest Regional EAA fly-in in 2001.
Returned with a the Kit-built Workmanship Award, & the Longest Flight Award.
2001 SWRFI trip report

Three Lakes (40D 148nm)
Camp site with restaurant is right beside the airport.
Lake is across the road.
Golf course about half a mile away.

Phillips (PBH 168nm)
Restaurant owner let us camp down by the lake, & also lent us a car.

Iron Mountain, Michegan (IMT 144nm)
Drove to the campground in a state park, some distance from the airport.
Rebel's Bluff, Missouri (Near 2MO 463nm)
Camped by the creek on Les Featherston's private strip for RV/Rocket fly-in.
Rough River State Park, Kentucky (2I3 356nm)
Shower facilities in airport building.
Lodge with resturant about 1/2 a mile.
9 hole par 3 golf course next to the runway.
In a dry county!!

Torchport Airpark, Michegan (59M 154nm)
20nm NE of Traverse City.
Two grass runways with camping by the plane during the fly-in for Saturday night steak dinner, followed by Sunday morning pancake breakfast. Unfortunately, they ran out of steak, but someone drove us to a restaurant for dinner.
No shower facilities, but there was hot water.
Photo shows our new Eureka tent in the middle - significantly larger than our old one!
On this trip, we stopped at Beaver Island twice, for golf & cycling.
Somehow, Bruce snagged a ride in a Stearman - nice headgear Bruce!

Paullina, Iowa (1Y9 331nm)
28 ft wide runway, unattended, but with lights & with camping on the field. It's right beside Mill Creek State Park, which has camping & shower facilities. There is a nine hole golf course 1/2 a mile away.
The campground was full, so we pitched the tents beside the planes. We took over a small isolated picnic area just across the fence, & there was plenty of wood for the fire pit. We ended up staying three nights over the Labor Day weekend, flying out to various destinations each day. 10 hrs & over 1000 nm flying.

Kentucky Dam State Park, Kentucky (M34 385nm)
Another Kentucky State Park with a runway, camping by the planes, showers in the airport building & a lodge 1.5 miles away. Also a dry county, but we brought our own (shhh!).
A Park Ranger paid us a visit after getting phone calls about our formation flying near the dam, which apparently supplies half the state with electricity. He didn't seem too worried about it - the dam is right off the end of the runway, so it would be hard not to fly near it!
Patti's restaurant picked us up for the 9 mile trip for dinner where the speciality was an excellent 2 inch pork chop.
Stopped at Morris (C09) for lunch at the on-field restaurant on the way home & then got back to West Bend in time to watch the end of the Packer game in the Chapter building - they lost in the 105 degree Arizona heat :-(

Petit Jean State Park, Arkansas (MPJ 544nm)
This state park sits on a ridge & has five very nice individual campsites at one end of the runway for airplane campers. A great location with excellent facilities. While there, we visited our rice farming friends, Jim & Debra. They keep their RV-8 on their own strip. Unfortunately I misidentified the strip & landed on a disused runway that had a surface little better than a ploughed field! Amazingly the RV got down & back up again unscathed.
MPJ has some good fishing - that's a large mouth bass that Hank caught.
On the way home we flew to Gaston's resort for brunch. Gaston's (3M0) is a grass strip with an interesting approach.