Mont Joli

Two months has gone by since the Bazflyers landed at Nome, Alaska thereby initiating the North American sector of Round the World 2019. During that time the trusty Piper Comanche ZK-BAZ has touched down at 20 airports, and clocked-up almost 50 flight hours spanning 16 of the US States and 6 Canadian Provinces. What a wonderful joy it has been. New friendships were forged and memories made. Goals achieved and milestones surpassed. Oh, how tempting it is to tarry awhile savouring such delightful experiences, but the airways extending eastwards beckon and the Bazflyer’s schedule says, “Its time to move-on…!”

Moving-on is flying 4000 kilometres across the North Atlantic from Goose Bay (CYYR), Newfoundland to Narsarsuaq (BGBW), Greenland then onto Reykjavik (BIRK), Iceland and finally to Wick (EGPC) in far north Scotland. The crossing requires 3-days. This part of the planet experiences Arctic weather conditions. Weather notorious for rapid changes. Intense storms, severe icing, turbulence, and heavy precipitation in all its various forms can be encountered throughout the year. 

Unsurprisingly, just as thousands of aviators have done over the years, the Bazflyers are weather watching from a zone of comfort, looking, waiting, for a suitable Arctic weather window. In this case the zone of comfort is Mont Joli, a smallish French Canadian settlement on the Eastern side of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The Mont Joli aerodrome was constructed during WW2. As a training base for the Commonwealth Air Training Plan it was the home of No.9 Bombing and Gunnery School. 

Mont Joli was also an air base regularly used by many wartime pilots ferrying aircraft across the North Atlantic to Great Britain. Ironically, in a similar vein to the Bazflyers, they were pilots watching weather and waiting for a window of opportunity to make the relatively short flight further north to Goose Bay and then onto to Greenland. During WW2, Goose Bay was the busiest airport in the world.      

Flight route from Goose Bay (CYYR) across the North Atlantic to Wick (EGPC) in Far North Scotland.

Watching weather, waiting for the low between Greenland an Iceland to dissolve or slip south 

Mont Joli is known for many decreative murals scattered around the town....

....and is home to a range of artists 

EAA Oshkosh

‘Fifty’ just happens to be an underlying theme for Bazflyers RTW 2019. It was therefore a given that the 50th EAA Oshkosh, the biggest airshow in the world, should be included on the flight itinerary. 

The annual show routinely attracts over 600,000 visitors. More than 10,000 aircraft representing almost every known make and model typically fly-in and park in organised rows for the occasion. Most of these aircraft have the occupants camping alongside all of which makes for a unique visual spectacle not eclipsed anywhere else in the world. Then, gracing the grounds there are usually some 3,000 gleamingly immaculate show planes.

During the week of each year’s EAA Oshkosh, the airfield (KOSH) control tower assumes the unique status of being the busiest control tower in the world. So busy in fact that the seemingly endless procession of aircraft flying into Oshkosh are individually identified by colour or type, and provided instructions for landing with only a wing-waggle in response. 

Given that no aircraft call-signs are used during an Oshkosh arrival, it would be fair to say ZK-BAZ, having flown 30,000 kilometres from New Zealand, landed at the 50th EAA Oshkosh equally as incognito as every other airplane. However, remaining incognito was not to be an option. The Bazflyer’s presence was uncovered and scarcely before the instrument gyros ceased turning, Comanche ZK-BAZ had been relocated for prominent display at EAA Vintage, and entered for judging. 

At each EAA Oshkosh hundreds of aircraft are entered into the competition for highly sought-after Lindy Awards. Named after aviation hero Charles Lindbergh, the Lindy Awards acknowledge the tireless effort necessary to create an aircraft that's truly the "best of the best."  According to EAA, “Lindy Award judging takes into account not only how an aircraft looks, but also how carefully they are built, restored, and/or maintained by owners who take great pride in them.” 

At EAA Oshkosh only the best of the best can win an award and with so many beautiful aircraft in the pool for judging ZK-BAZ’s inclusion was motivated more from a spirit of participation than expectation. After all, the airplane was in undisguised ‘round the world configuration’ and definitely not manicured for show. Its a practical working airplane that had flown further than any other aircraft to be at the 50th EAA Oshkosh. 

The Bazflyers had already departed Oshkosh, resuming their round the world flight, when the 50th EAA awards were announced. Wow…what an amazing surprise it was, three days out of Oshkosh, to be informed that ZK-BAZ had won a Bronze Lindy…! Unbelievable.

ZK-BAZ on display at the 50th EAA Oshkosh 

EAA Venture Women wearing purple for a photograph on Boeing Plaza and Bazflyer2 was among them.

So many beautiful aircraft 

Just another media interview

Air to air photo session prior to departing the Oshkosh area.

The unbelievable “Lindy Award” as it was announced at the EAA awards dinner

Baraboo

Experts say, most emotional memories are the result of cued recall. It might be a certain date or an anniversary. Then again it could be anything that is connected to one’s senses, a cue that ignites an emotional recall. The wonder about recalled memory is how unpredictable and random such an occurrence can be.

Yesterday’s flight had the Bazflyers leap almost 1000 kilometres northwards from the small rural Kansas settlement of Newton, across the State of Illinois before landing at Baraboo in the adjoining State of Wisconsin. The point of this was to position close to Oshkosh. Every year, in the third week of July, the small Wisconsin town of Oshkosh plays host to a staggeringly huge assembly of aircraft, the biggest air show in the world. Somewhere around 15,000 airplanes are anticipated for this year’s 50th EAA Oshkosh and the Bazflyers in Comanche ZK-BAZ will be one of them. 

As is the Bazflyers determinate style and with their Comanche securely in the care of Baraboo-Dells Flight Centre, it was off to explore the town of Baraboo. Surly with a name like “Baraboo” there just had to be something interesting to discover. Not only was there a fascinating discovery, for one Bazflyer it also lit the fuse of an emotional recall.

It was probably sometime in 1953, definitely in the era when a frugal accumulation of several weeks pocket-money was necessary for admission to an afternoon movie matinee. Deciding what movie to see was a judicial process, although in retrospect selection was likely influenced by posters displayed outside the theatre. One of those movies indelibly inked a lasting impression on the mind of a very young boy. It was “The Greatest Show on Earth”.

As a movie the Greatest Show on Earth was a lavish production. It featured the great Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey Circus including heart wrenching spectacular action sequences and an emotional show-stopping train wreck. For 130 years (the circus ceased in 2017) Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus toured coast to coast across America with an entertainment experience cherished by young and old alike. It was the Greatest Show on Earth...!

How amazing then to discover the five Ringling brothers had lived in Baraboo and started their famous circus on the town square in 1884. What a marvellous memory cue. The tradition of this great circus and the Ringling Brothers legacy is enshrined in Baraboo. Then, as if a memorial to that past era, the town’s recently restored theatre built as a gift to Baraboo by A L Ringling in 1915, stands proudly comparable to the best in the world. 

The Ringling Brothers not only founded the Greatest Show on Earth, but each of them in their own way was a great showman. Thank you Baraboo for a wonderful recalled memory experience. Surely a fitting prelude for the Bazflyers next mission....flying into the Greatest Airshow on Earth.

BAZ after a 100 hour service outside Webco Aircraft at Newton, KS (KEWK) with John and Wayne. 

Flying over unusually green prairie country stretching all the way from Newton to Baraboo

Baraboo’s A L Ringling Theatre restored to its former glory and still in use after 115 years.

The theatre’s interior


A theatre relict from the silent movie era when an organist provided relevant music sound effects

Original poster for ‘The Greatest Show on Earth’

Route 66

It’s very likely the café and motel referred to in Gene Pitney’s popular 60’s song, “24 hours from Tulsa”, were situated on Route 66. Only the lyricist would know for sure but to add credibility to this theory, the iconic highway bisects the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Besides, the notion is a romantic fit with a Bazflyer’s favourite song from the past.

With trusty Comanche ZK-BAZ secured indoors at Christiansen Aviation the Bazflyers took a break from their RTW journey to enjoy the homespun company of a family member living in Tulsa. Tulsa was once known as the ‘Oil Capital of the World’ a heritage only too apparent when driving in and around the city. Charming Artdeco architecture is just one such example. However, it was not the city’s fine old buildings or its many parklands that caught the Bazflyer’s attention, it was signage pointing to historic Highway 66. 

  

Highway 66 has a rich and long history. For decades travellers along this Trans-America road have brought prosperity to roadside communities. The road was born from the need of a nation to move about, for trade, work and leisure. It started out as a hodgepodge of different roads, linked together, to became an icon of America.

Soldiers, airmen and sailors coming back home after WW2 fondly remembered their training days in the balmy Southwest, and relocated there abandoning the cold winters of the Northeast. Many drove to their new homes along Highway 66, a feeling of freedom that still lives on.

Nowadays, the eight States through which the 5000 km route goes have legislated to preserve the significance of this iconic Americana highway. A significance that is not only economic, but also social and historic. Whether by motorcycle, convertible or some other mode of transport, each year thousands of folk drive Route 66. For many of them it’s to nostalgically tick an item off their bucket lists. 

Route 66 is indeed a nostalgic highway, a road of dreams. Perhaps the man referred to in that Gene Pitney song really was one of those young World War Two veterans driving back home down Route 66, just twenty four hours from Tulsa, when he stopped to rest for the night...

Paducah

Flying above the mid-eastern lands of the US, that vast area drained by the great Mississippi River and it’s many navigable tributaries, Bazflyers observed broad-acres of flooding. The great Mississippi River flood of 1927 is sometimes referred to as the most underrated weather disaster of the century and remains the benchmark flood event for this great river.

It wasn’t the Mississippi River that beckoned the Bazflyers to spend a couple of days at Paducah, it was more particularly the town’s unique association with the art of quilting. However, Paducah being an old town sited on the banks of the Ohio River, just a few miles upstream from its confluence with the mighty Mississippi, unexpectedly provided some other surprising attractions. 

The town of Paducah has suffered badly from river floods over the years. Nowadays it is sheltered from the Ohio River like a fortress town behind tall concrete walls. Walls that also serve as a canvas for many wonderful historical murals. The Ohio River was clearly in flood. Locals spoke of relentless record breaking spring rainfall and pointed to the town’s concrete flood walls seeing action only a couple of weeks prior to the Bazflyer’s visit. Flooding that the National Weather Service reported to be the longest-lasting since the "Great Flood" of 1927. Flooding that will keep many farmers across large areas of arable land from planting a crop this year.

An urge to see the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers, especially in flood, was compelling. Experiencing the near deserted former city of Cairo, Illinois was a bonus. What was once a thriving, busy, bustling Mississippi River town is today a virtual ghost town. A drive down Main Street sees a town of abandoned storefronts, boarded up buildings, rusted street signs, and a lack of any activity. Detour down unkept wide leafy boulevards and what were once grand mansions sadly slouch abandoned, ravaged by the decay of time.  

But why....? History points to a combination of things that brought Cairo to its current state. However, despite its early glory, Illinois’ southernmost town is now mostly remembered for its racial strife, which according to some, was instrumental in the town’s decline. 

Segregation became deeply rooted during the town’s prosperous years and staunchly continued well into the sixties and seventies. This was despite the best efforts of both State and Federal legislators. Lynchings, mob violence, protests and riots all took their toll. Businesses left the town. Today, the abandoned, once-prosperous streets of Cairo serve as a sad monument to the destructive forces of racism. Forces of the like that not even a concrete flood wall could protect...!

 On approach to land Paducah flying over the flooded Ohio River

One of many murals painted on the concrete flood protection wall at Puducah 

Aviation theme quilt on display in the National Quilt Museum at Paducah 

Appropriately this quilt has a ‘Stars and Stripes’ theme

“On the banks of the old Ohio” at Paducah

The mighty Mississippi in flood.

Abandoned buildings line the streets of virtual ghost town Cairo, Illinois 

Liberty

Occasionally it can be as simple as an unexpected experience or some singular event, but no matter what the catalyst the emotive outcome is inevitably an appreciative state of being...and, quite unexpectedly the Bazflyer’s New York experience was uniquely such a catalyst. 

‘Liberty’ is not a big word but the depth and breath of what this seven letter word stands for has significantly profound proportions. There are no conventional measures for social, political and economic freedoms.

It is rather difficult to spend a few days in New York without seeing, even from a distance, the imposing and hugely symbolic Statue of Liberty. Least we forget, as the world entered the 1900’s Europe was in turmoil. Vast populations were without work, people were on the move, starvation was an everyday scene. 

Made entirely possible at the time by ocean going steamships, many millions of people vacated Europe in the space of little more than a decade, all seeking better lives in countries such as, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the United States. Reasons for leaving behind their lands of birth differed little from their predecessors. Escaping religious, racial, and political persecution, or seeking relief from a lack of economic opportunity and famine were top of the lists. They were all looking for “liberty” and they found her.

Of course the Bazflyers took the ferry from Battery Park over the Hudson River to symbolically stand under the Statue of Liberty. But it wasn’t until they made a pilgrimage to the National Museum of Immigration on nearby Ellis Island that a profound and appreciative feeling of “Liberty” kicked in. Perhaps it was trying to sense the emotions of a new immigrant, man, woman or child, having endured a hellish journey from their birth village in Europe and as the ship they were on entered New York harbour their tired eyes looked up to see the Grand Lady Liberty. An uplifting symbol of the new life and opportunity that lay ahead. To put all that in a single word....it was “Liberty”.

Today in New York was there was a parade of LGBTQ and other folk through the city’s streets. It was to celebrate World Pride and 50 years since Stonewall. Liberty was on full display but the Bazflyers couldn’t help wonder how many of the hundreds of thousands of people, spectators and participants, gave any credence to their immigrant forefathers and mothers for today’s democratic platform of “Liberty” without which this colourful event may not have been possible.

“Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves, and, under a just God, cannot long retain it."--Abraham Lincoln

Statue of Liberty

On the Hudson River with New York City in the background

National Museum of Immigration on Ellis Island


Once an elevated railway corridor the NYC Skyline is nowadays a liberating walkway garden maintained by volunteers

The fierce beauty and proud independence of this great bird aptly symbolizes the strength and freedom of America.

Colourful liberty