BRODHEAD - Somehow, the words on the red and white sticker directly in front of your face doesn't register until you are flying over 70 miles per hour 200 feet up in the air: "Passenger Warning - This aircraft is 'amateur-built' and does not comply with federal safety requirements for standard aircraft."
But by then, you are already in the sky and in awe of the snow-blanketed Wisconsin countryside.
And they don't tell you the home-built Piper Cub airplane you have been convinced to ride in doesn't have any technology newer than 1938 until you are safely back on the ground.
"You experience flying is like it was in the 1940s," George Miller of the Quad Cities said.
He said that like it was a good thing.
Experimental Aircraft Association Chapter 431 had its Groundhog Chili Ski Fly-in Saturday at the Brodhead Airport. The winter was kind enough this year to lay down a buffeting layer of snow on the grassland airstrip. But the thick snow flurries that kept the sun from frightening the ground hog also kept the experienced pilots on the ground. They drove to the airport instead.
What brought them there wasn't just the four kinds of chili being served; flying seems to be a family affair.
Simon "Si" Smith of Janesville and his son Matthew pulled their replica of a 90 horsepower Super Cub out of the hanger.
"That's so it can officially be called a fly-in," Smith said. "You think we're nuts, don't ya?"
Maybe not as nuts as the newbie whom they convinced to go up with Smith during a brief clearing in the snowfall.
But landing on snow skis on the grass airstrip isn't nearly as bumpy as it is on wheels.
Skis on an airplane make any snow-covered field or frozen lake a potential airstrip, according to Miller, who brought along two sets of straight metal skis from the 1940s and 50s, a hydraulic set and a newer fiberglass set.
"Everything's an airport," Smith said, "so long as you watch out for stumps and fences."
"And holes in the ice," came a shout from the crowd. The others laugh. They are familiar with these stories passed around like family tales.
Experimental aircraft, or "homebuilt" aircraft, are certified by the Federal Aviation Administration in the "amateur built" category and meet different standards than factory-built, or production aircrafts. They are still inspected, licensed and registered by the federal government.
But these guys are anything but amateurs. Matthew recalled their first plane being rebuilt in the family garage.
"I was 12 years old, crawling in the tail, bucking rivets," he said.
Twenty-five years later, the family has three hangers of planes. One plane is stored in a hanger in Monroe - because, there's just not enough room in Brodhead.
The family has 6 planes: three Murphey Rebels, a Cessna 172, the Cub and a Super cub and a few major pieces of another one.
In one hanger lie two aircraft in different stages of creation. It takes a few years to put a plane together from scratch.
With two wings assembled, one a skeleton and one in the process of getting its skin, Matthew gave a great lesson on making an airplane wing, made understandable even by the novice.
It sounds easy enough: Cover the skeleton with Dacron, coat it with some goop to make it shrink, rivet it to the ribs and then sew it to the ribs with some huge waxed thread and needles bigger than your auntie's crotchet hooks. Then tape down the edges, give it a couple dozen more coats of plasticizers and paints. And in about 25 years, you can take it all off and do it again.
It is labor of love and life.
"He's not the only one," laughs association President Mike Weeden, Monroe. "There's something like that going on in about every one of these hangers here."
Weeden is another of the second generation. His father Dick Weeden, Brodhead, was the first president when the association was granted its Experimental Aviation Association charter 35 years ago. The EAA is an international organization based in Oshkosh.
The ski fly-in is just one of the association's social events. It is a yearly standing invitation for aviation enthusiasts to get together.
The events are usually come-and-go, Weeden said. They are just the local group's way of promoting sport flying for fun.
"We'll take anyone up for a ride, who wants to come and ask," Smith said.
But by then, you are already in the sky and in awe of the snow-blanketed Wisconsin countryside.
And they don't tell you the home-built Piper Cub airplane you have been convinced to ride in doesn't have any technology newer than 1938 until you are safely back on the ground.
"You experience flying is like it was in the 1940s," George Miller of the Quad Cities said.
He said that like it was a good thing.
Experimental Aircraft Association Chapter 431 had its Groundhog Chili Ski Fly-in Saturday at the Brodhead Airport. The winter was kind enough this year to lay down a buffeting layer of snow on the grassland airstrip. But the thick snow flurries that kept the sun from frightening the ground hog also kept the experienced pilots on the ground. They drove to the airport instead.
What brought them there wasn't just the four kinds of chili being served; flying seems to be a family affair.
Simon "Si" Smith of Janesville and his son Matthew pulled their replica of a 90 horsepower Super Cub out of the hanger.
"That's so it can officially be called a fly-in," Smith said. "You think we're nuts, don't ya?"
Maybe not as nuts as the newbie whom they convinced to go up with Smith during a brief clearing in the snowfall.
But landing on snow skis on the grass airstrip isn't nearly as bumpy as it is on wheels.
Skis on an airplane make any snow-covered field or frozen lake a potential airstrip, according to Miller, who brought along two sets of straight metal skis from the 1940s and 50s, a hydraulic set and a newer fiberglass set.
"Everything's an airport," Smith said, "so long as you watch out for stumps and fences."
"And holes in the ice," came a shout from the crowd. The others laugh. They are familiar with these stories passed around like family tales.
Experimental aircraft, or "homebuilt" aircraft, are certified by the Federal Aviation Administration in the "amateur built" category and meet different standards than factory-built, or production aircrafts. They are still inspected, licensed and registered by the federal government.
But these guys are anything but amateurs. Matthew recalled their first plane being rebuilt in the family garage.
"I was 12 years old, crawling in the tail, bucking rivets," he said.
Twenty-five years later, the family has three hangers of planes. One plane is stored in a hanger in Monroe - because, there's just not enough room in Brodhead.
The family has 6 planes: three Murphey Rebels, a Cessna 172, the Cub and a Super cub and a few major pieces of another one.
In one hanger lie two aircraft in different stages of creation. It takes a few years to put a plane together from scratch.
With two wings assembled, one a skeleton and one in the process of getting its skin, Matthew gave a great lesson on making an airplane wing, made understandable even by the novice.
It sounds easy enough: Cover the skeleton with Dacron, coat it with some goop to make it shrink, rivet it to the ribs and then sew it to the ribs with some huge waxed thread and needles bigger than your auntie's crotchet hooks. Then tape down the edges, give it a couple dozen more coats of plasticizers and paints. And in about 25 years, you can take it all off and do it again.
It is labor of love and life.
"He's not the only one," laughs association President Mike Weeden, Monroe. "There's something like that going on in about every one of these hangers here."
Weeden is another of the second generation. His father Dick Weeden, Brodhead, was the first president when the association was granted its Experimental Aviation Association charter 35 years ago. The EAA is an international organization based in Oshkosh.
The ski fly-in is just one of the association's social events. It is a yearly standing invitation for aviation enthusiasts to get together.
The events are usually come-and-go, Weeden said. They are just the local group's way of promoting sport flying for fun.
"We'll take anyone up for a ride, who wants to come and ask," Smith said.