(August 2014)
Time is running short, so I’m going to get straight to the point: If you’re a pilot or aviation enthusiast and you’ve never been to Oshkosh for EAA’s annual fly-in and shindig, you need to go. It runs July 28 through Aug. 3 this year, so depending on when the postman delivers this issue, you should have about a week to make it happen. Drive, ride, hike or paddle your little red canoe across Lake Winnebago — just go! Best option of all if you’re strong of heart and maybe just a little fatalistic: Fly yourself to the “World’s Busiest Airport for a Week.” You have just enough time to download the notam, practice a few spot landings, pack a tent and cooler, and take off on your cross-country summer adventure to aviation’s mecca.
Still here? OK, I can see you’re going to take a little convincing. The first time I flew in, I was only 18 years old with maybe 100 hours under my belt. I had learned to fly at an uncontrolled field and had ventured to towered airports half a dozen times with trepidation in my heart and fumbled readbacks on my lips. But you don’t talk to ATC when you fly into Oshkosh — you just listen and do what they say. I took off in a rented C-172 on a hazy morning with my 10-year-old brother, Josiah, in the right seat. A few hours later we arrived over Ripon, Wisconsin, followed a Cherokee up the railroad tracks, wagged our wings when Fisk Approach told us to enter a right downwind for 27, and landed on the orange dot behind a Mooney and ahead of a King Air. “Nice job, brown and white Cessna, welcome to the show — now get off the runway!” barked the tower controller. Into the grass we barreled. Five minutes later the Lycoming sputtered to a halt in the middle of a field covered with more airplanes than I’d ever seen in my life — and that was just the GA camping area!
Josiah and I camped under N738FZ’s wing for one glorious week. We tromped the flight line, we browsed the flymart, and we talked up an Avid Aircraft rep who looked perfectly hopeful that a couple of kids might plop down the cash for a Magnum quick-build kit right then and there. We walked till our feet blistered and watched the daily airshow from the shadow of a ÂDC-3. Every morning we woke to the staccato roar of a P-51 buzzing the North 40, and every night we grilled burgers in front of our airplane. Our next-door neighbor was an elderly doctor with a beautiful A36 and an even more stunning daughter, also a pilot, 15 years my senior. I was in love for a week and heartbroken when we returned one evening to find nothing but a Bonanza-shaped grass shadow. We left the next morning, and I taught my brother to fly on the way back to Minnesota. Josiah is 25 years old now and married with his own child. He still talks about our week together at Oshkosh.
I’ve flown in three times since then, twice with my wife, Dawn, and once with my dad. In 2010 I returned with N738FZ and had a bit of a hair-raising adventure over Ripon as I tussled with a few hundred other pilots who all arrived simultaneously as the flooded North 40 reopened for camping. In 2011 and 2012 I flew in with a borrowed 1949 Cessna 170A. If you can fly in with an old airplane, I highly recommend it. You’d better be on top of your game, though, because you stand a decent chance of getting a tight left base to 18R with pretty much the entire world watching your landing. The reward for this public test of skill is a convenient campsite near show center amid hundreds of beautifully restored vintage aircraft. Having an old airplane in vintage camping, even a beater, pretty much guarantees conversation with knowledgeable pilots and restorers and appreciative comments from passers-by. If you’re lucky enough to be the custodian of a potential grand champion, your biggest challenge will be keeping curious fingerprints off your Âmirror-polished finish while awaiting judging.
I’m an old Boy Scout, and I like to tent camp. For my money there is no better place to drift to sleep than under the wing of an airplane, bedded on luxuriant grass with the murmur of fellow pilots’ voices wafting through the air, knowing you’ll wake in the morning to sweet airplane noise and the promise of a full day immersed in all things aviation. Some might call that “roughing it,” so there are many other options at Oshkosh: hotels, private homes, even dorm beds at UW-Oshkosh. The most popular lodging by far is EAA’s sprawling Camp Scholler. This is a very different place from the aircraft camping areas, more diverse and freewheeling; at times it’s part Burning Man and part NASCAR infield. If you’re looking for a party, you’ll find it here. Many people camp with the same “Oshkosh friends” year after year, and some drive their RVs to Oshkosh weeks before the show to claim the best sites.
But of course you didn’t come to Oshkosh to sleep, and probably not to party. Never fear: There are so many things to see and do that you’ll be busy no matter how long you stay. The central plaza is packed with notable military and commercial aircraft; all the light plane and business jet manufacturers have large tents displaying their latest offerings; hundreds of vendors hawk their wares in the four exhibit hangars; and the Aeromart offers deals on everything from trinkets to used aircraft parts. Expert-presented forums discourse on subjects from flying skills to aircraft maintenance to aviation history. Symposiums offer the chance to hear from the most celebrated aviators of yesteryear and today. Workshops allow neophytes to try their hand at various homebuilding and restoration skills. You can see opinionated pilots grill the FAA administrator at Federal Pavilion and watch visionaries roll out their version of the future at the Innovations Pavilion. Warbird Alley features hundreds of priceless survivors from World War I through Vietnam, many of which darken the skies in mass formations for Warbirds in Review. After that, all activity pauses for the daily airshow. You’ll see so many high-powered aerobatic aircraft perform seemingly impossible maneuvers that you’ll grow completely blasé, and your favorite act will end up being the slow-rolling Twin Beech or the graceful, silent aerobatic glider. After the airshow there’s musical entertainment, and after dark there are aviation movies at the Fly-In Theater.
Once you’re completely overwhelmed by it all, you can duck down to one of my favorite places, the ultralight strip. Here the focus is flying: There are nearly nonstop pattern hops by light sports, ultralights, powered parachutes, helicopters and gyrocopters. They even launch hot air balloons on still mornings and evenings. It’s flight in its most basic, joyful form, and it’s a lot of fun to sit, watch and relax. For an even more chilled-out escape, Vette/Blust Seaplane Base is a beautiful lakeside oasis a mere 15-minute shuttle ride from the madding crowds. Surprisingly, one of the quietest places at Oshkosh is often right on the flight line, where you can peruse thousands of beautiful, unique aircraft and chat with the men and women who built or restored them.
The truth is that a week of “AirVenture” can be a hot and muggy, crowded, exhausting ordeal, and an increasingly expensive and commercialized experience at that. At times it can feel like a glitzy trade show for industry players, like when I was shooed away from a bizjet company tent for lack of an invitation (never mind that I flew its products for a living). The establishment of exclusive flight-line chalets caused a practical revolt among EAA volunteers and members in 2012, sparking a leadership change at EAA. And yet, even many of AirVenture’s harshest critics continue to faithfully make the pilgrimage. I am planning to fly in for the fifth time, in my flying club Cub. It’s not the exhibits, forums, airshows or even the airplanes that bring me back. It’s the people that make a trip to Oshkosh well worth the effort and the hassle. While there, I feel like I’m part of a global family come together for a giant reunion. I inevitably run into old friends and meet perfect strangers who just feel like old friends. There’s been plenty of bad news for general aviation in the last decade, but at Oshkosh I’m reminded that the best parts of GA are still alive and well. That’s reason enough to head to central Wisconsin next week, whether by air or by land. I hope to see you there!
Check out all of Flying’s online coverage of AirVenture 2014 here.
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