I'm leaving tonight for Oshkosh and am hoping to meet some of you there, although some of you are already there and not reading this. I started to arrange a time and place for a meetup, and then found that it conflicted with an international event that someone else told me I couldn't miss, so I stopped. Frankly I'm a little overwhelmed by the size of this airshow, and don't want to commit myself to anything I might regret. I am exchanging phone numbers with the people who send me theirs, and I'll put a notice on the "Find a Person" board, under Aviatrix - Cockpit Conversation with the airplane logo from this blog, once I figure out when I'll be somewhere that will be a good meetup spot. I'm bringing my computer for some "Live from Oshkosh" blogging, as I understand that there is wireless internet, but I won't count on getting e-mail on site. I'll be able to receive e-mail for another seven hours or so, though.
I'll see some of you there, and I'll tell the rest of you all about it!
7 comments:
Are you flying yourself there, or just getting there as a passenger? I glanced at the NOTAM they publish and it all looks horribly complicated.
Eat some cheese, drink some beer, have a brat or two and enjoy the airshow. It's a great town, with some wonderful colleges, and not too far from my old stomping grounds. Have a great time......try some cheese curds. Fresh not fried!
amulbunny
(who's been MIA because she was moving 4 miles and losing 1000sqft of room in the process)
Wow. Had to read the NOTAM booklet. Wow. If you did fly yourself there, please tell us about the arrival!
Since you've never been to Oshkosh you are horribly lucky. Especially if you're being paid to be there or, at least, get a free ride. I spent all of 2 days wandering around 2 years ago and still didn't manage to see it all.
I was pretty excited my first time and thought it would all be terribly complicated and confusing due to the size. What I found was a little less intimidating though. It's sort of a "if you've seen one air show you've seen them all" kind of thing. But not totally. It's just massive and every thing is bigger. It's generally well laid out though so finding something that you're looking for shouldn't be hard at all.
Everywhere you look there'll be aviation related displays with people giving away free stuff. Pick up a bag and start collecting junk. It's great fun to go through the bag on a boring layover and play with stuff.
There are a few food vendors but I dont' remember there being an abundance of them. Certainly enough to eat though. We ate at odd hours to avoid the crowds which seemed to work pretty well. You don't want to avoid the crowds totally though. Lot's of communal seating at the carnival/fair style food lots and it's fun to meet new people. Just ask if they mind an extra at the table and have a seat.
For these types of things I pick the top 5 things that I MUST see and spend the day finding them. In the process you tend to browse through most everything else along the way. If you try to see everything you'll run yourself ragged and still miss something you wanted.
For the actual "air show" part of the show get over to the runway 30-45 minute early, find a good spot and enjoy. It absolutely rocks and the spots on the grass run out quickly.
Using Twitter could help with the meetups.
Sorry I'm going to miss you. I'm flying out today. Of course, because it's the last day I'm here, the wifi which has sucked all week has suddenly started working.
The wifi is mostly designed to cover the camping spots, so I didn't get any signal in the EAA members village or at the picnic tables near the tower. But if you take the red tram to the north 40, there is a tent shelter with benches and a swamp cooler, and the wifi has been good there all week, even when the wifi that covers my part of the campground has been non-functional.
If you're coming in in your work plane, try to get an IFR arrival reservation and then you won't have to deal with the Ripon/Fisk madness. Smaller planes they'll turn away and tell them to do the VFR arrival, but they'll let a big twin come in IFR even if it's CAVU.
Bah...sorry I missed all of this. As Paul said, wireless sucked in the North-40. It wasn't until Saturday afternoon that I read this. Funny, I was actually at the international visitor's tent as the parade was starting. My friend and I almost got sucked up into the parade. He wanted me to get a picture of the "brazillion" Brazilians :-)
Maybe next time...
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