Oshkosh 2024 - Who's going?

Jim K said:
So the helicopter rides are way more fun than I expected.
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You're a more daring man than I.

I already dislike riding in anything with a Jesus bolt, but after (I think it's been) 22 Oshkoshes now, those choppers are the scariest thing in the sky. I have heard stories about obviously way-over-gross flights, but I have personally been at Oshkosh through a number of those rip-roaring thunderstorms we get in the summer, even sitting in my plane on the ground hanging onto the yoke to act as a human control lock, and those dang helicopters never stop flying. I'm actually quite surprised they've never crashed one.

I'll still do it someday, probably the first time each of my boys asks to go...
Jim K said:
Also, there's a P38 and a Dehaviland Mosquito in the back of the hangar where they sell the rides.
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If you come up to the museum when it's not during the show, there's a whole lot more stuff in there.
Ed Haywood said:
Plan for tomorrow is launch early and rendezvous in southern WI to gas up and shoot the Fisk arrival. Questions:
1. What is best fuel stop option within 45 min south of arrival?
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I know it's afterwards, but just in case anyone reads this in the future...

I am a fan of cheap fuel. If you're coming from the SE, KBUU and 57C are near each other and both good. From the SW, KEFT. From the NW, 63C. I've never been inside at 57C, but the others all have decent terminals with bathrooms and such. KEFT is probably the nicest, 63C has camping and showers on the field.
Ed Haywood said:
2. If we start the arrival at 1pm, what are the odds of us getting in before the airshow?
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Somewhere between 0 and 100 percent. ;) It's hard to say, but Wednesday does tend to have a lot of arrivals and is one of the busiest overall days. This year, Thursday was the busiest overall day for aircraft operations, but a much higher percentage of those are departures, enough so that the field was only open to departures for an extra hour on Thursday morning this year.
Ed Haywood said:
3. Will VPENV probably be the start point?
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At 1 PM, again, hard to say - It'll depend on how many people are in the same boat as you and flew some distance before doing the arrival. The best bet is to get high enough to pick up the arrival ATIS as far out as you can. Also, listen to Fisk Approach. They have to change plans on the fly pretty often, so you may hear something different on Fisk than you do on the ATIS because they haven't had a chance to change it yet.
Tokirbymd said:
went to Honeywell booth to check out the KX155 replacements. Was told verbatim what I was told at last years OSH. "Shipping in December" KX165 replacement to follow next year. That is exactly what they said last OSH 2023 also.
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Honeywell never specifies a year, and you should never expect it to be this year. The last time I had any interest in one of their products, they said it was shipping "in Q4" every year starting in 2015. It finally shipped in Q4 2019.

Do yourself a favor and look elsewhere. A GNC355 gives you a nice radio, a color screen, and a WAAS GPS and fits in the slot left by your KX155. Not a slide in replacement though.
StraightnLevel said:
How did you visit Wisconsin in the past without having been through the cheese curd ritual?

Lemme guess - you haven’t had beer cheese soup, either, have you?
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Beer Cheese Soup is the soup that all the other soups want to be.
Jim K said:
Cheese curd quality varies wildly. The ones on the show grounds are meh. The Hangar restaurant has pretty good ones. Actually that pretty well sums up all the food here.
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If they are cubes, they are not curds. (Looking at you, Vintage hangar.)

For fried ones, the breading and sauce are big variables. Best ones I've ever had by far are at the Hot House Tavern in Menomonee Falls, but that's not exactly convenient to OSH unless you stop at MWC on the way in.

For non-fried cheese curds, you want the fresh, moist ones that squeak when you bite into them. And you can get them with lots of "stuff" added as well, many flavors available. Enjoy.
 
flyingcheesehead said:
You're a more daring man than I.

I already dislike riding in anything with a Jesus bolt, but after (I think it's been) 22 Oshkoshes now, those choppers are the scariest thing in the sky. I have heard stories about obviously way-over-gross flights, but I have personally been at Oshkosh through a number of those rip-roaring thunderstorms we get in the summer, even sitting in my plane on the ground hanging onto the yoke to act as a human control lock, and those dang helicopters never stop flying. I'm actually quite surprised they've never crashed one.
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As many operations as they do it's quite incredible. I heard a rumor one lost power this year shortly after takeoff and was able to auto-rotate back to Pioneer airport. The pilots certainly seemed quite relaxed and smooth. Piston helicopters are definitely pretty high up the hierarchy of aviation riskiness, but dang is it fun to see the show from that perspective. The very fact that they haven't crashed one (AFAIK) in what must be hundreds of thousands of operations leads me to believe they are well maintained.
 
Three of the pilots in our group had never been before. All agreed it was the adventure of a lifetime, and the Fisk Arrival is a must do bucket list event.

I had been before, but not with a group.

We are hooked.
 
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Ed Haywood said:
Three of the pilots in our group had never been before. All agreed it was the adventure of a lifetime, and the Fisk Arrival is a must do bucket list event.

We are hooked.
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My most recent DPE has been an airline pilot and GA pilot for probably 30 years and had never been before.
He was like a kid at the candy store. He's going back next year.
 
Ed Haywood said:
Three of the pilots in our group had never been before. All agreed it was the adventure of a lifetime, and the Fisk Arrival is a must do bucket list event.

We are hooked.
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The first year the Snowbirds appeared, we were talking to 10 and 11 (the announcer/preplanning crew). He said that the Ripon arrival was on their bucket list but they couldn't do them with their planes. Me and another Navion pilot rose to the call. We took them up and flew formation for a bit and then let them do one landing and then made them fly the approach back into Oshkosh. My guy (callsign Sticky) did pretty well. Naughty dropped Trevor's Navion pretty hard.

I asked what else was on their list. They said they wanted to ride around in one of those Volkswagen bugs. That I could arrange to. Wen to the Vintage chair and borrowed hers for a half an hour or so.

This year surprisingly, we got 16 from the team (both pilots and techs) that wanted to spend a night camping under the wing. They brought Snowbird 10 down and we grabbed a bunch of spare tents from our storage locker. We had some extra sleeping bags, but I went down to Dicks and got six more. Of course, I also got a giant cooler full of local beer for them as well (though some wandered off to the SOS brothers).
 
Those interested can call now and get on the waiting list for the Hilton. They said reservations open up in a few months
 
ktup-flyer said:
Those interested can call now and get on the waiting list for the Hilton. They said reservations open up in a few months
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My hotel budget went to multiple weather and mechanical stops. :(

OTOH sleeping on the ground cured my frozen shoulder. Seriously.
 
ktup-flyer said:
Those interested can call now and get on the waiting list for the Hilton. They said reservations open up in a few months
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What's the secret code words to get on the list ? The girl that answered the phone was adamant there was no list, and they DON'T have rooms for the public during OSH...
 
Kitch said:
What's the secret code words to get on the list ? The girl that answered the phone was adamant there was no list, and they DON'T have rooms for the public during OSH...
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Counter girl told me the same thing, but the manager got me on the list. Hang on, I’ll see if we can get an email or phone number to use to bypass her.
 
I averaged about 8-10 miles per day plus a lot of biking. The trams that head through Vintage, ultralight, and down to south 40 are about useless unless you get on at the beginning or end. Made the mistake of going to the seaplane base Wednesday and took forever to get back. They claim another record breaking year but the days I was there the attendance definately felt lighter and airplane parking wasn’t as full as last year. Campers seemed about the same in Scholler.
 
The North 40 filled up early on. They continued to accept stuff down south for most of the show. Vintage got tight but I don't think we ever closed. I think this was on a par for last year. I can tell you that the weather arriving on Monday caused a lot of people to bug out on Sunday (or earlier). As far as vintage goes, we had higher counts than since pre-COVID I think.
 
I felt like the campground was more full this year than last? When we arrived Fri morning the area we usually camp in was full. Then I noticed there were campers in the undeveloped corn field that I have never seen before. Good thing we didn't get that much rain. BTW I thought the weather was perfect this year. This year I brought my old ATV since we don't have a golf cart or UTV and really got to ride around the campground. I bet I rode 50 miles or more?
I think I had the oldest ATV in the place this year?' 1983 model. I havent let it kill me yet, kinda like my airplane. lolIMG_4667.jpeg
 
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Gary Ward said:
I felt like the campground was more full this year than last? When we arrived Fri morning the area we usually camp in was full. Then I noticed there were campers in the undeveloped corn field that I have never seen before. Good thing we didn't get that much rain. BTW I thought the weather was perfect this year. This year I brought my old ATV since we don't have a golf cart or UTV and really got to ride around the campground. I bet I rode 50 miles or more?
I think I had the oldest ATV in the place this year, 1983 model. I havent let it kill me yet, kinda like my airplane. lolView attachment 132046
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If they would enforce the camp ground rules there would be a lot more camping spots. Instead you have people roping off .5 acre parcels so their buddies can form a coral of campers and have an area for entertaining. I also saw areas roped off from Saturday till I left on Thursday that weren't occupied.
 
Wow, you were right across Cottonwood from us. We were there MON thru WED(blue truck with a fifth wheel camper) and then we turned the spot over to friends(Mom, Dad, three small kids with a small bumper pull). I was admiring your three wheeler while I was there, having grown up on them and then teaching my kids to ride them in the 90's. I still have 5 or 6 Honda three wheeler's (most running, a 90 . a couple 110's, a couple 200's) and have had a couple Yamaha's. Kawasaki's were pretty rare. IIRC, they were unique in having an actual differential that could be "locked" rather than a solid axle all the others had(which meant always shifting weight to turn)
 
bdtaz said:
Wow, you were right across Cottonwood from us. We were there MON thru WED(blue truck with a fifth wheel camper) and then we turned the spot over to friends(Mom, Dad, three small kids with a small bumper pull). I was admiring your three wheeler while I was there, having grown up on them and then teaching my kids to ride them in the 90's. I still have 5 or 6 Honda three wheeler's (most running, a 90 . a couple 110's, a couple 200's) and have had a couple Yamaha's. Kawasaki's were pretty rare. IIRC, they were unique in having an actual differential that could be "locked" rather than a solid axle all the others had(which meant always shifting weight to turn)
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wow you are a 3 wheel enthusiast! What's the chances that we would be so close?
Cool you taught your kids to ride them.

Yup 'body English" was needed with a solid rear axle. Every person who first rode it crashed because of the locked rear axle. We had a hill in the backyard and they always got sucked into a bush coming down this hill. We all had a lot of laughs back in the day.
I always said if you could learn to ride a 3 wheeler you can ride almost anything. I had a 250 and then 500 quad racers over the years. But I always kept this old 3 wheeler. I bought that because it had the selectable diff and used it at first to pull a small bush hog mower that I used on steep hills at home in the 80s. That's how I talked my wife into letting me buy it back in the day. Crazy when I think back, 3 wheeler, hills and a mower in the back. What could go wrong? lol I don't think 4 wheelers were available yet when I bought the 3 wheeler?
I rode my wife around on it that week and she was saying I love our 3 wheeler. lol I had the diff open all week which makes riding them lots easier and safer. Yup Cottonwood and 11th. We thought it was decent spot to camp? I remember you guys sorry we didn't meet you.
 
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bdtaz said:
Wow, you were right across Cottonwood from us. We were there MON thru WED(blue truck with a fifth wheel camper) and then we turned the spot over to friends(Mom, Dad, three small kids with a small bumper pull). I was admiring your three wheeler while I was there, having grown up on them and then teaching my kids to ride them in the 90's. I still have 5 or 6 Honda three wheeler's (most running, a 90 . a couple 110's, a couple 200's) and have had a couple Yamaha's. Kawasaki's were pretty rare. IIRC, they were unique in having an actual differential that could be "locked" rather than a solid axle all the others had(which meant always shifting weight to turn)
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Before I bought the 3wheeler we were renting honda ATC 200s I think they were called from U haul rental on the weekends. Everyone one of us crashed until we learned how to ride them. Isn't that crazy that U Haul rented 3 wheelers?
 
Was one of our better spots(close to the bus and the market). We arrived Monday about noon and the check in team recommended going straight to the overflow(which we did last year, was disappointing as no shuttle bus stop and my father in law is getting up there in years so walking to ultralights is all the walking for the day). We thought "Well, we'll make one pass thru" and it paid off, prior campers had left earlier that day(as told by the neighbor who was also packing up). Seemed odd to leave before the show started but worked out for us.

My uncle was one of the main engineers on the Yamaha three wheeler's. We had a 175 TriZ that was a 2 stroke and would throw you off the back when it came up on the pipe. Story was that to get around Honda's patents they had to put the motor way back so it was light on the front end to start out with. But it was great fun in the snow!
 
bdtaz said:
Was one of our better spots(close to the bus and the market). We arrived Monday about noon and the check in team recommended going straight to the overflow(which we did last year, was disappointing as no shuttle bus stop and my father in law is getting up there in years so walking to ultralights is all the walking for the day). We thought "Well, we'll make one pass thru" and it paid off, prior campers had left earlier that day(as told by the neighbor who was also packing up). Seemed odd to leave before the show started but worked out for us.

My uncle was one of the main engineers on the Yamaha three wheeler's. We had a 175 TriZ that was a 2 stroke and would throw you off the back when it came up on the pipe. Story was that to get around Honda's patents they had to put the motor way back so it was light on the front end to start out with. But it was great fun in the snow!
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Loved those 2 strokes, we did a lot of riding on our 250 and 500. Friend of mine had a 250 honda and he could still beat me on the 500 just barely as I was heavier than him. He was a good rider/racer. We had a lot of great camping riding trips with a good group of friends. I think it was all 2 strokes back in the day on those rides? I never did any motorcross racing but most of the guys I rode wit did.
 
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Banshee's were a wicked ride, I preferred yellow and blue. Remember this poster?
MVC-239S.jpg
 
Friend of mine had one I rode 10 years ago or so, was almost scary fast. Of course, by then I learned that crashing hurt for a few days instead of the few minutes back when I was riding three wheelers in the late 70s. Now I'm a bit more boring....

Three wheelers got a bum rap like ultralights and "sport/tailwheel airplanes". Learn their peculiarities and they are far more manuverable and fun to ride/fly than a quad or a 172. Refuse to respect them and their limitations and get hurt.
 
Grum.Man said:
If they would enforce the camp ground rules there would be a lot more camping spots. Instead you have people roping off .5 acre parcels so their buddies can form a coral of campers and have an area for entertaining. I also saw areas roped off from Saturday till I left on Thursday that weren't occupied.
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Yea I thought the same thing, Fri am before the show there was "acres" roped off for big groups I guess? Didn't remember so much space being roped off last year.
We found where we were was better than our old spot for several reasons so we are headed back to same area next year.

But that campground was not near to being full at any time that I saw. I was amazed how large that place is. I think they converted some of the corn fields to campground recently? There was many spots in the outlying areas that were still pretty good spots. Just a couple miles away from the front gate and the Red Stores.
 
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don't forget the most important safety tip when flying into gaston's......actually in my mind it can be applied anywhere but I'm not a cfi.....




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Kitch said:
What's the secret code words to get on the list ? The girl that answered the phone was adamant there was no list, and they DON'T have rooms for the public during OSH...
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Should be good to call now
 
Grum.Man said:
If they would enforce the camp ground rules there would be a lot more camping spots. Instead you have people roping off .5 acre parcels so their buddies can form a coral of campers and have an area for entertaining. I also saw areas roped off from Saturday till I left on Thursday that weren't occupied.
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it's been a long time since I camped at Scholler, so I don't know how they do it there

At sun n fun, in years past it was a free-for-all. Especially in the over-flow area, there were campers parked at every random angle... with only just a general suggestion of roadways through the area.
This year they had chalk lined (or painted?) lines blocking out sites. It was very nice in many ways, but the sites were rather large so there ended up being far fewer spaces. Nothing is ever perfect.....

Regardless, I've always been torn over the idea of letting folks rope off areas for folks that aren't even there yet. I get it, but also find it a little agrevating too.
 
flyingron said:
The first year the Snowbirds appeared, we were talking to 10 and 11 (the announcer/preplanning crew). He said that the Ripon arrival was on their bucket list but they couldn't do them with their planes. Me and another Navion pilot rose to the call. We took them up and flew formation for a bit and then let them do one landing and then made them fly the approach back into Oshkosh. My guy (callsign Sticky) did pretty well. Naughty dropped Trevor's Navion pretty hard.

I asked what else was on their list. They said they wanted to ride around in one of those Volkswagen bugs. That I could arrange to. Wen to the Vintage chair and borrowed hers for a half an hour or so.

This year surprisingly, we got 16 from the team (both pilots and techs) that wanted to spend a night camping under the wing. They brought Snowbird 10 down and we grabbed a bunch of spare tents from our storage locker. We had some extra sleeping bags, but I went down to Dicks and got six more. Of course, I also got a giant cooler full of local beer for them as well (though some wandered off to the SOS brothers).
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Yet another reason to freaking love the Snowbirds.
 
Grum.Man said:
I averaged about 8-10 miles per day plus a lot of biking. The trams that head through Vintage, ultralight, and down to south 40 are about useless unless you get on at the beginning or end. Made the mistake of going to the seaplane base Wednesday and took forever to get back. They claim another record breaking year but the days I was there the attendance definately felt lighter and airplane parking wasn’t as full as last year. Campers seemed about the same in Scholler.
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This was the first year Scholler actually filled up... And then they opened two new fields they hadn't planned to open until 2026. One person said there was literally a combine clearing one right up until they pulled in.

Our site was a bit further, and we almost didn't get it at all. Friends go in to claim the spot two Thursdays early.
Brad W said:
Regardless, I've always been torn over the idea of letting folks rope off areas for folks that aren't even there yet. I get it, but also find it a little agrevating too.
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To rope off a site, you have to pay for said site, and the site "owner" has to post their camping credentials to keep it reserved.

So yeah, I paid $650 at $36/night so I could camp with my crew.
 
flyingcheesehead said:
......

So yeah, I paid $650 at $36/night so I could camp with my crew.
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yeah sure...it's paid for, paid "ahead of time", and so on.... yeah I get it. And I'm not totally critical of the practice. It's the system that's there and it's a common way to game the system....
but it doesn't exactly smell right to me either. Actually kind of smells rotten.

IF sites are supposed to be first come first serve...and I got there before your "crew", then I should get first choices of spots....
for first come first serve arrangements, the way it should probably work, is that if a crew wants to camp together, they should arrive together.
If you arrive earlier than me, you get to choose your spot before me, but your "crew" isn't there before me so how can they "choose" their spots before me? That's the thing that ain't right about it.
Different thing if it wasn't "first come first serve". Reserve a spot kind of thing....

Just a few weeks ago we were at Disney Springs. Put our name in at a restaurant with a long wait. They took our number and we went roaming around, ended up watching the drone show while we waited. So we got our text message that our table was ready a little early and we had wandered a good distance away. My wife had just started feeling light headed (had fainted a couple of times in recent weeks) so we started towards the place at a careful pace and sent our teens running ahead to let them know we were not no-shows. Thing is, they wouldn't seat part of the party till we were all there together. Fair enough if you ask me. Seat the next group if they're there and ready, and we'll take their table when we get there.
 
Brad W said:
yeah sure...it's paid for, paid "ahead of time", and so on.... yeah I get it. And I'm not totally critical of the practice. It's the system that's there and it's a common way to game the system....
but it doesn't exactly smell right to me either. Actually kind of smells rotten.

IF sites are supposed to be first come first serve...and I got there before your "crew", then I should get first choices of spots....
for first come first serve arrangements, the way it should probably work, is that if a crew wants to camp together, they should arrive together.
If you arrive earlier than me, you get to choose your spot before me, but your "crew" isn't there before me so how can they "choose" their spots before me? That's the thing that ain't right about it.
Different thing if it wasn't "first come first serve". Reserve a spot kind of thing....

Just a few weeks ago we were at Disney Springs. Put our name in at a restaurant with a long wait. They took our number and we went roaming around, ended up watching the drone show while we waited. So we got our text message that our table was ready a little early and we had wandered a good distance away. My wife had just started feeling light headed (had fainted a couple of times in recent weeks) so we started towards the place at a careful pace and sent our teens running ahead to let them know we were not no-shows. Thing is, they wouldn't seat part of the party till we were all there together. Fair enough if you ask me. Seat the next group if they're there and ready, and we'll take their table when we get there.
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The challenge is that EAA doesn't really wanna be in the enforcement business. They would rather rely on reasonable people to do reasonable things. That doesn't always work, but EAA is probably very reluctant to get involved unless they aren't getting paid...
 
yeah, can't blame them. That would be a whole other level of crazy with that many campers!
 
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