Given you've attended consistently for such a long time, what would you say has been the biggest change you can visibly notice/pinpoint throughout the years as it pertains to the attendance, demographics, and/or the event itself? I'm genuinely curious if anything can be drawn regarding our avocation's makeup and prognosis, then and now, as a function of this event's attendance patterns and/or general landscape.
Oshkosh has been remarkably unchanging, given it's complete turnover of personnel over the last 35 years, but it is also completely different. Let me explain this strange contradiction.
Here's what hasn't changed: It is still the preeminent gathering place for people who, like me, cannot live without General Aviation. If you want to learn, experience, or just plain enjoy aviation, Oshkosh has been -- and still is -- THE place to be in July each year. Like lemmings to the sea, we return, driven by some mysterious internal mechanism that most people do not have and cannot fathom.
What's changed? Everything. In 1983, my first year at OSH, G.A. was still near its peak of popularity. The World War II guys ran the show, and they were EVERYWHERE. They were still flying in large numbers, and their attitudes and influences were imprinted in the DNA of the event, from the more relaxed attitudes about safety procedures to the fact that everyone (including me) still smoked pretty much everywhere EXCEPT the flightline.
It was smaller, then, maybe a tiny bit bigger than Sun N Fun is today. There were no big exhibit buildings, and no Aeroshell Square (or whatever they are calling it now). In fact, the end of the exhibit area was West of where the buildings are today. The museum was not open yet. Forums were held in old army tents that smelled of wet canvas and tobacco smoke. And not just anyone could get into the flightline area -- it required a special pass that was NOT cheap by 1983 standards -- at least not to this recent college grad working his first full-time job.
In fact, the event was so expensive for us that we could only afford to go on the field for one or two days. The other two days, we watched arrivals from a big earthen railroad overpass (long since torn down) that looked down Rwy 9 from the East. We also watched the show from the Oshkosh plant, still located on the West side of Rwy 36. Amazingly, I don't remember there being any security to defeat in order to get in there. I will bet THAT has changed!
Homebuilts were kit-planes, built from plans. Van's, now so dominant, did not yet exist. Guys like Steve Wittman, Pappy Boyington, and most of the Doolittle Raiders were out walking the flightline every day. Bob Hoover flew every day. So did Paul Poberezny.
Young guys like me -- wannabees -- were tolerated with a certain sort of resignation. The World War II guys were at the peak of their earning powers, the peak of their flying, and the peak of their political clout. A wide-eyed guy like me in his 20s was treated sort of like a dumb but necessary pet, but I eagerly lapped everything up. I had never seen anything like Oshkosh, and after a few days I really started to believe that maybe someday I really COULD fly! (It would take me another 11 years to achieve that impossible goal.)
The attitudes were so different. Unlike today, everyone felt that GA, although down slightly from the 1970s, was poised for HUGE expansion. We all looked around and thought "how could this cool thing ever NOT grow"? Optimism ruled the show. The future looked bright.
What is Oshkosh now? I have come to refer to it as "The Grand Illusion", where once a year pilots and enthusiasts still gather in numbers where we can all pretend that GA is healthy. We look at the new products, marvel at the airplanes, revel in each others company, have one HELL of a great time -- and then we all fly back to our dead airports, with their permanently closed hangars and deserted FBOs, and wonder why no one is flying anymore.
And we wonder how much longer this can go on. How long will taxpayers tolerate spending millions on airports that are utilized by so few pilots? How long will the country let a shrinking group of citizen pilots roam the skies nearly unfettered? What's going to happen to the airplanes that never fly anymore? For every step forward (medical reform) there seems to be two steps back. (ATC privatization; GA manufacturers selling fewer planes annually than Lamborghini sold supercars). Pessimism now percolates just beneath the jovial surface of the event.
Oshkosh has been my happy place for over a third of a century. I don't ever want it to end, and I will continue to do everything in my power to save it, and GA.
I hope to see y'all there!
Trying to decide whether to go over this year for some of the Apollo events. Had hoped to see Gene Kranz talk last year but he had to cancel.
