First Thoughts: OSH 2016

Guess no OSH for me this year. Was filling the tanks saturday morning before sun-up, right tank was streaming out fuel. And then I noticed the leaking brake line. My weather window for VFR back/forth is closing up. If anyone needs a ticket, let me know. Make an offer.
 
OSH is now closed for camping and parking for those without reservations. Not too bad for before 9:00 AM first day.
 
JB1842 said:
OSH is now closed for camping and parking for those without reservations. Not too bad for before 9:00 AM first day.
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Yeah, it's amazing. Even with flying in the dumpster, and craptastic weather yesterday, they have filled to capacity. It is awesome!

I guess everyone saved their flying nickels for the annual pilgrimage.

On the flipside: Judging by what we have seen and heard on the radio (from people who are not supposed to be talking at all!) there are a lot of rusty pilots here.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
 
What are the odds people leave and open up some camping spots in the next few days?
 
JB1842 said:
OSH is now closed for camping and parking for those without reservations. Not too bad for before 9:00 AM first day.
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Ron was saying they temporarily took out about 25 rows of parking this year near the Hilton for reseeding but I agree it's pretty good.
 
Show plane and homebuilt parking is still open if your plane qualifies.
 
Listening to the Fisk controllers, it sounds like someof the spots got too wet from the rain. So maybe more will open up when the ground dries.
 
Sucks that I flew all the way from Texas just so I can hope there's a chance that maybe I can make it to Oshkosh. Based on the EAA website, they aren't even confident they'll be able to let anyone in tomorrow.
 
aggie06 said:
Sucks that I flew all the way from Texas just so I can hope there's a chance that maybe I can make it to Oshkosh. Based on the EAA website, they aren't even confident they'll be able to let anyone in tomorrow.
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You need to get here on Sunday with us!
 
aggie06 said:
Sucks that I flew all the way from Texas just so I can hope there's a chance that maybe I can make it to Oshkosh. Based on the EAA website, they aren't even confident they'll be able to let anyone in tomorrow.
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Glad you made it in.
nice talking with you at Jays party.
 
Thanks for the hospitality and shirt, Jay! See you next year or with any luck sometime before then.
 
weirdjim said:
Who all is going and what and how and where and why?
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After watching my grandson's showcase performance Friday afternoon, and extracting him from the dorm (where he spent the last six weeks) on Saturday morning, we drove from Milwaukee to Oshkosh and spent the day there. The weather was wonderful, the insects almost nonexistent, and our fellow event-goers mostly tolerable. It was, by my standards, extremely crowded. I was able to see the three new aircraft I wanted to see, was able to see some vintage aircraft that were fascinating to me, and we watched the first hour or so of the afternoon airshow. However, the announcer for the show was insufferable (electing to pontificate on Rosie the Riveter, and to read a letter from a WWII POW, instead of announcing the airshow itself), and we elected to not suffer further at his efforts.
It was a good trip and I am glad we went.
 
I left early this morning after being there since Sunday. One of the highlights for me was seeing the U2 flyover on Friday. A low point was sharing my tent on Friday night with a large number of insects because it was accidentally left open and I was too tired/drunk to properly evacuate the uninvited guests.
 
Last morning in OSH. Long day of flying ahead...

It was great seeing everyone.

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Jay Honeck said:
Last morning in OSH. Long day of flying ahead...

It was great seeing everyone.

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woah, is that Tinker Belle? She's based at Monroe EQY just outside of charlotte....very cool!
 
Thank you Mary & Jay for your hospitality. I got lucky when arriving; blissfully ignorant of the parking problems the first half of the week we showed up at RIPON Wednesday morning around 10 AM. We'd been off the grid a bit in the UP/Copper Harbor prior to. We looked all around and seeing no one while following the tracks to FISK the controller finally asked, is anybody out there, and where you from? We piped up, 'Ohio!' as did some planes somewhere well behind us, but at that moment we were the first on the arrival. We heard there was no space for day campers but Overnight camping was open. We landed on 36R 500' past the red dot upon request (didn't realize it was the taxiway at the time), ending up in row 518, very near the Honecks and the bathhouse and store. I couldn't imagine a more ideal location for a first timer. We caught the very end of the Jay & Mary confab, met a couple of POA-ers, had a couple beers and turned in after a long & tiring day.

The flight home Saturday morning was interesting. EZ departure, Chicago skyline tour at 1200' MSL, MVFR SE of Gary, departure in rain to get ahead of blooming wx badness, and fine VFR from Ft Wayne on home to Columbus. It was cloudy and cool at OSH the 2nd half of the week which made it comfortable for traipsing all over the grounds and for sleeping at night.
 
We drove up from CID on Thursday afternoon. It was another great show imo. My dad has not flown or held a medical in 20 years (was a CFI back in the day) so our goals were to get an idea of some plane options for him to buy if he get's his medical back as well as what modern flying is like. The highlight was just spending time with my dad doing what we loving...being around aviation.
 
Dennis McKim said:
After watching my grandson's showcase performance Friday afternoon, and extracting him from the dorm (where he spent the last six weeks) on Saturday morning, we drove from Milwaukee to Oshkosh and spent the day there. The weather was wonderful, the insects almost nonexistent, and our fellow event-goers mostly tolerable. It was, by my standards, extremely crowded. I was able to see the three new aircraft I wanted to see, was able to see some vintage aircraft that were fascinating to me, and we watched the first hour or so of the afternoon airshow. However, the announcer for the show was insufferable (electing to pontificate on Rosie the Riveter, and to read a letter from a WWII POW, instead of announcing the airshow itself), and we elected to not suffer further at his efforts.
It was a good trip and I am glad we went.
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You mean the guy that is well known and regarded as the best airshow announcer and does an excellent job of not just saying "Hey he is doing such and such maneuver sponsored by xyz check them out in booth 123". I agree it can get old at times but that stuff is more than just a plane. It is history and has a story to tell just as much as the men who flew them and the men and women who built them.
 
Cykoguy said:
You mean the guy that is well known and regarded as the best airshow announcer and does an excellent job of not just saying "Hey he is doing such and such maneuver sponsored by xyz check them out in booth 123". I agree it can get old at times but that stuff is more than just a plane. It is history and has a story to tell just as much as the men who flew them and the men and women who built them.
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Had he included both, it would not have been so irksome. The fact that he dwelt on *his* experiences in visiting museums, at the expense of describing the actual aircraft in front of us, was poor form.
Nevertheless, my post was my impressions of the event (including the airshow). It was subjective opinion, and I have no desire to enggage anyone in a preadolescent urinating contest about it.
 
I can't stand the airshow announcers either. I wish they would just introduce the pilot then shut up for the rest of the routine. I suppose they are entertaining for the general public but for anyone who knows anything about flying they are down right annoying.
 
I was only able to make it Friday. Didn't even watch half the airshow. I admire the skill of the pilots, but the same acts over and over get old. Don't really pay attention to the announcer, either.
 
Grum.Man said:
I can't stand the airshow announcers either. I wish they would just introduce the pilot then shut up for the rest of the routine. I suppose they are entertaining for the general public but for anyone who knows anything about flying they are down right annoying.
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I agree but this sentiment is pretty common across many platforms. Avid sports fans hate TV pxp and color guys for the same reason. They don't add anything for people that already know what is happening and rarely provide deep analysis.

I also have little to no interest in airshows anymore for the same reasons I think we all do. Same stuff over and over by a different person in a slightly different plane. Don't get me started on the stupid jet powered truck/bus/whatever thing. Sadly the KC airshow last year hit on every issue I have with airshows.

At EAA the airshow is the best time to go through the exhibit hangars and see all the stuff that everyone else has now vacated.
 
It is quite simple: Just look at the schedule and only go see the stuff that is interesting. I want to see old and new warbirds flying. Watching someone twirling in the sky in their Extra? No thanks. And if I never see Gene Soucy or Patty Wagstaff again that will be too soon and all the idiotic commentary along with it. Sure they're talented and I could never do what they do but to watch the same old boring routines again and again and again... I don't get it.
 
Highlight of my trip was camping next to Kevin Lacey and watching some other campers "repo" his tent. :)
 
KFD said:
It is quite simple: Just look at the schedule and only go see the stuff that is interesting. I want to see old and new warbirds flying. Watching someone twirling in the sky in their Extra? No thanks. And if I never see Gene Soucy or Patty Wagstaff again that will be too soon and all the idiotic commentary along with it. Sure they're talented and I could never do what they do but to watch the same old boring routines again and again and again... I don't get it.
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Like someone said, "when you've seen 46 airshows, you've seen them all." This used to be called "Airvention", back in the day. WE go for the Convention, the other half goes for the Airshows, to see the "impossible" things.

Introducing new people to aviation is always a good thing, a few of them will eventually get the bug for flying from it, hopefully.
 
Dennis McKim said:
However, the announcer for the show was insufferable (electing to pontificate on Rosie the Riveter, and to read a letter from a WWII POW, instead of announcing the airshow itself), and we elected to not suffer further at his efforts.
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There's only so many times you can say "...and that's yet another Extra pilot doing an inverted flat spin with a recovery to a split-S."

Anyone who's been to more than one airshow tuned a receiver to the Air Boss frequency and the team frequencies and shoved an earpiece in their ear -- long long before they got anywhere near the flight line.

"Everybody give the guy or gal in the 500 horsepower aircraft with an ANR headset on... A nice big round of applause!" ROFLMAO.
 
Still to this day, Reading Air Show in 1976 was my favorite. Bob Hoover, Art Scholl, think the Blues were there, Goodyear blimp. A few military planes painted up for the Bicentennial. About all I remember. Used to be a great airshow every year.
 
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I could also go another life time without ever seeing another P-51 low pass, T-6/T-28 fly over, or Tora Tora routine. I just can't get into the warbirds especially P-51's. They are like the Cessna 172 of WWII airplanes, you see them every where you go. Probably the only WWII demo I have ever enjoyed was the Wildcat solo routine last year at Oshkosh. To see such a rare aircraft flown so precisely was amazing.
 
denverpilot said:
Anyone who's been to more than one airshow tuned a receiver to the Air Boss frequency and the team frequencies and shoved an earpiece in their ear -- long long before they got anywhere near the flight line.
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I had to laugh on Friday afternoon when one of the announcers said that there was yet again somebody on the Air Boss frequency with a stuck mic and said that the previous day they'd located the dude who had a stuck mic on his handheld: He was asleep with the handheld jammed on under his fat a**. :D I just visualized a rough waking up session, maybe even some cold water.
 
KFD said:
I had to laugh on Friday afternoon when one of the announcers said that there was yet again somebody on the Air Boss frequency with a stuck mic and said that the previous day they'd located the dude who had a stuck mic on his handheld: He was asleep with the handheld jammed on under his fat a**. :D I just visualized a rough waking up session, maybe even some cold water.
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I caught that too. Notice I said "receiver" and not "transceiver". Although a transceiver with the PTT locked out (Yaesu offers this, Icom doesn't. Need latest firmware...) is fine also.
 
And to wrap it up... FINAL thoughts/numbers from Oshkosh 2016...

‪#‎OSH16‬ facts and figures ...

Attendance: Approximately 563,000, an increase of nearly one percent over 2015.

Pelton: “Our attendance was particularly outstanding, since we had some weather challenges mid-week compared to seven perfect days in 2015. Our grounds crew and our volunteers, who number more than 5,000, did a superb job keeping the site ready for visitors and campers who arrived by ground or by air.”

Total aircraft: More than 10,000 aircraft arrived at Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh and other airports in east-central Wisconsin.

Total showplanes: 2,855 (up 7 percent over 2015)
1,124 homebuilt aircraft (up 11 percent)
1,032 vintage airplanes (up 7 percent)
371 warbirds (up 6 percent)
135 ultralights and light-sport aircraft
101 seaplanes
31 rotorcraft
41 aerobatic aircraft
20 non-categorized aircraft

Commercial exhibitors: Final total of 891, a 10 percent increase over EAA AirVenture 2015.

Forums and Workshops: A total of 1,050 sessions attended by more than 75,000 people.

Social Media, Internet and Mobile: More than 35 million people were reached by EAA’s social media channels during AirVenture; EAA AirVenture app had 1.6 million screen views; EAA video clips during the event were viewed 957,000 times; and EAA’s 1,100 photo uploads were viewed more than 7.4 million times.

Guests registered at International Visitors Tent: A record 2,369 visitors registered from a record-tying 80 nations. Top countries represented: Canada (578 visitors), Australia (340), and Argentina (167). [NOTE: Actual international attendance by country is undoubtedly higher, since these are self-reported figures only.]
Media: 750 media representatives on-site, from six continents.
 
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