OshKosh 2008...what a mess...

Pretty accurate summary for us as well. It's become the designated "Daddy and kids" time. We've missed but one year since around 1994. One thing I've not figured out is how the acclimation works. I wonder if there was a 50th anniversary or something around '94 when I first went. I was an Aero Engineering undergrad with an unhealthy addiction to all things flying. To call it overwhelming is a bit of an understatement - my experience bordered on religious. I remember calling my wife when a huge wing of fighters & bombers made an overflight. While I still love Oshkosh and look forward to it every year, nothing compares to my experience that first year. I wonder now if that first year was really something special vis-a-vis war birds (buy OSH standards) or if it was just the impact of the first visit.
Jeff

Jay Honeck said:
One thing about Airventure is that it has a cumulative effect on your psyche. At first, it's just like you describe -- overwhelming...

But however you experience it, there's simply nothing else like it...
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jsbougher said:
Pretty accurate summary for us as well. It's become the designated "Daddy and kids" time. We've missed but one year since around 1994. One thing I've not figured out is how the acclimation works. I wonder if there was a 50th anniversary or something around '94 when I first went. I was an Aero Engineering undergrad with an unhealthy addiction to all things flying. To call it overwhelming is a bit of an understatement - my experience bordered on religious. I remember calling my wife when a huge wing of fighters & bombers made an overflight. While I still love Oshkosh and look forward to it every year, nothing compares to my experience that first year. I wonder now if that first year was really something special vis-a-vis war birds (buy OSH standards) or if it was just the impact of the first visit.
Jeff
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50th Anniversary of the Air Force (and Chuck Yeager breaking the sound barrier)?

That's when CAF was still coming and they had 200 Warbirds overhead at the same time, including the B-29 FiFi.

They haven't duplicated that since.
 
Yes, it was Col McGee, and he was a gentleman. I have some contacts and am trying to arrange a ride in a P-51D, or possibly even an F-16 for him. He is truly a class act.
 
TMetzinger said:
Thank goodness the food vendors are cash only. And there are ATM's available if you didn't bring enough cash.
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What would be wrong with credit cards at the food vendors, if paper slips and signatures weren't required? Many vendors (think fast food) don't require signatures for purchases under $30.
 
mikea said:
I was wondering about Segways. I was trying to think of a more fashionable way of getting around.
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I did see a guy on a Segway inside the grounds. He said he's not allowed to go "just anywhere" with it. He was an EAA official of some sort.
 
TangoWhiskey said:
What would be wrong with credit cards at the food vendors, if paper slips and signatures weren't required? Many vendors (think fast food) don't require signatures for purchases under $30.
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Yeah, but then you'd need to find a place on the grounds where you could get a meal for less than $30. :rofl:

(Just kidding - It's usually more like $10 for a meal.)
 
TangoWhiskey said:
I did see a guy on a Segway inside the grounds. He said he's not allowed to go "just anywhere" with it. He was an EAA official of some sort.
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I sat next to a guy at a forum years ago who told me at a previous year he won a raffle prize for the use of a van at Oshkosh for the whole show week. It came with the pass to allow him to drive and park anywhere on the grounds except the runway - only because it didn't have the gumball lights. B)

Like I said, V.I.Ps...or as we say in Chicaguh "It's not what you know. It's who you know."
 
TangoWhiskey said:
What would be wrong with credit cards at the food vendors, if paper slips and signatures weren't required? Many vendors (think fast food) don't require signatures for purchases under $30.
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OK, so now we need multiple phone lines, (about 30 for the food court in Aeroshell square since that's how many registers they have, plus all the other tent based food vendors).

Just bring some cash already, or hit the ATM.
 
TMetzinger said:
OK, so now we need multiple phone lines, (about 30 for the food court in Aeroshell square since that's how many registers they have, plus all the other tent based food vendors).

Just bring some cash already, or hit the ATM.
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Not that I care either way...but no you do not.

Almost all small, mobile vendors that take cards now utilize one that is attached to a cell phone.

Hell if a bunch of medieval geeks (the SCA) who vend to people that whack each other with wooden swords can use them, I am sure the food people at EAA Airventure can.
 
tdager said:
Not that I care either way...but no you do not.

Almost all small, mobile vendors that take cards now utilize one that is attached to a cell phone.

Hell if a bunch of medieval geeks (the SCA) who vend to people that whack each other with wooden swords can use them, I am sure the food people at EAA Airventure can.
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Not only that but EAA has had a private WiFi network on the AirVenture site for years. It's how all of those membership and admissions kiosks get online.
 
tdager said:
Not that I care either way...but no you do not.

Almost all small, mobile vendors that take cards now utilize one that is attached to a cell phone.

Hell if a bunch of medieval geeks (the SCA) who vend to people that whack each other with wooden swords can use them, I am sure the food people at EAA Airventure can.
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When an SCA gathering is as large as OSH, let me know how their food service is run.
 
Actually, the whole cell phone/wi fi system at OSH was VERY VERY sluggish this year. We had all kinds of problems logging on and uploading data from Hangar 57. Also, cell phones worked about half the time. So if more vendors had been utilizing those services, it would have been messy....long lines, angry customers, etc......
 
I understand that the AT&T cell system was swamped. I had no problems with my Verizon.
 
4763e said:
Actually, the whole cell phone/wi fi system at OSH was VERY VERY sluggish this year. We had all kinds of problems logging on and uploading data from Hangar 57. Also, cell phones worked about half the time. So if more vendors had been utilizing those services, it would have been messy....long lines, angry customers, etc......
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Overuse!!! Heck, it was hard getting any kind of decent bandwidth through the WiFi even at 3 AM.

gprellwitz said:
I understand that the AT&T cell system was swamped. I had no problems with my Verizon.
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One of the Cirrus PR folks had a Verizon cell phone (hasn't been issued her Blackberry yet, I guess) and she was having a lot of problems with it.

There were DEFINITELY too many iPhones on site (seemed like everybody had one!), AT&T got absolutely clobbered. I even had text messages that took 6 hours to get through! Outgoing calls were maybe 50/50.
 
Since I don't work for any of the affected systems, I guess I can share a bit. ATT had a server suffer a stack overflow that serves a lot of GSM data sessions. The clustering failover apparently became corrupted when trying to recover the active sessions(there were a lot). I heard it handled much of the upper midwest, which would include OSH. I had no trouble on Thursday getting data in and out, but before that, it was hit and miss for a while.
 
TMetzinger said:
When an SCA gathering is as large as OSH, let me know how their food service is run.
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Try Pennsic, not quite as big, I will grant you, but 10,000 people over the course of the event is still a LOT!
 
docmirror said:
Since I don't work for any of the affected systems, I guess I can share a bit. ATT had a server suffer a stack overflow that serves a lot of GSM data sessions. The clustering failover apparently became corrupted when trying to recover the active sessions(there were a lot). I heard it handled much of the upper midwest, which would include OSH. I had no trouble on Thursday getting data in and out, but before that, it was hit and miss for a while.
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That's probably what I heard about when I was there on Wednesday! :yes:
Of course, my phone call from Verizon to AT&T (Kent's iPhone as he was in line in front of me at lunch), seemed to go fine for both of us.
 
flyingcheesehead said:
"Not quite?" OSH has that many airplanes. 10,000 people is nothing.
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Nevermind...I forgot that we cannot show other large events in comparision.

OK...how about the Olympics? Or ANY major sporting event?

All we are saying is that the technology exists to take debit/credit cards.
 
TangoWhiskey said:
Ditto... no problems for me either. Must have been all those iPhone users. B)
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My Verizon phone worked great too.

As a matter of fact, since the WiFi really sucked there, I was usingmy laptop with a Verizon aircard and was getting better speeds up there than I get here in Columbus!
 
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