Oshkosh 2005

Interesting photo, Mk.12, of you? in front of the Spit….Greenwood had’nt changed the markings on her yet in your photo, she is still wearing the WK-C side codes as opposed to the RJ-M that she now wears….Greenwood makes the Jaunt EVERY year, same for Sun n Fun and same for Midland…providing the plane is airworthy.

Mark

Umm- Yes.

And over the course of ownership years, has I believe, built up in the region a 1000 hours on type.

Mark

Last year, on the flight we did with Mr. Tweed, our flight returned to the airport only to be put in a holding pattern for 30 minutes over Lake Winnebago. We finally had to call min fuel and inform the controllers we were going to have to divert to Fon Du Lac. They did get us back in to OSH, but it was close.

Wasn’t my fault, honest. 😀 Though I did get to know that island we were orbiting real good. Damn fine adventure either way.

Interesting photo, Mk.12, of you? in front of the Spit….Greenwood had’nt changed the markings on her yet in your photo, she is still wearing the WK-C side codes as opposed to the RJ-M that she now wears….Greenwood makes the Jaunt EVERY year, same for Sun n Fun and same for Midland…providing the plane is airworthy.

Mark

I’m skipping Oshkosh this year, as I’ll be in England with the family. That’s OK, as you really don’t need to attend every year. In fact I find that I enjoy Oshkosh more if I don’t go every year, as I tend to forget all the BS that you have to put up with.

For the spectator I would encourage you to go Tues-Friday, as you’ll get to see everything and avoid the weekend crowds. Mark V is correct that many warbirds leave by Friday or Saturday, mainly because we’ve usually been away from home the weekend before flying formation practice somewhere and our wives start to look for us.

The only reason to fly a warbird at Oshkosh is to see old friends. You don’t get paid, and it’s not easy even getting reimbursed for fuel. If you do get a fuel reimbursement it’s based on a complicated formula calculated according to what type aircraft and which show you fly in. The last check I received was a joke compared to what the flight really cost (and the check bounced).

The next problem is that flying in the show eats up most of your day, after you go through all the briefings and pre-flight, so many guys will only fly one day. When we try to fly for fun, or do a photo shoot before or after the show it usually turns into a cluster f*ck getting out and back in. Last year, on the flight we did with Mr. Tweed, our flight returned to the airport only to be put in a holding pattern for 30 minutes over Lake Winnebago. We finally had to call min fuel and inform the controllers we were going to have to divert to Fon Du Lac. They did get us back in to OSH, but it was close.

Oshkosh is hard work…I’m happy to be sitting this one out for 2005.

Steve

Bliss

Could it get any better than this? 28 July 1990

Arrival at Oshkosh after six hours of cross-country from Aspen in interesting weather.

Bliss. 🙂

Mark

A few years back EAA decided that anybody who was not a member of EAA was not allowed to come in to the convention. It was a sort of ‘getting back to the roots’ thing. They would of course sell you a trial membership at the gate, on top of the entrance ticket, but I think it did severley curtail gate receipts and was dropped the following year.

Oshkosh still has the ‘fly-in’ feel in the early part of the week, at least in the warbird area. But by the weekend it is a different place. Last year most of our Mustangs had left by 9.00am on the Saturday.

I think the point here is that Oshkosh is not an airshow. Its a fly-in/convention, albeit on a large scale. The ‘show’ part of it is really to allow the pilots to have a bit of fun, spruce up their formation skills and entertain the public a little.

Yes, that seems like a very accurate way of describing things.

Richard.

Sorry Gary – I forgot the smilie. i was making a flippant remark about numbers, in other words, once you have over 10,000 aeroplanes on one field, who needs to count? 🙂

No worries….Not a very good time for me at the moment and I’m jumping down everyones throats at work as well.
As you say, by the time youve worn your legs down to the knee caps walking round, and then you realise you still havent covered half the field, it doesnt really matter how many there are cos just when you think youve come to the end of one row, you’ll see umpteen more off in the distance….is it possible to become airplane dislexic ?
Its a real mind blower of a place for a first time visitor.

I think the point here is that Oshkosh is not an airshow. Its a fly-in/convention, albeit on a large scale. The ‘show’ part of it is really to allow the pilots to have a bit of fun, spruce up their formation skills and entertain the public a little.

I go on reported figures !. You counted them all maybe ?

Sorry Gary – I forgot the smilie. i was making a flippant remark about numbers, in other words, once you have over 10,000 aeroplanes on one field, who needs to count? 🙂

Oshkosh

Planning to go this year for the first time, possibly with my chequebook just in case a 51 for sale there (?) just blows my frock up and at the right money.

Pacific Fighters – I called them 3 weeks ago to discuss a 51. ‘I’ll get somebody to call you right back’. Well…that was 3 weeks ago and I’m still waiting. It seems that I won’t be a customer of theirs at least. They don’t even have a website.

I see that there is a TF51 for sale @ Sherman. Can anybody PM me with the inside track on this machine? It seems to have been for sale for a while now.

HP

Utter exaggeration – you will be lucky to see any more than 12,000 aircraft at Oshkosh.

I go on reported figures !. You counted them all maybe ?

Hi All,

First Richard the Bad old days of the late 90s and early 2000s when folks won’t come because of infighting with varoius warbird groups have since change Warbirds of America and EAA in general have been trying for the last few years to have a large collection of Warbirds.

Yes if your going to be come to see alot of Warbirds doing profiles and Aerobatics then my I suggest you think about going to Geneseo or Yankee Air Musuem museums show. But if your a straigth Airplane Junkie then their is no place in the World where you will see this many types of aircraft.

I know that the Announcer thing has ben change alot over the past few years, as for the price remember EAA as to pay out a rather large Insurance policy for the show.

As for a list of what aircraft are comming to Oshkosh except for a select group of Warbirds that are invited EAA has know idea what is going to show up. I know alot of Warbird pilots here in the North East New England don’t decide till a month before Oshkosh. Speaking for myself when I went out to Oshkosh with my Moth I wouldn’t decide till two weeks before hand.

So its a little unfair to harp on EAA about what is going to be on display they are try to have aircraft for all walks of aviaition not just us Warbird folks.

Also their is one thing that no one has been talking about and that is the Seminary that EAA holds everything from building your own aircraft to industry question and answering sessions. They also try to have a special group of people every year that speak. Over the years I’ve had the chance to hear the Apollo/Gemini Astronuats, VF-17 Memebers ect.

It is the most sacred event we who love avaition or to put it in another way its are Wailing Wall or Meca.

Cheers
RER

It is a good show, but beware of the unqualified superlatives! I lived in Chicago for several years, and went to four Oshkoshes, two days each time.

This place certainly is heaven if you’re interested in general aviation. It’s very worthwhile if you’re interested in warbirds. It’s fair to pathetic if you want to see modern military hardware.

If your main interest is in classic military aircraft, then think carefully about mortgaging the mother-in-law before spending the cash to cross the pond. Oshkosh is a huge and prestigious show, which guarantees that there are always interesting classic warbirds in attendance – but whether you’ll see them flying or not is a crap shoot. The warbirds part of the flying show is only ever 1.5 hours long, and usually consists of quite a few aircraft in the air at one time, doing circuits, usually with more than one circuit stacked above each other – world war two planes in one circuit, Vietnam FACs and so on in another. You’ll hardly ever see them banking and turning for photo passes as I experienced at the few UK shows I’ve attended. In 2003 I think it was, a short thunderstorm came through just before the simulated four-ship Reno Air Race, two planes took off but diverted to other air fields, the other two sat on the ground and waited it out. They then took off, did a simulated two-ship Reno Air Race and then did a simulated bombing run to light the Wall of Fire, which is normally done by a B-17 or B-25 during the warbirds display! Well, that day there was no warbirds display, they cancelled it because of the thunderstorm, which really didn’t last that long. And this a few hours after five or six general aviation planes had been doing endless circuits for 15 or 20 minutes in what amounted to little more than an extended sales pitch.

If you’re a modern military enthusiast then the situation’s even worse. The show is so big that they certainly can’t allow one of the jet display teams to dominate it, so they never come. There’s usually a harrier doing a display, but often that’s about it, though they will usually have a transport like a C-17 or something. The announcers seem to have very little interest in the modern stuff – I took a crappy shot of an F-18 taking off at one show, the first thing I knew about it was when I heard him thundering down the runway, and the announcer casually mentioned the takeoff only after he’d rotated. One year during a long pause in the program they announced that the next day there’d be a B-2 flypast, but on the day his approach wasn’t mentioned until he was on top of the field, and although I was ready and took photos, most of the crowd was away from the flight line, because again this happened during a long pause in the show.

Over the period I attended I developed very, very strong mixed feelings about this show. Yeah, it’s huge, but I got a distinct impression of arrogance on the part of the organizers, like we the public were so privileged to be allowed into their event. It’s sure expensive enough, at $30 a day (plus $5 for parking) it’s far more than any other airshow I know of in the States, and yet it’s my understanding that the EAA expects the warbirds and other fliers to volunteer their services without payment. I’ve heard various other grumblings from warbird owners too, but since this is such a prestigious show the organizers can get away with it. Finally, I was pretty annoyed in 2002 that they didn’t post a list of the warbirds which were expected to attend until 4 weeks before the show; so imagine how surprised I was when in 2003 they never posted any list at all! Yes, I know that aircraft often can’t make it because of mechanical problems and other reasons, but we’re adults, we understand that, and I would imagine that having a list of expected aircraft is a major factor for overseas visitors deciding whether to attend. This year they’re saying that the daily line-up will be posted “just prior to opening day”, tough luck if you need to make a decision a month or two in advance!

Everyone’s entitled to their opinion, and my opinion is mixed. I’ve seen some amazing and rare aircraft flying there, and sat through long periods of boredom to do it. Your experience will depend largely on your expectations. Just be careful if someone tells you that this show is better than sex, the Beatles or God.

Richard.

I’ve been twice with this group and would definitely go again with them if I could, however 6 months of unemployment has put a big hole in my finances. If you only go abroad to one air show this year, Oshkosh has to be the one!
http://www.baes.org.uk/

Went for the second time 2 summers ago with friends from the UK who had never been before, they were utterly blown away by it and could’nt believe all that they saw…we wandered the ramp from the show center to the south and it took all afternoon to do, stopping and seeing things and talking with folks and watching the show (the thing that caught their interest the most was Jimmy Franklin with his Waco with a Jet engine on it!)
It is an experience not to be believed, even if you just limit yourself to the warbird area and do nothing else….but you don’t want to do that, there is SIMPLY too much to see…

Mark

Utter exaggeration – you will be lucky to see any more than 12,000 aircraft at Oshkosh.

I flew last year with :-

http://www.ianallan.com/travel/aviation/index.htm

all inclusive of air travel from UK to Oshkosh, then coach from Hotel (accommodation incl) to airfield and back each day. Did the 8 day trip, and am busy saving to go this year.

any body who’se thought about it but prefers to ‘do’ the UK shows….well, I looked into prices and how many ‘planes you’d see at a show and found that 2 full days at Legends worked out at around 28p per aircraft photo’d, when Oshkosh worked out at around 0.002 p per aircraft and if you havent been before, every one of the fifteen thousand planes you’ll see at the show, are all guaranteed to be new to you !. Where else can you get a ride in B17 ? certainly not in the UK.

Go…..or regret it

which is the best way to get there from the UK

This is the year to come, exchange rate is fantastic if you’ve got pounds.

It’s about time someone from the UK organised a direct charter to Oshkosh like the Aussies & South Africans do every couple of years.

Most economic way is typically to fly direct into Chicago and rent a car – 3hr drive north. Housing: for the true Oshkosh experience you can camp economically in the EAA Campgrounds for $18 a night. Hotels are very expensive (even if you can get a room) University sometimes has some rooms, much more affordable. Lots of local people rent out rooms in their houses, or even their whole house. Again this can be a lot more affordable than a hotel. Oshkosh housing info

PFA do an organized trip

I finally got there last year.

If you haven’t been, and are thinking of going – go.

It’s about the only place that’s exceeded the higest expectations placed up on it. Or in English – it’s better than you’ve been told, and you’ve been told it’s the best.

Go on sell the spouse/dog/house/family/Spitfire-kitplane-plans/drugs and just do it.

~Advert over~ 😀

Hmmm. what can I sell to go?