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.
Sign In
