Newbie to AirVenture. Flying in with Wed AM arrival OK for N40 Camping?

My wife (also a pilot) and I are flying our 182S from N. CA to OSH this year and plan on camping in the North 40 area. This will be our first time, so we have a lot to learn to prepare! (I'm already digesting the AirVenture NOTAM and info on the web site.)

I'm shooting to arrive on Wed. between 7-7:30 AM. Is it likely that there will still be space at the N40 camping area? How has it been mid-week in the past several years. Was it always available?

I'm hoping that by Wed some of the early arrivals will have headed out, opening up room.

Any and all suggestions are appreciated. We're looking forward to the Oshkosh experience :)

Except for the year where the N40 was practically flooded by the rains (Sloshkosh year), I don't know if the N40 has ever actually "filled up." It might have transiently closed because they hadn't figured out where all the space available was. The parking vs. camping border has always been flexible up there. You just get further from the showers, etc...

Eric,
While Flight Line Operations volunteers make every effort to keep the North Forty aircraft parking areas open to new arrivals, no one can predict when or if these areas will fill. Other than the 2010 rain event that Ron noted, the last year when these areas were closed on a Wednesday morning was in 2005. The areas reopened to new arrivals at 10 AM that year. Be sure to plan for an alternate airport (such as Fond du Lac) regardless of when you plan to arrive.

You may be interested in a June 11th webinar on the arrival/departure procedures (register at eaa.org/webinars). Have a great trip!

-Fred Stadler, EAA volunteer NOTAM chairman

I doubt it would be a problem. You can also check the web site and maybe by phone on camping availability. I'm talking the day prior to your arrival.

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Originally Posted by EricS

My wife (also a pilot) and I are flying our 182S from N. CA to OSH this year and plan on camping in the North 40 area. This will be our first time, so we have a lot to learn to prepare! (I'm already digesting the AirVenture NOTAM and info on the web site.)

I'm shooting to arrive on Wed. between 7-7:30 AM. Is it likely that there will still be space at the N40 camping area? How has it been mid-week in the past several years. Was it always available?

I'm hoping that by Wed some of the early arrivals will have headed out, opening up room.

Any and all suggestions are appreciated. We're looking forward to the Oshkosh experience :)

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Your assumptions about mid-week are correct. There are always plenty of slots by then and you should get a reasonably good space backfilling for someone who already left. You might do even better if you arrived at 10:00 or 11:00, but you'd probably have to deal with more inbound traffic.

Good luck and have fun!

As Fred and I stated, you'll probably get in. Early in the morning is perhaps the best time to try as things aren't likely to have been backed up by then. The north 40 tends to get bogged down because they have more people trying to get in from the movement area than they can handle when they are "backfilling" spots. Just have a place picked out to wait out the delay. There are a number of nice little fields around Oshkosh with inexpensive fuel, showers, some have restaurants, etc... to wait it out.

We don't have that problem in Vintage as we'll just stick you in what we call "Fond Du Lac" (way down south of the runways), though we endeavor like the North 40 to find the spaces of departing planes and recycle them rapidly. If the arrival flow is low, we'll send guys around to write down where the spaces are and report back to the taxiway wight hat information. If it gets busy, we'll just send you south and worry about it later.

Ron's favorite outliers for Oshkosh:

Capitol Airport (02C) - 56 SSE of OSH Cheap gas including auto fuel. Nice people. A few restaurants less than a block from the FBO building (Culvers, Subway, ...)

Clintonville Muni (CLI) - 38 N of OSH. Very cheap fuel. Unattended mostly but the FBO building is left unlocked. Shower in the men's room (I've been known to run up there in the middle of the show for a shower and fill up).

New Holstein (8DI) - 19 E of OSH. Directly across like Winnebago from the show. Fuel's not the cheapest but the cub guys usually have a mini-airshow going on over there during Airventure so you can kill some time looking at those.

I'm sure others can chime in on some others (especially on the west/southwest side).

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Originally Posted by FlyingRon

Ron's favorite outliers for Oshkosh:

Capitol Airport (02C) - 56 SSE of OSH Cheap gas including auto fuel. Nice people. A few restaurants less than a block from the FBO building (Culvers, Subway, ...)

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Right across the street from Capitol Airport is Jake's Restaurant for more delicious (and expensive) dinning. For those outside the Midwest, its a chance to try pan-fried walleye, a delicacy most often enjoyed in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Jake's has a nice wine list also, but that means you won't be going anywhere for eight hours unless you have a designated flyer with you.

I saw Jakes, but we were there too early in the day for that. I'll have to keep that in mind in case we end up there later in the day.

I did get to try the Safe House down in Milwuakee one year when we drove up.

My favorite spot after wandering about on a hot day at Oshkosh is to catch the bus over to Friar Tucks and enjoy a sandwich and one of Wisconsin's finest brews. On another note: I flew the L16 in last year about midmorning during the week and it took me at least 30-40 minutes of idle time to get parked in the vintage area as I think they were using the same taxiway for departures as well as arrivals to the vintage camping area. While the waiting time didn't bother me (could still watch airplanes :) I was concerned about all the idle time and lack of cooling on my new cylinders.