We - myself, my wife, and our kids aged 5 and 7 - had another great time this year, camping as we usually do in the North 40, from Wednesday through Sunday. I recall after last year's event, reading a thread talking about what people liked and didn't about the way the show went, and I learned a lot from that thread about how things are run behind the scenes, which helped my perspective of the issues a lot, so I thought I would post something similar this year. Hopefully others can add their own experiences as well.
First, the "good":
- The volunteers and even most other show attendees were EXTREMELY friendly and helpful this year. We came in right after the big storm Wednesday morning and got stuck in the mud taxiing to a camping spot in the N40. Many people, both official volunteers and just other attendees, came to help me dig in the mud to get my wheel pants off, some other volunteers drove up with ramps, and we got my plane unstuck within an hour or so.
- My daughter came running around the tent and ran right into the elevator, giving herself a gash and big welt just over her eye. Again, the volunteers were great with getting a cold pack and even giving us a ride direct to the first aid center, where she was seen by a doctor, immediately, for free. Wish my own doctor's office would be so quick and friendly. Many other examples this year. Maybe just not having another "Sloshkosh" put people in a good mood, but it was just great this year.
- We just had a great time, and are already looking forward to next year. Oshkosh really is a highlight of our summer and I just want to emphasize how much we love it, so that my suggestions below can be taken in the right context - as things that just might be tweaked to help improve what is already a great experience.
Now, the "bad" - or perhaps the "could be improved":
- Still would like more clarity on hours of operation of dining, trams, museum, etc. Some of this information is available in various places such as some versions of the maps (but not all!), the official guide, a paper "Dining Guide" available at some of the food concessions. But other information, like museum hours, seemed not available - we just happened to see a posted sign saying the museum closed at 3pm on Thursday, for example. And what's up with the "Pre/Post Tram Busing"? I guess buses take over the tram routes after the trams stop - but is this on all days? All tram lines? What hours? Similarly, I heard that the north 40 bus runs until midnight from some people, the map said it runs until 11:30, and a driver told me it runs later when the Fly-In Theater runs late. (We left before the end of Apollo 13 so that we would be sure to be able to catch a N40 bus since we were parked past the Hilton and didn't want to walk that far with the kids).
The gist of this paragraph is simply: Could we have ONE location, preferably online, where we could see it before the show while planning our trip, that lists the hours of: all trams, all buses, each food concession, museum, exhibit hangars, etc.? That would be so helpful!- We noticed a lot more people than usual around the North 40 who weren't camping there. Normally it's not a huge deal but this time there were many people who were not quite suspicious enough to report or confront but just suspicious-looking enough to have us worried about the security of the campsite. There were tents set up in the middle of nowhere, without an airplane to be seen, people milling around, etc.
- A related problem was the LARGE number of people parking/camping outside the N40 gates but who used the shower houses and buses. For example, after Sat night's airshow, there were probably 300 people waiting for a North 40 bus. When we finally got on a bus (standing room only), all but 5 people - literally, not exaggerating - got off at the Hardee's or Friar Tuck's gate and walked out. I'm sure some were campers who wanted a late night snack/drink but the vast majority of people were obviously just parked outside the gates and using the North 40 transportation to get to their vehicles and avoid the parking fee.
I don't want to be snobbish or exclusive, but I do wonder if there is some way to slightly clamp down on who can be coming and going through the campsites?- Tram rules. Need some consistency here. Because we have two young ones, we do use the trams quite a bit. Once we missed our stop on the yellow tram (I thought there was one more stop and was wrong), and when we got to the end of the line in Vintage, the tram volunteer said we had to get off - we couldn't stay on to ride back the other way. Okay, no problem; we got off and waited in line again. But the next several trams that came had different volunteers who did NOT force everyone off. So it took a while to get back on. I don't mind that we had to get off (it was my fault we missed the stop after all), but if that's the rule, then please enforce it across the board. And if that's not the rule, then don't enforce it!
- Similarly, when the trams were crowded, we had some volunteers asking people to put kids on laps to make more room - no problem, we were happy to do so. Later in the week, on another crowded tram, we put the kids on our laps to help make room but this time, we were told that kids could not be on laps. Of course, there were no more seats by then, so we had to get off the tram just because we were trying to be helpful by putting the kids on our laps. Again, consistency would help here.
- Finally, we had a hard time leaving Sunday morning. I realize it's a busy time, and I'm very happy to wait my turn. But we waited between 45 minutes to an hour in a line of over 30 planes (I could count 30, there may have been more) heading toward rwy 27 from the N40. At the head of the line, whenever planes would taxi from the FBO ramp, they got priority and went ahead of the line. ATC would typically launch 5-6 planes from the south side of 27, during which time perhaps 4 or 5 planes would start up at Basler/Orion and taxi up. When ATC got around to the north side of 27, those 4-5 planes which just started up would be flagged into place by the EAA flag person, and the 30 planes waiting on the grass taxiway would not move.
I saw another post about this or a similar issue, but contrary to that poster, what I saw didn't correspond to "high dollar" planes getting priority. I saw several "normal" singles and twins (Cessnas, Mooneys, etc.) start up at the FBO and just taxi straight out. I also saw one C210 who got fed up with the line and taxi from perhaps 10 spots behind me, through the grass, to the FBO ramp - then since he looked like he was coming from the FBO, the EAA flagman waved him ahead of the line, so he got to skip ahead by seeing what was happening. In the meantime, my oil temp was over 210 by the time I got to depart.
IMHO, this was not due to malicious intent on the part of the flagman or anything else. I like to think he was just clueless that there was a line of 30+ airplanes waiting to go, but I'm not really sure what the problem was. Maybe they have instructions to keep the FBO ramp clear for incoming aircraft or something, so they always get priority?
Along the same lines - in the past, ATC would put two departures next to each other (left half, right half of the runway). This year they were not doing that; not sure if that reduced departure capacity, or what the reasoning was for that - does anyone know?
Again, I apologize for the long post, but it is obvious (to me at least) that EAA and all the volunteers do a great job with the event, and I really am posting these minor frustrations in the spirit of trying to help identify some possible places where a few tweaks might go a long way to making things even better than they already are!!
Thanks for taking the time to read this book!
Steve Lin
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Originally Posted by slin
