Gripes

[Inspector Fenwick]

There is an old saying "he would complain if they hung him with a new rope"....well maybe that fits me, because there is absolutely NOTHING that can dampen my enthusiasm for Oshkosh. Been going for many decades. I remember getting on a hay wagon in the "north 40", pulled by a tractor, to get to the flight line. BUT, here goes.... Gripe Number 1: WIFI. Non existent the whole time I was there. Unfortunately, I still work and my ability to communicate with my "team" allows me to stay (wherever) LONGER. I have some ability via aircard and / or 3g and that saved me, some. But nothing beats wifi. I am wondering if the "online presence" mentioned in another thread has gobbled up all of the bandwidth?? Hal??? Anyway, I truly believe others are like me, give me connectability and I stay longer = more revenues. Gripe Number 2 is actually an observation. During my taxi out for departure Thursday morning, with 25 aircraft in front of me and who know how many behind me, the "samba line" stopped for many minutes. Why, you might ask yourself? Well, I will tell you. It appears that T-28's are not capable of landing on 36R, and thus must land on 36L, the runway used for departures. T-6 pilots, it was clear to me, have the skills to land on 36R but not the T-28 pilots. There was a lonnnnggggggg string of them, about a mile apart in trail, and we were all waiting for them to land, single file, with huge gaps of space between them. So, the preferential treatment the warbirds get......well, maybe another subject, but I was close to pulling out of the lineup due to rising oil temps, thanks to the warbirds. (and it wasn't that warm at the time).....I am already planning for next year. I would like to say "thanks" to Jack Pelton for his role in EAA and Airventure, as well as all of the OTHER volunteers.

[kmacht]

I too had a great time at airventure this year and it was obvious that some of the suggestions from last year were considered and implemented. Hopefully we can get someone at headquarters to combine the threads here with suggestions and make another list of ideas to make next year even better. Here are mine:

1) Camp Scholler Bathrooms. Someone needs to come in and clean the bathrooms a few more times a day. By the time 7 or 8pm rolled around more than half the toilets were clogged and the place stunk. I went to use the restroom along Stitts and Elm tuesday afternoon and there was only one working toilet out of the seven or eight in the place. There was someone there every morning cleaning and keeping the place up but it seemed to quickly go downhill as the day went on.

2) Aeromart: I know this isn't run by the EAA but instead by a chapter but what was up with not organizing the stuff this year? In other years all the stuff was organized into categories. If you were looking for radios they were all together, tools - all together, electrical - all together, etc. This year it was like everything was just thrown on a table and left in boxes. You had to dig through every box to see if there was something in there you were interested in. I'm sure there were a number of things I would have bought in there if I could have found them.

3) Lights - Durign the night airshow on wednesday there was a huge light shining directly in the face of the crowd by show center. It made it so it was next to impossible to see anything to the right of that light. Someone finally shut it off about half way through the show (much to the cheering of the crowd) but it ruined a good portion of the show until that happened. Also, the lights in the parking lot to the right of the fly-in theather need to be re-aimed. There are a few of them that shine right at the theater making it very distracting while watching the movie.

4) Trams - The trams were great this year. It was nice to be able to ride one tram all the way from Aces Cafe to the warbirds. The only suggestion I have would be to somehow clearly mark which red tram is going north and which one is going south over by the tram station at the control tower. There seemed to be confusion all week by people as to which one to get on when they walk up to the area and the tram is already parked and loading.

5) Forums - The name of the forums need to be thought out a little better. I went to one during the week called "Transitioning in your Sonex". It had nothing to do with how to fly or transition into a Sonex and was strictly about how to obtain a LODA to do flight training in an experimental. Even the presenter commented on how badly the name for the forum was chosen. There was also another forum on how to repair scratches on acrylic windshields that I attended. This was nothing more than an hour and fifteen minute sales pitch for some 3m product. The first 30 minutes of the forum were nothing but what was included in the kit they were selling and how to buy one from them. I thought that people doing the forums were not supposed to sell anything during the forum. I would also love to see some more forums on innovative technologies like the ones done on the cnc foam cutter and rapid prototyping but that's just my preference.

6) Innovations building - It was nice to have this indoors this year but I think it drew a bigger crowd when it was over in the building by the homebuilders hanger. The tent from the outside didn't look very inviting and unless you knew what was in there it didn't look like someplace you were supposed to wander into and look around.

Don't get me wrong. If the show were exactly like it was this year I would still be coming back. The suggestions above are just some ideas on how I think things might be improved. It would be great if maybe we could get a moderator to start and manage two threads here on the forum. One could list all the things we though were really good about the show this year and one could list the things we would like to maybe see changed.

Keith
Sonex #554

[N546RV]

I, too, had problems with the wifi up in the North 40. I was able to connect just fine on Sunday afternoon, and even attempted to upload my arrival video so friends and family could enjoy it. That was the last time I was ever able to get connected; I tried a few other times throughout the week, and invariably got a connection timeout. This happened with both my laptop and iPad, and I tried both at the east bath house and in the Haase's tent, to no avail.

I didn't have any need to be connected for work or anything, so it was only a minor annoyance for me. The biggest inconvenience was when I wanted to check departure weather Saturday evening and Sunday morning; I was able to use my phone, but that was definitely a last resort.

[Zack Baughman]

Hey Folks,

Keep the comments coming - this is EXACTLY what we need to hear to improve upon for next year. Hal, myself, and the other forum moderators will ensure that this feedback is heard here at EAA HQ. Thanks!!!

Zack

[rv8bldr]

I've been coming to Osh for 20 years, and I think this was the best year yet (the temps sure helped :-). The food choices were excellent, the regulation in the price of water was appreciated, and I really like how the grounds have morphed into a more logical and easy to get around structure. You guys have done a GREAT job over the last year.

As far as comments are concerned, I echo the ones above about Camp Scholler (the bathrooms at times were really bad), the lights at the night airshow, and the forums. My wife and I enjoyed the Innovations tent, but I think it could have had a little more advertising/information about it's contents. We almost went by it, but we did go in and thought is was great (we spent more than an hour in there).

I was pleasantly surprised at the lack of 12 year olds whizzing around on motorized scooters and golf carts in Camp Scholler! That was a welcome change.

I didn't like arriving down at the flight line at 0830 to see hundreds of abandoned lawn chairs taking up space for the airshow in the afternoon. Reminds me of those resorts in the Caribbean where people run out in the morning , throw a towel on a beach chair to reserve it, and then don't show up until the afternoon. My opinion is that abandoned lawn chairs should be treated like abandoned luggage at the airport: removed and blown up ... well, maybe not blown up, but certainly removed.

We both enjoyed the variety of acts in the airshows and the way the acts were mixed. Personally, I didn't miss the modern military stuff even a little bit. Watching the Aeroshell guys, an RV-8, a Decathalon, some Extras, the warbirds, etc are what EAA and gen av means to me.

To sum up, excellent show this year. All of the changes you wrought over the past year were well done in my opinion, and I'm already stoked to come back next year.

Cheers

[cptomes]

I agree on the abandoned lawn chairs. I think a suitable compromise would be to have flightline volunteers move them straight back to the cart path edge, clearing the fence line. After one year of doing that no one will do that again. Either you're there, or you're not.

I had very spotty wifi this year. Mostly I turned it off because it was unreliable. Verizon must have been having problems Saturday, I couldn't do any data on 3g in the afternoon.

[glider90]

In years past leaving lawn chairs unattended was a BIG no-no. Of course back then there the flight line was completely occupied by parked aircraft, and they often taxied in and out of the rows for parking. If you were between parked rows, you would be moving several times a day to let airplanes in and out. Now they have designated spots for this that are roped off.
Anyway, at one time lawn chairs left unattended were taken by Flight Line Safety to the 'building of shame'. We camped next to the FLS crew last year, and I asked them specifically about this practice. They said that they were instructed years back to leave the chairs alone so that none of the 'guests' were upset by having their chairs moved. So it may be a rule, but it is absolutely not enforced. Kind of like Chinese lanterns in the campground which were launched in record numbers this year.

[martymayes]

So it may be a rule, but it is absolutely not enforced. Kind of like Chinese lanterns in the campground which were launched in record numbers this year.

Rules. I think they call them "guidelines" and I interpret that to be "self-directed" behavior, which means everyone reads and conforms. However, I'd wager there's a large quantity that don't bother to read the guidelines so it's not likely they will be followed which is to be expected at any large gathering of people.

[flymichigan]

This was probably the 6th or 7th time I have attended Airventure. This time, I brought my three kids with me, ages 8, 10, and 13. We camped in Scholler. We had a great time, but I have to say that returning to our camper after the night time airshow as a nerve racking experience. With thousands of people walking to the exits, there were golfcarts and trucks driving through the thick crowds, in the dark. I am talking about on the grounds, not just in camp. I have never seen this kind of traffic mixed at a large event. In my opinion, this was a very dangerous situation, especially for the kids. I sure wish motor vehicles were required to hold back for 30min or so, until the crown is able to clear out....at least inside the grounds.

[FlyingRon]

I know the guy who was in charge of Aeromart this year. I'll relay the criticism. I do know they were VERY understaffed at start up (they borrowed some bodies from the Vintage flight line). I noticed the rather random placement of things myself.

I've given up with EAA WIFI. I've talked to those responsible before and they are indifferent to the issues. With tablets and iphones the demand has way outstripped their pathetic attempts to provide it. We've never had it working PERIOD down in Vintage.

Lawn chairs are always a touchy issue. We used to pick up unattended ones but we were told to stop doing that. Frankly, as far as I'm concerned, it is less work for us. I didn't sign up as a volunteer to play lawn chair valet.

Most of the other things I've griped about over the years have been made better. The vehicles in the pedestrian areas has improved greatly over the years with the addition of a dedicated vehicle route and banning most vehicles in many high traffic areas. The other advantage is they made most of the vendors use the exposition company rather than giving them all vehicle passes like they did in the past.