Parking homebuilt on flight line

[brandon67e]

I am flying my thatcher cx4 to oshkosh this year. I haven't seen one of these at oshkosh in the last three years I've been there. I am wanting to be parked on the flight line instead of in the back with all of the rv's. How does the parking work, and how do they determine who parks on the flight line and who parks in the back with all of the rv,s? Also, have things changed due to the demolition of some buildings? Thanks so much!

[Mike Berg]

Same reason I park my restored L16 on the vintage line rather than the back lot of the war birds area. Hardly anyone gets to the war birds back lot to look things over. Lot's of visiting in the vintage and that's what it's all about but I don't know the answer to your question although I know they tend to group like aircraft together.

[FlyingRon]

Homebuilt (they call it Custom) has their own parking committee. I don't know how the sort things out but it seems roughly by type. Of course, campers are sent to the back so be sure you're not holding an HBC sign.

I spend all my time in Vintage and while I don't make the Vintage parking rules (it sure would be different if I did ), I do get tasked to sort the aircraft out according to that policy. Of course it gets fluid every year depending on what "special" event is being done like the Cub anniversary, the round engine rodeo, or the year they threatened to send us 20 DC-3's (fortunately that didn't happen). This year it's going to be more fun given the special "show lines" that are going to have to be implemented for the Thunderbirds.

[rleffler]

I am flying my thatcher cx4 to oshkosh this year. I haven't seen one of these at oshkosh in the last three years I've been there. I am wanting to be parked on the flight line instead of in the back with all of the rv's. How does the parking work, and how do they determine who parks on the flight line and who parks in the back with all of the rv,s? Also, have things changed due to the demolition of some buildings? Thanks so much!

I just had an email dialogue with Jeff Point, who chairs the HBP folks. He stated that they will be publishing some updated guidelines and procedures in a couple weeks. I had asked him some questions regarding HBC, since this will be my first year parking there. Previously, I had been parking in Vintage. He's posts here and on VAF. If you have a specific questions, I would send him a PM.

bob

[Jeff Point]

Brandon,

I replied to your PM but I wanted to post this longer answer on the forum, as it may be of interest to others. Glad to hear you are building a Thatcher- they are neat airplanes and one of my chapter members is building one. As Bob mentioned, I am one of the chairman of the Homebuilt Parking crew. Just like Ron and the volunteers in Antique/ Classic, we have a plan for how we are going to best use the space we have available, and that plan changes year to year (more on that later.)

The short version of the plan is this- we do our best to park like-types together in areas we designate ahead of time, based on our best guestimate of how many of which type will show up on what day. Of course, this is impossible to predict with perfect accuracy, and during the busy arrivals times (Sunday through Tuesday in particular) we may not have the time or volunteer resources to put everyone exactly where they want to go. Also, if we plan for, say 10 Kitfoxes to park between the 20 T-18s and half a dozen Little Toots, what happens when an extra few Kitfoxes show up but the T-18s did not? Do we hold the space for the Thorps and force the Kitfoxes to park “in the back” while holding the spots for some T-18s that may never arrive? Or do we give those spots to the Kitfoxes to park next to their brothers, only to have the T-18 drivers mad at us when they show up the next day? There are a thousand decisions like this that get made on the fly by the chairmen every year, and while we do our best to make everyone happy, we also recognize that “there ain’t no makin’ everyone happy.”

The reason that the RVs are all parked “way in the back” is that is the only space we have large enough to put them all together! Likewise, the popular homebuilt camping area is at the far west end, near the Nature Center, because that is the only space large enough. Before you get too critical of that area, you might talk to some of the folks who have parked there before. I find that 9 out of 10 pilots are glad to have their planes away from the airshow crowds on the flight line, especially since the flight line was opened to the general public in the mid 90s.

Like vintage, we also have single year events which dictate some changes (ie. this is the Breezy 50th anniversary, so more than the usual share of them will be there, and require special parking.) We also have the twin issues of shrinking space and a growing fleet. The trend over the last decade has been for more and more of the traditional homebuilt flight line area to be taken over by commercial displays (and dare I mention the chalets in 2012?) The displacement of the crowd line for the Thunderbirds show will exacerbate this even more. The other factor is the growing fleet of homebuilts (as opposed to warbirds and antiques which are fairly steady) which has resulted in the number of planes in homebuilt increasing an average of 5-10% annually. Keep that up for a decade or two and you can do the math yourself to see that we are trying to put more airplanes into a smaller space on the flight line. Hence, the slow migration of more homebuilts “to the back.”

The remaining space on the flight line is generally used for older homebuilts (or new versions of classic designs) as well as those which don’t get as many copies showing up at the show. Pretty much everything except RVs, larger homebuilts (think Lancair IV and Velocity types) and the campers. A Thatcher is almost certain to end up on the flightline, and in the past they’ve generally been located in the area just north of Homebuilt Headquarters.

The new space that has been opened up by the demolition of old buildings is still an open question. Right now the plan is to use that space for PHP’s designs as a tribute to our founder. However, like every plan we make it could change four times between now and show time, so stay tuned.

This was a long answer to a short question, but hopefully it cleared up some things and put a little why behind the what happens.

[Kyle Boatright]

Likewise, the popular homebuilt camping area is at the far west end, near the Nature Center, because that is the only space large enough. Before you get too critical of that area, you might talk to some of the folks who have parked there before. I find that 9 out of 10 pilots are glad to have their planes away from the airshow crowds on the flight line, especially since the flight line was opened to the general public in the mid 90s.

This is a great point. Spending the convention in HBC is one of the best experiences at Oshkosh. Airplanes to look at, builder/pilots to talk with, no big crowds of airshow attendees and non-aviation people bumping into and pawing your airplane.

In addition, you're closer to the SOS Brother's tent just outside the show grounds where the beer is cold, the food is tasty, and there is always someone who wants to hear or tell an aviation story.

[brandon67e]

Thanks so much Jeff for the detailed answer. I appreciate your help!

[FlyingRon]

Thanks, Jeff. Always great to hear communications from the chairmen. The one thing I've found over the years is that if you had a complaint or suggestion you could aways find someone to talk to and oddly enough over time things do evolve for the better.

By the way, Cathy McGurran (Vintage Flight Line) and Garrett Nieven (Flight Line Ops) are volunteering tomorrow at the Air and Space (Udvar-Hazy) pilot day fly in. If you ever want to come up and help, it would be great to have more of the Oshkosh crowd.

[rawheels]

I find that 9 out of 10 pilots are glad to have their planes away from the airshow crowds on the flight line

We got mistakenly directed to park our Hatz Biplane up front in the aerobatic area two years ago. Got some great pics of the plane the first weekend, but by mid-week I was glad that we were leaving. Every day during the airshow we had to ask people not to poke at the fabric or lean on the top of the bottom wing to look inside. 99% of people obey the no-touch rules, but the other 1% are clueless. Heard there used to be a bigger "protect our planes" group in the past. That would have been nice.

[FlyingRon]

Yeah, POP seems to have gone defunct. I don't know what the issues were with them. I didn't seem to have any problems.
Down in Vintage we try to keep people off from planes (especially that first spot from the burn line) but we can't be everywhere.

Oddly, back in the day, there was a "second fence" between the main show and the "flight line" (essentially where the brown arch was and then down near the red barn) and you allegedly needed a pilot's license or an EAA membership to get in there, yet people weren't any better about not doing dumb things around airplanes than it is now with the great unwashed masses flooding over. I remember sitting leaning up against a post or something in the warbirds area watching the show back into those days and finding smouldering matches dropping around me. WTF? Not only is some idiot attempting to smoke, but he's dropping lit matches on the dessicated and probably 100-LL saturated grass in the airplane parking area.