2015: Good and Bad

[Marty Santic]

Another great Oshkosh! I volunteer in Camp Schoeller and it filled all the way to the south property line. Might have been the highest number of campers in the past 10-15 years. Agree with most of the previous comments.

If you stayed till Monday, the B-52 departed about noon. Was interesting listening to the tower. The tower asked if he wanted a low pass. The response from the B-52 pilot was like a kid in a candy store. He said he would love to make the low pass over runway 18. The tower coordinated with ChiCenter and told him to squawk 1200 until completing the pass and pick up his clearance once done and then dial in the IFR code.

WiFi was OK, albeit slow, in the campground but was non-existent in Vintage or the Ultralight areas. (Entire south end of the field.) The WiFi sites shown on the map in these areas must have been forgotten. I looked for the WiFi antennas in these areas but could not find them. Maybe Hal can ask IT what happened.

[FlyingRon]

The central Vintage one apparently is behind the Hangar Cafe and has not functioned since it was installed years ago.
The UL and Vintage Red Barn areas function slightly better. Amusingly the show IT guys in a fit of optimism up a wifi dongle on our Bellringer computer (and taped it to the window). It didn't work (nor did we want it to, that computer has one job...to run my program and it attempting to access the internet just gets in the way of that).

[Bunkie]

The only sound nicer than a Merlin is two Merlins, ever so slightly out of synch, making a low pass attached to the glorious Mosquito. That, alone, was worth the price of admission.

[Bunkie]

This was my first visit. I went alone and at the last minute.

The good:

1) What can I say? It's Oshkosh and it didn't disappoint one little bit.
2) All the great people with whom I struck up conversations. Where else can you meet an Airbus mechanical engineer on line at dinner with whom you can have a detailed conversation about airliners and the things that come up when designing, building and supporting them?
3) The workshops. I discovered that I will need a lot more practice with solid metal rivets before I actually work on parts that I expect to fly. I also got my first experience with composites. I wanted to attend the TIG welding workshop, more on that in a moment.
4) Vendor displays. The best, for me, was the Miller display where I got to try my hand at TIG welding aluminum. My first effort was quite respectable, the nice fellow from Miller said it looked better than his first attempt. This made up for missing the TIG workshop.
5) As this was my first trip to Wisconsin, I need to mention how friendly everyone was, not just at AirVenture, but everywhere I went. It left a very good impression.
6) So. Many. Airplanes. I felt like Homer Simpson when his eyes glaze over and he begins drooling at the thought of donuts.
7) A&W Root Beer Floats. Perfect for the hot weather.
8) The weather. I arrived on Monday and stayed through Thursday.
9) Actually getting to sit in the airplanes I am considering building. Also, taking the Sonex factory tour.
10) Meeting Willaim Wynne at the FlyCorvair booth. We had a nice, long discussion.

The not so good:

1) it took a while to get my bearings. Frankly, the maps lacked important detail and many of the locations needed better signage, including the streets themselves. Try as I might, was unable to locate one of the forums that I wanted to attend. With the distances between forum buildings, it was easy to wander for many minutes searching.
2) The second half of the NASA presentation on the Orion. I could go on about this, but I felt that one of the presenters (the fellow who presented ton the Orion itself) was something of a lightweight, someone who was not up to dealing with the sort of audience one would expect at the world's premier air exposition.
3) The lack of sleep, although I have no one but myself to blame!

[Mayhemxpc]

One good: Vintage camping area. Didn't camp there, but the family loved visiting and talking to the pilots (and sitting in the Bleriot.) Facilities and general conditions looked great! My boys opined that since our airplane was built in 1967, we should go to Vintage Camping next year. (I explained that there were certain advantages to parking the airplane with Warbirds.) In comparison, Warbird tent camping is pretty grim. Of course, I could always park the airplane in WB and camp in Scholler. Did that one year. See thread "Scholler Sucks." Those problems do not exist in Warbirds -- although WBC has its own problems, like Bell 47 overflights. That is made up for by the 6 am Merlin alarm clock :-) Ron, you and the other volunteers at Vintage do a great job!

[Marty Santic]

The central Vintage one apparently is behind the Hangar Cafe and has not functioned since it was installed years ago.
The UL and Vintage Red Barn areas function slightly better. Amusingly the show IT guys in a fit of optimism up a wifi dongle on our Bellringer computer (and taped it to the window). It didn't work (nor did we want it to, that computer has one job...to run my program and it attempting to access the internet just gets in the way of that).

Yes, the Hangar Cafe site would be real nice to have as our chapter hosts the repair barn adjacent to the Hangar Cafe and would be handy. I was unable to receive the UL WiFi site after traveling closer to the area. (Doubt if that one was working). Would be nice to have both working for 2016. The IT staff has a whole year to get them functioning. (Or revise the map!!)

[MEdwards]

Good: New shower trailers in Vintage with regular (stay on all the time) shower valves and heads, plenty of pressure and hot water, stainless steel stalls that were kept well clean.

Agree, for the showers close in near the Hangar Cafe. The "similar" ones down south, near where the Seaplane Base buses leave from, were not so good. Tiny stalls and even more tiny changing area. And, the one time I used them, inconsistent hot water. If they had the better showers both places, I'd give them four stars. Not five, however, because the ventilation was so-so, but I'm not asking for everything!

Mike E

[FlyingRon]

Yes, the Hangar Cafe site would be real nice to have as our chapter hosts the repair barn adjacent to the Hangar Cafe and would be handy. I was unable to receive the UL WiFi site after traveling closer to the area. (Doubt if that one was working). Would be nice to have both working for 2016. The IT staff has a whole year to get them functioning. (Or revise the map!!)

A few years ago I put my own wifi hotspot in the back of your building. Alas that was in the old ATT days where it pretty much died once the show started as there wasn't any ATT data to be had. My T-Mobile portable hot spot worked pretty good this year.

I actually stopped in there to say hi to Cy (and see if the Ruders were there). I told Cy how to get the rotating beacon stuck to the top of his aluminum truck they had provided him.

[Bill Berson]

It was a great week!
The annoying item for me was lack of wifi at ultralights. I can't hear my cell phone with the wind and airplane/ helicopter noise. So I need to communicate with my wife at home by email. She had a minor emergency when the AC blew the circuit breaker and I could not understand what she was saying. Of course, no indoor pay phones exist anywhere.

I suggest that someone put a sign at each wifi location. And if any aren't working, please post a note on that sign.
I did find a nice wifi sign at Theater in the Woods. That was helpful.

[Marty Santic]

It was a great week!
The annoying item for me was lack of wifi at ultralights.

And the lack of WiFi at the Hangar Cafe. Hal....... PLEASE ask the IT folks if they can implement a fix.