The Hobbytown USA in Oshkosh has an indoor RC course.Originally Posted by 1600vw
The Hobbytown USA in Oshkosh has an indoor RC course.
Well, here's the show grounds almost two weeks after the last day. Note they're still taking down the temporary structures.
Ron Wanttaja
Move to Wisconsin?
Um, the place is prone to freakish weather. It gets so cold that rain freezes in mid air and comes down in this white dust like stuff in amounts to where it piles up. And then stays that way. For several months of every single year.
Weird.
The opinions and statements of this poster are largely based on facts and portray a possible version of the actual events.
Something like this?
I have lived in Oshkosh or within 10 miles of Oshkosh my entire life. I was a cop in the neighboring town, was a deputy for Winnebago County and have run a small service business here for 15 years now.
As for hangar space, it is hit or miss for T-hangars, sometimes the county has 5 that are vacant then a month later there is a list 6 people deep needing hangar space. Anything bigger is quite tough to find. I know there was a hangar for rent that is a nice hangar, like maybe 50'X50" and heated but last I heard they wanted like $800/month and you had to be out of there the week of Airventure and a few days prior and after... If looking at T-Hangars note that some on the east side have major water problems. They are cheaper rent then the "north t's" (where I am) but I didn't want to deal with the water issues. The airport admin staff are friendly and good people who want to improve the airport and add hangars. However the county board has no interest in investing in the airport it seems. Which is odd given the nature of it being Oshkosh...
Now, on to living here.
I will say this. The last couple of years this area has really gone downhill fast. We have a lot of people moving up here from Milwaukee and Chicago and with it they are bringing the big city problems. Drugs, robberies, all that fun stuff. Now, is it as bad as Milwaukee, no not even close. However, it has been kind of a culture shock to those who have lived here for a long time. Sad thing is that it keeps getting worse.
It is very much blue collar here. A lot of people are employed at factories in the city. The downside is that when one of these places goes into lay-off mode, it really saturates the job market with these workers looking for work. Oshkosh isn't quite big enough to absorb them all into other factories.
The winters suck. Days with wind chills in the -40f range, storms dumping 12+ inches of snow, etc. The cold is hard on everything mechanical, as well as people and animals. The road salt is very hard on vehicles as well. And we use a lot up here, like 500,000 tons on average for the state. The one thing about winter here is sturgeon spearing! It is amazing to watch guys haul in these huge beast of a fish!
Oshkosh has really fallen behind the Appleton/Neenah area in terms of money and jobs. Appleton is experiencing the same influx of bad people as Oshkosh. Neenah always has seemed to be the place where the people with money live.
So, what about the good.
We have a lot of events around here, other than Airventure. Music festivals, farm shows, marathons, all kinds of stuff.
Centrally located, it is only 20min to Fond Du Lac or Appleton, only an hour to Madison, Milwaukee or Green Bay.
Lots of good blue collar people still live around here.
Businesses are starting to build here again. (May have a lot to do with the re-organization of the building inspector dept)
A lot of water for those who like to boat, fish, sit in the park and watch the waves (I personally wouldn't swim in the lakes, but thats just me. Many of us call Lake Winnebago Lake Winneseptic) or in the winter drive out and do some ice fishing if that is your thing.
Rural area surrounds Oshkosh.
If you like drinking, there are tons of taverns. Like everywhere.
And many more things.
Back to aviation, for some reason everyone thinks that KOSH is bustling all the time. It's not. Actually it is a ghost town a lot of the time. There really isn't much going on around the airport. Most of the time there is no one out flying. I am always amazed that on a beautiful evening I can go up and fly around for over an hour and not have another plane in the pattern. Outside of the EAA club, the one local flying club and the tech school my plane likely flies more hours than almost everyone else out there and I only fly around 50 hours per year. So don't let the hustle and bustle of Airventure fool you.
(I am not saying it is a bad thing to have a class D airport pretty much to yourself, just putting it out there)
Finally, as soon as my kids finish high school in a couple years, my wife and I are planning on moving out of the area.
1600VW, kind of like that, however, sometimes it will be white out conditions and seeing the first tree would be a stretch. Oh, and the bone chilling wind chill that you can't quite get a feel of from the picture!
Feel free to PM me Mike. I can tell you the lowdown on the area you were looking at.
,Thank you buddy, I appreciate that.
Much of your previous post contains the kind of info I need to hear coming from a local I can trust. My wife's relatives in Michigan and Illinois think were crazy. They always bring up the 'arctic like' winters and mosquitos, which, if you haven't lived through a winter like that you just can't understand. My wife is from Chicago but it's been too many years for her to fully remember just how cold and miserable it was. I grew up in Portland Oregon. Up there it got into the teens and ice storms were the main problem, other than constant rain or drizzle.
Here in So. Cal. it's year round flying weather, which is great. The problem is expense. Expense for everything. For what we spend to live here (i.e. $5/gal gas when we left for Osh) and what we could get if we sold our small property (ridiculously high!, but I'd take it) we could live like royalty almost anywhere else. Some of the affordable (were NOT rich, believe me) property's we looked at not far from Osh looked like the cover of Sunset Magazine but would be multi million dollar property's here. That's the price of sunshine I guess (and crowds, traffic, crime). But, we should not complain. When we returned from our Osh vacation we went down for a walk along the beach, had some coffee at our favorite spot and looked around at the many tourists spending money they saved up to travel to where 'we' live all year. In that context, moving to 'winter' is indeed a stupid idea, a fantastic week at AirVenture tends to do that to ya
Thanks again,
Mike
Last edited by Mike A; 08-14-2015 at 05:16 PM.
We fly year round here also. It just means some months involve skis instead of wheels.,
Thank you buddy, I appreciate that.
Much of your previous post contains the kind of info I need to hear coming from a local I can trust. My wife's relatives in Michigan and Illinois think were crazy. They always bring up the 'arctic like' winters and mosquitos, which, if you haven't lived through a winter like that you just can't understand. My wife is from Chicago but it's been too many years for her to fully remember just how cold and miserable it was. I grew up in Portland Oregon. Up there it got into the teens and ice storms were the main problem, other than constant rain or drizzle.
Here in So. Cal. it's year round flying weather, which is great. The problem is expense. Expense for everything. For what we spend to live here (i.e. $5/gal gas when we left for Osh) and what we could get if we sold our small property (ridiculously high!
Thanks again,
Mike
Skis on an airplane? It would sink before the boat could be hooked to it.
The opinions and statements of this poster are largely based on facts and portray a possible version of the actual events.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote