Changes Bad/Changes Good

[nigel hitchman]

The best things about Oshkosh don't change and hopefully continue despite any changes, that is the people who come year after year and the fantastic array of aircraft that they bring, the new restorations in the antiques and warbirds every year, the new homebuilts and the returning aircraft from years ago

Other improvements
Tall Pines Café
Warbirds in review and similar for antiques and classics
Seaplane base shuttle and the boat ride aroud the seaplanes
more trams
Events/themes like Cubs to Oshkosh, Round engine rodeo and please can we have the Golden age of air racing again!
Homebuilt camping parking area
If its true, the end of the Pyrotechnics, I hate to see all that fuel go up in smoke, Id much rather it was given to owners of interesting or unusual aircraft to see them do a few flybys in the airshow time

Bad
too long airshow, with things like the jet truck and the awful Jetman last year ( a great feat, great on youtube, but hopeless as an airshow act)
No grass runway, we need a grass landing area for some of the antiques and we must try harder to attract them back
No more antique and Classic parade of flight, lost many years ago, was the best thing in the airshow all week!
Too much blah blah on the speakers, announcers shut up if you haven't got anything worthwhile to say and get rid of the one who can only shout (why cant they all be like Steve Buss)
Parking the contemporary class aircraft in with the antiques and classics. Id rather they had their own parking area. I hate to see Barons and Cherokees in the prime parking spots.
road around the antique parking area and loss of prime parking spaces
Warbirds landing on 09/27 during the warbird airshow when there are no wind issues and nothing going on infront of the crowd. The take-offs and landings of the warbird show are the highlights as everything else is so far away
Allowing people to leave lawnchairs on the flightline

But its still a great event even though its perhaps not as good as when I first came in 1984, certainly in terms of interesting aircraft being flown in by the membership which to me is the main attraction of the event. The airshow flying display is a minor part of the event.
I still greatly look forward to Oshkosh every year

[spongebobiwan]

I don't recall this one being mentioned, and I am reluctant to even say anything bad about the most exciting aviation event in existence, but here goes:

Is it just me, or are there others who would much prefer hearing the beautiful sounds coming from any airplane passing by, than to hear the constant loud blaring music drown out the REAL "music"?

[dedgemon]

I'm with you on that. Way too much talk on the PA.
This isn't just an OSH thing. Every airshow I go to has degenerated into a constant stream of blather.

[RC Gregg]

In years past I enjoyed hearing the morning yodeler over the sound system drifting into the campground each morning. Great way to start a day at Oshkosh! Do they still do that?

[RC Gregg]

http://www.eaavideo.org/video.aspx?v=1119304309 Found it!

[Jeff Point]

He passed away several years ago. They piped in recordings for a year or two but decided to hang it up. I miss that too.

[RC Gregg]

I remember a few times I was already out on the airfield walking amongst the homebuilts with my Dad when the Yodeler would perform his morning ritual.

[bneal]

I haven't been going to Oshkosh for an eternity like some. I was there in 97/98 when I was a kid. I have been there for 11,12,13.

Now there is a lot more money of the flightline. I.e....aviators club. Wish I could afford it, but having a wife, and 3 kids it makes it very unreachable for me. I can honestly say, 2011 was kinda eh.....nothing crazy, 2012...kinda eh...what I mean by that was. No real show of spirit, I did not feel the passion. To me EAA is about the homebuilts, the warbirds, the cessna's, mooney's, the general aviation. To me Oshkosh should be about us "end users" and less business jets, less corporate...less jet jocky's. I want to praise the homebuilder, through faith and passion built his own plane, to the warbird owner/pilot who out of the goodness of his heart restores a plane, flies it there, just to show some history. To the gentlemen who restore Glacier Girl" or the gentleman who are bringing planes up out of lake Michigan. To the general aviation who fly up to Oshkosh to be apart of something that shares their passion. I have to say this about 2013...

It was Magical, the night airshow's, Disney Planes preview. Not to point fingers....but under pelton, I felt a since of renewed passion. Grill me if you will. But I found more stations for potty, more "fun" activities for the kids (kidventure, totally impressed) and a great display of aviation in the airshows. Like the STOL demonstrations at show center, some new performers I have not seen before. Now I know that pelton did not do it all. But a great staff at EAA made it happen. Last year was the best out of the 3 years, I cannot lay a finger on it. But there was passion.

This year I feel, The Valdez gentleman will put on a great show, Where I like the thunderbirds, my kids will love them. I personally care more for piston power than turbine. But that's me. I understand EAA and trying to attract the younger crowd, and I appreciate that. So if the thunderbirds is what it takes to get a kids eye to sparkle and ignite their passion. So be it.

Go to Oshkosh, for you....for your passion, Please do not do it if you "think" you want to go. Go for you, go for your passion, go for the appreciation of variety, go to stay in camp scholler, be there for the family time. You won't be dissapointed. I am not rich, I have not homebuilt, I fly a little 1947 Aeronca Champ that will not be there (avgas cost, plus a family of 5) but to be there and appreciate the passion. It's something special. It's family, fun, away from the computers and TV's and time with the ones you love. I'm probably off topic, and I do apologize. But Oshkosh for me is truly special. So to answer your question? Changes are good and bad, but if you ask me? It just keeps getting better.

[FlyingRon]

If you dig around on the EAA site you can find a video of him doing his yodel thing. I crunched it down into the 40 seconds allowed for an iPhone ring tone and put it in my phone. It's quite a distinctive ring tone (or alarm clock sound).

[Inspector Fenwick]

Didn't they have something like the yodeler last year? I kind of remember engines spooling up in the background but forget the rest. I recall liking it.

I too, miss the yodeler. Even a recording would be better than nothing.