Scooters/bikes should be allowed more places

[turtle]

I wonder if anyone is keeping track of the average age of the crowd. While attendance keeps creeping up, it sure looks like the age is too. Not too many younguns can afford the ever increasing amount of serviced sites and high tech gizmos on display. It’s hard getting around in the heat for us with more years behind than ahead. I was feeling like I was about to collapse a bit south of homebuilts. Nowhere to cool down, no way to get back to the rv. Just people staring out from icy cold members only buildings and golf carts zipping by on their way to get some more grey poupon. I read somewhere that even the volunteer driven handicap golf carts were canceled this year. I guess there’s no profit in selling $2 bottled water and $15 hamburgers.

Really, for what we pay in admission, parking, camping, and necessities of life, and the vendors pay just for a little booth, the EAA should throw the membership a bone. Giving away a 20 cent bottle of water or adding a/c to a few of their buildings, like the clothing stores where people can buy things, won’t cause them to go bankrupt. Add a tram route through Boeing square with stops on either side, even if it has to be stopped for movements. Another single small tram to shuttle between the red warbirds stop and the actual warbirds and tri-motor. Make it handicap prioritized. Whether you believe in climate change or not, it’s getting hotter for the event and the attendees are getting older. If we can’t change the date to something more comfortable, at least we should try to compensate for the effects.

[Eric Page]

If we can’t change the date to something more comfortable...

The 2020 cancellation presented an opportunity to do this, but it wasn't taken and likely wasn't even considered.

I attended AirVenture for two days in 2012 -- a pilgrimage of sorts -- when it was particularly hot. Wearing enough clothing not to be burned to a crisp made the heat unbearable, and my non-air-conditioned dorm room meant that I got little sleep. Apart from breakfast in the campus chow hall, the food was terrible. Frankly, it was an utterly miserable experience. I'd still like to fly my own homebuilt there one day, but I don't know if I can stand the heat, the crowds and sleeping on the ground.

Unfortunately, there aren't many better date options considering weather in Oshkosh. If you closely examine the charts here, it's clear that moving the date elsewhere on the spring-through-fall calendar could improve temps, but... Early Jun increases the chance of cloud cover and rain (Jun is, on average, the wettest month). Late Jun risks the grounds being a mud bog. Moving into Aug doesn't solve the heat problem, and earlier or later, e.g. May or Sep, would fix the daytime temps at the risk of more clouds and cold nights.

Perhaps the best compromise would be one month later: late Aug to early Sep. Better chance of lower daytime temps, still warm-to-cool at night, only slightly more cloudiness, lower chance of rain, and only a 45 min loss of daylight compared to the current dates. But, students begin moving into the UW dorms on Aug 30th (2023), so that's a non-starter.

I suggest the event be moved to western Washington. Keep the dates as-is, and you'll enjoy our glorious summer weather (as I type this at ~11:30am it's 70° and 55% humidity), no thunderstorms or high wind, and the food vendors will have salmon burgers. Win-win-win!