All great points and ideas! Thank you all so much for taking the time to share.
All great points and ideas! Thank you all so much for taking the time to share.
Showers were pretty bad this year. With all of the additional campgrounds added to the south, the South Stits showers were overwhelmed. A 30 minute wait at 10:30 pm was not uncommon. Trying the Elm showers as an alternate, the water could not have been over 50 degrees. I love that the campgrounds were expanded several times to accommodate everyone, but if that is going to continue, the infrastructure needs to expand as well. The south end could use at least one more shower house. At least.
It's all in the timing. I was closest to south stitts and never waited once. During the day (9-5) there were multiple showers open. Same with after dark right before the storms. 7-9pm wasn't bad either. Elm has been having water temperature problems for years, but as the EAA doesn't make money on showers, it will probably never get fixed. BTW, the campground hasn't been expanded all that much. They keep taking away the prime spots for tents to make way for the high rollers in their mobile castles who can pay $3k for a serviced site a short Harley ride from the gate. Non-generator is reduced to a few rows, and the only other semi-quiet area is the leper colony at the far SE across the creek.
Scholler expanded into several of the parking lots along Ripple this year. They were even south of Ripple. Heck, they were even south of Ripple along Knapp across from where they had to expand the south 40 to the west. Airventure was absolutely PACKED.
"Airventure was absolutely PACKED."
I spent 9 days and over 75 hours in a tram conductor seat this year. I will be greatly surprised if 2023 attendance doesn't FAR surpass last year's record breaking numbers, if non-stop packed trams is any indication.
"Don't believe everything you see or read on the internet" - Abraham Lincoln
As a Homebuilt Welcome Wagon driver, I drove all over the airfield from the bottom of South 40 all the way to Basler and all through Scholler. My impression was Scholler had more campers (due in part to its expansion), aircraft parking seemed pretty heavy but aircraft camping overall had less aircraft than last year, but foot traffic for the first 2 official days of the show was off the charts. Aviation related vendor participation and the size of many of the show center displays seemed physically larger to me as well.
Todd “I drink and know things” Stovall
PP ASEL - IA
RV-10 N728TT - Flying
EAA Lifetime Member
WAR DAMN EAGLE!
It did feel like there were more planes on the field Thursday-Saturday than in the past.