Newbie Must see/do at Oshkosh

[Gisli]

Hi!

I´m arriving with my father,brother and Uncle from Iceland and we are all getting pretty excited :rollseyes:

I have a quick question to all you veteran Oshkosh´rs out there.

What are the must see/do attractions at the Oshkosh Air show and also around Oshkosh area?

Looking forward to the torrent of good answers and tips!

Gisli
EASA Part-66 Aviation Technician (B737/B767)

[FlyingRon]

Night airshow is not to be missed. Other than that, you'll just want to see and do everything. While Oshkoshers are a nice bunch of folks and there are some good restaurants in town, there just isn't much of a tourist interest outside the grounds in my opinion. Now if you were going to Racine, Madison, Milwaukee, we could come up with stuff.

[Gisli]

Thanks FlyingRon!

We will have a car and would not hesitate to take small 1-day road trips (one or two days during the week) to take in the area and attractions around. I see that it´s around 1 hour and 30 min to Milwaukee

[CarlOrton]

Hi, Gisli; Ron is spot-on with his comment about seeing everything! You can concentrate on areas of interest, though, based on what your aviation desires might be. As an example, my wife is big-time into warbirds and historical presentations - I don't see her until we meet up to catch the bus back to the dorms. I'm into homebuilding, technology, and the exhibits. There are both hands-on instructional classes twice a day, every day, on how to work metal, composites, wood, fabric, as well as gas welding and TIG welding. There are hundreds (thousands?) of forums going on every hour of every day - everything from flight experiences by revered aviators to "how do I pick a homebuilt" to "how to fly with your dog." If your interest if photographing planes, you could spend a few DAYS strolling up and down the vintage airplanes, getting that perfect angle at the perfect time of the day. Visit the seaplane base. Very serene. Visit Pioneer Airport (by the museum) and go thru the old hangars there if you want to see some REALLY old stuff. Fly in the helicopters over the show grounds for some great aerial pictures. Take a ride in the Ford Tri-Motor, just cuz you may not be able to in the future. Not knowing you or your interests, my list of must-do's (and I attend every year) are (and not in any sequence): 1/2 day in the museum. Attend a How-To class. Never stop learning. Spend about the total of a day in various forums. Spend a day walking down the Vintage Aircraft. Spend an hour or more at the Ultralight Runway. Spend 1/2 day at the seaplane base. Spend a few afternoons along the runway, just watching planes land. If you get there on the Saturday / Sunday before the show, that's when you'll see all the show planes arriving. Spend an hour or two walking thru homebuilt parking - you'll see some very beautiful aircraft & paintjobs out there. Sit and listen to some presenters at Warbirds in Review - not too many WWII vets remaining, so your time is running out. Spend an hour or two walking thru the WWI re-enactor's camp. VERY interesting. Let us know your interests, and we can zero-in on better suggestions.

[Wrongway Feldman]

You may want to listen to this Audio webinar with Jim DiMatteo and Jeff Skiles (The Miracle On The Hudson co-pilot)
Its a little long but is very informative of what to look for at AirVenture 2013

Webinar- EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2013 Features and Attractions
July 10, 2013 -
Jim DiMatteo, EAA Vice President for AirVenture Features and Attractions,
presents the latest news on what to expect at AirVenture 2013.
84 minutes, 2 seconds
click link below:
http://bcove.me/rbvcwiqx

[Floatsflyer]

See the EAA museum on a poor weather day. IMO, the only worthwhile thing to see off the main grounds is the seaplane base, just a 10 minute bus ride away. Go there for a rest, get away from the Osh hussle & bussle, relaxation, get out of the hot sun, shade and see some great waterbirds flying. Check out the website and follow the link.

http://www.airventure.org/attractions/seaplane_base.html

[Jefflcarr]

Lots of great suggestions here. I might add spending some time at the ultralights runway. It's a lot of fun to watch those guys take off and land. I'd also suggest listening to the ATC if you have an air-band radio or can get on liveatc.net. Listening to the heavy arrival/departure times is a ton of fun. Tour Camp Scholler if you have some time. I can't count how many unique and crazy vehicles we've seen around the campground in the 22 years we've been coming. Other than that, just wander the grounds and see what you like. Odds are you'll run out of time and be left counting the days until AirVenture 2014.

[Gisli]

Everybody!

Great tips and pointers! I think we will be very well occupied. I myself am very interested in the vintage warbirds/homebuilds and we are hoping to be able to take a ride if possible. Also the tip about the helicopter rides is nice. Seaplanes is also going to interest us :)

I´m of to listen to the webinar you pointed out!

I have already downloaded both the eaa app and the eaa radio app :) hope they come in handy at the show ( side note: is there wifi access at the grounds? )

If you are interested in following me and maybe pointing interesting stuff out to me you can follow me on www.twitter.com/gisli (http://www.twitter.com/gisli) and i´ll follow back :) i´ll be keeping a good log on their during the week.

In regards to tickets when we arrive, are the lines really long? :)

brgds gísli

[skyranger]

There is an excellent train museum in Greenbay, an hour north of Oshkosh. They have one of the BIGBOY train engines there.

[CarlOrton]

Hi again, Gisli; If you look at the AirVenture map, there are wifi hotspots located in several areas of the grounds. In general, though (past years), sufficient bandwidth was an issue; sometimes great, sometimes sitting there with full signal and nothing will load. Regarding tickets, it depends on when you arrive. If you show up at 8 AM on opening day, I would think they'd be longer. We get ours on the Sunday before, and I've NEVER seen any window with more than one person at them - and most windows with NO people in line. If you show up later in the day, I'm just speculating that the lines would be shorter as well.

[Wrongway Feldman]

Everybody!In regards to tickets when we arrive, are the lines really long? :)

brgds gísli

There really is no long line issues, you can pretty much walk up and buy a ticket/wristband.
Another tip is to sign up for text alerts link http://www.airventure.org/news/2013/130612_sign-up-for-text-alerts.html
The weather alert is not that interesting OSHALERT to 69050
But for notable features and attractions OSHFUN to 69050 is more informative.
Don't forget to listen to EAA radio 96.5 FM and listen to Stuck Mike, Magneto Mel and Digital Dave.
If you have a smart phone you can buy a $3 App from LiveATC (http://www.liveatc.net/) and listen to Live KOSH (http://www.liveatc.net/search/?icao=kosh) Air traffic Transmissions.
You do not need the App if you listen from a computer.

[Sonerai2mx]

All great replies thus far. Adding to Feldmans weather alert I'd remind you to always keep an eye on the sky, especially to the west/northwest. You'd be surprised how easy it is to get so engrossed in everything else going on around you that a storm will quite literally sneak up on you when you're someplace where shelter is far off. Happens every year, and every year you'll see people running at the last minute to find a bit of shelter from the rain and gusts. Above all, have fun and I'll look forward to your twitter updates!!

[mexpilot]

Also do the Tilted Kilt in Osh if you like beer and hamburgers!

Don't forget about Chicago! You can drive to Milwaukee, catch the Megabus into Chicago for the day. First Megabus departs around 6:00am arrives Chicago around 8:15am. Check their website for info.







Hi!

I´m arriving with my father,brother and Uncle from Iceland and we are all getting pretty excited :rollseyes:

I have a quick question to all you veteran Oshkosh´rs out there.

What are the must see/do attractions at the Oshkosh Air show and also around Oshkosh area?

Looking forward to the torrent of good answers and tips!

Gisli
EASA Part-66 Aviation Technician (B737/B767)

[Joe Delene]

Thanks FlyingRon!

We will have a car and would not hesitate to take small 1-day road trips (one or two days during the week) to take in the area and attractions around. I see that it´s around 1 hour and 30 min to Milwaukee

Unless you have a specific reason I wouldn't go to Milwaukee. Depending on your interests I'd go North a bit, maybe visit Lambau Field in Green Bay. While there, they just opened a new Cabelas store nearby, hit that too.

[rleffler]

What I don't recall being mentioned, is that you can't see everything at Airventure in a week. It really isn't possible. There are many interesting activities, forums, and sites to see on the ground. You just have to prioritize what is important to you and make efforts to get them in. Oshkosh can be very overwhelming for a first time vistor. I've been going for over ten years and there are still parts I haven't visited yet. Mostly due to the parts I want to visit taking up the majority of my time.

[stummers]

Hey Gisli, where are you staying.

[Kyle Boatright]

All great replies thus far. Adding to Feldmans weather alert I'd remind you to always keep an eye on the sky, especially to the west/northwest. You'd be surprised how easy it is to get so engrossed in everything else going on around you that a storm will quite literally sneak up on you when you're someplace where shelter is far off. Happens every year, and every year you'll see people running at the last minute to find a bit of shelter from the rain and gusts. Above all, have fun and I'll look forward to your twitter updates!!

Funny that you say that. A couple of years ago, a big storm brewed within sight of the field for hours, slowly moving closer and closer. When it hit, crap was blown everywhere - towels, coolers, and a thousand other things that weren't secured. I was baffled by that and by the complaints of a few oblivious types that "nobody warned us".

[Gisli]

Hi Everybody

I suspected that we would never be able to see everything that´s why we are looking into all scenarios :). Just looking at all the available options at the show i see that we cant cover everything.

Thank you all for the great tips again.

We are about 16min away from the air show grounds according to google maps :)

p.s looking at the google maps of the Oshkosh airport area is really magnificent (not at full zoom)

:)

Takk

[BeagleOne]

If you are interested at all in American football, you should go to Green Bay and tour Lambeau Field and the Packers Hall of Fame. Also as mentioned by a previous poster the railroad museum is worth a visit. Milwaukee has a nice art museum but honestly unless there is something specific you want to see there it might not be worth an entire trip. Same with Madison and Chicago; the Capitol building in Madison is beautiful if you like architecture. Chicago has some great museums but traffic is a nightmare; better to drive to Milwaukee and take a train.

As for Oshkosh, I would recommend the seaplane base AND a trip to Ardy and Ed's drive-in. Kind of a classic American restaurant, with good food, GREAT root beer, and waitresses on roller skates! Plus it's off the east end of runway 9/27 and you can sit in your car, eat, and watch airplanes!

On the EAA grounds, it really depends on what you are interested in! The warbirds are always a highlight for me, and you really MUST go to the museum. Some really amazing aircraft there.

Welcome to Oshkosh! I hope you have a great time!

[avinuts]

Even at it's bussiest, 80,000 plus attendies, EAA Oshkosh suprisingly handles the crowds quite well. Lines for tickets are regulated by monitors to keep things moving quickly. Even at the worst, it will be no longer than 15 minutes. Welcome and Enjoy your stay!!

[BeagleOne]

Another thought...part of the movie Public Enemies with Johnny Depp was filmed in Oshkosh, including an appearance by the EAA TriMotor! Several scenes were filmed downtown as well. Worth checking out if you are a fan of that movie.

In fact I think Public Enemies would be a good choice for the EAA outdoor theater one year! There's not much aviation in it (kind of like several of the movie selections this year), but most of it was filmed in Wisconsin, and of course there's the EAA connection!