Airventure: Good, Bad, and Ugly

[FlyingRon]

GOOD:

Great to be back.
Food service definitely seems to continue to improve in quality and diversity.
Vehicle-free areas much better enforced this year.
SOS brothers ran a very efficient food/beer service operation and had neat shirts this year.
Some new stuff in the airshow (loved the Blimp acro).
Very good housekeeping service on the yellow shower trailers, lots of hot water.

BAD:

The WIFI and ATT cell data was awful.
The Airventure app sucks when you can't connect to the internet (jeez, all that downloading and it doesn't have offline storage?).
Idiots who bring dogs to airshows and fireworks displays.
More accidents than usual on the runway it would seem.
All the food service shutdown very early (4PM? or earlier) on Wednesday.
Still too many vehicles around the exhibit halls during the middle of the day.
Someone needs to smack the PA announcer and tell him to not talk if he doesn't know something. Blimps are dirigibles. Semi-rigid airships are dirigibles.
Too many personal conveyances in the crowd areas.
Insufficient portapotties in the Vintage area (including keeping a good number of them locked up more all of the preshow).

UGLY:
New tram system is a disaster. None of the previous problems were addressed and it got worse:
1. Missing and inadequate signage.
2. Insufficient stops on the blue tram.
3. Yellow tram is silly short with too many stops.
Insurrection that happened in the parking lot exit lines necessitating Oshkosh police response.
Idiots who decided to pass other airplanes on the taxiway in the departure conga line for no apparent reasons.
Idiot pilots who drive their Cessna 310 through the crowd contrary to instructions/ marshalling to obtain a "perfect space" that nobody else was using.

[Mark17]

Hi Ron- Can you elaborate a little more on what exactly happened here? We didn’t go this year but wow! This sounds crazy! Why did this happen? Was it because EAA has shut down many of the parking lots and turned them into permit lots creating a shortage of public parking that’s actually close- Or was this a completely separate issue and had nothing to do with that? Whatever the reason this needs to be addressed.

“Insurrection that happened in the parking lot exit lines necessitating Oshkosh police response”.

[FlyingRon]

No, I don't think there were any substantive changes. Coming out of the close in lots (essentially between Scholler, the Main Gate, and Waukau road) you have to narrow down to one lane to exit. In the past, people were civil about merge. This year, they spent a lot of time fighting, blowing horns, and abusing the volunteer flaggers who tried to facilitate things. Finally, the volunteers decided they didn't feel safe anymore, and the Osh police came in. I came across the scene about thirty minutes later.

Unfortunately, be it COVID-related or anguish over alleged election injustices, many people in the public have dropped any pretense at being polite and reasonable.

[Kyle Boatright]

From my perspective in Homebuilt Camping.

- As always, a very well run event. The HBC volunteers do an incredible job.
- Had a couple of disappointing experiences with the food vendors. The Homebuilt Cafe served us two pieces of expensive pizza that were approximately the size of my hand. At that price, a full pizza would have been about $75. I understand event pricing, but c'mon... In addition, the Subway that used to be near the intersection of Homebuilts and Warbirds was gone. We really missed having a pseudo healthy option on that end of the field.
- The perimeter road on the W side of the field is very dusty. The solution is not to send someone down the road with a sweeper truck, throwing all of that dust into HBC.
- Is it possible to have a "silent" airshow? Maybe the Tuesday or Thursday show. No announcers. Just airplane noise.

[mazdaP5]

The silent airshow is down in south 40, lol.
Speaking of the airshow, if the dual airbox thing ever happened, I don't think I ever saw it. Or it was pulled off so well that I never noticed.

[Mark17]

Yea that’s too bad Ron. I think you’re right on the current political and Covid environment- common decency and overall respectful interactions seem to have gone by the wayside. Sad to see that carry over to Oshkosh. Hopefully next year things will be much better. We were sad to miss the show this year and are really looking forward to next year! Hopefully both Fifi and Doc will be there as well as the B-1, B-2 and B-52.

In all the years we’ve been coming to Oshkosh, the 1989 show with the Blackbird, 1990 with the F-117, 1992 with the Concorde and Glacier Girl freshly pulled from the ice, 2010 with the Collings Foundation F-4, 2016 with the Martin Mars and 2017 with Doc and Fifi and the AF Bombers have been my absolute favorite shows. 2019 the year of the Fighter was absolutely outstanding as well. Hoping to see the greats back and well represented in 2022! It would be absolutely tremendous to see Doc and Fifi, the B-1, B-2, B-52 as well as the Raptors and if the Blues wanted to make an appearance as well, that would be the absolute cherry on top! Love Oshkosh but let’s work together to ensure it stays the best show on the planet! EAA if you’re listening: BRING FIFI BACK to fly with Doc!

[N3kf]

It was definitely good to be back and had a great time with my son. As expected!

I had a failed back surgery 10 years ago, so must use a mobility chair for the days at Oshkosh. My son was saying I forced him to average 10 Miles a day! I can walk some, but not all day. Anyway, to get from Scholler and back I need to use one of the special needs buses with the lifts. The wait times this year were really bad. 1/2 hour to 45 minutes late morning at Stitts and Lindberg. And typically an hour+ in the evening. And that's calling the dispatcher. The only two drivers I saw told me there was only one special needs bus in Scholler the whole week. There use to be three. The drivers said there were two others, but one went from the bus park to museum only, and I believe another did parking lots and maybe north 40 only? Previously the 3 in Scholler went where they were needed. For instance, I could be picked up and request to go to the museum and back. I do have the dispatchers number so call them when needed.

So EAA if you listen here, if this change was the result of the study done in 2019, it is not working well for those of us in Scholler. At least the few others I saw agree. You should change it back or at least put two buses in Scholler. Plus remember parents with strollers also use these buses. If it was the bus company that made the changes, they should talk with their drivers!!

Again not a huge complaint, but it did work much better in past years. Maybe rethink the changes?

Thanks. And Ron it's hard to believe you saw that stuff out of the parking lot.....

Sent from my ONEPLUS A5000 using Tapatalk

[mazdaP5]

The good was very god: Airventure and the hospitality of the city and people of Oshkosh. The event ran very well for all of the rust from the year off.
I love EAA Radio in the mornings, as well as the broadcast of the theatre in the woods.
Night at the museum was very welcome, it could have gotten ugly if that storm hit.
My B-25 ride was priceless.
The bad: Weather was nasty, hot and humid. Long term forecasts lied!
Lot's of flat tires on the runways, don't know what's up with that.

The ugly: a few DUI in the campgrounds, and that truck that ran off of the road down at the southwest corner.

[tnathan]

Hello,

I couldn’t help but add my thoughts. Not sure anyone that matters reads this but wanted to ad my observations. First let me say, this is largely run by volunteers and I am on vacation. So, we should keep that in mind. Many of those volunteers are “working” their vacation. I am grateful and can’t believe how out of nothing an aviation city pops up with grocery stores, a newspaper, a radio station, trams etc. it’s pretty amazing and I am grateful to all the volunteers. So, with that being said . . . Here are some of the things I think could use some attention.

1. Cellular bandwidth: Maybe there is an argument that I should unplug from the internet during airventure, but I don’t. Things seemed slightly better this year but the network was often overwhelmed for me. What’s the point of the airventure app if it just spins and times out? Or, they talked about stretching the show down the flight line. For me I sit at vintage but tried streaming the air show to see what goes on at show center. Often the video would just time out and buffer. WiFi bandwidth is better than it had been but it still has a way to go in my opinion. Not sure why Verizon and att can’t scale with mobile hotspots better. The more data that flows the more they make.

2. Eaa media: eaa radio and live video seemed to have a lot less content this year. Amy swoboda (sp?) wasn’t there. I wish they would ramp up these offerings. I would frankly pay for a digital airventure ticket if they offered more content and more production. For instance, my kids want to stand in line for an hour to walk through the ups plane. It would be nice if I could stream a forum or something. And if I could stream things going on elsewhere I wouldn’t have to stand around taking multiple trams to get there. Secondly it would be nice if the content could be on demand. Theater in the woods was 6-9, which is when I need to feed the kids. It would be nice if I could log in after they go to bed and see the presentation. They had a link purportedly for the “forums” but it never had content when I checked. I think there is a missed revenue opportunity here.

3. Trams. They are nice to have. I do agree the rules seemed to differ based on your driver, but it’s run by volunteeers. I just take it in stride. Two things I didn’t get was why the yellow route was like 100 yards long and had like me stop. Secondly, why did vintage lose a stop. The blue route now stops at the vendor hangers and doesn’t stop again until the machine shed. The red bar should have a stop in my opinion.

4. Comfort. I wish they had some more comfort for attendees. You can pay like 2k to be in the aviators club, which I assume is gobbled up by the vendors for corporate hospitality or there is general admission. I wish there was something in between. I don’t need to spend 2k per person to eat lobster and hang out with rob reider, but I would like some ac and a place to hide if the weather is bad.

5. Parking does seem to be getting worse. The event is gathering record crowds but the public seems to be getting pushed further away while handing out all access vip parking passes to vendors who walk out to the field at 9 stand at their booth all day and clock out at 5. Why do they need to be close? Seems backwards to me. I get the economics, but wish they wouldn’t make it so tough on families trying to move chairs, coolers, kids, etc. I have to go back and forth getting stuff all day. I don’t know the answer but think they should put some thought into some sort of transportation from the parking lots to the field.


Just my 0.02 worth.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[SteveCostello]

5. Parking does seem to be getting worse.

Same sort of thing is happening in Scholler. You either need to claim your spot in the first two weeks of July (impractical unless you live nearby) or buy an improved site at $70 a night from the second you register. Either way, it's $$$. The expanded improved sites have pushed general camping pretty far south. I got there on Thursday evening before the show. In years past, that would have put me pretty close to Elm/Lindbergh. I was at 24th and Cedar. And that was for Thursday... Lord help the folks that show up Sunday... they were out near the water/sewer station!

But... the improved sites sold out about a week and a half before the show. General spots remotely close to the show were gobbled up and paid for around the same time. As long as the market supports it, that will continue to happen.

I *am* thankful that the 24 hour generator sites were moved out near 41. THANK YOU.