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Thread: The Good and Bad and Other of Oshkosh 2014

  1. #1
    FlyingRon's Avatar
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    The Good and Bad and Other of Oshkosh 2014

    GOOD:

    1. The mix of airshow acts was fresh and improved in my opinion. This is one of the first years I didn't feel like I was watching the same old thing I'd seen before in the past few eyars.
    2. The Thunderbirds were neat, the crowd lines worked well, there were lots more children in attendance. All this was good in my opinion.
    3. The commercial exhibits seem to be making a rebound though there were a lot of empty spaces in the buildings.

    4. Food. Again improved this year. While still pricey, the variation and the quality is much improved. Hell, one breakfast alone from Major Golsby (Vintage Cafe or the North 40 Cafe) can last you all day.

    BAD:

    1. Basler. I practically had to throw myself in front of a fuel truck to get fuel. I had a tag on my prop in excess of two days and had asked at the fuel payment booth twice and when the driver was fueling somewhere else to please fuel my plane and it still didn't help. They also have not yet returned my call left with their answering machine.

    2. Port-o-lets. I don't know if the EAA is intentionally shafting the campers but many of the usual port-o-let quantities were not present though some reapeared (to a limited extent) later in the show.

    3. Garmin. What a bunch of louts. They seem to have abandoned avionics sales and gone over to competing with GoPro. Hard to get any information out of a salesman and when my wife (having been previously ignored) started plugging away at one of their 650 demo units, she was pushed aside without even an "excuse me" by some sales droid who wanted to see something on the 530 that was also in that pod.

    OTHER:

    1. Trams. They changed the tram terminuses in a way that seemed to make little sense. However at the old terminus by the tower they did have signs that told you where to stand for the tram you wanted.

    2. Weather. Cool weather was a welcome relief from oppressive heat, but the torrential downpours wiped out a couple of the shows.

  2. #2
    Mayhemxpc's Avatar
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    +1 on the goods and others. Had no reason to go to the Garmin tent so I will take your word on that. Overall, I had good experience with the vendors (with what limited time I could spend with them. Redbird in particular was very nice, and surprisingly uncrowded.

    I would like to add the One Week Wonder in the GOOD column. To think that an airplane that my family helped build (along with about 2500 other people) actually flew is kind of scary. (On Monday, you could actually pull several rivets and set and remove clecos. An option not available later in the week.)

    Sorry that I did not link up with you. I came back later in the week and couldn't find your plane. My wife and your wife did link up during the teachers' workshop. (Which my wife insists on adding to the GOOD column for AirVenture this year.)

  3. #3
    Jim Rosenow's Avatar
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    Good...

    The weather...awesome!... at least thru Thursday noon-ish when we left.

    Infrastructure- The trams/North 40 shuttles were like clockwork. Five minutes waiting at a stop saves uncounted steps...kudos! Toilets/showers clean and available up North. Water generally available everywhere for filling bottles.

    Garmin- Had good experiences at their tent and in the building. Picked up a couple of cables and hit a couple seminars. Visited with our regional sales rep, who we met at a seminar earlier this year. Totally agree their displays were swamped with people tho.

    Basler- Put the sign on the prop Wednesday afternoon, had fuel two hours later that was cheaper than at our home FBO. We were located in camping North of 9/27.


    Less than optimum...

    The airshow- If I wanted a 'standard' airshow, I'd go to Cleveland or Dayton, both of which are close to home and excellent. Show me things unique to OSH! Enjoyed the STOL guys!

    T-Birds involvement- We voted with our feet...err, wings.


    As always, your mileage may vary!

    Jim
    Last edited by Jim Rosenow; 08-06-2014 at 08:55 AM.

  4. #4
    Good-
    the weather generally, at least upto Friday 2pm when we left
    the vintage turnout, some really nice aircraft and lots of them
    ultralights seemed to be more going on and more exhibitors down there than in recent years
    Trams, seemed to work better and no need to change at hangar café. One gripe one wouldn't take us further than the ultralights at 1230 Friday saying they were already evacuating the area. So we got on a bus that took us there
    Seaplanes, always fun there and great turnout mid week
    homebuilts, lots of nice aircraft and even some new types and some interesting old ones

    Bad
    parts of the airshow and the way it is run, but that's another thread
    Thunderbirds crowdline making photography of taxiing and take-off and landing aircraft very difficult thru the rows of parked aircraft
    The T-Birds coming at all, we have so much unique at Oshkosh we don't need them
    Warbirds- not bad, all very nice to see but I thought the turnout was quite a bit down especially fighters and after an excellent year last year
    Announcers (except Steve Buss) why do they have to shout and be so loud and why do they keep referring to the "jumbotron" or whatever those big screens are called when most people cant see them and don't particularly want to see them
    too many cars on the flightline and driving around the parking areas

    overall a pretty good year with the exception of the airshow

  5. #5

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    I wish they'd stop playing music when it's not accompanying an airshow act (I don't like having airshow acts set to music either, but obviously that's up to the performers, not me). The "filler" music is unnecessary and takes away from the noise of airplane engines, which is all the soundtrack the fly-in needs.

    At least those ridiculous gigantic speakers from a few years ago are gone from the flightline. Glad they are gone.

  6. #6
    Mayhemxpc's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by nigel hitchman View Post
    Good-

    Warbirds- not bad, all very nice to see but I thought the turnout was quite a bit down especially fighters and after an excellent year last year
    Overall numbers were down only slightly over the whole week. Thursday's numbers showed about 10% fewer warbird aircraft from the previous year, but between Friday and Saturday new arrivals made up for that, finishing with just about the same numbers as 2013. There were about 4 fewer P-51's than last year.

  7. #7

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    GOOD:
    1. KidVenture – third year in a row that my 10-year old daughter participated. Shelooks forward to it every year. Kudos to all the volunteers who make KidVenturepossible. It’s heartwarming to see so many kids get excited about aviation. That’sour future and EAA does an excellent job supporting efforts to get kidsinvolved in aviation.
    2. TheThunderbirds were huge hit with my daughter, she insisted in seeing all there performances.Did not have any issue with the amended crowd lines.
    3. Forums – Went to a number of excellent forums, learn alot of great information from a number of high quality presentations.
    4. The commercial exhibits seem to be making a rebound, alot less empty spaces in the buildings than in years past. Every vendor Italked with reported high traffic and sales.
    5. Food was OK. Only relied on the vendors for lunch, and found the variationand the quality acceptable.

    6. Weather. Cooler was nice, but the afternoon torrentialdownpours put a damper on things.

    BAD:
    1. Basler. I had a tag on my prop in excess of two days (went back to the planeto retrieve something), never got fuel, and after asking at the fuel paymentbooth twice about fueling, never got conformation that I had been fueled. Whenit came time to leave, I noticed that the fuel tags were gone, but never beenfueled. Had to repeatedly call, for fuel before a truck came out.

    2. Red Tram – new East end terminus made little sense preferred the oldterminus in Vintage. At least the signage in the transfer area by the tower didhave signs that told you where to stand for the tram you wanted to go west oreast bound.


  8. #8

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    Forgot to mention the Wednesday night airshow and fireworks, excellent event, whole family enjoyed it.

    Larry

  9. #9

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    I liked that you no longer have to change trams at the Hangar Cafe. I didn't like that, once again, the tram routes bypassed the fly market/aeromart. There are a lot of cool vendors there and it's a shame that they're not on the tram route. Next year, why not have the red/blue route tram change point be at the SW corner of exhibit building D, next to the fly market?

  10. #10
    rbarkerjr's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by lkorona View Post
    GOOD:
    1. KidVenture – third year in a row that my 10-year old daughter participated. Shelooks forward to it every year. Kudos to all the volunteers who make KidVenturepossible. It’s heartwarming to see so many kids get excited about aviation. That’sour future and EAA does an excellent job supporting efforts to get kidsinvolved in aviation.
    I agree! Having a background in military aviation maintenance and inspection, I truly enjoyed sitting back and watching my son learn some new skills and find some new interests. He really enjoyed the avionics troubleshooting and is now thinking that might be a career path for him. Thanks to all of the hard working volunteers at KidVenture!
    Ron Barker
    Manitowoc, WI
    EAA# 784308
    Webmaster - EAA Chapter 383


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