I parked my Vintage Aircraft in GAC at #OSH16

[whviii]

This year in particular I was amazed at how expansive the work and improvements in the North 40 have been. Our first two years coming we parked in the North 40 and all that was there was the original red bathhouse. Now it is great.

The past two years we have parked and camped in the south 40. In 2015 we arrived Sunday afternoon and were in row 136, not quite at the end of the line, but almost. This year, due to the weather, we arrived Sunday morning instead of our planned Saturday afternoon and ended up in row 125. Since things were expanded for the GAC overflow parking there we were no longer near the end 🤑.
I have to agree with many of the earlier comments.
1. No life sustaining amenities as we know them exist south of the ultralight zone/seaplane parking but a ton of camping planes do. Yes there are porta potties, and they did add a second shower trailer in the expanded area but if you did not happen to be there when the VAC gator was running around selling ice you had to haul it from the tallpines or red barn. Yes they seemed to be selling ice at the new registration desk In the south 40, but it had limited hours and was closed after, IIRC, Tuesday so we often lugged ice from the tall pines cafe after breakfast back to the plane. Special thanks to the VAC folks for running the tall pines and the ice gators!

2. I know the show doesn't officially open until Monday morning but I wish EAA would keep in mind that the place is pretty full on Saturday and Sunday before the show. We were less than impressed when we had dinner at one of the places near the Hilton Garden Inn, caught the bus to the North 40 gate then had to walk from there to row 125 in the south 40 because, according to the drivers, after 8 pm they were told to stop running ALL TRAMS AND BUSSES! The rest of the week they ran busses after hours to the south 40 until 11pm. But not on Sunday night.

3. Yes they did put in a new shower trailer in the expanded south 40, but I must say it has smaller stalls making it difficult to change without getting your clothes wet and were not nearly as nice as the other trailers near the seaplane bus stop they installed last year .


Now that I have ragged on things I have to be fair. The show was great. When the TRAMS and busses were scheduled they worked well, the drivers were great, very polite and accommodating. The new food choices in the main areas are also a welcome improvement although it would be nice if some of stayed open in the evening. Hopefully now that the North 40 has been upgraded, and overflow GAC parking has moved south EAA will begin to improve the south 40.
We had a great time and look forward to coming back.

[flypug]

I have to agree with the original post. We arrived Sunday and were unable to get camping in VAC as they sent us down to the GAC in the South 40. The frustrating part, was the large number of open spots in VAC that we saw but where not available to Vintage Aircraft due to large sections be reserved for type clubs. Seemed like by Tuesday these same spots where opened up for non-VAC aircraft to park in when parking on the field became saturated.

Yes they did have a nice registration building on the South 40 but its hours of operation made it so you could not buy ice when you came back to your site after the airshow and they opened too late in the morning to buy any before you left for the day.

I appreciate that some of the Swift, C170, Comanche etc. owners may like to camp together, but when they block off space that goes unused when planes are not able to make it in for various reasons, does it not seem more fair to simply provide parking on a first come first serve bases? If a group wants to camp together, then why don’t they just do a mass arrival as the Bonanza and Mooney pilots do?

[FlyingRon]

The GA overflow was limited to the "Green Acres" field down south. There are a number of areas in Vintage that get reserved. North of the crossover to the west side (Classic Point) is reserved pretty much for special exhibits, past grand champions, and the like. The next few rows are reserved for the heavy twins (Beach 18's, Electras that we can't really fit in on the standard rows). The type club area is ACROSS THE ROAD in the field north of the ultralights and south of Aircraft Repair. Those spaces are only held through Sunday. Starting Monday morning, we start backfilling them with new (Vintage) arrivals.

The rules change from year to year, albeit sometimes slowly. For example, I've long complained that the areas reserved up front for "Parking only" was counter to the Oshkosh experience. Prior to this year, the rows from the Comm building (the beginning of Vintage) down about halfway to ultralights was no camping.
This year, they told me to put campers anywhere they were otherwise legal to park.

If you want to complain, I can forward your comments to the chairmen. I can't see anybody changing the type club reservation policy, though. If nothing else it's actually EXPANDED over the past few years rather than being restricted.