Those "snot nosed CAP cadets" have done more good for Oshkosh attendees than most. In addition to the more visible ELT hunts and taking down the N-numbers of arrival (in case flight plans don't get closed), they have performed emergency on-demand services for me a couple of times. My first night camping at Oshkosh, we had one of those 70 mph wind thunderstorms blow through the North 40. As soon as it was over the CAP kids were there, helping people reset their camp sites, handing out hot cocoa, and taking people whose tents were beyond repair over to bivouac in their hangar. I, for one, was glad to see them.
Then there was the sloshkosh year. We had parked a good number of Vintage planes on the taxiway/paved ditch. The arrivals left their N number, where they were setting up their tent, and their cell phone number with us. I typed all these into a computer and then as things dried out two of us called all those pilots back one at a time on our phones after we could move them. I'd just gotten the last one moved out about 2PM and decided to go rest when Jack Rousch crashed. Back we were providing crowd control. People do dumbass things when a plane crashes. I saw people leap from moving trams to try to rush the line to get a closer look. We were supposed to have a organization dinner at a local restaurant, but we were still doing crowd control (and relocating campers close to the crash site since the FAA said that nobody could be in there while they dealt with the fuel leaking and such) at 9PM. I was despairing about ever getting any dinner when the CAP cadets came marking up to space out along the road to relieve us.
My wife and I have been going for years. It was her first Oshkosh that led her to want to learn how to fly (she had been afraid of even commercial flight before that). She parlayed that into a career in the education department at the National Air and Space Museum.
The odd time was the year we brought my son. He found a girl early on, so we gave him $20 for food and didn't see him again until sundown.
I could see on google earth what looks like about a thousand golf carts parked at the corner of Knapp and county road N about 1/2 mile south of runway 36. Is that for Airventure?
I was wondering the same thing.
Dave Shaw
EAA 67180 Lifetime
Learn to Build, Build to Fly, Fly for Fun
If you have Google Earth Pro (the installed desktop version), you can see historical imagery by moving a date slider, and the date on the imagery is accurate. Unfortunately the online version seems to only show the latest imagery, and the copyright date doesn't tell you when it was taken.
Eric Page
Building: Kitfox 5 Safari | Rotax 912iS | Dynon HDX
Member: EAA Lifetime, AOPA, ALPA
ATP: AMEL | Comm: ASEL, Glider | ATCS: CTO
Map of Landings