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08-08-2011, 12:49 PM
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Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Elkhart, Indiana
Posts: 1,186
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While this thread may not effect any changes in how AirVulture is organized and executed, it's nice to read that many other participants share my general dismay at its evolution.
Yeah, I'm an old fart. This was my 22nd consecutive Oshkosh. When I first started attending, there were only three exhibition halls -- the old hangar buildings that now house stuff that doens't capture most people's imagination.
Food choices were: cold pancakes, scrambled eggs and coffee for breakfast ... cold hamburgers, cheeseburgers and onion burgers from Zaug's ... and soft serve cones that cost something like $.50. And kids hawking ice cold Cokes (with the ice already melted, naturally) as they walked through the crowds.
You took your life in your hands if you walked around the grounds before the convention started. Big trucks, cars and tractors were moving constantly, and it seemed like they were playing a game to see if they could actually run over pedestrians in the process. After all, they were trying to set up for the show and you were in the way. However, once the convention started, there were very few motorized vehicles driving through the grounds. It was safe to walk while looking at airplanes and licking a cone.
Camping in Camp Scholler was primitive but cheap. People had campers and motor homes, but they mixed easily with tent campers and nobody had any big issues. When night fell, people went to bed or had quiet conversations around a fire or gas lantern. Gathering for programs at the Theater in the Woods was the only evening entertainment. Oshkosh was an economical vacation for a family without great means.
I do enjoy some of the amenities that EAA's evolution have brought. The upgraded showers are nice. The expanded food availability is convenient. The caliber of workmanship in the homebuilt community is overwhelming. But, when measured against what we've lost in the process, I'm generally disappointed. I thought that I would always be an EAA member -- and I may -- but I can just as easily see the day when I will find another destination for my summer escape, and that's sad.
People have offered some really good practical suggestions that will make future conventions more convenient for participants. However, I'm afraid that Pandora's box has already been opened, and there's no way to turn back the clock (yes, I mixed my metaphors, sorry). For people relatively new to Oshkosh, going back to how it used to be would be equally disappointing. We fortunate few who had the pleasure of enjoying Oshkosh the way Paul hoped it would be will just fade away one day ... 
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Don McNamara
Peoria, AZ
Builder: RV-8 "Smokey"
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08-08-2011, 01:04 PM
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Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Lake Havasu City AZ
Posts: 2,393
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OLD
OLD???? How about Rockford 1961 and only missed one since. I am cautiously optomistic tha a few things can be turnmed around.
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08-08-2011, 02:33 PM
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Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Stilwell, KS
Posts: 1,096
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Hmm... I remember camping in the woods when I was a kid near where the stupid Movie Theater is now, and going to sleep just after sundown, and being amazed that a temporary town of 40,000 campers could be so hush-quiet and peaceful. It was wonderful getting to sleep early and then waking up at dawn to Paul's P-51 screaming over the campgrounds. The campground is a horribly noisy place now. The movie booms so loud across the entire place you can't think.
And-- What's up with those creepy flaming bags???  I see them going up overhead every night and just cringe at the thought of all that avgas and vintage doped fabric out there.
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Katie Bosman
RV-3B sold, but flying!
Next project: ???
Builders gonna build...
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08-08-2011, 02:34 PM
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Join Date: May 2006
Location: Boone, Iowa
Posts: 342
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Quote:
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onion burgers from Zaug's
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I so miss the 'bermuda burger's' from Zaug's.
I gave my daughter my kids sized "Oshkosh Jacket" this year with the 1978 patch that started it off. We bought a 2011 patch in the original EAA shop then walked through the arch for the first time in years (for the newbies you used to HAVE to be an EAA member, surrender your Coke and ice cream before getting to bend over an airplane). Bigger is not better. I wish the regionals could find a working formula.
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08-08-2011, 06:24 PM
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Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: SC
Posts: 12,887
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My first OSH was in ?87, back when you walked through the brown arches and had to be a pilot or EAA member to get close to the planes. I brought my father with me, who saw a Corsair and Mustang up close for the first time, airplanes he first saw as a boy in news reals at the movie theater. I still remember the look on his face when he realized how large they really were.
This year I asked three different people to stop smoking around the planes. One guy with a large cigar was leaning over the cockpit of the plane while holding his lit stogie over the fuel tank. The second guy dropped his cigarette in the grass and put it out with his foot. The third guy I asked to put out his cigarette just started swearing at me.
My ideas for improving Airventure is trying to bring it back to its roots. Geriatric rock bands don?t do it for me, even though I have an AARP membership letter sitting on my desk.
Lying in my tent in HBC listening to the movies, rock bands, or whatever until midnight just detracts from the experience.
Then realizing there were eight showers and two sinks with mirrors for all of HBC along with two groups of port-a-johns when the certified guys have really nice facilities. If next year wasn?t Van?s 40th anniversary, I would encourage the homebuilders to boycott HBC and ask to park with the aircraft camping, even if it is a bit of a distance from the main part of the show.
Oh, then there was the part about the seven iPhones being stolen from the HBC charging station. I wonder if the EAA is addressing that little issue.
My other suggestion is for the EAA to hire Maryjane and her family to host HBC as they do at SnF every year.
__________________
Bill R.
RV-9 (Yes, it's a dragon tail)
O-360 w/ dual P-mags
Build the plane you want, not the plane others want you to build!
SC86 - Easley, SC
www.repucci.com/bill/baf.html
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08-09-2011, 10:30 AM
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Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Ft Myers, FL
Posts: 276
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My biggest complaint has already been mentioned but I will add it also in the event that these are compiled and sent to EAA. I also am annoyed by the amount of vehicle traffic on the grounds of AirVenture. As my wife and I are dodging these golf carts and Gators I see a cart hauling around able bodied men and women. I don't know if they are VIPs or if they just know somebody that has a cart. I also see a cart with 1,2 or 3 teenagers riding around. I am aware that some of these carts are used to haul supplies to various shops, vendors and food sellers but most of the time, I see nothing in the cart or Gator other than these able bodied people. I would love to have somebody drive me around so I didn't have to walk from one end of Wittman Field to the other but no one has been forthcomimg in offering me a ride and a I also enjoy the walk.
This being said, I still look forward to my annual pilgrimage to Mecca. It is a great escape from the stresses of work and it allows me to indulge my aviation fantasies. I have come to the point where I no longer feel the need to camp under the wing of my plane so I haven't had the negative experience of Camp Scholler that others have posted here. On the other hand, I don't get the experience of the commraderie there. My wife is especially thrilled about the new flush toilets outside Building C. I can't imagine what it would take for me to not return to Air Venture every year unless providentially hindered by personal factors.
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Bill Near
RV-7A Flying
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08-09-2011, 10:36 AM
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Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Roy, Utah
Posts: 1,144
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Well, 67 posts later, someone echoed what I said back in post #28 about setting up camp in the North 40 to take advantage of the new, improved, larger and varied amenities.
No formal boycott needed, just hold up your GAC sign after exiting the runway.
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Five Sierra Fox
RV-9A
Utah
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08-09-2011, 10:58 AM
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Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Chesterfield, Missouri
Posts: 4,514
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Do you recall the rooster crowing each morning along with reveille? That was a classic, grass roots, down to earth daily opening.
I liked it - in the same tradition as Jerry Sleger's one man along with the couple who pulled a wild looking wagon with flopping wings.
Some things shouldn't change, they make an event more special than it is.
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RV-12 Build Helper
RV-7A...Sold #70374
The RV-8...Sold #83261
I'm in, dues paid 2019 This place is worth it!
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08-09-2011, 11:32 AM
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Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: North Atlanta
Posts: 1,120
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Quote:
Originally Posted by N941WR
This year I asked three different people to stop smoking around the planes. One guy with a large cigar was leaning over the cockpit of the plane while holding his lit stogie over the fuel tank. The second guy dropped his cigarette in the grass and put it out with his foot. The third guy I asked to put out his cigarette just started swearing at me.
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I knew I liked you for some reason. Smoking around airplanes and leaving your grocery cart beside my car really get my blood boiling.
__________________
Sid Lambert
RV-7 Sold
RV-4 - Flying - O-320 Fixed Pitch - Red over Yellow
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08-09-2011, 04:37 PM
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Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Bellevue, NE
Posts: 686
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Quote:
Originally Posted by wjnmd
...a cart hauling around able bodied men and women. I don't know if they are VIPs or if they just know somebody that has a cart. I also see a cart with 1,2 or 3 teenagers riding around...
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Someone else said it's EAA policy that the drivers would get in trouble for driving around empty and that the drivers should fill the seats with those who were going the same direction.
Teenagers...well...what can you say?
-Jim
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