Fri-Sat
mgberry said:
I'm trying to come up with an idea of when and what I want to see. I have noticed that there is no schedule posted for Osh for 2006 yet. Is it safe to say that the schedules are similiar year to year? If so, what do you guys suggest on how many days and when to go.
Matt Berry
Round Rock, TX
My wife and I have only gone once (2005) and we had a blast. We stayed in the camp, arriving on Tuesady, and yes we were close to the highway. We anticipated this and took earplugs -- slept like a baby! An added benefit of being out in the west 40 is there is plenty of space, not cramped like the other areas. Yes it is a hike to get anywhere but we needed and enjoyed the exercise.
We arrived on Tuesday morning and thankfully missed the monsoon that drenched everyone the night before. We stayed through Sunday. Timing doesn't matter on the displays, almost all vendors were there the entire week. The best airshows were Friday and Saturday. The shows tend to be repetitive but Friday and Saturday were the big ones with a gazillion warbirds in the air at the same time. Sunday tends to be a little weak as a large number of the GA aircraft as well as the airshow birds are on their ways home. There is different entertainment each night in the woods and various special flybys almost daily. These tend to be very dynamic in scheduling so you can't really plan for them. Plan on staying the entire week if you can. If you can't, at least include Friday and/or Saturday in your plans to catch the best airshows.
My recommendation is get a big/cheap tent from Wally World, a couple of air matresses, a camp stove and lantern, and a cooler, and stay at the camp. There is a Walmart 5 minutes up the road so getting food and incidentals is not a big deal. My wife and I are not big campers but we had a blast. Living in Houston where camping involves dealing with 95 degree lows and equal humidity, we were in heaven. Do take your own toilet paper; I stole two rolls out of the porta potty and intend to use it place of scotchbrite pads.
The weather was perfect while we were there but I guess it can be hot and/or wet so there is some luck of the draw involved. We couldn't have asked for more and had a relatively economical week of vacation. If you go in with an open mind and determined to have a good time no matter what happens, you probably will.
We really enjoyed Sun-N-Fun as well but if you have to pick just one, go with Airventure.