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Pietenpols SpaceShip One Airshow Seaplanes Little Wing Bugatti Other BuildDiary.net Miata.net EAA USS Cod |
The highlight of this trip was going to be a visit to Oshkosh Wisconsin for the EAA's annual convention that they have now given the rather dumb name of "Airventure". If you're not paid by the EAA to say "Airventure", you simply call it Oshkosh. It's the world's largest airshow and truly earns the right to be called the Mecca of airplane nuts. When I was a kid I wanted to go, but it was 2/3rds of a continent away, and no one else in my family wanted to go to Wisconsin just to look at airplanes. Then my interests changed as I got older and airplanes became a side interest. Aaah, but now that I run a website for people into DIY projects, and I am getting started on building a plane of my own, I figured it was time for me to make the pilgrimage. 
I joined the EAA early in the summer, and arranged to stay at their member's campground while there. When we arrived, we drove around in the campground trying to find a spot. The campground is titanically huge, and the sites are not assigned to you, you just set up camp were you can make room. We managed to find a spot that looked open, and there was someone setting up camp across the way, so we assumed that this was the outer edge of were people had already set up. We found out later on we had stolen someone's parking spot, but we managed to move our stuff around so they could park (thank god for taking such a tiny car and tent, we took up probably about 10 square feet). Strangely enough, we stole the parking spot of a fellow Pietenpol builder, so everything worked out in the end. He was really cool about it. We should have taken pictures of our campground, didn't think about it. Since this was my first time at Oshkosh, I tried to not take so many pictures and really try to experience the whole thing. Well, at least as much as I could see, it's impossible to take in the whole thing. The Oshkosh Convention is huge! you can walk for miles and miles and there is always more. Row after row of Homebuilts, Classics, Warbirds, Ultralights... 4 large hangars full of display booths, the airmart (more businesses), food, remarkably well kept up honeypots... Once you think you have reached some sort of end of the show, you turn a corner and there's just more stuff stretching off to the horizon. It's everything that people say it is. |