Oshkosh, WI Air Show

June 22 (Mon) Saint Charles, IL - Germantown, WI

Travel Day

Headed up to Milwaukee in the afternoon and got to Lorri and Keith's house at 5:00 (no traffic issues for a change!). They invited me for dinner.

Dinner at Lorri and Keith's

They made a fresh salad, Salmon, Wild Rice, Zucchini and Cherries and blueberries for dessert. Dinner was terrific! Yum! Keith's son, Danny also stopped by and joined us for dinner. Had a nice visit and caught up with everyone. Then headed to Germantown to stay at the hotel.

Lodging - Country Inn, Germantown

As I had planned this trip only a couple of weeks ago, all the hotels near Oshkosh were booked so, Germantown (about 60 miles south of Oshkosh) was my best bet. We had stayed here one Christmas Eve years ago so I knew the hotel. Nice.

Two nights.

July 23 (Tue)

Weather. Nice summer day about 80, sunny, nice breeze, not too humid.

EAA Airventure

Headed to the EAA Airventure. Did not hit traffic and parking was a breeze. Got there about 11:00. They have bus shuttles running from the parking lot to the entrance.

This place is immense. Thousands of pilots fly their planes in for the event and park on the grounds along with all the historic aircraft. Both Homebuilts and commercially produced private planes. I also saw hundreds of planes when I passed Fondulac with tents next to them. They also have a huge camping area and huge RV area for people to stay on the grounds.

Spent about 2 1/2 hours before the start of the airshow on the main drag called Boeing Plaza. Walked through some vendor pavilions along the way, the most interesting was the Ford pavilion (cars not planes tho).

In the boeing area they had a UPS 747, a United 777 Dreamliner, B-17, B-29 (no B-24), Apache and Shinook Helicoptors and many more. I walked through some of these aircraft although, most had long lines so I skipped some. Also wandered through a bunch of the commercial airplane vendors gawking at the private jets (I didn't buy one), experimentals and standard private planes on display. Managing to avoid all the sales people who were talking with real pilots and real potential clients.

Ford Pavillion

I know, these are funny looking airplanes.... Ford had an air conditioned pavillion...

CH-47 Chinook Helicopter

AH-64 Apache Helicopter

B-17 Flying Fortress

B-29 Super Fortress

At 2:00 I headed to the main runway area to watch the airshow. Lot's of people had chairs (which I didn't feel like walking around with all day) although, I saw some cool chairs that fold down tiny and easily carried around. So, I stood, sat and eventually, found a great spot in the shade under the wing of an airplane.

Air Show

The air show was really cool although got a little slow at times. Lot's of acrobatics, I particularly liked the Red Bull team (a biplane, a monoplane and a helicoptor). Also impressive was a group of 32 T28 warbirds all up in the air and flying various formations at the same time. The highlight for me was right at the end when an F-35, F-22 and a P-51 took off and flew some formations. The power from the jets is incredible. The experienced airventure attendees donned ear plugs (especially for the kids) during their performance.

After the airshow, I walked back to the parking lot (only about 1/2 mile I think) instead of cueing up for the packed busses. Getting out of the parking lot was again a breeze, and I drove back to Germantown. I had packed some sandwiches for the trip so, just had a sandwich, fruit and veggies for dinner.

July 24 (Wed)

Weather: Nice summer day about 80, sunny, nice breeze, not too humid.

Again, drove to the airshow arriving around 10:30 and this time hit just a little line to get into the parking lot but only a few minutes.

I spent most of this day wandering around the grounds of the War Birds section. Line after line of P-51s and T-28s were parked wing to wing. As the photos show, there were a ton of various aircraft and I spent most of the time just looking at all the different airplanes. Unfortunately, for security, the F-35 and F-22 were parked way off in a restricted area. For a while, the F-22 was in the Boeing plaza area for a closer view and was impressively guarded by army in full gear and weapons.

War Birds

There was also a set up of tents, jeeps and tractors that the army had on display and reminded me of the TV show Mash.

Miller Field

I then made my way back to Boeing plaza, got a couple of shots of the heavily guarded F-22 Raptor, toured the UPS 747 configured for packages and then spent a little time in the area where they had home builts. Note to self: not a hobby for me! Got a couple of shots of the heavily guarded F-22 Raptor.

747 UPS Cargo Plane

F22 Raptor

The air show again started at 2:30 and I was lucky because they started out with the F-35, F-22 and P-51. Can't get enough of those planes. Once that was over, I decided not to stay for a repeat of the prior days show. I think they just mix up the order of the show.

Drove back home (188 miles). GPS took me a strange route but kept me off I-94 which I think was good as I would have hit it at rush hour. Home Sweet Home by about 7:15.

Summary

I am really glad I did a quick trip to see this. The scale of the show (size of the grounds, the number of airplanes, vendors, displays, seminars, and attendees) was impressive. The show was exceptionally well organized to handle the large crowd. In general, the crowd was pretty old. The scooter rental place makes a killing! But, there were also families with little kids too. By the size of the campgrounds and rv parks, many attend much of the full week I think.

For me, a couple of days was just about right. Be prepared for lots of walking. Although, again to accomodate the older crowd, they did have tons of staff driving around asking if people wanted a ride....no I did NOT.

A little disappointed about not having a single B-24 on the grounds and none of the more modern bombers (B-1, B-2 etc.) and only two of the modern jets. Also, disappointed that the air show did not have either the Blue Angles or the Thunderbirds in it. Not sure, but maybe they show up for only one day of the show.

So, all in all, I am glad I went. Definately not an annual trek but, maybe another visit down the road. Four Stars.