Here's links to the mentioned columns... a must read:

http://www.avweb.com/news/columns/182691-1.html

http://www.avweb.com/news/osh2002/181590-1.html

-ET




Jack Allison wrote in
k.net:


Random thoughts and, hopefully, not stuff already answered...

- Visit www.ariventure.org...a lot. Tons of great info. there.

- Download the NOTAM (available from the airventure website). Read it,
highlight it, sleep with it under your pillow, have it in the plane when
you make the arrival. If the size of the NOTAM scares you, drive or fly
commercially. I'm serious!

- Hit avweb and search for Rick Durden's past articles about Oshkosh.
Great stuff. One very sobering article but well worth the read (and
you'll understand why I say if the NOTAM scares you, drive.

- Arriving a day before the show starts has worked for us the past two
years. Another option is to wait until about day three or four as lots
of spots open up in the north-40 after the first couple of days.

- Figure out where folks that frequent the newsgroups come from and pick
their brains routes, places to stop for gas and/or hotel (*if* the
NOTAM doesn't scare you and you fly in :-) )

- IMHO, no matter how many days you plan for the first time you go, you
won't see everything, you'll be dead tired after each day but you'll
have the biggest grin on your face and you'll want to come back the next
year and the year after that and the year after that and...

- If you fly in (ya, after the NOTAM thing), have somebody else in the
plane. As many mark-one eyeballs looking outside as possible helps.

- Ask tons of questions since there are many folks like Jay H. who have
gone to Oshkosh for the past zillion years or so. I'm a mere newbie
with only two years under my belt.

Congrats on the decision to go. Next to deciding to learn to fly, doing
something like this is a great PIC decision :-)