Jay Honeck wrote:

Well, okay, by week's end the trough/sink was getting mouldy, but
whaddya expect in a high-humidity environment?

Uh ... bleach?

I've been to OSH only once, in 1995 to see the warbird gathering. That
was truly spectacular and mad the trip worthwhile, but little else about
Osh Kosh was appealing to me. I camped right near Basler (had my tail
against their fence), which was a nice location, but a lot bus ride/hike
to the real action.

It was fun to look at the wide array of airplanes, but I have to admit
that I'm not a crowd person and the heat, humidity and crowds took away
most of the fun for me. After two nights of camping, we moved into the
dorms as a room opened up and the showers in the north 40 were terrible
(they were trailers back then) and the lines were long. If you didn't
get up before 6 AM, you had a 60 minute wait in line ... at least. I
usually either got up at 5 or waiting and showered in the early afternoon.

I haven't been back since as I much more enjoy going to a local fly-in
breakfast or smaller airshow. I thought Osh Kosh, even back then, was
too oriented towards the flea market masses and already was emphasizing
commercialism over aviation. I doubt it has gotten better since then
and back then the problems with scooters and carts was fairly minor.
Adding that into the mix would really turn me off.

So, I'm glad it appeals to many folks, but give me a local fly-in
breakfast any day! You get to fly, you don't have huge crowds, the food
is always great and you can actually talk to the people about their
airplanes as they aren't distracted trying to keep 15 people from
walking on their wings or breaking off antennas and pitot tubes.


Matt