On May 21, 12:59 am, "Stuart & Kathryn Fields"
wrote:
wrote in message

...



Having attended Oshkosh for the last 35 years without fail, Jim Weir's
recent message that he'd have to miss this one due to rising fuel
costs, was an item of conversation last Sunday at our Irregularly
Scheduled, Often Delayed, Homebuilder Koffee Klatch here in northern
Sandy Eggo county. (Jim usta hang out around here.)

I made it to Rockford a couple of times but being in the Navy (back
then) Oshkosh never matched my schedule. By the time I retired O$hko
$h had become too expensive for a retired Chief. So I took a by as
the conversation bounced around the table. Of the eight of us hiding
out in the back room at the Picket Fence, two are double-dippers, one
is a Tooth Doctor and another runs an RV factory. Membership in the
ISODHFK is about a dozen and in any given year at least three or four
of them will perform the annual pilgrimage.

But not this year.

Oh, there were some dandy excuses. Along with some guilty glances,
since the Goers often save the Right Seat for the Stayers.

But not this year.

Money was mentioned but Rich Folk (meaning just about everyone but me)
don't like to talk about it. Age and medical problems was the hand's
down favorite for Not Going and we plowed that common ground until the
free re-fills ran out and we moseyed off to our Sunday afternoon
pursuits.

It'll be interesting to see how this story plays-out.

-R.S.Hoover

Well, gasp, gasp, since we do have to cover the helicopter event at
Hillsboro Ohio for our magazine, we might just as well do O$$hko$$h as well.
While age and medical problems are setting there also, the $$$ gets my
attention.We are estimating $2500 just in diesel for our truck/camper combo.
Sun'n Fun was definitely down this year. It is going to be an item of
interest just how many birds show at O$$hko$$h as well. The bang for the
buck is getting to be a serious item of discussion.
I don't know if it is directly connected, but we are experiencing a growing
number of new subscribers at a rate that we can't account for. Maybe the
increase in fuel cost has people needing to at least read about flying?

Stu

Or perhaps they are getting out of certified and into experimental to
save cost?