VFR Flight Following -- What's going on here?

Is it true that the EAA force people to become EAA members to attend
Oshkosh?

When we first started attending OSH, back in the early '80s, you could
attend the fly-in without being a member, but you could not go on the flight
line without a separate pass that required membership. To get that precious
pass, you had to join EAA -- which is what got me in the fold! I wanted to
be where the action was, and I couldn't see it from 200 yards away behind a
fence.

At some point they eliminated that whole thing, and now just let everyone
in, everywhere, although they do charge non-members more.

IMHO it was better to only allow full members access to the flight line.
Some of the show planes at OSH represent thousands of hours and tens of
thousands (hundreds of thousands, in some cases) of time and money, and I
don't think letting the NASCAR crowd in unimpeded was a good idea. Not
often, but occasionally I have seen ignorant parents letting their kids run
around too near fabric planes, and have just about had a heart attack. That
NEVER happened under the old rules.

To combat this, they now have an entire battalion of volunteers called
"Protect Our Planes" (or something similar), to police the grounds. This
seems silly, to me, (as opposed to going back to the old rules) but I
suppose they are trying to open the flight line to everyone in hopes of
growing GA?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"