Top Ten Things that Suck About Oshkosh

In the past I've been accused of being hopelessly starry-eyed about
Oshkosh, to the point of waxing poetically sappy.

Just to prove that I'm not all sniffly about leaving OSH, I thought
I'd list my Top Ten List of things that suck about Oshkosh. Feel free
to add yours.

10. Seaplane Base Boredom. This year we inexplicably headed to the
Seaplane Base in the morning, rather than the afternoon. This would
have been okay, but the wind came up, whipped up whitecaps on Lake
Winnebago, and stopped all operations. There is, quite literally,
NOTHING to do there when the planes can't fly. This is okay for a
couple of hours, but not for more than three. Since we had tickets to
the fish fry, we didn't want to leave and come back (it's 20 minutes
from Wittman Field), so we were stuck. Mistake noted, not to be
repeated.

9. Dirt. It's everywhere at OSH, except when it's raining, and then
it's mud. It's the kind of dirt that, when you itch your arm, your
fingernails are instantly black. Sweat turns it to goo, and it's
usually hot.

8. Showering one-handed. Using a sink sprayer to wash is an exercise
in frustration, at best. Learning to shampoo with one hand whilst
spraying with the other is a skill no one should have to learn.

7. Idiots In Golf Carts. There is simply no excuse for them being
everywhere. You can't walk ANYWHERE without being forced to move
aside for them.

6. Idiots on Scooters. This is expanding exponentially, at roughly
the same rate at American's waist lines. The Korean War vet with no
legs deserves a scooter. The guy who hasn't seen his knees in 20
years should either walk or stay home.

5. Eating Late at Night. Because everyone wants to make every day
last, we often ended up eating late in the evening, followed by
collapsing in bed. For my system -- especially when eating like we
eat at OSH -- that means essentially living on Rolaids and Tums all
week, or suffering terrible acid reflux.

4. Being Bald. In the intense sun at OSH, being bald can be a very
painful liability. Your only hope is to wear a hat all the time,
which is a pain. (I suppose one could simply shave your head and wear
sun screen, too.)

3. Wearing Sunscreen. Each day, after showering off the topsoil, the
next step was to reapply sunscreen. Mix with Oshkosh Dirt (See #9,
above), and you've now got creamy mud. Worse, it must be reapplied
every few hours, so you're putting fresh cream on top of mud.

2. Distance. Everything is far, far away, no matter where you are.
We thought we were "close" to the restaurants, being camped on the
fenceline, when in fact in "real life" breakfast at the Hilton was
still over 5 blocks away, each way. Bike help in the North 40, but
can't be used on the show grounds. (But scooters can?!) We probably
walked over five miles each day -- some days much more.

1. NOT flying. This may sound counter-intuitive, but we fly less
during the week of Oshkosh than any other week during the year, simply
because it's SUCH a pain in the butt to fly in that area and return to
your campsite. (Just ask the guys who went flying Friday, and then
couldn't get back to their site when the airport was closed due to the
Mustang collision.) By the end of the week I find myself looking
forward to the flight home, just cuz it's FLYING.

So there you have it -- there really ARE bad things about Oshkosh.

God help me, I miss it so already...

:-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

In article om,
Jay Honeck wrote:

[snip]
8. Showering one-handed. Using a sink sprayer to wash is an exercise
in frustration, at best. Learning to shampoo with one hand whilst
spraying with the other is a skill no one should have to learn.

relax... a few years from now it won't be a problem,

4. Being Bald. In the intense sun at OSH, being bald can be a very
painful liability. Your only hope is to wear a hat all the time,
which is a pain. (I suppose one could simply shave your head and wear
sun screen, too.)

there you go... :-)

--
Bob Noel
(goodness, please trim replies!!!)

Here's another one: long lines for food and water. It seemed like there were
a lot fewer food vendors present this year (not including McDonalds), and
that it was a 30+ minute wait to get anything.

Here's another one: long lines for food and water. It seemed like there were
a lot fewer food vendors present this year (not including McDonalds), and
that it was a 30+ minute wait to get anything.

Yet another reason to eat off-field. We only ate one "meal" on the
field the whole week. (Lots of ice cream on those hot days, though!)

What day(s) were you there, Doc? I expected to run into you at some
point, but never did.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Went up for one day, with a specific list of booths to see, as well as to
hang out with the guys from our units (F-16 and KC-135). We came with our 11
year old son, and two of his buddies. They liked the pyro during the
airshow, while I enjoyed seeing the people at the Extra booth, Paraphernalia
(parachute guy), etc. I

I'm not too much of a gear head- I'd rather be flying than looking at
vintage or exotic stuff. As an example, I'd rather have a talk with Sean
Tucker than watch him fly, although he is obviously great. Had a brief talk
with one of the pilots of the navy MH-53, who was at the airshow and camping
with her parents- what a great accomplishment.

To me, it's more about the people in aviation rather than the hardware.
Plus, I went up in the flight suit- it's great PR for our units in the
state, but they are very hot in the sun.

I saw the expandable flag pole exhibit as well, and looked at the new
Lightspeed Zulu, which seemed pretty interesting. Also paid my Jeppesen
subscription and got an update for flightstar (which promptly locked up).
What do Ford and Honda have to do with aviation, although they obviously
paid big bucks for their exhibits?

Plus, we live so close that it hardly seems worth the time and effort to
camp, but this rules out having a few beers and then driving home
afterwards.

However, it was still a great day and a great experience, and one that I
certainly would do for a day each year.

In a previous article, "Viperdoc" said:
What do Ford and Honda have to do with aviation, although they obviously
paid big bucks for their exhibits?

Ford Trimotor? HondaJet?

--
Paul Tomblin http://blog.xcski.com/
Progress (n.): The process through which Usenet has evolved from
smart people in front of dumb terminals to dumb people in front
of smart terminals. --

On Sun, 29 Jul 2007 19:13:21 -0500, "Viperdoc"
wrote in
:

Ford and Honda have to do with aviation


Umm... Willow Run, and the HondaJet? :-)

Spent over 45minutes two days in a row standing in sweltering heat in line
for Zogg food... consolation? Matt Younkin and Kyle Franklin were just
ahead of us, in line, each of those two days. It was nice listening to them
as well as the fans that recognized them... sad part was the second day it
was just 40 minutes before Jim LeRoy died.

Tami and I missed you as well Viperdoc, I actually looked for you on
Wednesday near the KC135, to no avail.

Jim Burns

"Viperdoc" wrote in message
...
Here's another one: long lines for food and water. It seemed like there
were a lot fewer food vendors present this year (not including McDonalds),
and that it was a 30+ minute wait to get anything.

On Jul 29, 9:13 pm, "Jim Burns" wrote:
Spent over 45minutes two days in a row standing in sweltering heat in line
for Zogg food..

woke up when i felt like it in scholler(about 6ish) showered, went to
either vickis or the church place to eat breakfast, both offcially
offsite, both fairly cheap. lunch in aces cafe. ate zogg food once to
use up the $1 coupon in my EAA book.

yeah, all were madhouses after 11 am. didnt bother with dinner. ate
tons of popcorn at the fly-in theater instead.

Viperdoc wrote:
Here's another one: long lines for food and water. It seemed like there were
a lot fewer food vendors present this year (not including McDonalds), and
that it was a 30+ minute wait to get anything.



They seem to have deep-sixed the competition to Zaugs. (DJ and
MacD's). Actually the number of sites seemed to be as much as
before. Forutnately, 12-12:30 is the worst time however but even
then it wasn't that bad.