Questions for OSH Volunteers

[Jay Honeck]

Here are a few questions about OSH that I have not been able to
answer:

1. Do they close the airspace tonight (Sunday, last day of show), or
does the airport revert to 24 hour operation?

2. How long can you camp in the North 40? What if you simply
*stay*? How long until someone comes out and says, "Uh, you *know*
the show is over, right?" A couple of days? A week?

Will we be reading about Montblack in the Oshkosh Northwestern
newspaper, as "The Guy Who Wouldn't Go Home"?

3. How long does it take to clean everything up? When is the last of
the 10,000 Porta-potties hauled away? When does the last volunteer
go home?

4. How many volunteers work OSH?

5. According to Tom Poberezny, planning for the following year
actually starts 13 months out. That means they were already planning
OSH '08 a month before OSH '07. True?

6. Is anyone here privy to the Master Plan for AirVenture? I presume
someone has codified their procedures so they are not constantly
reinventing the wheel each year as volunteers come and go. Is this
plan available anywhere?

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

[tony roberts]

In article . com>,
Jay Honeck > wrote:

> 3. How long does it take to clean everything up? When is the last of
> the 10,000 Porta-potties hauled away? When does the last volunteer
> go home?


And where do you empty 10,000 porta-potties?

Tony

--

Tony Roberts
PP-ASEL
VFR OTT
Night
Cessna 172H C-GICE

[Jay Honeck]

> And where do you empty 10,000 porta-potties?

Really. Every day we saw huge tanker trucks (we call them "Honey
Wagons") leaving the grounds to dump their loads...somewhere.

I would presume the OSH wastewater treatment plant?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

[Ron Natalie]

Jay Honeck wrote:
> Here are a few questions about OSH that I have not been able to
> answer:
>
> 1. Do they close the airspace tonight (Sunday, last day of show), or
> does the airport revert to 24 hour operation?

I'm sure you figured it out, but officially it closes. However,
we all head to the Volunteer appreciation dinner at 6:30 or so,
so I don't know what stops you.

>
> 2. How long can you camp in the North 40? What if you simply
> *stay*? How long until someone comes out and says, "Uh, you *know*
> the show is over, right?" A couple of days? A week?

As long as you care too I think. Of course, they lock up the shower
tent and take away all the port-o-lets quickly post show.

>
> 3. How long does it take to clean everything up? When is the last of
> the 10,000 Porta-potties hauled away? When does the last volunteer
> go home?

They'll be gone by the time you read this. One year they started
hauling them out of the south campsite DURING the show. The comm
center volunteers started breaking down the PA system Sunday morning.
We picked up all the cones demarking the field around airshow time.

The way vintage works is we pack up everything (the scooters we own
and all the cones and stuff) and return the rentals/loaners Sunday.
Then everybody takes time off and a group of dedicated guys (mostly
locals) come back in a few weeks and clean stuff up for the over
winter storage. All the protable buildings go to the Theatre in
the woods for storage. Many of the portolets go in a big field.

>
> 4. How many volunteers work OSH?

Must be on the airventure site somewhere
>
> 5. According to Tom Poberezny, planning for the following year
> actually starts 13 months out. That means they were already planning
> OSH '08 a month before OSH '07. True?

Absolutely. We were working on the Vintage plans for 08 during the
show for sure. I'm sure other things take longer times. The whole
show is broken down into comittees and there are more "chairmen" than
you can shake a stick at. I know of two operations: Vintage and
Aircraft Repair. Both have meetings and discussions all through the
year. A group of diehards gets up to the site early (either as a
special work trip, or just early for the show).


>
> 6. Is anyone here privy to the Master Plan for AirVenture? I presume
> someone has codified their procedures so they are not constantly
> reinventing the wheel each year as volunteers come and go. Is this
> plan available anywhere?
>
Most of the knowledge is kept in the various subgroups. Most have
multiple "co-chairs" that provide continuity incase one of the chairs
stops participating. I know flight line ops tries to keep things
written down and we have a big section in the binder of "things to
do for next year." The chairs will usually email the volunteers
they have contact info and solicit input as well.

[Jay Honeck]

> > 2. How long can you camp in the North 40? What if you simply
> > *stay*? How long until someone comes out and says, "Uh, you *know*
> > the show is over, right?" A couple of days? A week?
>
> As long as you care too I think. Of course, they lock up the shower
> tent and take away all the port-o-lets quickly post show.

Really? I could be like Bartleby, and simply "prefer not to"
leave?

Cool! Someday, when I'm retired, I'm gonna try that. Just stay until
someone kicks me out. (Of course, I'd weigh 360 pounds, living on
Friar Tuck's and LeSeur's....)

> The way vintage works is we pack up everything (the scooters we own
> and all the cones and stuff) and return the rentals/loaners Sunday.
> Then everybody takes time off and a group of dedicated guys (mostly
> locals) come back in a few weeks and clean stuff up for the over
> winter storage. All the protable buildings go to the Theatre in
> the woods for storage. Many of the portolets go in a big field.

I thought the Theater in the Woods was used by other groups? (I heard
"Ducks Unlimited" holds their annual shin dig on the grounds in a few
weeks.)

I figured EAA rented the porta-potties. They must ship them in from
the Milwaukee area, cuz there certainly isn't any call for them in
such quantities in NE Wisconsin the rest of the year.

> Most of the knowledge is kept in the various subgroups. Most have
> multiple "co-chairs" that provide continuity incase one of the chairs
> stops participating. I know flight line ops tries to keep things
> written down and we have a big section in the binder of "things to
> do for next year." The chairs will usually email the volunteers
> they have contact info and solicit input as well.

Amazing. It's hard to get a group of pilots to pose for a picture,
let alone put something as grand as AirVenture together. EAA really
is a special bunch of folks.

Thanks for the answers, Ron!
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

[Ron Natalie]

Jay Honeck wrote:

> I thought the Theater in the Woods was used by other groups? (I heard
> "Ducks Unlimited" holds their annual shin dig on the grounds in a few
> weeks.)

It's still outside and it doesn't take much into the fall before it's
not used anymore (remember Wisconsin has four seasons, three of which
are called winter).
>
> I figured EAA rented the porta-potties. They must ship them in from
> the Milwaukee area, cuz there certainly isn't any call for them in
> such quantities in NE Wisconsin the rest of the year.

They are the biggest renter of portable toilets in the country. I'm
sure they ship some in, but WMI just stores a lot of them locally as
many just get "warehoused" until the next year as nobody else needs
that many.

[Hawkeye[_2_]]

Ducks Unlimited has held their Great Outdoors Festival in Oshkosh for
the past four or five years. Given a majority of its membership is in
WI/MN it only made sense. The first year, many vendors elected not to
attend due to the untested waters of this new location. However it was
an overwhelming success and has continued to grow each year.

The west ramp and two of the exhibit hangers are turned into much like
they are for EAA, full of vendors. The area between the museum and the
Red Lot are set up with outdoor exhibits. The ponds feature fishing,
dog and watercraft demos. It is fun to paddle around the pond on a hot
summer day in a new canoe.

EAA offers rides in the Tri-Motor and I've seen someone there giving
ride in a Bell 47.

http://www.ducks.org/Events/GreatOutdoorsFestival/1178/GreatOutdoorsFestival.html

The grounds are used by other organizations too. I believe John Deere
hosts their dealer convention prior to EAA. There is an agriculture
equipment trade show. A church organization holds a convention/retreat
in the campgrounds. There has been R/C airplane competitions held
there.

The contractor who supplies the potties learned early on that there's
gold in them thar turd tanks. The potties are cleaned, loaded onto
trailers and hauled back to their facilities. They supply events
throughout the region. EAA is probably their largest single user. But
considering the number of large scale events like EAA that happen in
Wisconsin throughout the warm seasons, there is a lot of crap to
capitalize on. Now if they can invent some sort of self shading unit
so the temperatures aren't near broiling, they'd be better.

Oh just so you know, those toilets reserved for exhibitors only...some
which have locks...are sometimes much worse than the public ones. Take
a large group of sales people, fill them with nasty greasy food, mix
in copious quantities of booze an beer. Leave to digest overnight,
awake with complimentary hangover, top with much needed hot
coffee...activate waste disposal process...potties become toxic health
hazards in short order.

The events I've planned whether regional or national start 18 months
prior to the event date. The real meat of the process starts about 13
months out.