Oshkosh attendance

[[email protected]]

For me, OSH is out of the question this year. With so many costs up,
flat income, and the cost of fuel so high, it is just not in the
cards. I am wondering if there are others in the same boat.

EAA carefully guards attendance figures but for those that are there,
what does it look like? Lots of open aircraft parking spaces and thin
crowds?

Bob

[Steven P. McNicoll[_2_]]

wrote:
>
> For me, OSH is out of the question this year. With so many costs up,
> flat income, and the cost of fuel so high, it is just not in the
> cards. I am wondering if there are others in the same boat.
>
> EAA carefully guards attendance figures but for those that are there,
> what does it look like? Lots of open aircraft parking spaces and thin
> crowds?
>

I worked Friday evening and Saturday and Sunday mornings. It was the
lightest arrival traffic I've ever seen in my 25 years as a controller.
There wasn't even a significant amount of VFR arrivals.

[Howard]

"Steven P. McNicoll" > wrote in message
m...
> wrote:
>>
>> For me, OSH is out of the question this year. With so many costs up,
>> flat income, and the cost of fuel so high, it is just not in the
>> cards. I am wondering if there are others in the same boat.
>>
>> EAA carefully guards attendance figures but for those that are there,
>> what does it look like? Lots of open aircraft parking spaces and thin
>> crowds?
>>
>
> I worked Friday evening and Saturday and Sunday mornings. It was the
> lightest arrival traffic I've ever seen in my 25 years as a controller.
> There wasn't even a significant amount of VFR arrivals.

Attendance might be down ya think!

If I had chosen to go. Flying my C182P VFR direct (assuming no weather
deviations). Fuel cost ($5.50/gal 100LL) would be $1760 USD RT from my base
at KWVI. Additional variable costs for the trip probably would bring the
total close to $3,000. Pretty pricey for a non essential trip.

[Robert M. Gary]

On Jul 28, 2:24*pm, "Howard" > wrote:

> If I had chosen to go. Flying my C182P VFR direct (assuming no weather
> deviations). Fuel cost ($5.50/gal 100LL) would be $1760 USD RT from my base
> at KWVI. Additional variable costs for the trip probably would bring the
> total close to $3,000. Pretty pricey for a non essential trip.

That's probably an extreme example because the 182 is especially non-
fuel efficient. For instance a early model Mooney will go 20% faster
on 20% less gas.

-Robert

[Kyle Boatright]

> wrote in message
...
> For me, OSH is out of the question this year. With so many costs up,
> flat income, and the cost of fuel so high, it is just not in the
> cards. I am wondering if there are others in the same boat.
>
> EAA carefully guards attendance figures but for those that are there,
> what does it look like? Lots of open aircraft parking spaces and thin
> crowds?
>
> Bob

I landed on Sunday AM and left today (Tuesday) at noon. Walking the grounds
on Sunday, there were plenty of open spaces in the AM, but by the time I
ended my end-to-end death march, the homebuilt parking (including camping)
was full, and the South 40 (which goes on seemingly forever) was full except
for the most Southern 10 or so rows.

I did not have a chance to walk the North 40.

There were open spaces in the outdoor fly-market, but it seemed like the
"missing" element was the subset of vendors who push fancy ladders, neato
cookware, and super-dooper $8 sunglasses.

There is a real threat of weather - anyone who needs to head South or who
wants to fly south to Chicago, then East, may get cut off by weather. When
I left today, holes were beginning to open up due to people trying to beat
the front...

KB

[dlevy]

I didn't go this year (went last year for the first time). Meeting you
would have been a highlight! It amazes me how people simply do not want to
listen to the answer. You supply the answer and they argue. Thanks for
answering so many questions.......

"Steven P. McNicoll" > wrote in message
m...
>
> I worked Friday evening and Saturday and Sunday mornings. It was the
> lightest arrival traffic I've ever seen in my 25 years as a controller.
> There wasn't even a significant amount of VFR arrivals.
>

[Steven P. McNicoll[_2_]]

wrote:
>
> For me, OSH is out of the question this year. With so many costs up,
> flat income, and the cost of fuel so high, it is just not in the
> cards. I am wondering if there are others in the same boat.
>
> EAA carefully guards attendance figures but for those that are there,
> what does it look like? Lots of open aircraft parking spaces and thin
> crowds?
>

I was there yesterday, all day. I was surprised, attendance was higher than
I expected. There were more airplanes and people than I expected to see.
There were more cars and campers than I expected. Day 2 is unusually early
for me, I normally try to go on day 5 which tends to be busier, but I don't
think there was a significant decrease in attendance. With the unusually
light arrival traffic on Friday, Saturday and Sunday and the weather
forecast for Tuesday attendance was higher than I expected to see.

[f-newguy]

> wrote in message
...
> For me, OSH is out of the question this year. With so many costs up,
> flat income, and the cost of fuel so high, it is just not in the
> cards. I am wondering if there are others in the same boat.
>
> EAA carefully guards attendance figures but for those that are there,
> what does it look like? Lots of open aircraft parking spaces and thin
> crowds?
>

We flew in Saturday and left Wednesday. My impression was that camping
attendance was down only slightly from last year. N. 40 buses and the
vendor hangars seemed about as full as usual.

Side note: We spent a few hours Sunday monitoring ATC and watching the RWY
27 arrivals. The aircraft identification by controllers was generally poor.
We saw two situations where mis-identification produced dangerous confusion.
As I understand it, arrival controllers work in four-person teams with part
of the team being dedicated spotters. It seems more care needs to be taken
that spotters are selected who can tell the difference between a Navion and
a Columbia, which one of the teams we heard Sunday could not.

[Blanche]

1. flying commercial (either into ATW or MKE and get a car) about $400
plus $60/day for car
2. fly the cherokee (RT) about $1AMU
3. drive Denver-OSH - $275 and I have a car, don't worry about W&B,
can carry a weapon and a chocolate shake, and don't worry about
weather.

No brainer - I drove.

[Robert M. Gary]

On Jul 31, 8:35*pm, Blanche > wrote:
> 1. flying commercial (either into ATW or MKE and get a car) about $400
> * *plus $60/day for car
> 2. fly the cherokee (RT) about $1AMU
> 3. drive Denver-OSH - $275 and I have a car, don't worry about W&B,
> * *can carry a weapon and a chocolate shake, and don't worry about
> * *weather.
>
> No brainer - I drove.

How anti-climatic.

-Robert

[[email protected]]

> > No brainer - I drove.
>
> How anti-climatic.
>
> -Robert

Robert,
Yes, it is sad that we have to keep our birds on the ground. Too bad
that having a passenger to share fuel cost did not work out for you.
I did that in years prior.

Bob

[Blueskies]

"Blanche" > wrote in message ...
> 1. flying commercial (either into ATW or MKE and get a car) about $400
> plus $60/day for car
> 2. fly the cherokee (RT) about $1AMU
> 3. drive Denver-OSH - $275 and I have a car, don't worry about W&B,
> can carry a weapon and a chocolate shake, and don't worry about
> weather.
>
> No brainer - I drove.
>

Leaving yesterday, we got some shots of the grounds...Camp Scholler was definitely pretty full with losta holes in the
aircraft parking...