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"

Jay Honeck wrote:
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.


The worse thing about Oshkosh is that its not near enough for me to go
to :-(

The worse thing about Oshkosh is that its not near enough for me to go
to :-(

My kids were making mental lists of the various languages they heard
on the grounds at OSH, and it was soon clear that there were people
from all over the world at AirVenture. Clearly you have to live very
far away, indeed, to NOT be able to attend OSH.

I personally heard Russian, Portuguese, German, French, and Spanish.
--
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.

I can't help with most things on your list, but I did see some concept
drawings for improvements to the grounds, and one major change is to put
in real shower buildings plus some camp areas with water & electricity.

Time frame you ask? I got no idea.
The changes to the site though are going to require a major expansion of
the transportation. Also the central area would be an area that would be
free of cars and carts.

Jay Honeck wrote:

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.

I can't help with most things on your list, but I did see some concept
drawings for improvements to the grounds, and one major change is to put
in real shower buildings plus some camp areas with water & electricity.

Just to be clear -- my "Thing that Suck" list is largely tongue-in-
cheek. Although there are definitely things that suck about the OSH
experience, I am hopelessly, endlessly devoted to the spirit and fun
of Airventure. I never want it to end.

That said, real shower buildings would be a nice upgrade. Sun N Fun
has 'em, and they're terrific.

I don't have a problem with the tram system, although the lines were
designed back when the "depth" of the grounds were half of what they
are today.

When we started attending OSH back in '83, the grounds started at Rwy
18/36, just like today, but ended at what is now the site of the four
big exhibition hangars, Hangars A through D.

That spot is now only about half way to the main entrance! The show
has really grown in that quarter of a century...
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

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. --