Courtesy of the ex-Airboss:
The just don’t make ‘em like that anymore. Except for those that, well: Do.
I keep thinking about Oshkosh: It’d be like a pilgrimage to Mecca. With hygiene!
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Old Fashioned Plane Pr0nBy lex, on January 31st, 2009
January 31st, 2009 | Tags: Flying | Category: plane pr0n
21 comments to Old Fashioned Plane Pr0n |
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Lex:
“True believers” in the US make two pilgrimages.
1. Lambeau Field
2. EAA Oshkosh
Being a shareholder/season ticketholder to the first and a native Oshkoshian and EAA member of the second, I offer my assistance.
(We will put the school heritage and service rivalry aside, of course.)
Hygiene, brats (the sausage, not the kids) and beer! What’s not to like?
I’m not a pilot, but I’d LOVE to visit Oshkosh. The real treat would be to arrive there in one of those awesome private planes.
Lex, you’re on the West Coast. Have you ever visited Boeing’s great museum just south of Seattle? I loved it “almost” as much as the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum.
Hmmm, apparently hygiene at Oshkosh is in the nose of the beholder. It can be a little, well, odoriferous, but it’s well worth it.
It’s a little scary to fly in, though, or at least it was to me. (http://tinyurl.com/atsk94)
I swore to never fly in again, but it turns out going by car is pretty painful too, at least WRT driving through Chicago. Next time I go, I’m going to land at Fond du Lac.
Dave, I’m sure the hygiene is just fine if you’ve spent time on a navy ship or out in the field or in a third world country.
Worst case you drive 5-10 miles to a McDonalds for a clean bathroom.
I’m pretty sure Lex’s standards aren’t much higher than mine when it comes to things like this
if you’ve spent time on a navy ship or out in the field or in a third world country.
Well, no, I was USAF. You know, the country club set.
For anyone who loves aviation Oshkosh is an absolute must. Some years ago I had the chance to spend a day there with the legendary Scott Crossfield and it was fantastic. Unlike most airshows, almost all of the action at Oshkosh is conducted directly above you within the confines of the airport boundaries. It’s great to spend a day, or more, with thousands of people who share your love for all things that fly. I might suggest that if you’re going to fly in, you might want to think about Appleton or Green Bay.
To get the full Oshkosh experience, be a volunteer. I walked up and started talking with the Warbirds folks, and before you knew it, I was essentially a Yellow Shirt parking P-47s and T-28s left and right. You get in free and camp free too.
Bring a fold-up-carry-about sitting device, maybe even an umbrella and plenty of folding money so as to buy rides in planes you’ve fantasized about since you were a kid building models.
Beer, brats, cheese, Packers and planes – ya can’t beat it! And traditionally one day during the fly-in is always designated by Mother Nature as “Show all the nice out-of-town-visitors what it’s like to experience a midwest tornado” day, so be prepared to enjoy that too.
I may know USMAUSMC, and I can claim membership in both those clubs. You should really go to Oshkosh, just for the SIZE of it.
George: The Seattle Air Museum is a nice wander-through any time you’re in town.
For anyone in the East Bay area, the Western Air Museum has some beauties on the east side of Oakland Airport. The Hornet museum is another great one in Alameda. The ship and aircraft displays are well worth the visit.
If Lex has his book signing set up in Oshkosh, well b’gosh, b’goin fer sure…
Just be careful, Lex, it’s addictive. There is no known rehabilitation either. Several people I know, as August approaches, their eyes glaze and they speak incoherently about Wisconsin and aircraft. They seem OK around September 15, or so. It’s touch and go in between.
Had to chuckle about seeing “Oshkosh” and “hygiene” in the same sentence, having been there a few times. The common joke is if the emanations from the attendees were visible, the field would be below minimums the whole week.
The EAA does provide shower facilities, using regular kitchen sink sprayers as shower heads. Best to go in the evenings, as the morning shower rush is a little hectic. Actually pretty civilized by camping standards.
If there’s a Lex book signing there one of these years, I’ll be there, and will think of a story to make up for the wife afterward to explain my curious one-week absence.
Lex, I highly recommend EAA AirVenture. The crowds and traffic are horrendous, but the event itself makes the hassle inconsequential. It would make a great summer vacation stop.
Wisconsin is gorgeous in the summer. We have lakes (Great and small) for swimming, fishing, and boating (rivers, too); miles of trails for hiking and cycling; and beer. We have a whole slew of breweries from mega to micro available to tour. And the tours involve tasting. We even have a few wineries.
See, Wisconsin is the perfect place for your summer vacation – aviation, fishing, bicycling, and alcohol. You can have it all!
Besides, it would give the hubster and I a chance to see you again. And the children would love to meet you. Think of the children. It’s your duty to come to Wisconsin this summer for AirAdventure. It’s for the children!
I agree Sandi, The Land Of The Badgers is surely the best place to be in summer. All the thing to do and see, from Brewers games, to going up to Duluth/Superior to watch the ore boats come and go. ( On the Great Lakes, we consider 1000 feet to be an entirely reasonable ship length. There are 13 ore boats 1000′ long, or greater ). The only time of the year that is nicer than summer in WI, is the fall, with warm days, clear blue skies, and clear crisp nights.
Lex, you really must come to Wisconsin. Wisconsin is a pro NAVAIR state, after all, Marc Mitscher was a Badger.
Sandi, if you are ever near the Dells, let me know, and maybe we can meet. It would be nice to meet a fellow Lex admiring Badger.
Oshkosh is on great big PITA.
Summer in Wisconsin can combine day temps approaching 100 followed by some mornings after the tornado inducing front that brought downpours that turn the convention site into a muddy quagmire where the temperature dips enough your short pant covered legs and T-Shirt laden exposed arms beg for the comfort of a $85 dollar sweat shirt that has some god-forsaken logo of proclaining EAA Oshkosh the soul of Aviation, or whatever. So you buy the thing only to, in a couple short hours wish you had a car to wax seeing you would never want to be caught dead wearing it again and, due to the steam rising from the previously soaked ground that mingles with the perspiration dripping from your ever ripening body, you have no other need for the previous purchase that due to the soft underside oppposite the previoulsy described logo, you have decided would make a great implement to wax a vintage ’56 T-Bird, if only one were available.
Getting close to 11AM you head over to one of the numerous food establishments to get in line for lunch knowing that, if you don’t start now you will no doubt risk passing out from low-blood sugar before you can partake of a $13.39 meal consisting of recycled cardboard disguised to look just like a hamburger patty covered with something that must be Wisconsin Cheese as, given the way it looks it could not be cheese from those laughing cows from Califronia because no beast could be happy producing anything resembling the drippy yellow paste coverering the hamburger patty replica on the three day old bun just ready to sprout the cure for cancer in all its glory if you don’t hurry up and eat the damn thing.
Then you can make your way through the crowd to stand around literally thousands of airplanes listening to bystanders offering such pearls of wisdom when standing next to a Corsair saying, “my grandfather flew these in WWII and shot down 30 Italian planes flying from a base in Norway…”.
So you get to enjoy all these things. And did I mention that there are more airplanes that week there than any place on the entire planet?
Oshkosh – I absolutely LOVE it. You absolutely have to go. It would give you blog material for a year….
Oshkosh!
Oshkosh!
Oshkosh!
Hey, I’m anything if not subtle…
I go to Oshkosh every other year, and highly recommend it.
OldT6Pilot is exactly correct, there is a certain amount of pain associated with attendance, but its worth it.
I usually stalk Burt Rutan and Jimmy Buffett while I’m there, but whatever your aviation taste there is a lot there for you.
I only flew in once ( http://tinyurl.com/aobd28 ). I’m glad I did, but unless I can somehow contrive to fly in on a show plane I think in the future I’ll go back to staying at an outlying town and driving in.
There is a forum for aviation bloggers, you could certainly be part of the show if you wanted even more glory than you derive from your excellent blog.
And when you publish your book I insist that you have a forum all of your own. There’s a retired O-6 who gives a well attended forum on the SR-71 book that he wrote. And he was just in the Air Force.
You will protest that the F-18 is a more humble ride than a Habu. Sure, but I bet you’d still sell some copies and have some fun.
Lex
As I said earlier, you couldn’t pick a better venue for the roll out of Rhythms. Get yourself plenty of gold ink pens for signing, get yourself a nice Naval Aviator wing stamp to go below the written thanks, get some nice photo boards made up of flight deck activity, a then a dual screen rolling video of “the best of” cat shots, recoveries, in flight refuels, you-tube videos, etc. Be a big hit. Course you might a nice Honda generator and some gas to power it all up but heh, you only get a kick-off event once.
Lex/
If you DO make it to Oshkosh, you owe it to yourself and your family to all head on over to one of the GREAT unsung garden spots where all the wealthy from Chicago used to go to summer–Lake Geneva. Stay at a place called The Abby and take the lake tour (a BIG lake) and scope-out all the summer mansions that are the equal of anything sea-side Rhode Island has.