July 24-29, 2007
This year I had hoped to go to Oshkosh, Wisconsin for the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) convention once again. It had been three years since going and I wanted to try out our new 5th wheel camper and thought that would be a good place to test it out. It certainly gave me some towing practice going through Chicago plus all the Interstate driving. A few times I wondered how worthwhile it was to tow the trailer that far for just a few days but considering that: we stayed dry in all the rain, we didn't have to use the showers there (with the reported 40,000 campers onsite), and didn't have to use the Port-a-Johns (at night and while in campsite), yea it was worth it. My next door neighbor Jack went along after Joan decided that she could better use her time at home (when you've seen one plane what's a few thousand more afterall?)
The show was tremendous as usual with the stats being:
-over 560,000 visitors during the week
-an estimated 40,000 campers (it's a large campground)
-over 10,000 airplanes including around 250 WWII aircraft
Jack and I drove up Tuesday 7/24 and returned Sunday 7/29 and spent three days at the show. It is truly a "world" event and defies description to someone who's never been there. Even if you spent all week there on the flightline and tried to visit all the exhibits you would never see everything. Three days of walking and looking is enough for me. I really like to see the classic planes, the home builts, and then the military probably in that order. The time and effort that people put into rebuilding the classics and also building the homebuilt experimental aircraft is incredible and the results are also incredible.
Following are a few of the sights we saw captured in photos.
Our campsite
World's busiest control tower during the week of Oshkosh, even busier than O'Hare. Note new tower in background under construction.
Eclipse prototype 4 place personal jet. It sure was purtty in the air. Could use this to get to Phoenix and back quickly.
Rear of the Eclipse where the noise and fumes come out.
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