It is 1300 on Wednesday, July 29, and Wittman Fieldis officially closed to Oshkosh-bound pilots who had intendedon camping here. The inn is full, and the “No Vacancy”sign has been hung out-overnighting aircraft are being divertedto Appleton and Fon du Lac. EAA President Tom Poberezny neverlikes to turn weary travelers away, but is happy at the earlyshow success. First day numbers aren’t yet in, but advance arrivalsare heavier than last years’, and last year was up 12% from theyear before. This is Poberezny & Company’s party, and allare invited. The EAA chief has no illusions, however. He knowsthis party that’s taken a year to plan will be fun-for a while.
“Just like when you hold a party-you get excitedabout everybody coming,
and then when everybody leaves and you’re doing thedishes, the reality
sets in.” The fatigue will set in, too. Pobereznyis making do on just 5 to 6 hours of sleep a night, and lovingit. Like children on Christmas Eve, neither he nor any of hisvolunteers want to miss anything. “The hardest part is justtrying to GET to sleep. You’re doing things you just want thenight to go by fast so you can be back out the next morning.”
By the end of his day, Poberezny has worn most ofthe tread from a pair of sneakers. He tries to check on everyone-often-andhas the walking
distances measured down to the tenth of a mile. Fromthe last row south of the antique classic area to the warbirdsand onto camping is 5.2 miles and that’s if you don’t deviatean inch to buy an Italian Ice or an official EAA souvenir. “Itmeans you could walk easily 50 miles a day,” says Pobereznyand he likely does, even after nine years as EAA President. Nervousenergy will do that to you, and every year is still an Air “adventure”for Tom. Last year, he managed to wrangle an SR-71 Blackbird,this year, the crowd of 800,000 will get to gawk at another memberof the mach club, the Concorde.
Poberezny tells AVweb the only plane he’sever really wanted at OSH that he hasn’t been able to get is the747 carrying a space shuttle, and the
Wittman Field runway is too short for that. Hmmm.It’s almost possible to see his brain churning maybe NEXT year,after all, it’s ONLY concrete. The EAA AirVenture is definitelyan “aviation buffet” as he likes to call it, but alsomuch more. He sees it as one of the saviors of general aviation,which has never “marketed itself well.” “Insteadof what others might do, we need to take the initiative, to controlour destiny what it comes do to is the biggest danger is complacency,or it is that we figure everyone who grows up with a passion forflying will find us. We need to sell ourselves to people who havethe discretionary time and dollars, and if we don’t, we’ll findourselves a declining niche.” With that, Poberezny’s cellphonerings, he waves at an old friend and walks away to his next appointment-tocontinue selling aviation for another day.
