The Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) announced today (Jan. 11) it has received commitments from 26 separate performers who will fly in the daily airshows during the 71st running of EAA AirVenture Oshkosh. There will be nine separate airshows, including dramatic nighttime performances, over the July 22-28 event, held at Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
The performers’ aircraft types include Piper Super Cubs, Extra aerobatic aircraft, a jet-powered Waco biplane, a Rutan Long-EZ and a host of warbird types, including the P-51 Mustang, Vought Corsair, and North American T-28 and T-6 trainers. EAA said the list of performers includes “aerobatic champions and longtime Oshkosh favorites.”
Rick Larsen, EAA VP of Communities and Member Programs, coordinates AirVenture features and attractions. He said, “The air show community knows that the AirVenture crowds are the most knowledgeable anywhere and appreciate the skill and precision necessary to fly these aircraft to the edge. That brings out the best in these pilots and creates unforgettable memories every year at Oshkosh.”
A jet powered Waco?
Partially jet powered. They strapped a turbine to the belly. It still has the radial up front. Makes a unique noise signature. It can fly straight up.
Suggest the airshow be restricted to the final weekend and ticket prices reduced during the week for serious aviators. Neither AERO nor Triple Tree have any airshows and these events are very successful.
Both of the events to which you compare Airventure are excellent venues for a select (and much smaller) audience: AERO for vendors, TT for grass-field pilots. But you’re really asking, “Why can’t the Super Bowl be more like my kid’s high school football game?”
The days of Airventure being able to cater to only one segment (“serious aviators”) is long over. Having volunteered at Airventure for decades (and done my share of aerobatics in my youth) I too could do without the earsplitting military and aerobatic displays during the airshow every day, but probably a majority of the paying attendees disagree me. (That’s a good time to grab a shower, if for no other reason than the sound-deadening.) For that matter, I never watch the tractor pull at the state fair, and suffer in silent boredom while my wife admires the quilts, flower arranging, cake decoration, animal judging, and other attractions on offer.
My concern with Airventure is not that there is there is too much to see, it’s that, like a teenager, it is constantly outgrowing its resources. From the concrete real estate (three simultaneous landings+departures on each of three runways for hours every day) to the people-movers, garbage/septic/public safety/commercial infrastructure that my town would be lucky to have, Airventure is perpetually bursting at its seams. It might be possible to nibble at the edges of the airshow schedule, especially during the days of maximum arrivals/departures, but I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for either of your suggestions to get much traction.
My concern is with the spuds-for-brains that think that they can just roll up into the Fisk Arrival without (apparently) ever reading the NOTAM. They are usually the same pilots who feel that the procedure doesn’t really apply to them. I can see the day when arrivals will require a slot reservation in advance, and we will still fill every tiedown space before the show opens.