I will be getting a work related paid trip this year, I now haul a NASCAR Show Car for GEICO / Casey Mears. I will be bringing the car in support of the GEICO Skytypers. So stop by and introduce yourselves.
What I want to know is the secret handshake to get a golf cart. I see people running around in them but for the life of me and all the money I could throw at anybody it was a no go. How the hell do you acquire one at Osh? It would make the experience completely different. You could ride around and see all the planes.
They're doled out to the various operational units who each sort of have their own policies on who gets them. I can't vouch for other areas of the field but they're not doled out for cruising in Vintage. Security gets some, the judges get some, we typically get one or two to shuttle volunteers down the far ends of the flight line. Some get assigned to do things like lug the water jugs out to the volunteer stations, etc... Being a big time sponsor helps. Hal Sheevers gave me a ride in his when I was hoofing it back from the Hilton one day in the middle of the show. If you want an easy way to see the planes in Vintage, catch the tour tram. My neighbor Ross knows more about old airplanes than most people and he'll go find out about unusual planes he finds on the field so he can talk about them on the tour.
I have a buddy who grew up in Oshkosh, has volunteered for decades, has a plane that won best type... IOW, he's connected. Still no golf cart. Really does seem to be about money and sponsorships...
To which I say "Thank God". Golf carts are the bane of our existence at OSH. If I had a nickel for every time I've nearly been run over by rubes on those infernal contraptions (worse yet are the electric handicapped carts that anyone can now rent), I'd be rich. Oshkosh is a walking experience. No one wants motorized carts being driven by untrained operators out amongst 11,000 parked airplanes and 100,000 attendees. It's just asking for trouble.
Have to agree with this, well, unless someone let me use one. But I'd be careful. Can one get a DUI 'driving' a cart I wonder....did know a fellow airman stationed in Germany that got a DUI on a riding lawnmower on base though.
lol Golf carts are the norm on our island, and the cops issue DUIs all the time. And, at least once per year, someone is seriously injured or killed on a golf cart here. They are terribly top heavy, especially after they have been jacked up for beach usage. I'm always astounded when I see families tooling through town with a 12 year old at the wheel...
I did that once, rented the electric carts for two days. After that I said I'll never go back to Airventure. I don't even like using them for shopping. My manual wheelchair is much better.
Oshkosh is a walking experience *for you*. Lots of people find that a limitation to attending. On the whole, I do agree with you that the current level of individual mobility gadgets is as high or higher than is sustainable. I would, however, love to see the trolley system improved for those that don't find walking 30 minutes between locations to be an exciting part of the event.
Don't be scared off, its not that big a deal. Buses to take you from the campgrounds to the show, trams at the show to get you around.
Buy 3 cases of oil from Aircraft Spruce, IRC, and you get to ride their golf cart to your plane/camping spot so you don't have to carry your oil.
But then how do I get the oil home? I think my daughter is driving in this year. Maybe she will haul them for me...
I told an EAA judge in a golf cart they are missing out on a lot of revenue not renting them. Make them exclusive enough that not every tom dick and harry can afford it and you would still make a killing. Not all of us drink, and not all of us drive like a maniac. It could be done responsibly. Make some rules. You crash you pay. You crash drunk or loan it out to a drunk and you pay and don't come back ... ever. EAA membership revoked.
In other words, treat them the way the EAA treats everything at Oshkosh. Nothing like buying a seat and waving as you pass the poor folk who volunteered or the guy with his wife and two kids that could barely afford camping fees. Maybe stop and ask if they have any Grey Poupon while you're at it. That'll really show the youngsters what's meant by the "$pirit of Aviation".
Well, that escalated quickly! lol No to more effing golf carts. Just...no. if you're too old to walk the grounds, ride the trams and get a telephoto lens. Plant your butt in front of the ice cream place and enjoy the airshow. Sit in one of the dozen eateries and enjoy a hot dog. There are ways to see OSH without doing the Bataan Death March. Just don't run up on my heels in your stupid golf cart!
If the golf carts were restricted to those who truly needed them, they wouldn't be a problem. Unfortunately...
I agree, it's hard to believe -- but I've been to OSH 34 times, and it's absolutely true. I've never had a close call in the plane at OSH, but I've had multiple close calls with effing golf carts, and even more with those infernal electric carts, usually in the big display hangars. Bottom line: Large crowds and motorized vehicles just don't mix well.
When I lived in Harrison, AR, someone got busted for a DUI and failure to carry insurance while driving a... ...horse. That state patrolman (woman actually) was summarily dismissed. In Wisconsin, DUI's don't carry the same stigma that they do in The rest of the county. Rather they're simply considered a right of passage!
Leslie had to use the cart to get around one year when the only way we could make it to Oshkosh was if she got one, because she had just had abdominal surgery. I bet that if your only choice was to use a cart or not go to Oshkosh, you would get one too! And no, we didn't run anybody over!
I have no doubt that you can indeed get a DUI operating on the AirVenture grounds in any vehicle. Notwithstanding that, I can guarantee you'll be escorted out and your credentials pulled even without criminal prosecution.
It's gotten better than it was. The cart free zones are pretty strictly enforced and boy if you've been going for 20 years, the fact they now require the exhibitors to use GES to move freight is a big improvement. It used to be that every Tom, Dick, and Harry exhibiter got a CAR PASS that let him attempt to plow through the crowds with a car (you think golf carts are bad). Vehicle passes got real restrictive over the interim time.
You could always change the oil in your tiedown. Hell we'll all help take your plane apart at the party. Of course, once we start drinking you might want to stop us from attempting to put it back together again.
Don't worry, I'll be back. Gotta bring more Plane Perfect can koozies to the HOPS party! I'm still youngish anyway and in good walking shape anyway from playing tennis four days a week at 6,500 ft. I'm just one of those "big tents" guys that likes to find ways to include as many people as possible. If trying to take the desires of others into account isn't enough on its own, it's also selfishly good to make sure that aviation is kept as open and accessible as possible.
I believe this to be true! Someone once told me WI had the most brewies in the country! I was TDY once to Volk Field and the small town adjacent to the base (pop 500 maybe?) must have had 5-6 bars! When in the AF every guy and gal I knew from WI was a beer drinker. But fun people too!
First offense is still considered a traffic violation. They have been trying the last few years to get tougher on DUIs. At least once a week you see the news on somebody who was arrested on their 5th+ DUI.
One of my biggest fears every year at OSH is having my sandal - clad toes crushed by one of those carts in the big exhibit hangars. I have had to dance out of the way many times to prevent such a thing from happening. The last thing I need is a mashed toe, in an environment where walking six miles per day is the norm. I've been to OSH with a sprained ankle, and it is a lot of work. As for who is using the carts, I'm fine with convalescing post-op people and the elderly puttering around on them. However, I've seen entire families rent them, and use them like go-karts. I've also seen people whose only "disability" is their inability to push back from the buffet table, and that's an abuse of what should be a carefully and sparingly doled-out resource, IMHO.
I'm born and raised in German-American Wisconsin. My first beer was at 6 years of age. We prided ourselves on having the highest per capita brandy consumption. The winters were cold, long, and dull, making drinking a very popular way to forget that you were wasting 40% of your life huddled indoors, shivering. An illustration: When I got pulled over for driving 39 in a 25 zone, on Xmas Eve 1979, I was on my way home from a work-sponsored whopatoolie party, where everyone brought a bottle of booze that we dumped into a 50 gallon garbage can. Someone then added enough fruit juice to make it slightly less painful to consume. Needless to say, I was stiff. If the officer had asked me to exit the car, I would probably have been unable to. He looked at me, chuckled, wrote me a speeding ticket (still my only ticket, ever), wished me a Merry Christmas, and sent me on my way, warning me to "Be careful!" Can you imagine that happening today? Things have tightened considerably in WI, as they have all over the country. Nothing that I described (work-sponsored drinking?) could happen today. Probably just as well.
Unless you're a certain well known air show performer. Haha. Say no more, say no more... Candid photography...
She didn't escape unscathed. She ended up in the pokey for a few hours, had to get an attorney to wrangle the charges, and didn't perform again for a few years. While she was apprehended for doing boneheaded things on the airport, there's no way she got from the Museum where she got hammered and where she was arrested without driving on public roads.
It is really quite simple. You do a standing room only forum for forty years, haul between 35 and 50 pounds of test equipment from California to The Show in either your airplane tied down at the departure end of 09 or your car in the far end of Scholler to do the forum, write about your forum and other stuff in a well known aviation magazine every month for twenty five years and bingo, you get a cart for exactly one hour and thirty minutes to drag all that crap to and from the forums tents. Simple. Jim
If you have to move stuff, there are other options than golf carts. I regularly arrange for people to transport luggage between the vintage parking area and other points.
Do you arrange for them to transport it back from the other points to the parking area an hour later? Along with your co-presenter and sweetie? Jim
