Osh 2008 'issues'

[ddevillers]

I posted this under Hanger talk, then found this forum...

E-tickets purchased in advance didn't work at first and I was the training guinea pig.

Could not get in to the young eagles award or leader training events. Free, but you needed tickets, but I could not get any online, but never any mention of limited seating, so I thought I could pick some up when I arrived, but they were 'sold out'. Problems with the e-ticket system again here.

Wanted to camp & park in vintage, but ended up deep in the south forty, row 122. We arrived Saturday 7/26 and taxied past many open 'reserved parking' spaces that never did fill in.

BUGS! Apparently they did not spray for bugs this year, and the mosquitoes were horrible!

Things were generally disorganized. Published schedules conflicted with posted schedules. The new bus transportation, while great, was all over the place. Drivers didn't know where to go, when to go, etc.

Amazing stuff on the grounds, great new products (The Bendix King Av8tor is a cool GPS, saw it for $650), weather was excellent, so this should have been a stellar year. Something is definitely wrong with the management of this event...

 

[tmcquinn]

Not for nothing, but I can't even begin to imagine the challenge of managing 6,000 volunteers. It's amazing that they even pull that event off and they do seem committed to continued improvement. I've had a horrible time (once) and I've had a great time, mostly great!

Do they really spray 50 acres? I was thinking that the rains this year were the cause of the mosquitoes. I was in row 560 Sunday-Saturday and didn't really get any mosquitoes except for Thursday & Friday, but I could have just been lucky.

I'll add my biggest gripe just to keep in the spirit of the thread, though the blame really rests squarely on my shoulders. When we left on Saturday, instead of the long taxi that I was expecting, we were at the hold short line before I knew what hit me - not a single plane ahead of us. It was a combination of location and timing. My runup checklist was incomplete (it will be done prior to even starting to taxi in future years!) and we took off without latching the door of the Archer. My youngest had a total meltdown and was convinced that death was imminent. We both learned from it! <g> I should have declined the clearance to take off and made them wait instead of dutifully obeying ATC under the perceived pressure to not hold things up.

Tom

 

[n20junkie]

The buses were terrible this year. We were in teh north 40 (588) and it seemed like the runs to the dorms took forever when we went for food, and the north 40 busses were all piled on top of each other instead of spaced. I personally stayed for the friday airshow, and talked it up real good, and this year it sucked compared to other years. The "warbird spectacular" was more of a women that fly show, with a few bags of gas being exploded. The old take off of a friendly field, then switch to a bombing campaign was a mess. I would have left a day earlier if I knew it was going to be all cut up. Oh well, we had a great time camping and saw lots of cool stuff I can't afford.

 

[flyingcheesehead]

BUGS! Apparently they did not spray for bugs this year, and the mosquitoes were horrible!

Spray for bugs? Hah! To my knowledge, they never spray for bugs except at the seaplane base. With all the extra snow this year and two months of nearly-constant rain after it finally quit snowing, there was a ton of standing water and the little buggers multiplied like mad.

For reference, there is a researcher at UW-Madison studying mosquitos for something and he has these mosquito traps that he uses to catch them. In years past, normally he'd leave the traps for a week and get 300-400 mosquitos per trap. This year, he left the traps for six hours and was getting TWENTY THOUSAND each. So we're obviously having a really bad mosquito year - Not EAA's fault.

Things were generally disorganized. Published schedules conflicted with posted schedules. The new bus transportation, while great, was all over the place. Drivers didn't know where to go, when to go, etc.

That was not my experience at all. "New" bus service? The only new thing I noticed was the express bus which would be a big improvement if I'd had occasion to actually use it. There was one driver that we ran into that seemed kind of loopy and wouldn't stop to pick people up (this is a North 40 bus) but it was generally OK. They did make the effort to space the buses back out when they started to get bunched up, which happens naturally - The first bus makes many stops to pick people up, the one behind them doesn't need to and thus will catch up.

Something is definitely wrong with the management of this event...

Strenuously disagree. Go to any other event this large, or even within an order of magnitude, and see how it runs. You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone even close. You certainly won't find grounds as clean, the number of dedicated volunteers, etc. Airventure is a staggeringly huge event, it's not possible for it to be perfect. Send your feedback to EAA so that they can improve things for next year... Personally, I'll have some things to say about the bus service and some other minor stuff, but this show is about as good as it gets.

 

[OtisAir]

Spot: Line 557 close to grass taxiway.

This was our first time in to Osh Kosh and I must admit that we were quite happy with most everything. While there were a load of Moskeeeeeters, this certainly isn't EAA's fault.

We found the Buses very convenient for our needs. Each morning, we'd either eat Breakfast at the Hilton (nice!), or we'd ride the bus over to Pic-n-Save and buy our own and bring it back to the tent and eat outside while watching the departing aircraft.

Showers - Great! We would either walk over (@ 5:30 a.m.) or ride the bus to the larger showers at the South 40. Plenty of outlets there for phone charging and the ladies hair dryers and such! The water pressure was stronger than my house!

Water Buffalo's - I'm glad they were there. I'd have liked to have seen more but then again, I didn't know they'd be there to begin with so I can't complain about 'em. At $3.25 for a bottle of water, drinking water in the Water Buffalo's was a good thing!

Cleanliness - Overall the place was pretty much litter free. I know that this was a joint effort by the volunteers and the attendees, but I did notice it to be clean all around. GREAT JOB!

Info - The daily newspaper was also a plus. The dude answering the questions towards the end is a riot. Great sense of humor and good writer.

Arrival - I did have an RV7 try to land under me and I got sent around. I was landing at the Yellow dot and descending out of 80 (eighty) feet AGL when an RV7 screamed underneath me. I nearly gave birth to a PUMA. I got sent around and the RV got scolded on the radio. A quick re-entry to 36R and we were good to go.

ICE - Ice was readily available at the Fuel stop (across from Registration) so our cooler (and more importantly - beer) never got warm.

sorry, I think this was a "what needs to be fixed" thread, but we didn't have a lot to complain about.

Shane

 

[Steve]

The family had a great time this year. Trying not to repeat what I posted on the other thread I will say I'm glad I went this year and what small problems did arise were nothing compared to the overall positive experience.

All the surprises this year were good ones, for a change.

 

[mikea]

The family had a great time this year. Trying not to repeat what I posted on the other thread I will say I'm glad I went this year and what small problems did arise were nothing compared to the overall positive experience.

All the surprises this year were good ones, for a change.

Unless my view was blocked, the warbird air show on Saturday was a shadow of past glories...sorta like "Well this one takes up the same space..." I think there were like 20 planes airborne in toto.

 

[Steve]

Saturday night is the WB banquet. Many pilots chose not to fly the show to make preparations to go. Also, the time alloted to WBs during the airshow on any given day is not a choice they make.

You must have missed the mass arrivals earlier in the week that were incorporated into the WB airshow. The unofficial count on the ground was 407 for the week.

Unless my view was blocked, the warbird air show on Saturday was a shadow of past glories...sorta like "Well this one takes up the same space..." I think there were like 20 planes airborne in toto.

 

[ddevillers]

Spray for bugs? Hah! To my knowledge, they never spray for bugs except at the seaplane base. With all the extra snow this year and two months of nearly-constant rain after it finally quit snowing, there was a ton of standing water and the little buggers multiplied like mad..

Just repeating what a couple of folks from security said...I know there was standing water along the fence line in the S40.

"New" bus service? The only new thing I noticed was the express bus which would be a big improvement if I'd had occasion to actually use it. There was one driver that we ran into that seemed kind of loopy and wouldn't stop to pick people up (this is a North 40 bus) but it was generally OK. They did make the effort to space the buses back out when they started to get bunched up, which happens naturally - The first bus makes many stops to pick people up, the one behind them doesn't need to and thus will catch up.

The transportation system was running 6 am to 12 midnight. The trams ran from something like 8 am to 8 pm. The transition when they switched over to the busses was poorly coordinated but got better as the week went on. I don't remember these services in years past and appreciate it, but it took us over 2 hours to get from Pic & Save to row 122 in the S40 at about 8 one evening...that is unacceptable..

No one commented about the YE events that were 'sold out'. Did any of you attend these events?

 

[n20junkie]

A note on the busses. From what the drivers told us, they were supposed to stop runnning at 9, but they on thier own ran till 12 or later to make sure everyone got home after the theater let out. Big props to the drivers for going the extra mile on that.

 

[flyingcheesehead]

A note on the busses. From what the drivers told us, they were supposed to stop runnning at 9, but they on thier own ran till 12 or later to make sure everyone got home after the theater let out. Big props to the drivers for going the extra mile on that.

They told us 11, but before the Jeff Dunham event on Wednesday, they announced that "the buses will wait for you." It kind of sounded like they were afraid of a big crush trying to get to the buses. Seemed to be well handled.

 

[Steve]

We had great timing catching the N40 bus to/from Friar Tuck's late Thursday night. Practically no waiting in line either way. We left them a nice tip.

A note on the busses. From what the drivers told us, they were supposed to stop runnning at 9, but they on thier own ran till 12 or later to make sure everyone got home after the theater let out. Big props to the drivers for going the extra mile on that.