Oshkosh 2026

Lowflynjack said:
I did my time! I raised two beautiful daughters, but they would have hated camping for a week. They would have punished me!
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Yeah… I made the mistake of staying at full service hiltons and Marriotts when mine were young. Guess where they make their husbands book stays now! I guess I spoiled them! :lol: But, not my problem!:rofl:
 
My rare plane is being featured at the Red Barn at EAA Vintage area this year. It was built in 1966, so is 60 years old this year. Only 15 ever built, and only 4 left in the world. My last trip was in 2011 and I camped with my plane in south vintage. At my age, in the heat and humidity of Osh, I'm thinking to spend some money and just commute in from a remote hotel with either a shuttle offered or pony up for Lyft or Uber. I usually stay at the convention site until 9 or later, so Uber rates might go down by then. I could camp in behind the red barn a ways but would prefer a real bed, real sheets, real shower, breakfast and real AC comfort.

If anyone wants to share a double room, drop a note, I'm flying from N TX.
 
Barrett50 said:
My rare plane is being featured at the Red Barn at EAA Vintage area this year. It was built in 1966, so is 60 years old this year. Only 15 ever built, and only 4 left in the world. My last trip was in 2011 and I camped with my plane in south vintage. At my age, in the heat and humidity of Osh, I'm thinking to spend some money and just commute in from a remote hotel with either a shuttle offered or pony up for Lyft or Uber. I usually stay at the convention site until 9 or later, so Uber rates might go down by then. I could camp in behind the red barn a ways but would prefer a real bed, real sheets, real shower, breakfast and real AC comfort.

If anyone wants to share a double room, drop a note, I'm flying from N TX.
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Hmmm... you've got me curious about your type of plane! Hopefully I get the assignment to photograph it!
 
Barrett50 said:
My rare plane is being featured at the Red Barn at EAA Vintage area this year. Only 15 ever built, and only 4 left in the world.
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Let's make a game of it. Here are my guesses.....

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WDD said:
Let's make a game of it. Here is my guess...

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LOL, that's quite a guess! Pretty sure there aren't four of those flying though! I'll guess Boeing L-15 Scout. Whatever it is, if I'd known it was in Texas, I would have been hitting him up for photos! Okay, just realized my guess is from the 1940s, not the 1960s. Back to square one!
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Keep guessing. Only hint so far, it does have a thin relationship with a prev military type. Good luck. Looking at a motel in Stevens pt and a rental car for lodging. Still interested in shared accomodations, and round trip to Airventure.
 
Only 15 built. Were they all prototypes as part of a procurement process? Or was this a start up that failed?
 
I had a 60 Skylark. Aside from being thirsty it was a great plane. I wish sometimes I still had it. But nope. As for the further hints, sorry, not giving it up.
 
Barrett50 said:
I had a 60 Skylark. Aside from being thirsty it was a great plane. I wish sometimes I still had it. But nope. As for the further hints, sorry, not giving it up.
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Hmmm. I think the timeframe is just about right for a Wing Derringer, but I thought only 13 of those were made. Not sure how many are left flying.
 
Progress. Just paid final invoice for UW housing.
 
My brother and I will plan to be at AirVenture this year. We'll stay from Sunday through Wednesday and we'll plan to stay at the UWO dorms.

Some EAA members from my local chapter will be here this year as well.
 
Starting on prep. I contacted Kelty, and they offered to repair the ripped fly and broken poles resulting from my big 6 person tent getting blown down last year. I'm annoyed it broke, but impressed that they agreed to service it for free even though wind damage is expressly omitted in their warranty language. Ordered some extra stakes and I'm going to double up on the guy wires this year. I thought about buying one of the Alaskan Guide tents, but they only sell the fiberglass pole version now, and it's $600, which is hard to swallow for once a year use.

I also ordered some new aluminum poles for a cheap old Wenzel 4 person tent that i've had for 15(?) years. The originals are pretty flimsy small diameter fiberglass, but I learned that "tent pole technologies" will make you replacements in whatever material and size you specify. I'm hoping the much larger diameter Al poles will turn a worthless tent into one that will survive the inevitable storm. Probably ought to re-waterproof the fly.

So that's accommodations for seven. Just have to get there early to make sure I have space enough to put them both up.
 
Jim K said:
Starting on prep. I contacted Kelty, and they offered to repair the ripped fly and broken poles resulting from my big 6 person tent getting blown down last year. I'm annoyed it broke, but impressed that they agreed to service it for free even though wind damage is expressly omitted in their warranty language. Ordered some extra stakes and I'm going to double up on the guy wires this year. I thought about buying one of the Alaskan Guide tents, but they only sell the fiberglass pole version now, and it's $600, which is hard to swallow for once a year use.
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I love my tent so much that over the years, as they've worn out, I've bought the same tent again. Now it's not available on Amazon, so in a few years I'll have to figure out a new one. It is the dark room version (funny since I'm a photographer!), which keeps the temps down in the daytime. It also helps if they put me under a bright security light.

I've seen a lot of storms at OSH and for the most part, most tents seem to hold up well. The biggest issues I see are people not using all of the guy lines, or any of them, and people who leave their tent in the morning with all of their windows unzipped because it's going to be a hot day! When they don't make it back before the storm, they find the waterproof tents also hold water pretty well once it's inside!

A nice big tent with a porch makes a great place to hang out during storms!
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Simple thing that seems to be overlooked every year as I walk through the North 40...... don't face the opening of your tent to the west. The storms (and wind) seem to always come from that directions.
 
ytodd said:
Simple thing that seems to be overlooked every year as I walk through the North 40...... don't face the opening of your tent to the west. The storms (and wind) seem to always come from that directions.
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You learn as you go!

The first time I camped under the wing of a plane, I had a Cessna 140. I faced the tent door toward the front of my plane and I hit my head about every time I came out of the tent!

Another time, I put the tent more forward, where the front was under the wing. When it rained, the rain rolled off of my wing and I was basically under a very loud waterfall!
 
Jim K said:
I thought about buying one of the Alaskan Guide tents, but they only sell the fiberglass pole version now, and it's $600, which is hard to swallow for once a year use.
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I get the balk at the price but it's worth every penny. The damn things just stand up to Oshkosh weather. I think their shape and crisscross pole design is the biggest reason.
I was lucky to find my 4-man lightly used in the bargain bin in 2013 but once I rode out a storm in it I had no hesitation ponying up cash for the 6-man when we wanted more room. I barely rode out a storm in a Coleman in 2012 and said, "never again".

I've spoken to the Oshkosh Cabela's Alaska Guide Tent expert (Orin on Beechtalk who works Aircraft Camping registration) about the versions of these tents over the years. He laments the poles switching to fiberglass too but after surviving Oshkosh storms since 2013 in the 4- and 6-man Alaskan Guide tents, I'm satisfied w/ the fiberglass poles. They give in the wind a little but with the structure of the tent it's not a problem (hoping I didn't just jinx myself).
I've had to replace the bungee cord in 1 of the poles 2 years ago but that was a nothing burger.

BTW, the last couple of years there have been a few of them show up for sale on Beechtalk.
 
baboss said:
I get the balk at the price but it's worth every penny. The damn things just stand up to Oshkosh weather. I think their shape and crisscross pole design is the biggest reason.
I was lucky to find my 4-man lightly used in the bargain bin in 2013 but once I rode out a storm in it I had no hesitation ponying up cash for the 6-man when we wanted more room. I barely rode out a storm in a Coleman in 2012 and said, "never again".

I've spoken to the Oshkosh Cabela's Alaska Guide Tent expert (Orin on Beechtalk who works Aircraft Camping registration) about the versions of these tents over the years. He laments the poles switching to fiberglass too but after surviving Oshkosh storms since 2013 in the 4- and 6-man Alaskan Guide tents, I'm satisfied w/ the fiberglass poles. They give in the wind a little but with the structure of the tent it's not a problem (hoping I didn't just jinx myself).
I've had to replace the bungee cord in 1 of the poles 2 years ago but that was a nothing burger.

BTW, the last couple of years there have been a few of them show up for sale on Beechtalk.
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I was about to pull the trigger on one before I remembered how broke I am, and decided I had better at least look into getting the Kelty repaired. When they offered to do it for nothing...well that made it an easy decision. I was going to buy aluminum poles for it too until they offered to fix those as well.

The Alaskan Guides seem to hold up better than anything else. I wonder how much of that is the lower profile and lots of guy wires. I was also turned off by the fact that in addition to raising the price, they did away with the "lifetime" warranty and only warranty them for a year now. I hadn't thought of looking in the secondary market for one, though.

ytodd said:
Simple thing that seems to be overlooked every year as I walk through the North 40...... don't face the opening of your tent to the west. The storms (and wind) seem to always come from that directions.
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Having a low wing limits one's options, particularly with a big tent. Mine can only face west. I think it was a downdraft that got it last year, it collapsed north to south. I managed to reconstruct it with the roll of duck tape I carry in my plane and the poles from another broken tent I found in the dumpster. I was pretty proud of my resourcefulness lol. I think the N40 gets the worst of the winds. The rest of the field has some trees to the west to spoil the wind a bit.

Lowflynjack said:
I love my tent so much that over the years, as they've worn out, I've bought the same tent again. Now it's not available on Amazon, so in a few years I'll have to figure out a new one. It is the dark room version (funny since I'm a photographer!), which keeps the temps down in the daytime. It also helps if they put me under a bright security light.

I've seen a lot of storms at OSH and for the most part, most tents seem to hold up well. The biggest issues I see are people not using all of the guy lines, or any of them, and people who leave their tent in the morning with all of their windows unzipped because it's going to be a hot day! When they don't make it back before the storm, they find the waterproof tents also hold water pretty well once it's inside!

A nice big tent with a porch makes a great place to hang out during storms!
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Is that a Coleman? I think @masloki has (had?) the same one. That's one of the things I like about the Kelty I have. The porch is big enough to stand in and put shoes on. It also makes a good "garage" for the bike, cooler, etc.

Anybody have a solar panel solution that doesn't suck? The ones I bought two years ago don't even put out enough wattage to keep our phones charged any more.
 
Jim K said:
The porch is big enough to stand in and put shoes on. It also makes a good "garage" for the bike, cooler, etc.
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At the risk of pointing out the obvious, it's the classic pick any two. You can have high wind resistence. You can have a tent tall enough to stand in. You can afford to feed your children.

Pick any two.
 
Ed Haywood said:
???
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172andyou said:
You know, because it's a low wing...

(Yeah, I didn't get it either)
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cant face north because the entrance jams up against the fuselage
can't face east because the entrance jams up against the wing
I guess I could face it south, but then it opens right up into the neighbors campsite
west opens up into the alley. Well, it's actually slightly southwest to miss the stabilator.
It's a big tent.
 
Jim K said:
cant face north because the entrance jams up against the fuselage
can't face east because the entrance jams up against the wing
I guess I could face it south, but then it opens right up into the neighbors campsite
west opens up into the alley. Well, it's actually slightly southwest to miss the stabilator.
It's a big tent.
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One of us is going to have an aha moment and figure out why we aren't connecting. And I don't particularly care which one of us it is!

Is there only one place your plane is allowed to park or something?
 
172andyou said:
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One of us is going to have an aha moment and figure out why we aren't connecting. And I don't particularly care which one of us it is!

Is there only one place your plane is allowed to park or something?
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oh, right...I'm always in the first couple rows of the N40. It's single row (not tail to tail), plane facing east.

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Low wing, I had my tent opening facing South last year. tempImageAhxmOt.pngtempImageltGYSh.png
 
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