Took myself, my wife, and 6yo son in for a 2-day(more like 2.5 day) trip via Appleton. Mainly chose this because my wife found accommodations for a lot less than at OSH.
Arrival was as simple as it could possibly be. Ever flown into a class D airport? That's all there was to it, I actually was able to get flight following all the way in and the tower cleared me to land as soon as I called up. They have a bunch of procedures in a PDF on their website which I studied the night before and entered all the waypoints into Foreflight so I was ready to go. Didn't need any of that, they just had me come in direct and land. Maybe during busier hours they do use that but it wasn't the case for me. Upon landing you get handed off to EAA parking and they guide you through between the radio and marshallers to a parking spot. Pretty simple, just follow directions to parking. You'll be parking on grass, I brought my own tie-downs but they did offer some for sale if need be. Parking was a flat $50 for the week.
One thing I've seen other people mention they don't like is that during airventure Appleton doesn't allow ramp access- they have EAA volunteers shuttle people from the FBO to the parking area. Honestly that's probably for the best given how far most of the event parking is from the FBO- you really want that ride to/from anyway
espeically if you have a fair amount of baggage.
From there we rented a car, had lunch, and checked into our room. After a short rest I noticed the day was young so I took my kid to Airventure and we made it in time to see at least half of Monday's airshow and do some looking around. The drive from Appleton was about 30min. Getting in was especially easy in the afternoon, not too bad the following Tues/Wed either but getting back to the car was always a pain. It really takes a good half hour to get from the main grounds to the car lots so nearly an hour between the hotel room and seeing airplanes. Worse on Wed after the night airshow- we packed up around 10 when the show ended and proceeded to fight our way through a huge crowd eventually intermingled with cars all trying to get out- it was around midnight by the time we were in the car and out of the immediate event traffic. The crossing guards/police were trying but they really needed more people that night- it was pretty much a madhouse. Leaving at more off-times on mon and tues night wasn't as bad since everyone wasn't trying to get out at once. I think ultimately that and not having a convenient campsite to go rest in/drop off your swag, etc are the biggest downsides to driving in.
Departure from Appleton was slightly more involved but still pretty simple. I might have slightly messed up exiting the parking area- there's no clear marker and the NOTAM departure instructions say to..
So heading towards what looked like an exit I held short of the paved non-movement area and was getting ready to call ground when one of the EAA parking people held up a sign asking if I was VFR. I nodded and he started waving me forward. While taxiing I contacted ground and apparently they were expecting me to call them when I was #1 at the hold short line onto the lettered taxiways. I wasn't the only one making radio calls at the wrong place/time during this period so it seems like maybe they need to adjust the wording of the NOTAM or their signage/procedures next year. There was a line of aircraft on the taxiway lining up to depart and they had traffic departing from the end of 30 and one of the intersecting taxiways. A bit of a wait but not bad, the tower/controllers did a good job getting everyone out and on their way.
I requested and recieved a VFR departure to the East, then flew south along the east side of Lake Winnebago then turned SW on course for home. There was some traffic in the area but keeping one eye on the ADS-B targets and another out the window it wasn't anything too overly concerning. Flight home was an uneventful trip otherwise.
So, tl;dr:
It's pretty easy to fly into and get out of. If you want to have a car and hotel room it's a pretty good option and I'd reccomend it for that. OTOH I often found myself wishing I had a plane/campsite on the field to rest/drop stuff off at during the day and not have to deal with getting in/out of the event grounds every day- especially Wed night. If we decide to go next year I might see if I can figure out a way to make tent camping not suck... or least only minimally suck.
Arrival was as simple as it could possibly be. Ever flown into a class D airport? That's all there was to it, I actually was able to get flight following all the way in and the tower cleared me to land as soon as I called up. They have a bunch of procedures in a PDF on their website which I studied the night before and entered all the waypoints into Foreflight so I was ready to go. Didn't need any of that, they just had me come in direct and land. Maybe during busier hours they do use that but it wasn't the case for me. Upon landing you get handed off to EAA parking and they guide you through between the radio and marshallers to a parking spot. Pretty simple, just follow directions to parking. You'll be parking on grass, I brought my own tie-downs but they did offer some for sale if need be. Parking was a flat $50 for the week.
One thing I've seen other people mention they don't like is that during airventure Appleton doesn't allow ramp access- they have EAA volunteers shuttle people from the FBO to the parking area. Honestly that's probably for the best given how far most of the event parking is from the FBO- you really want that ride to/from anyway
espeically if you have a fair amount of baggage.
From there we rented a car, had lunch, and checked into our room. After a short rest I noticed the day was young so I took my kid to Airventure and we made it in time to see at least half of Monday's airshow and do some looking around. The drive from Appleton was about 30min. Getting in was especially easy in the afternoon, not too bad the following Tues/Wed either but getting back to the car was always a pain. It really takes a good half hour to get from the main grounds to the car lots so nearly an hour between the hotel room and seeing airplanes. Worse on Wed after the night airshow- we packed up around 10 when the show ended and proceeded to fight our way through a huge crowd eventually intermingled with cars all trying to get out- it was around midnight by the time we were in the car and out of the immediate event traffic. The crossing guards/police were trying but they really needed more people that night- it was pretty much a madhouse. Leaving at more off-times on mon and tues night wasn't as bad since everyone wasn't trying to get out at once. I think ultimately that and not having a convenient campsite to go rest in/drop off your swag, etc are the biggest downsides to driving in.
Departure from Appleton was slightly more involved but still pretty simple. I might have slightly messed up exiting the parking area- there's no clear marker and the NOTAM departure instructions say to..
So heading towards what looked like an exit I held short of the paved non-movement area and was getting ready to call ground when one of the EAA parking people held up a sign asking if I was VFR. I nodded and he started waving me forward. While taxiing I contacted ground and apparently they were expecting me to call them when I was #1 at the hold short line onto the lettered taxiways. I wasn't the only one making radio calls at the wrong place/time during this period so it seems like maybe they need to adjust the wording of the NOTAM or their signage/procedures next year. There was a line of aircraft on the taxiway lining up to depart and they had traffic departing from the end of 30 and one of the intersecting taxiways. A bit of a wait but not bad, the tower/controllers did a good job getting everyone out and on their way.
I requested and recieved a VFR departure to the East, then flew south along the east side of Lake Winnebago then turned SW on course for home. There was some traffic in the area but keeping one eye on the ADS-B targets and another out the window it wasn't anything too overly concerning. Flight home was an uneventful trip otherwise.
So, tl;dr:
It's pretty easy to fly into and get out of. If you want to have a car and hotel room it's a pretty good option and I'd reccomend it for that. OTOH I often found myself wishing I had a plane/campsite on the field to rest/drop stuff off at during the day and not have to deal with getting in/out of the event grounds every day- especially Wed night. If we decide to go next year I might see if I can figure out a way to make tent camping not suck... or least only minimally suck.
