I was just telling my boyfriend how the WINGS fly-in and now this (Reno Air Races) are like "adult summer camp".
After making life-long friends at WINGS and RARA, I can't even imagine what Oshkosh is like. I didn't even think about work and it was like being in another universe. Even without getting in a plane, it was really great. I'll have to start another thread to mention how I got to go to (and inside) home pylon. (The finish line)
Adult summer camp with so much to look at, you forget you're on a three mile hike just to get to something you thought you wanted to see when you started walking...
Sometimes you get there, sometimes you don't. You might get distracted by something more interesting, or just stare in awe at a line of warbirds all lined up in the sun for ten minutes, looking over every rivet, bolt, paint chip. No schedule. Just airplanes.
At night, if you can't find some pilots to talk to and enjoy their company, you are either dead or a hermit. Haha. Now having done Oshkosh a few times, my favorite activities are...
1. "Sitting on the beach". My friend Doug introduced me to this. Sitting right up against 9/27 in the corner, with a comfy lawn chair, maybe a cold drink, certainly a camera, and probably a radio. You get to see everything you've ever seen in any magazine, make a takeoff or a landing in front of you over the course of a few afternoons doing this.
2. Hanging around at night and finding people you know from online or wherever and saying hello. I have to thank Kent for introducing me to this and showing me how you can just wander the airport at all hours. So different from anything else... Ramp full of planes in the square, dark, just wandering around in the dark. No sense of "why am I on a ramp in the middle of the night?", you just feel like you belong there. Then you wander over to Scholler and there's a hubbub of parties, kids on bikes, people walking and talking, and not an unfriendly person yet.
In Scholler last year, when it rained, the mud was so sloppy in the roads that you'd sink up to your ankle. You do that with a normal crowd, imagine the complaints and bitter comments you'd hear. Out there, folks just hopped from dry spot to dry spot or walked between camps carefully and made their way to wherever they were going. Very little whining or complaining. It's just, amazing.
North 40 for the first time this year, blends a bit of both of the above. Airplanes lined up in row after row, always some activity of people going to and fro, and parties kinda mixed in the whole thing at various intervals at night. Out where the mass arrival groups are camped, there's big tents with sound systems and folks gathered around chatting, etc... Again surrounded by rows and rows of their airplanes. If you see a plane you have a question about, strike up a conversation and even if it's not the owner, you'll probably get an answer. If not, the owner will be by eventually.
It truly is just kinda magical. Same vein as you describe, adult camp, but there's a signdicant number of kids around riding bikes and things, and the ever-present school busses on the road and trams further in being pulled by tractors, all running until late taking folks places... And rolling again in the morning.
And the occasional wild thunderstorm. And Mosquitos. I'm not kidding when I say one particularly bad mosquito bite JUST finished healing. (My legs were wrecked this year. Feet too. Something was quite wrong with my trusty walking shoes, but the bugs got me this year along with a heat rash.)
Here's how cool it is. If my legs had been attacked that viciously at home, I'd have been grumpy. At Oshkosh? Never. It's that easy to ignore.
And mornings! Oh, that's awesome too. You haven't lived until your wake-up call is a thundering formation takeoff of whatever radial-powered airplane you can imagine, departing early to get the perfect morning sun angle shots with a photo aircraft in tow for the takeoff and climb out. Or a P-51 roaring overhead. I'm no morning person so I still wake up a little late by Oshkosh standards, but the sounds! Best alarm clock ever made.
You just have to come... Hell or high water. It's one of those few times you say, "You just have to be there" and it's not cliche'. And you have to stay on the field. Weather, bugs, and all.
