AirVenture 2021 | Back home

Go to Oshkosh and AirVenture for the airplanes. Keep returning for the people.

The people you meet and get to know at Oshkosh are what draw you back year after year.

I love looking at all the beautifully restored antique and classic airplanes, I marvel at the skill, workmanship and innovation invested in the homebuilts, the warbirds always inspire me with the stories they tell of the young men and women who flew them when called upon to defend our democracy, and I am delighted to see all the “daily drivers” parked row after row that have brought their owners and families to Oshkosh to share the passion and experience of aviation.

Over 10,000 airplanes have flown in for the week. Over 4,000 are on display. Over 600,000 people have come through the gates or flown in to visit this monumental event. Those people are the reason Oshkosh and AirVenture exists. You can visit and look at airplanes in a museum, but you don’t have the chance to have breakfast every morning at the Tall Pines Café and ask other pilots what are they flying and where do they live. You don’t learn the stories of how they came to share your love of aviation.

Some of the people I’ve know for decades. Chris Price was there with his son Duncan, sister Heidi, her husband Ed and daughter Summer, and his dad Ron. Chris showed me photos of his home, which he and his wife Heather had renovated. It is the oldest stone house in Wisconsin, having been built when Wisconsin was still a territory. He talked about his Travel Air and Bruner-Winkle Speedbird, both of which were flown up to Oshkosh from Brodhead.

Rafe was with us, and had come back into camp wearing his period-correct suit of clothes and hat after having spent the morning helping with the EAA Ford Tri-motor. Rafe is Sonoma Skypark’s local celebrity, sharing his charm and good humor and initiating activities that enhance Skypark’s social life, like the monthly movie night at the clubhouse.

Patty has been coming to Oshkosh for decades as well. She is in charge of training the flight line volunteers so they can safely park and escort airplanes to the spaces on the grounds in the Vintage parking and camping areas from the center to the south of the field. Patty always greets her volunteers as long-time friends whom she is delighted to see again, even if it is their first year of helping. Her infectious smile spreads among the other flight line volunteers whenever they see her.

I volunteer at Point Kilo on the south end of the Vintage camping area. Peter and Joe are usually putting in long hours every year at the point, serving as the point person managing the other volunteers and answering the pilots’ questions. Bruce is another long-time volunteer who generously mentored me when I first worked Point Kilo, and is always there to help pilots just arriving or preparing to depart. They are, in addition, fun to hang out with, sharing stories of their years at Oshkosh and sometimes even talking about flying and airplanes.

Chad is a very special volunteer helping at Flight Line Operations who celebrates his birthday every year at Oshkosh. When the flight line volunteers gathered Thursday afternoon for their group photo, most wearing Hawaiian shirts for “Orlo Day”, they sang “Happy Birthday” to Chad on his thirty-sixth birthday. Chad responded with a big bow, which, in turn, prompted another chorus of “Happy Birthday”.

Orlo is one of the long-time volunteers who come to Oshkosh before the show, helps organize and direct flight line operations during the show, and then stays to help wrap up and start planning for next year. Orlo always wears Hawaiian shirts, so one year some of the rest of the volunteers brought Hawaiian shirts of their own and wore them for “Orlo Day”, a rich tradition that has grown over the years. Sales of Hawaiian shirts the day before Orlo Day are always brisk.

Paul is Jim Roberts’ hangar buddy and another Swift owner. Paul had come to Oshkosh with his 14-year-old grandson Chris. We went out to dinner Sunday evening to Wendt’s by the lake for fried perch and walleye. We shared a pitcher or two of beer with two of Jim’s other friends, Wes and Robbie, also from Knoxville.

As we ate dinner, I listened to them talk about their experiences in the military. Jim flew U-2s in the Air Force, Wes flew F-4 Phantoms, I believe Robbie served in Vietnam, and Paul flew MedEvac helicopters, also in Vietnam.

As they talked, Paul told us about flying his Huey over the jungle canopy to pick up a wounded soldier using a long line on a hoist. They had the soldier raised to within 50 feet of the door when their helicopter was riddled by ground fire. Paul was hit in the face with shrapnel, so he turned over the controls to his copilot. Fuel and oil were streaming from the helicopter, but the engine was still making power, so they were able to maneuver over a nearby landing zone, lower the wounded soldier to the ground, and set the helicopter down beside him.

As Paul talked, I realized that he wasn’t looking at us. His gaze, instead, seemed to be focused on a jungle thousands of miles away over fifty years ago. He wasn’t telling the story to impress us with his bravery or heroics, but just relating how a twenty-something year old served and survived to come home and have a life. It was a story the other veterans understood without having to say anything. I saw his grandson Chris looking at him, silently but listening intently.

Why do I go to Oshkosh? The quickest route is over the bumpy, thunderstorm lined Sierra and Rockies, and isn’t always the pleasantest flight possible. I go to meet and see the people. I go to hear and learn their stories. I go to share my stories of my experiences that have meant so much to me. I fly myself because when the air is smooth and sky clear, I have a god-like view of the unbelievably desolate but beautiful deserts and lava flows. I fly over the neat farmhouses and fields bordered by section lines that so many pilots have described as flying over a lush, green quilt spreading as far as the horizon.

Every year, I can’t wait to be home, but then, soon, I find myself missing the flight and looking forward to returning to see old friends and to meet new ones. And then there are always those airplanes to look at.