The official
name of the event is AirVenture, but as long as I can remember
pilots have always just called it Oshkosh. It is the event
that a generation of pilots have come to know as the premier
aviation gathering of the year. Making the pilgrimage to
Oshkosh has become an annual ritual for thousands of pilots.
Once an event for home builders and experimental aircraft,
it has grown to be an international show attracting the
newest technology from every corner of the aviation world.
The latest business jets are on display but you can also
admire the largest group of antiques aircraft to gather
anywhere in the world. The EAA sponsors this event, the
volunteers make it possible.
There are plenty of statistics available to describe Oshkosh. You can look at
the number of attendees, the number of aircraft, the number of campers, vendors,
hot dogs serves, etc. None of these numbers will really tell you much about the
event. They will not show you the pride of the home-builder from Kansas who arrived
in the aircraft he has finished after five long years of working evenings and
weekends, or anything about the family from Colorado cooking out at the seaplane
base after arriving in their Lake amphibian. The numbers will not tell you about
the majesty of the warbirds, now 60 years old and restored to better condition
than when they were new and headed off to war; or about the airmen, now old men,
who have come to see these old friends. Oshkosh is about all of this, and the
guy who saved his vacation days to fly his Cessna 140 a thousand miles just to
camp under the wing and meet old and new friends. The numbers don't tell the
story of the dreams that begin and are fulfilled at Oshkosh every summer.
Leaving the statistics and numbers to others, join me below for a walk around
Oshkosh 2008, for a visit with the aircraft, pilots, friends and families who
are Oshkosh.
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