The Oshkosh AirVenture Show Is So Huge That I’ve Walked Seven Miles And Haven’t Even Seen A Quarter Of It Yet

Every year, more than half a million people drive, fly, or ride their way to Oshkosh, Wisconsin, for an entire week of all things aviation. The Experimental Aircraft Association AirVenture Oshkosh Fly-In is a Mecca of aviation enthusiasts, the greatest air show in the world, and one of the largest in more ways than one. Yesterday, I walked a lengthy seven miles in the hot Wisconsin sun, and I didn’t even see a quarter of the show yet.

Usually, I start off my AirVenture coverage with a hilarious family camper update. Don’t worry, I’ll do one of those later this week because the family’s camper is pretty jacked up, as the kids say. I really want to jump right into the action, because this year has been wild already.

This year, Sheryl is back as my guest at the show. She missed it last year, and AirVenture just wasn’t the same without her. She even got the entire week off from lawyering work, so this is officially a vacation for her!

Arriving At Oshkosh Was Wild

Anyway, I scooped up my family’s 2007 Adirondack 31BH with my press loaner 2026 Chevrolet Silverado RST Duramax, then we loaded it up and hit the road. Honestly, this truck might be my favorite modern diesel yet. Out of the many trucks and SUVs I have used to tow this trailer, it has gotten the best fuel economy yet! It also pulls the trailer so hard that I accidentally broke some plates in the cabinets while having a bit too much fun with the skinny pedal.

Oshkosh arrivals were a madhouse this year. Smoke from the Canadian wildfires blanketed Oshkosh last week. Locals told me that, at its peak, it was almost like it was nighttime in the middle of the day. This stopped thousands of people from flying and driving to the show. Wittman Regional Airport has only a handful of highly-coveted IFR landing spots during the show, so most of the time, if you cannot fly VFR, you are stuck wherever you are.

As soon as IFR restrictions lifted, a massive highway of hundreds of aircraft started racing to Oshkosh to land before the airport’s closure in the evening. Suddenly, what would have been three days’ worth of aircraft arrivals were now all coming in the span of a handful of hours. The line of planes stretched longer than 50 miles! Check out this video from Juan Browne:

If you monitored radio traffic, it was a total disaster. Pilots were yelling at each other, cursing out each other, not listening to ATC, not following procedures, passing each other in line, not holding altitude, not holding airspeed, and were constantly stepping over each other. Honestly, it felt a whole lot like sitting in rush hour traffic, because the road rage was similar. There was a depressing lack of professionalism in the sky, and it got so bad that some pilots diverted to other airports because they feared that a mid-air collision was not just likely, but unavoidable.

Thankfully, that did not happen, and I think a lot of that has to do with the controllers who somehow managed to control the stampede.

I applaud the controllers for keeping their cool and managing to get everyone on the ground safely. Unfortunately, what I wrote about above is a textbook example of what pilots call “get-there-itis.” You can become so focused on getting to your destination that you throw everything out of the window. It was just so unfortunate to hear it happen to so many pilots at the same time.

The madness was on the highway, too, as there was a huge line of RVs that marched to Camp Scholler, presumably with their drivers hoping to score a good spot before sundown.

Sheryl and I made it there intact and, thankfully, had only a few hiccups with the camper. Again, I’ll write about those later. It’ll be worth the wait because this camper remains endlessly entertaining.

A Bright Start

Monday kicked off the official start of AirVenture, and it was beautiful. The smoke had mostly cleared up, the air quality was no longer off the charts, and the temperature outside wasn’t even oppressive.

I like to break AirVenture down into days. This keeps me from overworking myself and helps me make sure I see everything. Every year, I start off in Boeing Plaza and Celebration Way. Usually, you’ll find the biggest birds in Boeing Plaza, while Celebration Way is full of vendor spaces and the awesome Fly Market.

This year has a rather crazy setlist for Boeing Plaza, and it kicked off with a Lockheed C-5 Galaxy and a Gridiron Air Boeing 777-200 representing the heavies. There was also a Boeing C-17 Globemaster III and some other mil-spec hardware available. As an airliner junkie, the 777 interested me the most. Sorry sports fans, I don’t really care about the Cardinals, but it was awesome seeing a 777 so close and walking under it.

Also, check out how huge the turbofans are on this beast!

It’s one thing to look at pictures of large turbofans and to see them from a distance at the airport, but you have to get close to truly appreciate the scale. Someone could easily stand in here!

Going to the vendors was fun. Sheryl and I always stop by the Honda display because there’s always something fun going on there. Usually, Honda brings the HondaJet, a couple of new crossovers, some motorcycles, some outboard engines, and a side-by-side or two. This year, Honda brought all of that in addition to its historic car fleet.

I wonder if this Acura NSX is the one I reviewed in 2022?

Then, we moseyed over to Boeing, where I was like a kid in a candy store. Previously, Boeing had a plastic model of the 747-400 Large Cargo Freighter (affectionately known as the Dreamlifter) on display, but none for sale. Boeing finally rectified that this year, and I finally scored my own Dreamlifter!

MotoArt PlaneTags also had a display in the Boeing Store, and what was awesome here was a limited run of tags made from the fuselage skin of one of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner demonstrators. Apparently, these don’t go on sale to the broader public until a month from now. So if you want one sooner, you have to go to Oshkosh before the week ends.

From there, we started touring the exhibition hangars. These hangars are great for finding neat aviation collectibles and cool innovations in the RV and aviation spaces. This year, it was Machine Age Lamps that caught my eye.

This Minnesota-based company creates steampunk-themed art pieces from discarded gadgets by hand. The prices are high, but I think the pieces are worth every penny. There’s a level of detail put into every piece that you just don’t find from many of the outfits that do something similar.

For example, take a look at this outboard:

I adore how there’s just a little bit of patina and how the lamp part of the piece was placed inside the engine. The light projects down, illuminating the rest of the outboard while also giving a bit of a glow to the surrounding area.

I’ll write more later!

I bought the Avco Lycoming lamp from the bottom shelf, which was made out of a discarded valve cover and pipe. If you like steampunk stuff as I do, be warned that prices escalate quickly. The Piper PA-22 nose, for example, has visible engine parts and a functional prop (below). It was $4,399. My lamp was $399.99.

We spent the rest of our Monday cruising through the Fly Market, where Sheryl got some new earrings, and I got a necklace to match my sectional chart dress.

I also spotted our friends from Lightship!

Honestly, marketing a camper at Oshkosh is genius. There are some 40,000 people who go camping at AirVenture every year, and you can bet at least some of them will be shopping for a new RV. Also, pilots tend to be wealthy, anyway, so Lightship is sort of in the right place to find people with deep enough pockets for its RVs.

The Best Is Yet To Come

We finished off our day by watching some of the afternoon air show before retiring to the camper to relax. In all, we walked a lengthy seven miles yesterday, and honestly, we didn’t even cover a quarter of the show. I think the thing I’m the most excited about is my knee. If you didn’t read my previous coverage, I busted it after falling off a Stark Varg while doing a wheelie. I went to my doctor for one final check on Saturday, and he gave me a clean bill of health. By the end of yesterday, of all of the parts of my body that were worn out, my knee wasn’t one of them. So, it seems like I dodged the proverbial bullet.

When I write about Oshkosh, I often use the length of the runways to demonstrate the scale – but that’s only some of the story. You can easily walk nearly ten miles every day if you plan to see everything. It’s also why I stay for the whole week. You just aren’t getting everything by coming for only a day or two.

Today, we will go to Ultralights and Vintage before doing Homebuilts and Warbirds tomorrow. I think we’ll head to the Seaplane Base on Friday to take things at a slower pace. If you see us, say hi! Also check out our social media channels in case we announce an impromptu meet and greet.

If you’re still thinking about coming, there’s still time! The show is only just beginning, and the best part isn’t even here yet. If you’re even slightly interested in planes, I still recommend coming out here and joining us.

All images: Author