The air camper experience

And this was on Saturday, two days before the start of EAA AirVenture 2021. Over the next few days, the field would fill with thousands more vehicles. On the other side of the fence, thousands of tents cropped up under wings. A city of 40,000 campers sprung up like Brigadoon for this one-week event, and then they were gone.

By every measure, the world’s largest aviation event was a huge success. Even if attendance hadn’t topped 600,000—near the 2019 record—the show would have been a success after a year of lockdowns because of the pandemic. People were overjoyed with the opportunity to meet with friends they hadn’t seen in two years. It was like a giant family reunion with none of the drama of Aunt Tilly drinking too much and spilling the family secrets.

I wheeled my motorhome into the “express” lane at the campground and was soon backing into my camping spot on 22nd Street just south of Lindbergh Avenue. The street is simply a grass pathway with campsites on either side. In this case, the campsites included water and electric hookups. In 32 trips to the big show, this was my first time camping and first time not arriving by air.

Flying solo in the Winnebago for 15 hours over two days, I was more than ready for a break when I found my spot on 22nd Street.
My first trip to Oshkosh was on the Concorde in 1988. A group of Brits out of London had chartered the British Airways SST that was to be on display for the week. Some fool got off in New York, leaving a seat open. Richard Collins, our editor at the time, heard about the empty seat and asked me, then just four months into the job, if I wanted to take it. Of course, I did, and we arrived in style, making a couple of full afterburning passes up Runway 36 before taxiing to what is now Boeing Plaza and disembarking before a crowd of hundreds of thousands. Since then, I’ve only missed two shows. In 1993, we were closing on a new house and moving on August 1, which was in the middle of the show that year. A sideways glance by my wife told me that marital bliss was in peril if I were to go to the show, so I stayed home and carted boxes. My grandmother died the week before the show in 1996. Her funeral was Tuesday of Oshkosh. I was on an airliner early the next morning to Milwaukee, still making the second half of the event; my only other time arriving in an airliner.

The first few years I landed at Oshkosh, but most years I would take the easy way out and go to Appleton instead. It’s fun to fly the Fisk arrival—and every pilot should do it once—but weather delays and air traffic congestion can make it stressful. Appleton and Fond du Lac are good alternatives.

I’d always been curious about the camping experience at AirVenture, but never brave enough to camp under a wing. So after having sold my Beechcraft Bonanza A36 in May and not yet in possession of the newer one I am buying with two partners (a subject of an upcoming column), it seemed a good year to give camping a go, especially since I had purchased a used motorhome at the end of 2019. Flying solo in the Winnebago for 15 hours over two days, I was more than ready for a break when I found my spot on 22nd Street. I was quickly greeted by another AOPA staffer who was parked nearby. Several other AOPA staff had rented campers for the week and placed them in the same neighborhood. Turns out, there are RV companies that will not only rent you a unit for the week, they will bring it in and set it up for you—a nice turnkey solution for those new to the whole camping thing.

My curiosity about Oshkosh camping was rewarded by a very pleasant experience. When the events at the show wind down in the late afternoon, things wind up at the campground. Fire pits, grills, and camping chairs appear as friends old and new gather to talk even more aviation. Adult beverages cause the stories to get more interesting with each telling, but no one seems to get out of control and most nights by 10 p.m. the place is quiet and peaceful. Everyone needs to get rested up because the yodeling starts at 7 a.m. (yes, yodeling over the loudspeaker system is a thing—perhaps one thing we could do without).

So even three decades in, there is much more for me to discover at this remarkable annual pilgrimage for pilots. Hope to see you there next year.

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