Journey to (Aviation) Mecca

Enough of this Boulder business, I’m goin’ to Oshkosh!

That’s right, it’s late July and that means it’s time for EAA Airventure, the biggest general aviation airshow in the world, and I’m going again. I had originally thought I would be riding with my friends in the Aztec again, but I seem to have moved far away from them. So, I’ll be flying commercial to Green Bay and meeting up with John, Rob, Damian & Jill, Bill & son, and Jake tomorrow, and we’ll all be driving down to Appleton. From there, we will plan our assault on Oshkosh’s Whittman Field while consuming beers.

EAA Airventure—generally known as “Oshkosh” to pilots—is quite simply the greatest aviation spectacle on earth. If you dig planes, you gotta go. And once you go, you want to go to every one. I attended it for the first time in 2003, and last year I really missed the high of attending. It’s a big celebration of things with wings, and the people who fly them, invent them, build them, restore them and love them. So you see, I gotta go.

Hopefully the cold front that is draped across the entire middle of the country will not mess me up too bad, and I’ll rendezvous in a timely fashion, and by this time tomorrow I’ll be sipping beers with my pilot pals

Thursday, I’ll hit the warbird flightline and melt into the dizzying array of assembled aircraft, marveling at the scope of the show, the enthusiasm of the participants and the wonder of aviation.