One month to go

As of today, there are 30 days to go until opening day at AirVenture. That’s exciting and scary at the same time. It’s exciting because so much has happened on the site since last year that we’re eager to show off all the new things. It’s scary because there’s always a little voice in the back of your head wondering, “What did I forget?”

It’s felt like AirVenture this week on the grounds, too. Temps in the high 80s and high humidity have been rough on outside workers, but great for growing grass.


Camp Scholler opened today, with several dozen campers at the gate this morning when we began taking camping registrations. Some of them will stake out their campsites and head back home for a few weeks (yes, they do pay the daily fee for the site from the time they claim it), while others are coming in and will spend the next month volunteering on the grounds. Those people do everything from plant flowers to drive tractors, and we’re happy to have each and every one of them here.

We also have work groups from three EAA chapters here this weekend. It’s especially fun to take these people around the site and show them what’s new. I often get some good ideas from the members, since they look at the site from the outside as a visitor.


Last week the EAA staff took tram rides around the site to get an up-close look at the changes. You would think that being a staff member would make it easy to know what is going where as it happens, but each employee is so focused on their own areas that it’s tough to get a regular view of the big picture. Since staffers are EAA members, too, they have many of the same questions that attendees have about the changes.

If you’d like to see a consolidated guide to the site changes, you can download a Quick Reference Guide we put together. Just go to http://www.airventure.org/siteplan/guidechanges.html. It’s the same reference guide that the EAA staff and volunteer chairmen are receiving.

Pretty soon, we’ll start to see the tents arrive and we’ll discover how everything will fit together. The site takes on a whole new look once the tents start to go up, giving more the appearance that most everybody sees when they’re at Oshkosh.

One month to go. If we pack a million things into each of those 30 days, I think we can make it!

Always something new…

It’s amazing at how fast the grass is growing now that the sun is out. Many of the areas that were brown just a few weeks ago are now very green. A few more sunny days will help firm the ground. We may even have to mow a few of the new grass areas before AirVenture starts!



We’ve been working on another big project this week, putting a stormwater drainage system beneath the big, new Honda exhibit. It’s a big one – about 21,000 square feet – and it’s located to the east of its former location north of AeroShell Square. By now, though, we’ve dug so many holes and spread so much stone and soil that we’re actually getting pretty good at it.



I had reporter Jeff Bollier from the Oshkosh Northwestern tag along with me one day this week as well. The newspaper is doing a story about the changes to the site, including the “green” initiatives for stormwater movement that are unusual for this area. It’s an interesting story to tell and I hope people take note of it when they arrive.

It’s really odd to see the grounds without the old control tower in place. Now that the rubble has been hauled away and the grass is growing where the hill used to be, it’s hard to tell that the tower was ever there at all. The parking lot of the old tower still exists, and the FLYING Magazine pavilion will be moving there for 2009, since the EAA Sweepstakes building is now on its former corner lot.


One other addition you’ll notice this year. A very generous EAA support, Craig Willan, has committed to supply 250 all-weather concrete benches on the grounds as we update things. The first 100 benches will be here for this year’s event. That means we’ll get to do some extra weight lifting before July 27, but I think you’ll like the extra rest spots throughout the grounds.

One thing that occurs to me is that I’ve been a part of the EAA scene for more than 20 years now, and I’ve watched the site evolve from basically a summer-season tent city to something much more permanent. What you’ll see this year is just another step forward.

Two weeks from today -- Camp Scholler opens!

Filling in the gaps

For the first time, I can finally say that most of the major construction, earth-moving, and building placement projects are finished on the site. I would say that 98 percent of the landscaping is completed and grass seed is planted. Now all we need is for the grass to grow! Some of the grass that we planted two weeks ago is starting to sprout. Now, sunshine and soft rain is all we need to turn things green.

Some of the little projects still remain, such as electrical work on some of the buildings, landscaping in spot areas, and concrete pads in the food courts and exhibit areas. There are plenty of little details to finish and to talk about in the coming weeks, though.

I've included a few photos taken over the past week on the site, too. Click on the photos for a larger view. First, here's a view of the old control tower site looking southwest toward the FAA building:


Also, here's a photo looking south on Knapp Street Road, basically from the southwest side of the forums area:


Last weekend, we had more than 80 volunteers on the site. These were EAA members and Chapters from throughout the Midwest and we’re always happy to have them here. This energetic group was all over the grounds, doing things such as building picnic tables for the food courts, putting up split-rail fence at the new Bus Park, and painting some of the relocated buildings. Some of the volunteers did some retro-fitting in the volunteer bunkhouse and the Vintage Aircraft Association volunteers were doing work on their new type club/workshop building. We really appreciate their efforts and hope to see more out here in the next two months.

A couple more photos: Here one looking north along Wittman Road, the road that runs parallel to the flight line. Note how different it looks without the old control tower, which used to be just to the left of the small, light-blue building:

And finally, here's a picture taken along one of the new pedestrian thoroughfares, looking northwest toward the bus stop and the Sacred Heart Church food stand. You can see where we're hoping to see some grass grow very soon:

One of the fun things last weekend was taking the volunteers on a site tour, so they could see the changes for themselves. The most common reaction? “Wow…”

The volunteers saw that a lot of things had changed, but they’re all looking forward to AirVenture to see the final result. Some of the comments I received were that the grounds really seemed to open up after the Main Gate; that it’s going to be much easier to get to the north end of the grounds, to places such as the forum pavilions, homebuilt exhibits and the warbirds area. And EVERYBODY liked the flush toilet idea!

All of that was good to hear, because many of these volunteers have been coming to Oshkosh for 10, 20 or even 30 years and more. To many of them, it’s their site and they take great pride in it. To hear positive comments about all the work was really appreciated. Hope you’ll think the same when you get to Oshkosh this summer!

It’s a frenzy!

That’s how I describe what’s going on so far this month. It seems that my only chance to sit down is when I’m driving the truck from one place to another to check on projects. The weather is still cool for May, but at least we’ve had plenty of sunny days to get work done.

The pavers have finished putting down the porous asphalt on the new pedestrian walkways from the Main Gate to Knapp Street Road. They have a few finishing touches to complete this week, such as installing the biofilters at the edges of those walkways.

The landscapers have been working hard in the areas around the exhibit hangars and the new Flymarket location, just southwest of Exhibit Hangar D. They’ll also be working this week in the former Flymarket location as that area evolves into its new uses.

Electricians are connecting power to the relocated buildings throughout the grounds. That includes such areas as the Partner Resource Center, Main Gate admissions building and others.

We’re also pinpointing areas for the five wayfinding towers that you’ll see on the grounds this year. I’ve included an artist’s rendering of what the concept looks like right now. These will be very useful for people to get information on directions, activities and other essential needs (a larger view is available at http://www.airventure.org/news/2009/images/wayfindingtowers_sm.jpg).

There’s plenty of curiosity about the new site, even on the EAA staff, so I’ve been spending some of my time telling everyone to please limit visits to the site right now. There is a lot of fresh asphalt and plantings that we don’t want damaged early, so everything is in order when everyone arrives at Oshkosh in just a couple of months!

For right now, though, it’s back to the truck, since there’s always another project to check…

Settling things

Mud. After nearly three inches of rain over the past week, we’re dealing with ground that is not very sturdy in the prime areas where we’re looking to place building and the like. It’s been back and forth between rain and dry over the last month, so hopefully we’ll get things on a more consistent level in the coming days. In places where grass exists, we’re starting to see things green up a little.

We are moving some buildings around, though. The Partner Resource Center, which is the facility used by exhibitors, advertisers and other sponsors, is heading to its new location a few hundred feet east of its previous location north of Exhibit Hangar C.

In other areas, footings are being poured for buildings. The phone company is here connecting the hundreds of phone lines that exist right in the Exhibit Hangar area. Water supplies are being run to the food locations, and grading contractors are getting ready to put down the porous asphalt that will be on the angled walkways starting at the Main Gate.

Even the landscapers are ready, although the rain has slowed their ability to get things grass and shrubs started on the grounds.

H.G. Frautschy notes that a couple of administrative structures in back of the Vintage Aircraft Red Barn have gone away. The small computer ops building has been demolished, since those functions will be in the new Vintage hangar. Also, the while trailer that served as an administrative office will be rolled away from that area.


In Warbirds, we brought down a small building near the warbirds tower to make room for the new pavilion building that I described a couple of months back.

One final thing that you’ll notice on the grounds this year are what we’re calling “wayfinding stations.” These towers will include maps and information to better move around the grounds. We’ll start with five towers in strategic places on the site. One will be located at the EAA Welcome Center just west of AeroShell Square. Others will be on the flight line, at Warbirds, Homebuilt Aircraft area, Vintage and Ultralights. We’re doing the final tweaks to the design right now, and I’m eager to show you what they’ll look like in the next couple of weeks.

We’re inside three months to opening day, so things are definitely speeding up here in Oshkosh!

Dust is Flying!

Remember all the worries I had a few weeks back about how wet and soggy and mushy the grounds were? Scratch that. The weather has been beautiful this week and the grounds dried like there was a sponge 50 feet below the surface sucking all the surface moisture away.

The great weather (maybe 70 degrees today!) means we can get to landscaping chores. This week we’ve been spending time near AeroShell Square, in areas near the Ford Pavilion and other locations. We’re also working in the homebuilt area and back toward the Main Gate.

(One side note – With the demise of Eclipse Aviation, we’re getting questions about what will be there in 2009. EAA’s business development guru, Jeff Kaufman, said that Hawker Beechcraft will be taking over that area this year, with others sliding into their old position just west of AeroShell Square).

This weekend we’ll welcome 15 volunteers from University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh’s “Hands On Oshkosh” volunteer program, who will be here to help with fine landscaping work, such as around electrical pedestals and the like. Those areas have to be done by hand since large machines could accidentally bump the pedestals and cause all kinds of other problems. We really appreciate their time and efforts.

Next week we’ll have some of the contractors on the grounds, fine-grading roads and doing the prep work for such projects as asphalt on the road edges, biofilters and all that.

One other question that we had this week was regarding Aeromart. Yes, Aeromart will be back in 2009, but in a new location. It will be adjacent to the new Flymarket area, just to the south and west of Exhibit Hangar D. Everyone who enjoyed that aircraft parts consignment area can stop by again this year. EAA Chapter 252 from here in Oshkosh will be operating the area.

Well, since the weather is this nice, it’s time to get back to work!

Springing Up in Vintage

We have the opportunity to sneak in one more posting before the Easter weekend, so Vintage Aircraft Association executive director H.G. Frautschy has some news about the new type club/workshop hangar in that area...

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Hi, everyone. The exterior of the new Vintage Hangar is about 95 percent done, with the sliding doors hung, the exterior windows and passage doors installed, and ¾ of the roof shingles installed. The biggest news of the week was the pouring and finishing of the concrete floor in the hangar, nearly 7,000 square feet of slab poured over the course of two days. Here are a few photos of the work done to date.

With the doors hung, the opening is 40 feet, with a pair of sliding door panels.

Below is the view looking southeast, with the conference/hospitality room on the right. There’s still a bit of snow mixed in that gravel, grass and dirt pile in the foreground.

The concrete coated beadboard outer sheathing on the Hangar is accented by poly-plastic trim, all of which will be painted in the coming months. There’s still plenty of volunteer work party tasks to be accomplished in the coming months!

Here is an aerial shot courtesy of EAA’s Chief Photographer, Jim Koepnick. It certainly drives home the great impact this building will have on the overall look and feel of the VAA area. The new building is at the lower center of the photo, with the VAA Red Barn to its right and Theater in the Woods above it.

The interior of the hangar is now just about ready for the volunteer corps, thanks to the installation of the new concrete slab. The surface finish is smooth with Fibermesh in the concrete, giving the floor a nice finish for walking, while enhancing its resistance to cracking.