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OSH busyness over the week

carlbeek

carlbeek

Member
I’m hoping to fly in to Airventure this year, but I’ll be leaving my wife will be home with the baby, so I only want to do 2 nights away (wx permitting).

I was thinking of flying Wed 22 morning (refueling ~45 mins out), pitch camp under the wing, catch the night airshow, spend thurs enjoying OSH, and leave early Friday morning.

I have a few questions (which I’m sure are answered elsewhere here on VAF, but I couldn’t find):
  1. How (relatively) insane will the Fisk arrival be Wed mid-day?
  2. Will there be space for us in HBC?
  3. Are Wed night & Thursday generally good days to catch the action, or should I consider different days? I’m mostly interested in ogling cool planes (especially homebuilts), talking aviation, and generally soaking up the vibes.
This is my 1st OSH. I guess in general, I am trying to get a sense of how busy things are over the course of the week as I can’t follow the usual advice of staying for as many days as possible.

Thanks for the advice!
 
carlbeek said:
I’m hoping to fly in to Airventure this year, but I’ll be leaving my wife will be home with the baby, so I only want to do 2 nights away (wx permitting).

I was thinking of flying Wed 22 morning (refueling ~45 mins out), pitch camp under the wing, catch the night airshow, spend thurs enjoying OSH, and leave early Friday morning.

I have a few questions (which I’m sure are answered elsewhere here on VAF, but I couldn’t find):
  1. How (relatively) insane will the Fisk arrival be Wed mid-day?
  2. Will there be space for us in HBC?
  3. Are Wed night & Thursday generally good days to catch the action, or should I consider different days? I’m mostly interested in ogling cool planes (especially homebuilts), talking aviation, and generally soaking up the vibes.
This is my 1st OSH. I guess in general, I am trying to get a sense of how busy things are over the course of the week as I can’t follow the usual advice of staying for as many days as possible.

Thanks for the advice!
Click to expand...
Stay as long as you can, but I believe you have to pay for 3 days minimum. You will not even scratch the surface of things to see, so prioritize what you want to see or you will just be overwhelmed, but in a good way.
 
There’ll be plenty to see on Wed/Thurs, but be aware that a lot of homebuilders now show up on Friday or Saturday (before the show) and the exodus begins on Wednesday - so if you’re looking for specific people or planes, they might have already left when you;re gettign started. This can be great if you’re visiting vendors, as they are frequently swamped on the first couple of days.
 
Wednesday and Thursday may be good days to attend if you can only spend two days. As mentioned, two days will allow you to see just a fraction of what is available. Prioritize a plan of what you most want to see.

Lastly, know the airport closes for the daily airshow which starts according to the NOTAM at 2:15 until 6:30. Be sure to be landing prior to the airport closing for the airshow.
 
Would recommend getting there as early as you can! Most of the interesting stuff starts to leave on Wednesday/Thursday. It becomes more of an airshow for the locals towards the latter half of the week. The Sat/Sun before it starts is fantastic.
 
Nobody has addressed your first question yet so I will. Wednesday morning is not generally a busier time for the arrival. By Wednesday arrivals have peaked and the early arrivals start trickling out. The busiest times on any day tend to be between 9AM-1PM, so if you can avoid those times, even better. Of course this is all subject to the vagaries of weather.
 
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