k5083 wrote:
Just back after attending Mon-Thurs, will try to post pics as I go through them. Had a good time, though not as good as last year.
Warbird turnout was exceptional as seen by tallies others have posted. Unfortunately, it was a static display situation only, as the themes of the Warbirds of America portion of the afternoon shows for the 4 peak days were:
Mon: Mass trainer formations.
Tues: Exact same mass trainer formations.
Wed: L-birds and Chipmunks.
Thu: Jets.
Not a single show featured piston fighters, bombers or transports. No matter how much the crews of the fast and/or large prop warbirds may have wanted to burn an hour of EAA's gas and display for folks, there was no opportunity for them, as there usually is Tuesday and/or Wednesday. Very poor decision IMO; a big missed opportunity considering what was on the field. The only piston combat types we got to see in action were the featured performers or anything that went joyriding during the day. I'll be interested to hear what they do with the segment today, but the pool will be depleted by now.
None of the afternoon airshows was very good, especially relative to last year when there were a couple of excellent ones. Thursday was the strongest of the four, with good demos by the 262, Vampire, T-33, and Mig-17s giving fans of early jet fighters little to complain about. Overall, pacing was slow, there were too many similar flippy flops although I did enjoy this new Northern Stars 3-Pitts team from Canada. Current military displays were on the tame side, and most of the solo warbird acts were familiar from the past couple of years.
I think I probably shot about half the pics as last year, partly because of the above, partly because threatened or actual storms interrupted the post-airshow departure frenzy that is usually one of my favorite parts of OSH from Wednesday onwards. But there were some great moments and all that general airplane goodness that makes it worthwhile.
August
I was also totally miffed and frustrated by the warbird shows Monday-Thursday. It took until Friday and today to have proper warbird shows. I don't mind the L-bird, trainer and jet shows, they're just extremely poorly designed and paced with very little action low enough or in front of the crowd. Having a bunch of aircraft orbiting at 1,500+ feet on the other side of the runway or behind the crowd just isn't interesting at all. The way the show is designed does a total disservice to both pilots and spectators. The pacing for the trainer and L-bird shows is also horrible - they allot 45 minutes to an hour and the actual flying takes maybe 15 minutes, then we have a lot of sitting around while nothing flies and Danny Clisham drones on with barely relevant stories.
The biggest oversight in my opinion was not working the Wildcats into the warbird shows. Here we had the largest gathering of Wildcats maybe since World War II and all we got out of it was a single pass on the way to their aerial photo shoot on Friday. It is absolutely mind-boggling that nobody thought to get them in front of the crowd more. There isn't a better venue or crowd in North America that would better appreciate the rarity of seeing a bunch of Wildcats in the air together - and all we got was one pass. Again, this is a major disservice to the pilots/crews who put in the effort to bring the aircraft and the enthusiasts who paid good money to be there. A few select photographers got to spend an hour with them in the air, but I guess us ground-dwelling peasants should be happy with what we got. We can always enjoy paying to see pictures in magazines though.
Other than that, it's been a good trip. This is the first time I have gone all week. The warbird aerobatics have been fantastic, the Cat Flight is always memorable, the warbird shows the last two days were great and the MiG-29 and MiG-17s were awesome. I love US Navy and USMC warbirds and this was a great year for those types. The Constellation is absolutely incredible. I also really appreciated seeing the FHCAM P-38 and I hope Steuart Walton continues to share his warbirds at Oshkosh. The warbird turnout overall seemed up from my last trip (2022) and the variety of types represented was fantastic. There were also a lot of cool airplanes in Vintage.
Not sure how long I'll stay tomorrow. It's going to be a hot one. Hoping to catch the F-15s and Harriers departing and if it gets miserable after that, I'll just head out.
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