The Unofficial Oshkosh 2025 Thread

[phil65]

On a side note, there are some very exciting warbirds that are or will be changing hands soon, and announcements that will be forthcoming from their respective owners/organizations. It is an exciting time to be a warbird fan! Lots of cool stuff to look forward to soon!

Such a mystery!!


Looked like a great turnout. Wish we could have made it back this year. Maybe next year... How was the weather by the way? 2023 was pretty hot and humid for us. Just wondering if you guys faired any better...

Nope..

[garbs]

Sabremech wrote:

Let me see if I can answer a few of your questions or give insight. I take care of the pilot documents required to fly in the Warbirds of America portion of the Airshow along with the Airshow sign up sheets.
The wildcats didn’t fly because they didn’t sign up to fly. Why is that? You’ll have to ask the owners. That’s no fault of the Airshow planners as they can only work with those who choose to fly. The planners do try to put things together and they did get the ME 262 and two P-51’s to fly during the WOA show. That wasn’t on my schedule until I found out during the daily briefing, of which I participate.
I’d be interested in hearing your suggestions for the show say for the L-birds. Keep in mind the different number of types, those who can and can’t fly formation, along with de-conflicting patterns and altitudes, show lines, which will keep the FAA happy? I can pass them along.

Let me know if you’ll be at OSH next year and you can be my guest for the briefing so you see for yourself what it takes to make it happen specifically there with the number of aircraft in attendance. There’s so much more that goes on that I don’t know enough of to comment about nor will I, but if you have a specific question, let me know and I can probably get you an answer.
Thanks,

David

Well said, Sabremech. I have had the privilege of working in the same building with Dave for many years. He interacts with 3 and 4-letter government agencies on a regular basis during the show and excels at keeping them happy and our pilots on the "good side'.

I agree that the Monday and Tuesday airshows are pretty similar, but remember that all of the trainer formation groups meet the week before at locations in the area to recertify their FAST status. Monday is the day they all "arrive" at OSH, trying to do a 4 or 5 level deep crossing pattern over show center. Then each group gets a parade pass down 18/36. Tuesday could be modified (IMO) to something more interesting.

The other thing - I THINK I remember the Friday and Saturday Warbird airshows being 90 minutes long maybe only 5 or 6 years ago (pre-Dallas?). From hurricane_yank's post a few screens earlier, you can see that we now get 50 minutes. The days of launching the Army Fighters, then the Navy Fighters, then Bombers/Transports and having them take turns beating up the field with pyro while the L-birds orbit in the background and the trainers fly formation overhead are apparently over. You can't scramble and recover that many planes in 50 minutes, much less have them do anything.

EAA set up a nice Wildcat display Saturday morning. Expect to see an overhead view of this array in Sport AV, possibly taken by former frequent poster Spookythecat (If you're still lurking out there Al, I think I saw a pretty impressive anniversary for you at the banquet - congrats!). Photo is in Panoramic, so it's huge in this view.



Got one other pretty good image last week; will screen for more when I get more time:



Cheers;

[garbs]

Sabremech wrote:

Let me see if I can answer a few of your questions or give insight. I take care of the pilot documents required to fly in the Warbirds of America portion of the Airshow along with the Airshow sign up sheets.
The wildcats didn’t fly because they didn’t sign up to fly. Why is that? You’ll have to ask the owners. That’s no fault of the Airshow planners as they can only work with those who choose to fly. The planners do try to put things together and they did get the ME 262 and two P-51’s to fly during the WOA show. That wasn’t on my schedule until I found out during the daily briefing, of which I participate.
I’d be interested in hearing your suggestions for the show say for the L-birds. Keep in mind the different number of types, those who can and can’t fly formation, along with de-conflicting patterns and altitudes, show lines, which will keep the FAA happy? I can pass them along.

Let me know if you’ll be at OSH next year and you can be my guest for the briefing so you see for yourself what it takes to make it happen specifically there with the number of aircraft in attendance. There’s so much more that goes on that I don’t know enough of to comment about nor will I, but if you have a specific question, let me know and I can probably get you an answer.
Thanks,

David

Well said, Sabremech. I have had the privilege of working in the same building with Dave for many years. He interacts with 3 and 4-letter government agencies on a regular basis during the show and excels at keeping them happy and our pilots on the "good side'.

I agree that the Monday and Tuesday airshows are pretty similar, but remember that all of the trainer formation groups meet the week before at locations in the area to recertify their FAST status. Monday is the day they all "arrive" at OSH, trying to do a 4 or 5 level deep crossing pattern over show center. Then each group gets a parade pass down 18/36. Tuesday could be modified (IMO) to something more interesting.

The other thing - I THINK I remember the Friday and Saturday Warbird airshows being 90 minutes long maybe only 5 or 6 years ago (pre-Dallas?). From hurricane_yank's post a few screens earlier, you can see that we now get 50 minutes. The days of launching the Army Fighters, then the Navy Fighters, then Bombers/Transports and having them take turns beating up the field with pyro while the L-birds orbit in the background and the trainers fly formation overhead are apparently over. You can't scramble and recover that many planes in 50 minutes, much less have them do anything.

EAA set up a nice Wildcat display Saturday morning. Expect to see an overhead view of this array in Sport AV, possibly taken by former frequent poster Spookythecat (If you're still lurking out there Al, I think I saw a pretty impressive anniversary for you at the banquet - congrats!). Photo is in Panoramic, so it's huge in this view.



Got one other pretty good image last week; will screen for more when I get more time:



Cheers;

[garbs]

Sorry about the double post - mods please delete one.

[Hooligan2]

Garbs, I think that takes first prize as the biggest picture I've ever seen on the Internet!

Cracking shots! Thanks, and also to everyone else for posting pics so that those of us stuck on the other side of the Pond can enjoy Oshkosh too - I'll be back...

[Pogo]

Yes, a huge THANK YOU to all who post photos here, it is greatly appreciated, and please keep 'em coming!!

[Mark Allen M]

P-38J 'JANDINA III'

[Dan K]

Thursday/Friday









































An enormous thanks to all those who lug around cameras with bazooka lenses all week; your quality photos of our beloved warbirds are what I'll be drooling over in the weeks to come.

Having attended Oshkosh annually for decades (as well as being one of those annoying "glass-half-full" types), I tend to focus on the enormity of human effort that is required to pull off this event year after year.

One enormous aspect of Oshkosh is the opportunity for the great unwashed (like me) to walk the ramp(s) and rub elbows with the owners, aircrew, restorers, and maintainers of these wonderful beasts. In the warbirds area, Rhonda and her crew do an amazing job of moving aircraft from tiedown to runway safely while allowing us fanatics to hear and breathe it all in--without being chased out of the candystore. Very few egos among those who share the addiction. I suppose that's one reason why I try to include people in my pics. For me, Oshkosh is so much more than just a gathering of aircraft; it's also the community that makes it all happen.

[JohnB]

In their post-show news release, the EAA reports there were 361 warbirds in attendance.

[k5083]

I was wondering if the shift of what I will call, with no offense intended to the trainer and L-bird guys, the "proper" warbird shows to the end of the week is intentional and part of a bid to extend or shift attendance from the previous peak days of Mon-Thurs.

I notice that EAA seems to be shifting more must-see special flights to the end of the week the past few years. It has always been impossible to see everything good if you only attend 3 or 4 days, but it is becoming more difficult to decide which 3 or 4 days to attend.

My sense was that both showplanes and other aircraft were hanging around longer this week as well, though that could have been partly because the weather interfered with departures Wed and Thurs.

I certainly can understand if EAA is interested in spreading attendance out more evenly through the week to make more efficient use of resources, and of course incentivizing people to stay longer if they can afford to.

August

[Lynn Allen]

Thanks to all who posted their pictures. Mark who had the honors of flying the P-38?

[JohnTerrell]

Lynn, the pilot who has been doing all of the flying of 'Jandina III' is Kevin Eldridge.

For those who might be interested, here is a listing of all of the Vintage Antique EAA Award-winners: https://eaavintage.org/2025-antique-awards/

Note, the Grand Champion antique aircraft, owned by Walt Bowe and restored by Mark Lightsey, was restored to how it looked when Lindbergh flew it in the 1920s on the C.A.M. 2 mail route. There is a photo of Lindbergh with the aircraft on this page, as well as a number of photos of it under restoration at Mark Lightsey's shop: https://generalaviationnews.com/2021/07 ... o-history/

[Lynn Allen]

Lynn, the pilot who has been doing all of the flying of 'Jandina III' is Kevin Eldridge.

For those who might be interested, here is a listing of all of the Vintage Antique EAA Award-winners: https://eaavintage.org/2025-antique-awards/

Note, the Grand Champion antique aircraft, owned by Walt Bowe and restored by Mark Lightsey, was restored to how it looked when Lindbergh flew it in the 1920s on the C.A.M. 2 mail route. There is a photo of Lindbergh with the aircraft on this page, as well as a number of photos of it under restoration at Mark Lightsey's shop: https://generalaviationnews.com/2021/07 ... o-history/

John, thank you again for your time,

Lynn

[JohnB]

If you look at the EAA winners link you'll see several warbirds, A Staggerwing, Meyers, and a rare Cessna Bobcat...a warbird now in civil colors.

I would like to see a type breakdown of the 361 warbirds EAA says were in attendance.
Must have been a lot of L-Birds and Stearmans to get to that number.

From what I could see on the webcams, it looked like there were a lot of T-34s and T-28s.

[Sabremech]

If you look at the EAA winners link you'll see several warbirds, A Staggerwing, Meyers, and a rare Cessna Bobcat...a warbird now in civil colors.

I would like to see a type breakdown of the 361 warbirds EAA says were in attendance.
Must have been a lot of L-Birds and Stearmans to get to that number.

From what I could see on the webcams, it looked like there were a lot of T-34s and T-28s.

Give a shout out to Garbs, he can answer that question.

David