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July 22nd – 25th, 2024 Oshkosh, WI

Attending Oshkosh air show has always been a bucket list item and this year I was able to mark it off. This is a weeklong air show with acts starting to fly in the weekend prior. Oshkosh isn’t just your normal air show, it’s a totally different experience! People fly their personal planes into Wittman Regional Airport and will camp under the wings of their airplanes, or camp at the many camp sites just off the airport in the surrounding camp sites. Oshkosh also isn’t just about the flying air show that so many like me are used to, there is so much more than just watching planes flying.

There were 1600 Forums & Workshops, 861 Exhibitors which vary from Plane manufacturers, Plane accessory companies, Manufacturers of tools to work on planes. I didn’t spend much time in any of these tents besides the EEA building. It takes 6,000 volunteers to run this air show for the week. This counts the many buses they use to drive you from the different parking lots to the front gates, the trams that will pick you up from different areas and will drop you off in different locations. Over 10,000 planes come in or are part of the air show. They park you in rows right along the show line, or back depending on how long you are staying. There was a whole South camp / parking lot I didn’t even notice till I went to the seaplane base. The attendance for the week was around 686,000 people, and because the area is so big, it didn’t seem packed like most air shows.

I arrived around 1 on Monday, just in time for the show to start. NORAD showed how they intercept planes who break the TFR’s around events. Three of the planes who flew into Oshkosh scrambled the F-16’s & F-35’s who were performing CAP for the Republican Convention across Lake Michigan. Later that day the USAF Heritage Flight went up consisting of the A-10 Warthog, F-16 Viper, F-35A Lightning & F-22 Raptor. They also had a B-1 Bomber perform a flyover. Jarrod Lindemann went up in his Jet Waco plane as did a group of T-6 Texan’s. Tuesday I started the morning in the WWII area checking out all the P-51 Mustangs, T-6 Texan’s and other vintage planes. The air show flying doesn’t start till 2pm, but there is flying happening all morning from rides to more planes coming in or departing. Tues had a lot of the P-51 Mustangs and T-28 Trojan’s flying as well as some C-47’s. The Italian Demo team Frecce Tricolori flew in and made passes before landing to take on fuel. The USAF Heritage Flight went up this time with Happy Jack’s P-51, A-10 Camo Warthog, F-35 & F-22. The Tricolori team went up after the Heritage flight and performed a mini demo before continuing to a different airport. The acrobatic plane Gamebird 1 went up next, then Matt Younkin in his Twin Beech.

Wednesday is the big day as they have the evening demo’s and fireworks. Boeing Plaza is where the static aircraft is displayed. They rotate planes in and out all week, on Wed 2 F-16’s from MN arrived and were parked there as did the CF-18 Demo jet, and a single A-10 from Whiteman AFB. Other statics that stayed there all week was a B-52 from Edwards AFB, the painted C-130 from the CT ANG, F-15EX 01 from Edwards, F-35A and a KC-135R both from the WI ANG. Fifi the B-29 was first in Boeing Plaza, but was later swapped with the Lancaster.

The EA-18G Growler demo showed up midafternoon. The Canadian Warplane Museum had their Hurricane Hunter, Spitfire and P-51 Mustang perform some passes. Thunderbird #8 did a flyover & the Blue Angels performed a flyby, the Snowbirds performed a small demo before landing. The WWII Airborne Demo team performed next with their D-Day parachute jump where 15 jumpers leaped from a C-47. Rob Holland went up in his MXS and Susan Dacy followed Rob in her PT-17 biplane. Vicky Benzing went up next and then the USAF Heritage Demo finished the daytime flying. This was performed by the “Black Mamba” A-10, formerly of the IN ANG Blacksnakes unit still with their paint scheme. The newly painted F-16 Jet sporting the 50th Anniversary of the F-16 painted like the YF-16 in Red/White/Blue. The F-35A and F-22 Raptor Rounded out this four ship, I was very happy to see the sun finally come out as it really made for great pictures. The Pilots for the air force demos are, Maj. Lindsay “MAD” Johnson for the A-10, Capt. Melanie “MACH” Kluesner for the F-35, Capt. Samuel “RaZZ” Larson for the F-22 and the F-16 is flown by Capt. Taylor “FEMA” Hiester.

The evening flying didn’t start till 8pm where the Lancaster with both flying B-29’s, Doc & Fifi, made a pass over the crowd before the Lancaster and Doc landed while Fifi landed at an airport further north. Then the F-35 & F-22 did their Combined Arms Demo pretty much in full burner for all of their passes. This by far was my highlight of the entire week. They both made so many burner passes, it was amazing. The Titan Acrobatic Team of T-6’s went up next, this was cool as they have the front of their engines lit up and flames and smoke off their left side of the planes. It’s a 3-ship team that fly together. There were a few more acts plus a Drone Show and Fireworks to close out the show, but I was so tired and didn’t want to get stuck in the crowds for the buses I decided to leave early which after seeing the photos from the fireworks I later regretted doing.

Thursday started out with the Whiteman A-10 arriving, plus 3 Harriers from the final unit still flying them, the VMA-231 Spades out of Cherry Point. One was brought onto Boeing Plaza while the other went over to the demo ramp across the way. The Thunderbirds showed up next doing a few passes before breaking over the crowd and heading home. Skip Stewart in Prometheus went up next, followed by 2 CF-133’s, which are Canadian T-33’s and some of the coolest looking L-39’s I’ve ever seen, 4 Mig-17’s went up as well. A C-17 from Charleston flew in and performed a demo and then landed. The F-22 Raptor performed a solo demo next, then came Matt Younkin in his Black and Red Twin Beech. The EA-18G Demo, which is a 2 ship demo then took to the skies. This was my first time seeing this demo and was cool as a 2 ship. Team Red Bull was next up in their helo and acrobatic plane. Victory Flight, the Spitfire, Hurricane and P-51 finished the air show flying and once they landed a B-1 Bomber performed a flyby from Dyess AFB out of TX to end the show on Thursday.

On Friday I went over the seaplane base which was a 5 min bus ride, this was on Lake Winnebago. You had a small cove where the planes were parked and once you were ready to flyout, a small boat would grab your plane and tow it to the docks for you to load up. You were able to take a small tour of the area where the planes were parked. Get here early as the wait gets up to 2 hours long by the afternoon. One of the most impressive things I saw here was that EAA has 3 volunteers at the point where the parked planes are. They have a white board with little cut outs of planes and move them along like they do on an aircraft carrier to keep track of all the moving planes.

This show I hope to keep on a bi-annual visit, there is so much flying at this one air show, you get all four single plane air force demo’s, Navy’s EA-18G Demo, Harrier Demo, CF-18 Demo, fly overs from the Blue Angels, Thunderbirds while both the Italian Frecce Tricolori and Canadian Snowbirds did demos plus 2 B-1 flyovers. Most air shows now a days only get 1-2 acts here in New England. One word of caution, rooms are very expensive as there aren’t many options in Oshkosh directly. Friends stayed at University Stevens-Point’s dorms and you can also rent a RV and have it parked at the camp site so it’s all set up once you arrive. For someone like me who’s flying in, that’s a great option. Oshkosh next year will be held July 21st- 27th.