International Pilots Gather For A Show Of Colors

By Tom Woodward

A couple of old friends popped into the ANN news trailer and invited me to a parade. "Now everyone loves a parade but this is an air show", I politely chided them, "what do you have in mind?" Off we headed to the International tent where pilots of almost every nation were gathering for camaraderie and to take part in the annual International Visitors Parade.

At one end of the large tent were several free-standing boards which held business cards for many of the 196 countries throughout the world. Countries from Argentina through Zimbabwe were posted on the board though not all of them were represent at AirVenture. I wandered through the crowd trying to determine which country sent the most pilots/visitors. Most countries were dressed in a similar T-shirts so they could be identified and a few like Thailand had on native costumes. There was a large contingency from Canada, of course, but also large groups from Australia, Argentina and New Zealand and perhaps the largest in numbers from South Africa. I saw plenty of visitors from China, which isn't surprising considering how many Yuan they are spending to build up their aviation infrastructure. I even saw one business card posted under the Russian banner.

I thought, how enriching it would be to spend a day or two with someone from Russia, who had never been to Oshkosh before, and being able to show them “wretched excess” of the best American kind. It would be priceless. I couldn't help but notice, by far the noisiest, most enthusiastic contingent was from Brazil. For a minute I thought I was going to be scrummed by Hooligans while the vuvuzelas blared in my ears. Thank heaven this was AirVenture and not the World Cup.

With orderly fashion and directed by the international version of John Phillip Sousa the crowd marched off behind a mobile set of speakers blaring marching music. The Argentineans led the procession with Vietnam bringing up the rear.

They all looked like they were having a great time and for once even Michelle would have to be proud of her country. AirVenture is the very best of what America has to offer.

FMI: www.airventure.org