And So Are A LOT Of Others At OSH

by ANN Correspondent John Dorcey

Three camping areas provide plenty of options for AirVenture campers. Sleeping with your airplane in either the North Forty or the display aircraft camping area means roughing it. Dry camping is the term campers use to describe this style of outdoor living. Dry that is, until summer rains visit Oshkosh. Camp Scholler is a campground with an AirVenture population that surpasses most cities in Wisconsin. Camping here varies from a tent to motor homes that cost more than many aircraft.

Campsites in the eastern portion of Camp Scholler were becoming as rare as a $3000 Piper Cub by Sunday morning. Camper registrations continued steady throughout the night as they have for the last few. Campers utilize all the standard camping unit types: tents, truck campers, pop-ups, travel trailers, fifth wheel trailers, and the various sizes of motor homes.

Walking the campground's many streets you'll see every manufacturer represented from Eureka to Winnebago, from Coleman to Jayco and more. We should expect ingenuity, craftsmanship, and experimentation at AirVenture. We're not just talking about aircraft here.

Armel and Carol LeCunff from Ontario Canada are a great example. They own a 1968 Cessna 150 Commuter and a 1974 Trillium (read very small camper). Last made in 1980, Armel says, "The camper is so small that you need to go outside to change your mind." He has been attending AirVenture intermittently since 1976. He and Carol have made every convention for the last 10 years. They completed a ground up restoration of the camper in 2004. They camp four times a year, three of those trips to aviation events. Carol said, "It's like a tent off the ground."

Sam and Shari Taber of East Troy Wisconsin win the unique camper at AirVenture award. Their unit is a 1943 GMC deuce-and-a-half truck. Sam restores and maintains WWII aircraft and so is naturally drawn to that era vehicles. Originally looking for a jeep, Shari said, "It has to be practical."

Sam found the truck and explained that they could camp in it and that was all it took. After some time in the restoration shop, the truck debuted last year. Shari said, "Last year we were the only ones that stayed dry." Sam and Shari also own a 1943 Stinson L-5. Sam says, "All my girls are 43."

Weather experience is also evident as you stroll around the campground. There are tents pitched inside tents, awnings over popup campers, and everyone has at least one sweatshirt packed. Strangers have camped next to each other one year just to look for one another the next. Camping adds a whole other element into attending AirVenture. The community, the after-hours living, and the closeness all add up to what only be called AirVenture.

FMI: www.airventure.org