Subtitle: 
Some miscellaneous pictures from Oshkosh, including the house where we stayed, some of the airport grounds including the entrace, control tower, and a natural area called Compass Hill.
Other Oshkosh 2013 pages:
000-DSC_4740-header: The House Where We Stayed
000-DSC_4740-headertext: Several of us from the flying club rented space in a house, which is less than a 10 minute walk from the airport. They can hold a lot of people (last year I'm told there were 28 people in the house). It's a quiet neighborhood and they normally don't hear the planes except for one week out of the year. The people who run it, Michele and Fred Ubrig, are super-nice. I didn't get any pictures of the cookies and breads (pumpkin, zucchini, chocolate) she baked. They also had a BBQ during the week, though I left before that.
000-DSC_4740: There were about a dozen cots in the basement for sleeping. In the previous year, they also loaded up the garage with cots. There's also a bedroom.
001-DSC_4741: The house has 2 full bathrooms. An addition this year was a toilet in the basement. While not glamorous, it is convenient when nature calls in the "wee hours" (so to speak) or if the other two bathrooms are occupied by people taking showers.
002-DSC_4742: The den.
003-DSC_4743: An outside view of the house and one of the side entrances.
004-DSC_4744: The front of the house.
005-DSC_4745: The main (side) entrance to the house.
006-DSC_4746: The garage, with a small plane on the base-to-final leg for a short approach to runway 27 at Oshkosh.
007-DSC_4747-header: 2013 EAA Air-Adventure a.k.a. Oshkosh
007-DSC_4747-headertext:
007-DSC_4747: At the entrance, where I bought my tickets (for 2 days).
008-DSC_4748: David (in the red hat) sits and waits while I buy a ticket, and uses the time to update the East Hill Flying Club's web site.
009-DSC_4750: The Oshkosh control tower. A banner at the top reads: World's Busiest Control Tower. It's a pretty big tower. I gather the other 51 weeks of the year, it is not a very busy airport at all.
010-DSC_4776: A shack from the Basler FBO (the one we used, though we were at the actual FBO, not tied down on the grass) to arrange for services like fuel. $6/gallon is actually pretty cheap for 100LL aviation gas.
011-DSC_4824:
012-DSC_4825:
013-DSC_4826: There were vintage cars driving around giving tours, too.
014-DSC_4835: There weren't many midway style things, but they did have a climbing wall and a bungee line that launched people up. A kid is getting shot into the air in this picture.
015-DSC_4838: They were setting up the stage for the band Chicago, who would be playing later on (I was not around for the concert).
016-DSC_4890: I think that this was the original rotating beacon for the airport. It was tucked away in a corner of the airport.
017-DSC_4908: Frank pokes his head where it doesn't belong. Another in the series of "Frank Reacts to Signs", in this case, the warning "Beware of Blast" printed at the end of the tail. To be honest, there was a cover, not visible in the picture, in the hole where I'm looking, probably to stop birds from nesting there more than dorks like me from sticking their heads in.
018-DSC_4913: I don't know why, but rows of portable potties somehow seem interesting visually, with the perspective and all. It just so happened that as I took the picture, one of the doors opened.
018a-DSC_4964: MakerPlane, "Open Source Aviation." This was in the "innovation" tent. I'm not sure what it was. I think free plans for a plane. But it also seemed to involve 3-D printing and Arduino microcontrollers. I think it's cool, although I think I'd prefer planes I fly to be built by people more skilled than I am at building planes.
019-DSC_4886-header: AOPA Meetings
019-DSC_4886-headertext: The Aircrafts Owners and Pilot's Association (AOPA) held two meetings on flying clubs and flight schools. I attended them, along with David, the manager of the East Hill Flying Club. There were some interesting discussions, including people from other schools and clubs.
019-DSC_4886:
020-DSC_4887: Chris and David talk.
021-DSC_4889: Chris, David, and Adam.
022-DSC_4914-header: Compass Hill: A Bit of Quiet and Nature at Oshkosh
022-DSC_4914-headertext: I was surprised to learn that there is a little natural forest area in the southwest area of the airport. There are trees, a pond with a bridge, and at the top of Compass Hill, a view of one part of the airport, I think where the original airstrip was. The museum is nearby, and there's a sculture at the top. The surprising thing is that even though there are tens if not hundreds of thousands of people within a mile of this place, almost no one is there. It's a nice place to get a break from the crowds.
022-DSC_4914: The entrance to the path.
023-DSC_4915: The bridge over the pond.
024-DSC_4916:
025-DSC_4919: A self-timer picture for a self-portrait, by a conveniently placed picnic table. I tried to get a picture of me on the bridge, but it was too close and only got my torso, and I didn't like leaving my camera on the railing of the bridge, over the water. This one worked on the first try.
026-DSC_4921: The path into the woods. While not terribly big, it is definitely the road less traveled.
027-DSC_4926: Compass hill overlooked an area where people were flying remote controlled planes. I think all the little flecks in the picture are small, remote control planes (I spotted 4 in the full-size version).
028-DSC_4927: Sculptures at the top of Compass Hill.
029-DSC_4928: Each of the benches around the sculptures has a mini-sculpture-art-thing of some aviation uniform.
030-DSC_4929: The view from the top of the hill.
031-DSC_4930: A plaque describing the hill.
032-DSC_4931: A view of the footbridge.
033-DSC_4932: An old silo. I think this was actually in the south part of the airport by the ultralights.