By Jordan Ashley, EAA 864471
To celebrate 50 consecutive years of fly-in conventions in Oshkosh, we’re featuring Stories of Oshkosh told by attendees remembering their special moments at EAA’s long-standing home. If you or someone you know would like to share your own Story of Oshkosh, email editorial@eaa.org.
Growing up, I knew that many families took yearly vacations to certain special places. My family attended EAA AirVenture Oshkosh, and there were just so many people in one place that I assumed the special vacation place for the whole world was Wittman Regional Airport.
I was less than a year old when I took my first airplane ride, so you might say I grew up in an airplane. It is something that stuck with me through my early years starting in 1995 when I made my first trek to AirVenture with my parents. This will be my 10th year camping (six with an airplane and four without), 11th year volunteering, and 24th consecutive year making the pilgrimage to Oshkosh. I often run into people who have been attending AirVenture since it began, and I enjoy reminiscing with them and hearing about the old days. I am just now hitting the point where I am the one who is remembering and sharing memories with first-timers such as visits by Concorde, the SR-71, Sean D. Tucker flying the 1-800-Collect Pitts, and being allowed “behind the ropes” to look at SpaceShipOne up close.
2005 marked my 10th year going to AirVenture and my freshman year of high school. At that age, I was getting bored and looking for opportunities to become more involved in aviation. I spent my high school years learning from the old sages that frequented the daily gathering of the minds at the airport for their morning coffee and social hour. Working as often as I could and saving my pennies, I soloed the day before I flew into AirVenture in an Aeronca Chief in 2008 with Vintage in Review Chairman Ray Johnson. In 2009, I flew into AirVenture in a friend’s Mooney and camped for the first time. That was also the year I met Paul Poberezny as he stopped in for a visit at a campsite that I was in one evening. I only had a few minutes with Paul, but I remember him showing as much interest in me, as a young person, that I saw him take with figures who had much more to offer than a 19-year-old.
Also in 2009, I wandered down from the Vintage area to the International Aerobatic Club building where I met Jim and Jean Taylor. Jim was the IAC parking chairman and Jean was the IAC Pavilion chairman at the time. They welcomed me with open arms and invited me to volunteer with the IAC. In 2011, I was asked to co-chair parking for the IAC during AirVenture. In 2012, Jim turned over the chairmanship to me. Since that time, I have walked many, many miles around the small area that IAC oversees, parked several hundred aerobatic airplanes, and met many hundreds more IAC/EAA members, pilots, and those just interested in seeing what we enjoy doing. It has been an extremely enjoyable and rewarding few years and a position that I am happy to say I will continue to serve in for the foreseeable future. Jim has since died, but he and Jean have had a great impact on my life and helped me see what has kept so many returning to AirVenture year after year all over again. These days, I don’t go to AirVenture for the air show, though I still enjoy it. I go to AirVenture for the people.
In 2013, I married my wife, Rachel, and she gracefully tolerated my continued treks to AirVenture while she stayed home. I’ve always explained AirVenture to nonpilots as a type of aviation mecca — a trek with a level of importance that I don’t think Rachel understood until 2015 when she surprised me by coming up for a few days. That year I was finally able to share AirVenture with my own family as my parents did with me during my childhood. Last year, Rachel was able to attend again but this time to volunteer her time gathering stories for the IAC. We already have plans and, hopefully, she will be attending this year to do the same.
For my family and me, EAA AirVenture has gone from a just a family vacation to a place where we have found belonging, fellowship, and friendship. It is a reunion of friends and a time of making new friends each year. When the week is over, I am worn out from volunteering, but it also means that I get to start the countdown to next year all over again.