EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2019: Helicopter Rides Are a Fun Way to Get the Bird's Eye View

The Aero Experience continues with our year-round coverage of EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2019, sponsored by Elite Aviation, with a look at the event grounds from several flights in the Bell 47Gs that continuously fly visitors throughout the week. The helicopter flights are conducted from Pioneer Airport near the EAA AirVenture Museum, and include a circuit over much of the parked aircraft, campgrounds and the aircraft on display in Boeing Plaza. One of the iconic images of EAA AirVenture Oshkosh is the constant orbiting of classic Bell 47 helicopters, sometimes three or more at a time, over the western portion of Wittman Regional airport. Photos from these flights, taken on Wednesday and Saturday, show the enormous camping area, Warbirds parking and the rotation of aircraft on display in Boeing Plaza.  

Helicopter rides were given nearly non-stop throughout the week:

The Wednesday flight shows mid-week buildup of aircraft and campers along with the WomenVenture United Airlines Boeing 787 Dreamliner parked for the day near the UPS Boeing 747:

The flight on Saturday shows the reduction in aircraft from the morning exodus and the arrival of the Lockheed C-5M Super Galexy to Boeing Plaza:

Our next post will feature a tour of the EAA AirVenture Museum, shown above, located across from the grass runway and helicopter operations area. 

EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2016: EAA AirVenture Museum

Fred Harl and Carmelo Turdo

While we await the next edition EAA AirVenture Oshkosh next summer, we can still make a winter visit to the EAA AirVenture Museum, a jewel of homebuilt aviation history housed in a beautiful, modern facility at Pioneer Airport.  Along with the main gallery featured here, there are other hangars with aircraft on display across the grounds.  Included in this feature are homebuilt aerobatic, racing and experimental aircraft, including record-breaking Rutan designs that have become aviation legends due in part to the advocacy efforts of the Experimental Aircraft Association.  We also met up with Dick Rutan following his presentation on his non-stop, around-the-world flight achieved in the Burt Rutan-designed Voyager aircraft in 1986.