"Around the Field" at the 1998 Oshkosh Fly-in, AirVenture 001

Here is an excerpt from Volume One of "Around the Field: The stories of the people places and planes of the Oshkosh Fly-in". Excerpt from Tuesday July 28, 1998. (001)

Terry Clark and Sylvia Keal are old friends who only see each other each summer at Oshkosh. Terry flies his 1961 green & tan Cessna 172 in from Cherry Capitol Airport near Traverse City, Michigan. Sylvia arrives from Brampton, Ontario in her red & white Cherokee 140. 

Terry and Sylvia are two of the many North 40 campers who arrive early every year, days before the official start of the convention. "Many of the people in the first seven rows know each other," says Sylvia. "We don't necessarily know their names, but we recognize their faces, and look forward to seeing them each year." 

Jeff Reuland and Al Bond have a friendly competition to see who arrives first each year. Al won this year, arriving on Wednesday, with Jeff following on Friday. Jeff flies his green & white 172 from Chatham on Cape Cod. Al is a retired Pan Am captain from the Spruce Creek Fly-In airport community near Daytona Beach, Florida. 

For Oshkosh '96 Al was one of the first to arrive, and one of the last to leave. He arrived seven days before the official start, and stayed until two days after the end. "On my last day I got one of the last showers before they turned off the water. But when I went to use the porta-johns they had taken them all away!" 

Jeff and Al stay in touch during the year by email. They try to keep their arrival plans secret from each other. This year, a couple days before leaving Chatham, Jeff wanted to psych-out Al so he sent him an email saying, "I'm sitting here at Oshkosh with my laptop, and I've saved you the space behind me." But Al got the last laugh by jumping in his plane and heading north to beat Jeff by two days.

Learn more about Volume One of "Around the Field: The stories of the people places and planes of the Oshkosh Fly-in" and other books about AirVenture, the Oshkosh Fly-in here.

General Aviation, Flying, Airplanes, EAA, Experimental Aircraft Association, Wittman Field