Dawn over Warbird Ground... It's time to make the donuts (013)

"Around the Field" at the 1998 Oshkosh Fly-in, AirVenture 013

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 Auguat 1998.

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It's 6:15 a.m. and the sun has been up for half an hour. Near the edge of the North 40 campgrounds a few early risers are slowly moving to the showers.

Inside the Warbirds fence, Mike Wagnon, coffee in hand, is looking forward to another day of directing planes and keeping the EAA AirVenture crowds out of harms way.

Mike is from Seattle, Washington where he is an engineer for Boeing at Paine Field. He's been a Warbirds line-operations volunteer at Oshkosh for eight years now. He says most of the line volunteers come back every year. "A lot of them are retired guys who travel to fly-ins all over the country - here, Sun 'n Fun, Arlington - just to help out with these airplanes."

Mike, and many of the rest of the line crew, will work all day, from early in the morning until the field closing at sunset.

Around 6:30 a.m. the line people will start preparing for the arrival of the aircraft crews. Early morning flights often consist of photo missions, rides for VIPs, occasional last minute training missions, and of course, just going out to fly for the joy of it.

Time to make the donuts. One of our favorite times and places at the fly-in is early morning at Ace's Cafeteria where we get our coffee and a fresh baked donut. The donuts are the product of Bill Stiedemann and his crew.

Stiedemann arrives each morning during the fly-in at 4:30 a.m. The cafeteria opens to the public at six, but Bill also puts together orders for the volunteer committees here at EAA AirVenture. "It's one of the perks of volunteering, free donuts," he says.

Bill's not really sure how long he's been making donuts for the fly-in. "I forget when I started. I think it was about 12 to 14 years ago." He estimates that these days he and his crew make from 2,500 to 3,500 donuts each day during the convention.

You can say good morning to Bill, and pick up a fresh baked donut, each morning at Ace's Cafeteria which is just south of the NASA exhibit hall.

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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 by Jack Hodgson here.

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