The airplanes arrive!
AirVenture is sometimes referred to as an airshow but that is really only a small part of what it really is. True, there is a fantastic airshow every afternoon for a week but it's probably more accurately called a fly-in since thousands of aircraft come from all over the world. What a collection of aircraft it is; old and new, large and small, civil and military, fixed wing and rotary wing, land and sea, you name it. Where anywhere else a single Mustang would draw a crowd, here there are dozens!
For me personally, the most exciting day is the day BEFORE the event officially opens because that is normally the busiest day for aircraft arrivals. These controllers, the best in the country, vie for the honor of working at aircraft. Given that for this one week a year, this little airport is the busiest in the world with up to SIX aircraft landing at a time, this is essentially the Super Bowl for these folks. My absolute favorite activity is to simply sit on the flightline and watch aircraft land while listening to the air traffic controllers.
