Airfares

[TacitBlue]

Maybe someone can explain this... In my search for a way to get to airventure, I have looked at a few different options.
Option 1- fly straight to Millwaki and get family from Indiana to meet me there. cost: $300+
Option 2- fly to Indianapolis with a connecting flight in Millwaki, meet family in Indy, drive to Oshkosh. cost (plane ticket only): $154
Option 3- fly to Appleton, rent a car and drive to Oshkosh or stay with R/C Ben. cost (plane ticket): $200

Why is it cheaper with a connecting flight than it is to fly straight to Milwaki or Appleton?

[beefhole]

It's Milwaukee

[Mobius]

No offense Tacit, but I've lived near Milwaukee all my life and it took me a second to understand what "Millwaki" was, but then I got it and it floored me.  Don't worry about it though I had to think about how to spell it myself when I wrote this.

Sorry, what was the question again?

[TacitBlue]

I knew I was spelling it wrong! too lazey to look it up...

My question was why does it cost more to fly directly to Milwaukee and get off the plane and go on with my life than it does to fly there, and catch a connecting flight to somewhere else?

[Craig.]

Your filling a seat on two flights rather than 1. Airlines loose money for every empty seat therefore it works out in their best interest.

[Ben_M_K]

The drive to Oshkosh from Indy would be horrible. At least a whole day driving. And if you're only planning on going for a few days, I dont think it would be worth it. Drving from Milwaukee is less than 2 hours so that would be more worth it. Of course your best bet is to fly to Appleton, only 20 minutes from Oshkosh...

[Saratoga]

Or if you're a pilot, fly to AirVenture. That's what I'm doing this year! If the schedule allows it of course.

[TacitBlue]

I wish I could fly myself there. I dont have a PPL yet, or a plane for that matter. Hey, would you mind stopping in St. Joseph MO on your way?  ;D

I probably will end up flying to Appleton, that looks like the best way to do it.

[Mobius]

Oh man, I don't think I would ever want to fly to Airventure, traffic nightmare.  It's the busiest airport in the world (if I remember correctly) during airventure.  I've driven up there and seen three airplanes on the runway at once and many up in the sky at one time.  Even down here in Middleton (1 hour flight) the air-traffic can get pretty nuts.  I'm not trying to persuade you not to do it Saratoga (you fly the big jets, I think you could handle it ), I think it would be fun to do sometime, just heard it can get pretty nuts up there.  I just don't think my 100 hrs of flight time has prepared me for that quite yet.    ;D

[Saratoga]

Well last year I was going to fly up there, but my job got in the way at the last second and I got stuck on red-eye flight and decided to just skip it. Most pilots who can pull it off try the approaches before AirVenture starts. Last year for example, I was in Chicago about a month before it started overnight, so I rented a Cessna, took a little jaunt up there, and asked the tower controller if I could practice the landing procedures. Up there when AirVenture isn't happening, the airport isn't AS busy, and he was very cooperative, apparently a lot of guys, especially the local ones, were practicing quite often.

For some of those though (I live in Texas, so if my job didn't take me north I wouldn't have that chance) practicing isn't an option. The best thing to do is just to memorize the approach patterns and be ready for ANYTHING the controller could throw at you. And make sure your lights work.

For those of you who are going, keep an eye out for N2202X, a Piper Seminole that I have worked out renting provided the FBO still owns it when AirVenture rolls around. Not too wonderful on my wallet, but definetly worth it!

[Mobius]

Yeah, one of my solo cross-country flights for my PPL was up to Oshkosh.  That was a couple of weeks before Airventure and there was no one else there.  That is where I made my dumbest mistake flying .  I was approaching from the southwest and I called the tower and he told me to fly a left pattern to land on 18, so I flew and was mesmerized by all the things at the airport so as I was flying my right base when the controller asked me if I could see the runway.  It was then that I realized I had flown a right pattern instead of a left pattern.  I had entered the pattern from the direction I was coming from, oh well, at least no one was there.

[beefhole]

If that's your dumbest mistake flyin, then I think you're just about set

I don't know whether or not I'd go-I think I wouldn't be comfortable with all the traffic.

[Saratoga]

I can top that. I do believe it was Seattle. Not quite sure it's been a few years. I flew an ILS to 16R and the landing runway was 16L. Apparently the controller had seen it before, he politely reminded me the active was 16L and gave me a turnoff. I very very very sheepishly looked at my copilot, gave him a very minor lecture about giving me the right landing runway ILS frequency next time, and then we laughed it off.

Taught me to double check EVERYTHING.