About mid-week each year, the hustle and bustle of AirVenture gets to be too much for me and I look for any excuse to escape to the AirVenture Seaplane Base. If I am to sum up the atmosphere there in one word, it has to be “chill,” both in a physical sense as the air temperature seems much cooler than at the main site, and emotionally. Everyone seems relaxed (except, maybe, the dock workers). From the parking lot, we walked along a shaded path, greeted friends who were leaving, and then emerged at the shoreline of the seaplane harbor.
Calypso music was playing, golf carts and mobility scooters were absent, and there was plenty of room for the folks milling around to avoid having to dodge each other. And, plenty of benches and chairs under trees for us visitors to sit back and watch the activity. The most impressive feat in my book was a Cessna (like?) airplane on floats that taxied in, swung around near the shoreline, and then backed up to the dock. I sure can’t do anything like that in any of my planes! The peanut gallery along the shore broke out in applause.
We spent about an hour-and-a-half before heading back to the main show but it was the perfect opportunity to recharge before diving back into the busy evening of a night airshow and writing up posts for KITPLANES. It always amazes me that out of the reported 600,000+ people attending AirVenture each year that only a handful, maybe 1%(?) take time to visit this marvelous part of the show. The bus out to the Seaplane Base is only $3. If you have your own car and a parking pass for the main site, it is honored for parking at the Seaplane Base, too.
