OSHKOSH, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – After a long week in Oshkosh pilot Harvey Swift is ready to fly back to his hometown of Clinton, Arkansas.
Swift received the Paul Poberezny Heritage award for restoring a historic home built airplane.
Swift talks about his plane to WLUK…
“this is a Pitt S-1C Aerobatic biplane. This airplane was built in 1967 and I just spent six years rebuilding the airplane.”
But not everyone’s ready to leave the fly-in. Sharon Goodall camped out during EAA week and still didn’t get the chance to see everything.
“it was a success this year and it’s a little bittersweet. It was a lot of work and fun for a lot of people and we look forward to it next year and its going to be like a reunion, and it gets better every year I think.”
Goodall’s sister, Suzanne Pheanis, was sad to leave the AirVenture grounds because of the aviation atmosphere.
“Camping, it sounds miserable to live in a tent for a whole week but you don’t even notice it because the comradery in that campground and all the people from all over the world.”
All those people helped EAA AirVenture reach a record attendance of 600,000 for the week.
EAA CEO Jack Pelton is blown away by the turnout.
“I have never seen anything like this before. I haven’t even come to an aviation event that would even come close to the traffic and people involved.”
Pelton believes it was the air shows that drove so many people into Oshkosh this year.
“That being the Blue Angels, that being the Apollo astronauts. I think the other factor that’s huge in our event is the weather.”
Officials will spend a couple of days reviewing this year’s event and then begin planning for 2018.
