Saturday (Jul 29th) EAA airshow in Oshkosh - Perhaps one of the best ever

In my opinion anyway. This will be my 28th EAA show (lucky enough to live 45 minutes away) and Saturday's show is going to be very impressive. The airshow is always great with each year bringing something never seen before, but this to me is an amazing lineup.

Hot Air Balloon launch early in the morning.

Patriot Parachute Demo Team, Mike Goulian (Extra 330SC), Jim Peitz (Beech Bonanza), Rob Holland (Edge 540RH), Vicky Benzing (Stearman), Gene Soucy (Grumman Showcat), Sean D. Tucker (Oracle Challenger III)

B-2 Spirit, a B-1 Lancer, and a B-52 Stratofortress will come together in a composite flyover. This unique formation flyby at EAA AirVenture 2017 will be the first of its kind at a civilian air show. This will be followed by two B-29s (Doc and Fifi), two B-17s, several B-25s, and an A-20, plus more yet to be announced, in a parade of bombers.

Heritage flight will be the F-35, A-10 and P-51 flying together.

Blue Angels with Fat Albert

Then the night air show:
Paul McCowan, Fat Albert, Red Bull Wingsuits, Paradigm Aerobatic Team, Aeroshell Aerobatic Team (T-6 Texans), Bob Carlton (Super Salto), Greg Shelton and
Ashley Key (450 Super Stearman/wing walking), Patriot Parachute Demo Team, Gene Soucy (Firecat), Matt Younkin (Beech 18), Redline Airshows

And if that's not enough it ends with a VERY nice fireworks show and the wall of fire.

Also Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Apollo program Friday and Saturday with: Frank Borman (Apollo 8), Walt Cunningham (Apollo 7), Buzz Aldrin (Apollo 11), Fred Haise (Apollo 13), Jim Lovell (Apollo 8 and Apollo 13), Al Worden (Apollo 15), and Harrison “Jack” Schmitt (Apollo 17).

I'm also pretty excited for Wednesday evening's program too. 101 year old Dick Cole will be on hand in a 75th anniversary commemoration of the Doolittle Raid. Dick was Jimmy Doolittle's copilot in the lead plane of the raid is the only remaining member of the 80 original raiders.

I was planning on going on the 29th before they annonunced the fly by. Now I'm definately going.

I really like the Oshkosh photos being posted on POTN. Oshkosh has been on my bucket list for a few years.
But I live near Los Angeles so attending Oshkosh will take some planning - and money - on my part.

Last year at my local air show I talked to a guy about Oshkosh. Here's what he said...

Due to the large number of people attending Oshkosh, one needs to reserve a motel/hotel one year in advance.
Even at one year notice, the closest motel he could find was 20 miles from the air show.
Car rentals are in great demand, so reserve one months in advance.
Expect heavy traffic and leave extra early. There are other events taking place besides the air show.
The weather can change quickly. Over cast or rain in the morning, sunny in the afternoon, or vice-versa.

Can anyone confirm this? Do I need to make plans today for next year's show?

I'm local so I can't confirm the hotel situation or rental cars. I would imagine the hotels fill up somewhat quick. A year seems pretty far in advance though. Appleton is 20 miles away though with lots of hotels. The airshow on weekdays is no where near as busy as it is on weekends so you can get in pretty easy even around 12-1PM for the 2:30 airshow. The way it works is that the gates open at 7AM. People will file in (not too many at 7) and they will set their lawn chairs down and "reserve" their spot on the flight line. Most of course choosing to as close to airshow center as possible. This is, however, not the ideal spot for photos. That is far down to the south (right) side of the flight line. You can show up at 11-12 any day, even on weekends and still get a front row spot from that location.
That said, my house is always open (vs hotel) for those here wanting to come shoot EAA. I am 45 minutes away however.

Fond du Lac is about 30 minutes south of Oshkosh. That's also a decent place to look for hotels too.