As we put the finishing touches on this August issue of Aviation Consumer, thoughts are on the big show at Oshkosh coming on in just a couple of weeks. For me, AirVenture has always been the place to buy—gadgets, avionics, aircraft and engines. For a nostalgic shopping experience, stroll the Fly Market for lightly used plane parts from the 1940s. And plenty of flying machines have been bought and sold from that bulletin board pictured above.
These days, with long lead times and eye-watering price increases for new engines, plus a contentious unleaded fuel battle in the background, AirVenture 2024 would seem to be the place to bring new engine tech. I’ve heard buyers say AirVenture is more of spectators’ show than a buying one, maybe because of the pandemic and supply chain issues, but I thought we were beyond all that. There’s always new stuff, of course, but it seems the brisk feeding frenzy for pilot gadgets is gone forever. It was a different vibe when I started going to Oshkosh around 1990 as a vendor, overloading the company Bonanza with boxes of the latest Lorans, portable GPS and transceivers. In the heat of show battle, usually toward the end, it was a pricing war as buyers ran from hangar to hangar in hopes of saving $10 on a $300 unit.
The frenzy is gone maybe because we reached technology saturation. Sure, the airshow is always a treat and it’s cool to see the ultimate gathering of warbirds, experimentals and new planes in one place, but I wish the exciting feeding frenzy for smoking deals would return.
Where’s my July Mag?
If you subscribe to the print version of Aviation Consumer, you didn’t receive a printed copy of the July 2024 issue. Instead, the complete issue is fully available to download normally from www.aviationconsumer.com using your subscriber credentials. If you’re having trouble accessing the website, please contact our customer service people at flyingmedia@omeda.com or 800-829-9081. Unfortunately, our editorial office cannot assist with subscription matters, including web access.
Instead of a printed copy of July’s Aviation Consumer, you should have received a copy of sister publication FLYING magazine’s Ultimate Issue, a special edition bringing together all of the aviation titles currently available under the Firecrown publishing umbrella. We’re confident you’ll find FLYING’s Ultimate Issue interesting and it has been a lot of hard work in progress.
In advance, we regret any inconvenience. We are assured that this is a one-time event and that regular print publishing of Aviation Consumer will resume normally with this August 2024 issue. Thank you for your understanding.
