Jas,
Points probably a couple of people are trying to make:
I bought a ticket to OSH, you go to a gate, pick it up, you're in.
I got a comp trade day ticket, you register on line, print the PDF, take it to a dood who scans it, issues another ticket, bag is x-rayed. Big difference, no scanning or x-raying at OSH. Pick ticket up, in.
There is no d!ckhead on the gates at OSH to prevent you getting in early like Bas experienced. I'd get up early, stroll on in, have a coffee & stroll around.
I couldn't get within 400 metres of the Raptor at AV. There were absolutely NO barricades around ANY acft at OSH, all 10,000 of them.
At OSH, GA, Experimental etc are treated like gold, anyone who's been there will confirm that. The Lycoming presence was brilliant, informative & had loads of free technical seminars. They all did. The seminars, lots that you could pay for, lots free, well, if you lined them all up, 40 hours a week back to front would take you a few years to see.
I'm merely pointing a segment of a market being ignored, that could contribute hugely to their bottom line.
And I'm also pointing out the stupid bullish!t that Australians are subject to on the security front. My bag was x-rayed but I wasn't. I could have taken knives in my pockets in. Why? They don't do it at OSH and there is NO trouble there.