What we did last year: MEL-LAX on Virgin ($1200 RT) arriving in the a.m. Hire car($120) then straight to Chino for the day. Overnight at the Hotel Queen Mary in longbeach. ($150)Then 2 days to Mojave and Palmdale. Southwest airlines for the US internal flights ($700). Headed to Chicago midway although they also fly direct to Milwaukee. Car hire to Oshkosh ($340) and university accommodation($480) Then to Washington DC for Air and space and udvar Hazy (Hotel $250). Then to Tucson for Pima and Davis Monthan.(hotel and car around $300). Split between 2 with single rooms this was around $3200-$3500 each over 12 days.
The only thing that went wrong was that getting to Udvar-Hazy without a car is a pain. Don’t take the Dulles shuttle bus as it only runs every 2 hours and taxi drivers hate the trip from the terminal. If you don’t have a car then take a taxi from town. Some tips:
Southwest was a good carrier- they have cheap fares and don’t charge for baggage.
You can fly on UA or DL to Appleton and take a bus but for the money we found a hire car at Oshkosh gave us flexibility. ( seaplanes, different restaurants). If you hire a car use the national rental Australian site as they include all insurance unlike most US rental companies.
Park in the Hilton hotel car park (free) then walk out to the North40 plane parking pick up point to catch the internal shuttle bus. After the show you can have a (costly) beer in the Hilton bar and watch the world fly by.
If you stay at the Uni the very first thing you do is get to Target and buy a $15 fan.
Walk to Kellys bar in the evening, put some money on the counter and the girls will tell you when they need some more. Don’t even think about the quality of the food- hey its only fuel!
And on that subject the Uni does breakfast for $8 (Today our breakfast meat is deep fried hot dogs!)
Bell 47 helo ride at $50 was a hoot- as was the Trimotor at around $75. B29 ride? Good idea but it’s one whole day away from the show and figures of $1,000 a pop were being mentioned.
Join the EAA for $40 and you can purchase a weekly admission to Airventure for $115.
Workshop sessions are posted on the EAA website and are very interactive- I saw an eight year old girl being taught welding.
International tent has cover and cold water. Go to the Ford tent and do their “Collect the stamps” session for a great hat and a spiffy water bottle.
Talk to absolutely anyone you meet- they are all as nuts about aviation as you are. Buy some little Aussie Koala bears with flags before you leave and hand them out as you go. One of those 50c babies got me free booze on Southwest and americans absolutely love them.