Early arrivers, friendly competitors, annual reunions, Finish High School girls, and sunset at Pioneer Airport.

Terry Clark and Sylvia Keal are old friends who only see each other each summer at Oshkosh. Terry flies his 1961 green & tan Cessna 172 in from Cherry Capitol Airport near Traverse City, Michigan. Sylvia arrives from Brampton, Ontario in her red & white Cherokee 140.

Terry and Sylvia are two of the many of the North Forty campers who arrive every year, days before the official start of the convention. "Many of the people in the first seven rows know each other," says Sylvia. "We don't necessarily know their names, but we recognize their faces, and look forward to seeing them each year."

Jeff Reuland and Al Bond have a friendly comptition to see who arrives first each year. Al won this year, arriving on Wednesday, with Jeff following on Friday. Jeff flies his green & white 172 from Chatham on Cape Cod. Al is a retired Pan Am captain from the Spruce Creek Fly-In airport community near Daytona Beach, Florida.

For the Oshkosh '96 Al was one of the first to arrive and one of the last to leave. He arrived seven days before the official start, and stayed until two days after the end. "On my last day I got one of the last showers before they turned off the water. But when I went to use the porta-johns they had taken them all away!"

Jeff and Al stay in touch by E-mail during the year. They try to keep their arrival plans secret from each other. This year, a couple days before leaving Chatham, Jeff wanted to psych-out Al so he sent him an E-mail saying, "I'm sitting here at Oshkosh with my laptop, and I've saved you the space behind me." But Al got the last laugh by jumping in his plane and heading north to beat Jeff by two days.

Serious bragging rights are involved here. Karen Seamans' brown & white 172 is parked in row three. "There was one other plane here when I arrived, but it left for awhile, so I'm claiming #1," she says, smiling.

Karen lives on the field at Seamans Airport in northeast Pennsylvania. The airport was built in 1946 by her husband who was a long time convention attendee until his death last summer. Karen, who is a 5th grade teacher and CFI, is back at Oshkosh this year with a friend who she is introducing to aviation. "I think his eyes will pop out when he see all this," she says.

On Sunday Karen bought a bicycle at the Walmart. "I couldn't get a rental car, so I got this instead." She's trying to figure out how to get it into the baggage space of her plane. "If I take off the front wheel it will fit. You think?"

George is a retired forestry worker. He flew his 32 year old Cessna 150 to EAA AirVenture Oshkosh from his home in Pelahatchie, Mississippi. This is the ninth year George has flown the 150 to the convention. He has attended the fly-in every year since 1975, except for '83 when a family emergency kept him away.

Flying the little red and white 150, which George says, "is really just a single place aircraft," to aviation events is nothing new to him. "I take it to fly-ins all over the country."

Steve McNall had a spray bottle of cleanser and was scrubbing the cowling of his beautiful, blue & white RV6. His was one of the first two planes to arrive in the parking area near the new north taxiway. He arrived early to the fly-in this year, on Saturday, to lend a hand as a volunteer.

He took three days to fly the RV from his home in Ramona, California, near San Diego. On Thursday he only made it as far as Arizona, where he stopped to wait out some weather. On Friday he reached Nebraska which left him a quick three hour hop to Oshkosh. "A lot of bugs," he says, lovingly scrubbing the plane. "It musta been 'cause I was flying so low over Iowa. If I'd have been higher there'd have been fewer bugs."

Pia Penttila is a Finnish high school student who has spent the last 12 months as an exchange student in Indianola, Iowa. While in the states, as part of the program Youth For Understanding International Exchange, Pia was introduced to flying by her exchange host, EAA member Craig Cable. She's earned her private pilot license and now, before returning to Finland on August 7, Craig has brought her to her first Oshkosh fly-in.

Pia took up skydiving three years ago back home, but only started flying since coming to the U.S. "Flying and skydiving are very different," she says. "Flying is more peaceful, but skydiving is extreme. I think aerobatics is more like skydiving." When she gets home to Finland she hopes to continue her flying by piloting jump planes.

She's already planning to return to EAA AirVenture Oshkosh next year with an IFR rating. What kind of flying would she like to do in the future? "Fighter pilot!" She says with a big smile.

OK, it doesn't get much better than this. You are on the front lawn of the new EAA Air Academy Lodge. In front of you a taildragger is doing fly-bys and touch-and-gos on Pioneer Airport's grass runway.

You and a few of your fellow academy attendees are flying balsa-wood, rubber band powered, aircraft you made in the academy shop. There's a friendly rivalry between attendees and counselors for best flights of the small planes.

Danny Diggerson proudly tells how he's from EAA Chapter 1 at Flabob Airport in Rubidoux, California. Ben Herron is from EAA Chapter 35 in Fort Worth, Texas. Arlington airport is his home base. David Barkham is from Langley, British Columbia. Not to be outdone, David points out that the log beams in the new Air Academy Lodge are from British Columbia.

"Counselor" Brandon Nesmith is a 1996 graduate of the Air Academy. This year he's returned as a Wittman Intern, which doesn't keep him from competing with the younger guys for best airplane. Brandon is with Chapter 445 in Tallahassee, Florida. Quincy Airport is his home base.

Across the field a beautiful Wisconsin sunset sillouettes the taildragger as it gently settles onto the grass.