Repeat visitors, and unintentional ones.

Jay Zack and Keith Hulten are from Cloquet Minnesota. They arrived on Tuesday morning after a "beautiful" flight in Jay's Avid Magnum. It's Jay's 4th time to the fly-in, and Keith's 8th. Jay spent two years building the Magnum and made its first flight last March.

Jay is a member of EAA Chapter 1221, which has about 35 members, and 12 or 13 planes under construction. Now that the Avid is done he's thinking about building an ultralight next.

Keith is building a Super Cub with Taylorcraft wings. He owns a company called Tuffloats (www.tuffloats.com) which makes composite floats for all sorts of aircraft. He first came to the fly-in years ago when he was in the Air National Guard.

Keith remembers some of his early visits to Oshkosh when it was "hotter than blazes." But says this year we're having the "best AirVenture weather ever." He used to come to the fly-in as part of a big group from Grand Rapids, Michigan who would stake out a large area in the campground and spend the week together.

Keith's advice for anyone agonizing over starting a building project: "The key is to have a hangar. Get the hangar first and the project will follow."

Many AirVenture attendees plan their visit months in advance. But not Les Stapleton and Joan Baumstark. They are from Tempe, Arizona, and are travelling through the Midwest on a pre-wedding vacation. Neither of them flies, but friends recommended that they visit the excellent EAA Museum in the quiet town of Oshkosh. They arrived at the height of Wednesday's airshow traffic jams and were adventurous enough to not turn tail and run. And they're glad they did.

We met them early in the evening along the North 40 fence watching the comings and goings on runway 9. They were enthralled. "It's a lot of fun!" said Les. "We love seeing all the experimental aircraft. And what an incredible amount of organization that goes into this."

They had visited the museum earlier in the day. "ItŐs the best museum I've seen," he said. "I love the warbirds. My favorites are the P-51 Mustang and the P-38 Lightning."

"The voyager was amazing, says Joan. "Two people in that small space for nine days."

Wayne Beihle and his son Shawn are visiting AirVenture from Cincinnati. They arrived on Sunday in their 1971 blue on white Cessna 182. It was only a three and a half hour flight, but they stopped to top off their fuel at Dodge County.

They've been to the fly-in four times, but the last time was five years ago. Wayne says some of the reasons they love coming to AirVenture is, "being around other flyers. And the people you meet. The quality of people is outstanding. There's never a harsh word."

Wayne remembers the apparent craziness of turning final the first time he flew in. "There were planes all around. Underneath us, above us. Very unusual." But of course it turned out OK.

Shawn remembers seeing some special planes during his early visits to the fly-in. "I liked the Gee Bee, and the Concorde, and the SR-71. That was pretty cool."

This year Wayne is looking forward to seeing the NASA exhibits, "especially their stuff on GA avionics."

Among the many volunteers that make the AirVenture Ultralight area work are the women who work in the Red Barn. For years this dedicated crew has been known as the BarnVols. Last fall, long time BarnVol Sue Brown decided that because most all of the BarnVols were female, they should be called "BarnDol".

"The BarnDols do all the work here," says Ultralight Chairman Chazz Humphrey. "They are absolutely indispensable. Most of them are in here at 6 am and stay until 6, and sometimes 7 pm each night of the fly-in."

There are about 16 BarnDols. They do it all in the Barn. They sell admission tickets, memberships, merchandise, coffee & donuts in the morning. They handle a lot of the paperwork for the aircraft judging, and they answer a lot of questions.

"And we have a lot of fun," says BarnDol Jane Stevenson.

This year Sue Brown got all the women a grey polo shirt onto which she had embroidered the words "BarnDol" and each individual's name. "And because Chazz is the 'big guy' around here," says Jane, "he got a shirt that says "BarnBul".