Q: Do the AirVenture grounds close after the air show, or are you still able to walk around and look at planes? If it doesn’t close after the air show, when does it close?

A: Technically, it never closes, though practically, you can’t look at airplanes in the dark, as there is no lighting. Besides, the security folks will discourage you. The airport closes to traffic at 8 p.m. There are evening programs and people who camp on the grounds, but it is reasonable to think that dusk is the end of general activity.

Q: I am a retired airline pilot. I have been a seaplane pilot for 10 years. Where do I see seaplanes?

A: See seaplanes? Sounds like part of a tongue twister. Sister Susie sees seaplanes…. Can you say it three times fast without spitting on yourself? I suspect that you can see seaplanes either in the air or on the water. Anyhow, the EAA Seaplane Base is one of the best places at AirVenture. It is off the grounds, on Lake Winnebago. To get there, catch the shuttle bus at the far south end of the grounds, on Wittman Road, beyond the Ultralight and Rotorcraft areas.

Q: Why are Piper Cubs yellow?

A: Why not? What color would you want them to be, fuchsia? William T. Piper, the company founder, wanted his aircraft to be very visible (apparently without being fuchsia), so he chose that distinctive yellow-gold. "That’s the legend around Piper aircraft," said Bob Kromer, Piper’s vice president of sales and marketing. "It is a very visible color. And it turned out to be a trademark."

Q: I see the EAA Craft Tent. What’s that all about?

A: "Our slogan is, ‘This tent saves marriages,’" said Jane Hatch, chairman of the operation. She has been volunteering at the craft tent for some 32 years. "This is a place where wives and children can come when the men are off doing boy things," she said.

The crafts vary from quite simple, to suitable for children, to quite sophisticated. "We offer as many crafts as we can get volunteers to teach," she said. There is a nominal fee to cover the cost of materials. Before AirVenture is over, more than 1,000 people will have availed themselves of the tent’s diversions. Very crafty of them.

Q: Where can I buy Oshkosh B’Gosh clothing?

A: Anywhere your little heart desires. But I know what you mean. I’m told that this is the question most frequently asked of the Oshkosh Convention & Visitors Bureau. That clothing can be purchased at the Prime Outlet Mall, just across U.S. 41 from the EAA grounds.

Q: I see people riding around on VWs, gators, golf carts, and scooters. What do I have to go to do that?

A: You have to be somebody important, really important to drive one of those topless Beetles. Actually, other than the VWs, people get to use them because they need to get from one place to another on these spread-out convention grounds in a hurry, people like reporters, for example. We’re not important, but it is important that we get where we are going in a minimum amount of time. And some of us are old and frail, besides, so cut us some slack.

Q: What’s the oldest plane at AirVenture 2007?

A: Anywhere else, that would sound like a geometry problem. It’s difficult to give a definitive answer until we’re sure that everybody is here. Is everybody here yet? The probable winner of this age derby is a 1927 Swallow, a beautiful black and yellow restoration parked in the Antique and Classic area, right in the first row. Interestingly, Charlie and Chuck Laird, who are descendants of Charles Laird and whose name is well known to airplane historians, own it. Charles Laird was instrumental in the design and production of this airplane by the Swallow Airplane Manufacturing Co. of Wichita, Kansas. The plane is a precise restoration, even to the OX-5 engine, which was the same powerplant that powered the famed Jenny. No, I don’t remember when it came off the assembly line.

Q: Was that you in that stupid robe this morning, walking to the showers?

A: The short answer is "no." So is the long answer. There must be another incredibly handsome guy on the grounds.