Camp Scholler, the Canvas City Beside Wittman Field, and Camping Under the Wing at AirVenture Oshkosh

Camp Scholler is the EAA-run campground at Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, that transforms into one of the largest campgrounds in the world during AirVenture week each summer. Tens of thousands of aviation enthusiasts pitch tents in a temporary “canvas city,” and many camp directly beneath the airplanes they flew in and parked in the grass. It is widely regarded as the cultural and social heart of AirVenture - the annual fly-in convention hosted by the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA).

What Is Camp Scholler at AirVenture Oshkosh?

Camp Scholler is the sprawling campground on the grounds of Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. For roughly one week each July during EAA AirVenture, it swells into a temporary community of tens of thousands of people, ranking among the largest campgrounds anywhere on Earth.

The setup is enormous: miles of tent rows, canvas wall tents, pop-up campers, and motorhomes. The entire city springs up out of a Wisconsin field, lives for about a week, and then vanishes as though it were never there.

The EAA - the organization that runs AirVenture - operates the campground. Its scale alone is enough to stop first-time visitors in their tracks.

What Makes Camp Scholler Different From a Regular Campground?

The airplanes. This is the single feature that sets Camp Scholler apart from any other campground.

Pilots fly their own aircraft into Wittman Field, taxi directly onto the grass, and camp underneath the wing. Walk down a grass lane and you’ll pass tents and folding chairs, then a Cessna 172 tied down beside a family eating breakfast under the wing. The next lane over might hold a Van’s RV, then a bright-yellow Piper Cub with a tent pitched off the wing strut so the wing itself becomes the porch roof.

Whole families take part. Parents and kids load a four-seat airplane with a week of gear, fly in together, and pitch a tent under the wing. For many, that is the entire vacation.

The campsites become homes. People string hammocks between the wing strut and the tail, lay down carpet remnants, set out picnic tables and grills, and fly a flag off the vertical stabilizer. For one week, the patch of grass under the wing is home.

The Community: A Neighborhood That Rebuilds Itself Every Summer

Camp Scholler is less a parking lot than a neighborhood that reassembles in the same field every year. Longtime campers return to the same general patch of ground - some for 30 years running - and watch each other’s children grow up.

One veteran couple described meeting a family whose oldest child was in a stroller at the time. Years later, that same child is now a certificated pilot who flew his own airplane in and camped two rows from his parents. This continuity is the essence of the place.

It’s also strikingly generous to newcomers. A first-timer who arrives knowing no one rarely stays a stranger for long. Within an hour, a neighbor typically wanders over, asks what you flew or drove in, and invites you to pull up a chair. Regulars readily share practical tips, like the best time to walk down to the flightline to beat the crowd.

The culture flattens social hierarchy. A retired airline captain may camp beside a nineteen-year-old in a borrowed tent, and they talk as equals - because the only thing that matters is a shared love of airplanes.

What Is a Day Like in Camp Scholler?

Camp life follows a distinct daily rhythm, and that rhythm is as much the story as the airplanes themselves.

Morning is quiet, golden, and slow - coffee, bacon on camp stoves, and campers shaking dew off the rain fly. Everyone gets around on bicycles, scooters, and wagons, and a steady river of them rolls toward the flightline as the show grounds open.

Midday empties the campground as visitors stream to the airplanes, forums, exhibit hangars, and the airshow. The tent rows go quiet and warm in the sun.

Evening is when Camp Scholler comes alive. Campfires glow down every lane, guitars come out, and stories get told and retold - often about the crosswind that nearly got someone on the way in, growing a little bigger each time. Aircraft sit in the dark with their wingtips catching the firelight while people talk airplanes late into the night.

Living Inside the Airshow

From the campground, you are living inside the show itself. At night, the final airshow acts are close enough to feel in your chest before you hear them. In the morning, arrivals pour in over the field, and campers can watch airplane after airplane come down the approach from inside a sleeping bag. As the saying goes out here, your alarm clock is a radial engine.

That proximity changes the relationship between a pilot and the machine. The airplane stops being something kept at an airport an hour from home. It’s the first thing you see when you wake, you cook dinner in its shadow, and your kids climb on it. For a week, it becomes part of the family - and many campers describe falling in love with flying all over again in a way a hangar back home can’t replicate.

The next generation is part of the appeal. Kids run loose between the tents, ride bikes, and catch fireflies, growing up thinking a field full of airplanes in Wisconsin is simply what July looks like.

Is Camping at Camp Scholler Worth It?

It is not luxury, and it’s fair to be honest about that. When it rains, the field turns muddy, and campers deal with it in boots and ponchos - often turning rainy nights into some of the best communal campfire evenings. It gets hot and crowded, and you’ll walk more miles in a day than you expect.

Even so, the consensus among campers is unanimous: it’s worth it, and they wouldn’t do it any other way. What the field offers can’t be bought at a resort. It comes from pitching a tent in the grass next to your airplane, among tens of thousands of people who love the same thing, and staying up too late by a fire under the wing.

The common advice from veterans is simple. If you’ve been driving back to a hotel every night, try camping in Camp Scholler just once - and you’ll understand it instantly.

Key Takeaways

• Camp Scholler is the EAA-operated campground at Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and becomes one of the world’s largest campgrounds during AirVenture, hosting tens of thousands of people.
• Its defining feature is camping under the wing - pilots fly in, taxi onto the grass, and pitch tents beside aircraft like the Cessna 172, Van’s RV, and Piper Cub.
• The campground functions as a returning community, with some campers coming back to the same spot for 30 years and watching families grow up across generations.
• Daily life runs on a rhythm of quiet golden mornings, busy midday show grounds, and lively evenings of campfires and airplane talk.
• Despite mud, heat, and long walking distances, campers overwhelmingly consider the experience worth it and irreplaceable.