The Bush Plane Ramp at AirVenture and the STOL Demo Where a Taildragger Stops in Its Own Length

At the far corner of Wittman Regional Airport during EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, a dedicated bush plane ramp draws the backcountry flying community and its short takeoff and landing (STOL) demonstrations. Here, purpose-built taildraggers on oversized tundra tires routinely break ground in under 100 feet - some specialized competition machines in less than 50 feet - and land so slowly they roll to a stop in barely two aircraft lengths. It is one of the most accessible and captivating parts of the entire show.

What Is the Bush Plane Ramp at AirVenture?

Tucked into the far corner of the field, where the grass meets the fence line, the bush plane ramp is where the backcountry community gathers each year. It sits well away from the warbird line and Boeing Plaza, and it has a completely different character - quieter, grassier, and built around small four-cylinder engines rather than big radials and jets.

Backcountry flying means operating to places with no pavement, no control tower, and no fuel truck: a dirt strip cut into a mountain valley, a sandbar on an Idaho river, or a ridge in the Alaska bush. Pilots fly in, land on terrain that barely qualifies as a runway, and often do it uphill.

The aircraft parked along this row are working machines, not hangar queens. Chipped leading-edge paint from gravel, mud in the wheel wells, spare fuel cans strapped in back, and a rolled sleeping bag behind the seat are all normal. These airplanes are used hard, and their owners are proud of it.

Which Airplanes Fly the Backcountry?

The ramp is a survey of the breed. Common types include:

Piper Super Cubs - the classic high-wing tandem taildragger, many of them decades old (some 70 years or more) yet still capable of out-landing brand-new aircraft. They ride on tundra tires taller than a golf bag that roll over rocks, logs, and holes without a shudder.
CubCrafters Carbon Cub - modern machines out of Yakima, Washington, including the big high-horsepower variants.
Aviat Husky - a strong two-seat high-wing.
Kitfox and RANS designs.
A full row of homebuilts - owner-designed and built specifically to reach places most pilots would call impossible.

What Happens in a STOL Demonstration?

STOL stands for Short Takeoff and Landing. In a demo - often run as a friendly competition - pilots come in one at a time over a marked line, touch down, and have their stopping distance measured. Then they line up and see how short they can get airborne. Shortest distance wins.

The numbers are genuinely extreme. A well-flown backcountry airplane in the right wind can take off in under 100 feet, and the purpose-built competition machines can break ground in less than 50 feet - shorter than the wingspan of some airliners. On landing, a skilled pilot hangs the airplane on the prop with the nose high, plants it on the line, and brakes to a near-instant stop.

Why Is STOL Flying So Difficult?

What looks effortless is actually flying at the ragged edge of the aircraft’s performance envelope. The pilot is flying extremely slowly, right at the point where the wing is barely making lift and the stall warning is active - and doing it just a couple of feet off the ground, where one wingtip drop has no margin for recovery.

It demands feel, not force: constant footwork on the rudder pedals, tiny throttle corrections, and reading the wind off the flags along the fence. The best pilots make it look boring, which anyone who has tried to fly slow knows is the hardest thing to fake. It reflects countless hours in which pilot and machine have effectively become one.

Where Do Backcountry Pilots Actually Fly?

The real draw is the destinations. Backcountry pilots head to the legendary dirt strips of the American West - Idaho and Montana - wilderness airstrips reachable only by airplane or a long horseback ride. Many camp under the wing, cook on a small stove, and wake up to elk on the ridge.

As one longtime Super Cub owner put it: most people spend a fortune to get away from everything, while he simply points the nose at a valley nobody can drive to and he is already there. That sums up why the community builds and flies these airplanes.

What Are the Risks of Backcountry Flying?

This flying is beautiful and unforgiving in equal measure. The terrain does not care about a pilot’s logged hours. Key hazards include:

Density altitude - a hot afternoon can strip away the performance the airplane had in the cool morning.
Downdrafts - air moving down the wrong side of a ridge can push an aircraft down faster than it can climb.
One-way and sloped strips - where you land uphill and take off downhill regardless of wind direction.
Canyon turns - reversing course in a narrowing valley within a very tight radius.

This is why dedicated backcountry training exists, where experienced mountain pilots teach terrain reading, one-way strip technique, and canyon turns. The recurring lesson: the best backcountry pilots are the ones who have walked away from more strips than they have landed on - flying out, assessing the wind, not liking it, and going home to fly another day.

The Backcountry Community and Airstrip Stewardship

Beyond the flying, the ramp is a tight community. Pilots swap tips on tire wear, which strips washed out in spring floods, and where to find used shock struts. Backcountry flying organizations set up tents and do real work maintaining and protecting public backcountry airstrips, because a strip nobody uses is a strip that grows over and disappears.

There is a strong stewardship ethic: pack out every scrap of trash, respect the land, and fly friendly so landowners and wilderness users keep welcoming aircraft. Leave it better than you found it.

Aviation You Can Touch

Unlike the main show line, where airplanes are viewed from a distance, this corner is hands-on. The pilot who just performed a 50-foot takeoff will taxi up, shut down, and talk for an hour about how it was done - and will happily let a kid sit in the seat. Visitors can run a hand along a tundra tire taller than a child and peek into cockpits full of mud, maps, and well-worn seats.

That accessibility is the whole point of the backcountry ethos: no jet bridge, no pavement, no clearance to copy. Just an airplane, a patch of dirt, a wind sock, and a pilot’s own hands and feet. The bush plane ramp runs every year during AirVenture week, typically in late July.

Key Takeaways

The bush plane ramp at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh showcases the backcountry flying community and its STOL demonstrations, away from the main show line.
STOL aircraft can take off in under 100 feet, with specialized machines breaking ground in less than 50 feet, and can land in roughly two aircraft lengths.
Common types include the Piper Super Cub, CubCrafters Carbon Cub, Aviat Husky, Kitfox, RANS, and many homebuilts, all on oversized tundra tires.
Successful backcountry flying depends on finesse and judgment - managing density altitude, downdrafts, sloped strips, and canyon turns - and knowing when to turn back.
The community prioritizes airstrip stewardship, leave-no-trace ethics, and passing skills to the next generation of pilots.