EAA AirVenture wraps up

OSHKOSH - The world's largest aviation celebration is officially in the books.

Hundreds of thousands of people packed the EAA AirVenture grounds in Oshkosh the past week.

It's a wrap for the Colvin family.

"I've been coming since I was a little kid and then missed a few years in between, but usually every year," said Clu Colvin.

They traveled all the way from Oklahoma and now it's time to head back south after 7 days at EAA, but Clu Colvin's kids wish it were a longer trip.

"I do not want to leave," said Lear Colvin.

The Colvin family was among more than half a million people on the EAA grounds.

EAA President and CEO Rod Hightower says attendance was up about 4-5% over last year, which about 563,000 people.

While that number is not a record breaker, Hightower says the number of airplanes at the air show surpassed any other year.

"We estimated this year well over 10,000 airplanes and it looks as though that number will bump up to 12,000, we'll have those exact totals later, but that's a great number of aircraft on the field this year," Hightower said.

However the event didn't completely go off without a hitch, 13 miles of Highway 41 in that area is under construction.

And traffic was a bit of an issue for a couple days, with some back-ups stretching a few miles.

Officials say that's something they will look into.

"We've got in-take constraints and limitations and bottle necks to get into our grounds and there are bottle necks on the transportation system, in this case, the highways and side roads, so I think we need to look into that," explained Hightower.

Besides traffic, officials say there is room for other improvements for next year, including the features and attractions as well as the overall visitor experience.

So even though crews are still wrapping up this year's event, officials are already looking ahead.

And that's also true for those who fill up the grounds like the Colvin family.

So are you wondering what's ahead for AirVenture 2012?

EAA officials say they hope to have all of the original surviving Tuskegee Airmen in attendance at the event.