Preparations for EAA AirVenture 2010 in the Vintage area are well underway.

“We need to be smart about staying off the grass,” said H.G. Frautschy, executive director of the Vintage Aircraft Association. “It is critical that we not mess up the site just for expediency’s sake.”

Taxiway Papa is part of the strategy for keeping off the turf. Arriving airplanes are being parked on both sides of the taxiway, a plan that continued through Saturday. Movement to the sod parking areas will begin as soon as conditions allow.

“As the weather gets better now our biggest challenge is the lag time between the weather and [the grounds],” Frautschy said. “The grounds haven’t quite caught up to the [now VFR] weather. Water is still flowing, but it will percolate down, and we can start moving airplanes.”

Activity in vintage camping was well underway Saturday with a large number of tents set up and occupied. Even though the airplanes remained on the taxiway, arriving members are allowed to pick out a spot and pitch their tents.

Some airplanes did make it into vintage camping. Ground conditions were good on Thursday, allowing a few to park before the Friday rains.

By mid-day Saturday parts of vintage airplane parking were nearing readiness.

“We’re actually pretty lucky,” Frautschy said. “The section of ground where we are going to put the DC-3s is actually pretty good right now. We are going to take some of that area and use it for regular vintage parking and change our layout for the DC-3s. Turns out more of the DC-3s plan on camping than we had originally expected.”

Overall Frautschy is confident all will be in order by the start of AirVenture Oshkosh on Monday.

“We have two days. We need to be careful not to wear out our volunteers, but we’ll be ready.”