GREENVILLE, Wis. — Mack Dubose gave his aircraft a preflight check, settled up his bill with flight services and prepared for a multi-day flight back to his home state of Washington.

He was one of thousands of pilots flying into Wisconsin for EAA’s AirVenture in Oshkosh, a weeklong convention, airshow and celebration of aviation.

Rather than landing directly in Oshkosh, Dubose was operating from Appleton International Airport, about 25 miles away.

“It was much easier to get in. The airport staff here are excellent and the services here are great,” he said.

It’s a similar story at other airports in eastern Wisconsin that seen an influx of aircraft and people for the convention.

Peter Mariahazy, an EAA volunteer in charge of helping pilots in Appleton, said they’ll see 500 to 600 aircraft there over the course of the week, turning usually empty patches of the airport into parking areas.

“Many of the pilots come here because they know they can get in, get service and get out,” he said between helping aircraft awaiting departure.”Where Oshkosh is a wonderful facility but they’re taking care of 5,000, 10,000 planes. If somebody wants to leave in a hurry many times they have to wait quite a bit of time.”

A 2017 report put the economic impact of the event for Oshkosh and surrounding areas at 170 million dollars annually. That includes everything from flight services to rental cars and dining.

“This is really an opportunity to put our best foot forward to people who don’t know us,” Mariahazy said. “We have people who come here and go, “I didn’t know you guys had all of this and then they come back every year."

Count Dubose as one of those people.

“We’ve probably been to Appleton for the last 10, 12, 15 years so we know which our favorite restaurants are,” he said. “We think and plan ahead and know where we’re going to go each night.”