While my aviation career has been spent in and around business aircraft – and I have to say I do love the industry – I must confess that deep down inside, I am a card-carrying member of the AGA (Aircraft Geeks Anonymous).
And while I’m good at keeping my ‘geekdom’ in check most of the year, the last week or so of July is the one time of the year that an intervention is always a consideration by my friends and family.
Why? Well, that’s Oshkosh week, by gosh! It’s the EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh and is celebrated as “The World’s Greatest Aviation Celebration.” This is when 650,000 like-minded airplane fanatics and over 10,000 of every size, shape, model, and year of flying machine come together, all in one place at one time. Just thinking about it, I’m like a kid counting down to Christmas.
Honestly, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but there’s more to the annual event than airplanes. It’s all about everything aviation – from maintenance to student pilots to introducing young (and not so young) people to all the fantastic opportunities that are theirs in our industry to whatever peaks anyone’s airborne interests – it’s all at AirVenture.
The folks at EAA do an excellent job opening their doors to anyone who shares our love of the sky.
Lockheeds and Tigers and Bearcats, oh my!
People often ask me what’s the biggest draw at Oshkosh. The warbirds? The homebuilts? The daily airshow? The exhibits? The food? My honest answer is that it’s everything! Really. From its earliest days, Oshkosh is all about airplanes and the people who love them.
Whether it’s antiques, classics, warbirds, helicopters or modern biz jets, you can pretty much bet that there’s at least one of its kind flying over or sitting somewhere on Whittman Regional Airport that last week of July.
Every year there’s something different and memorable at the event. Where else might you see a U-2 spy plane parked next to a vintage WWI fighter? Or a single-engine homebuilt parked under the wing of a gigantic C5A Galaxy? Nowhere but Oshkosh, Wisconsin, during EAA AirVenture.
Right about here is where I usually say something about how Bluetail’s operational and maintenance logbook digitization services deliver a multitude of benefits to any aircraft owner. And, while any of the hundreds of thousands of aircraft owners who will be at AirVenture would want to take advantage of said benefits, for this week at least, we’ll leave it alone.
Anyway, if you’ve never made the annual AGA pilgrimage to the most incredible aviation show on Earth, you really need to. But, if it’s not in the cards this year, at least visit their website (www.eaa.org/airventure), July 24 – 30, and watch the action on their live stream. It’s the next best thing to being there.
