Bailey Noel
Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, may be the heart of aviation, but Oshkosh, Wisconsin, is its soul. That’s because half a million visitors from around the globe gather in the east-central Wisconsin town every year for the aviation-themed EAA AirVenture, an extravaganza of air shows, guest speakers, pilot trainings, specialized flights, museum exhibits, convention displays, and so much more. This year’s event is July 24-30.
My husband, who earned his private pilot’s license about a decade ago, attends the event the final week in July every year, often with our son, who also started his flight certification training in high school. I tag along for a few days each year.
Some people have an annual ritual of spending a week at a lakeside cabin; others plan their vacations around the Minnesota State Fair. A visit to EAA is our summer must-do. It’s a four-hour drive from the Twin Cities, and we’ve camped for the week in the huge on-site campground or journeyed north to Appleton or Green Bay for lodging. Over my multiple visits, I’ve met NASA astronauts Jim Lovell and Buzz Aldrin, watched the original “Top Gun” on the jumbo outdoor movie screen from my lawn chair, treated my kids to helicopter rides around the grounds, flown on a Goodyear blimp, and walked through a B-25 aircraft. There are impressive (and impressively loud) hours-long air shows every afternoon featuring stunt pilots and wing walkers, fighter jets and ultra-lights, aerobatics and warbirds. From vintage and military aircraft to the latest in aeronautics, flight connects everyone gathering here in the heart of Wisconsin.
It all started as a small gathering of aviation enthusiasts 70 years ago. The Experimental Aircraft Association added the name AirVenture Oshkosh in 1998 to what used to be simply known as EAA fly-in. Canceled in 2020 because of the pandemic, interest has returned—as well as the crowds. Just 150 people and 21 aircraft showed up that first year seven decades ago. This year, more than 600,000 attendees are expected to show up from approximately 90 countries with nearly 10,000 flying vehicles of all shapes and sizes, models and combinations.
Cheryl Ann Daml of Blaine is a certified flight instructor who operates out of the Anoka County-Blaine Airport. She attends AirVenture every year, as do many others in the Minnesota aviation club she belongs to. “AirVenture is a must-do at least once or twice for every aviation enthusiast,” she says. “I usually fly my Beech Sundowner there and spend the week camping near the wing.” “Like repeat attendees, I look forward to the event for months ahead of time,” she adds. “Each year is a different flying experience. It’s a challenging flight with lots of traffic, requiring caution, situational awareness, and patience.” In fact, with approximately 130 landings and takeoffs per hour during busy times, Wittman Field in Oshkosh is the busiest airport in the world during the week of AirVenture.
Connor Madison
Daml provided these insights and tips for anyone thinking of attending: The overall event, she says, offers “a week of airshows, static airplane displays, meeting interesting people, attending seminars, shopping the aviation vendors, or just relaxing by the flight line and watching takeoffs and landings. A quick shuttle ride will take you to a fantastic aviation museum on the grounds, right next to an active grass runway.”
“For a quiet getaway, you can take another shuttle bus to the seaplane base and relax in the shade, watching planes take off and land on the lake,” she adds.
The central square of the 1,500-acre event is called Boeing Plaza and displays fighter jets, mililtary transport aircraft, specialized aircraft used for medical purposes, weather studies, airliners, and more. The featured aircraft change throughout the week, so attendees should consider multiple visits.
The aircraft parking grounds are organized by types of aircraft. “My favorite aircraft area is the Warbirds,” Daml says. “These rare aircraft are on display for the week, and most of them fly in the airshows and practice formation flight each day. There’s no other place in the world where you can see this kind of collection of historical aircraft all together. Special presentations about these aircraft are given each day by veterans of WWII, Korea, and Vietnam. It’s interesting and inspiring to hear their stories, of how they served our country.”
AirVenture has a different theme each year, and this year will recognize the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War with events and an Honor Flight. “The Vietnam era was a remarkable time for aviation innovation and development,” Rick Larsen, EAA’s vice president of communities and member programs, who coordinates AirVenture features and attractions, posted on the event’s website. “It was a bridge from the early jet age to the aircraft that are still a foundational part of our armed forces. More important, this is an opportunity to recognize those who served, many of whom did not receive a grateful welcome when they returned from their service.”
I was part of the crowd welcoming an Honor Flight in Oshkosh from Washington, D.C., a few summers ago, and it’s a very emotional and uplifting experience to cheer for the veterans as they walk from the plane to the tarmac.
Many attendees fly their own planes to the event—their Cessnas and Beechcrafts, their home kits, their ultralights. Others park their impressive RVs and tricked-out trailers in the adjacent multi-acre campground that includes electrical hook-ups, showers, and a convenience store. We have a teardrop camper that we will bring this year, making sure to load our bikes to easily get from our campsite to the festival gates. The campground offers free shuttle buses, too, but the pick-up and drop-off times aren’t always convenient. The tram system on the main grounds, however, is very efficient. Still, plan to walk about 5 to 8 miles per day, Daml advises.
One of my favorite aspects of the event is the international community. There’s a gathering spot for European aviators, and a huge map for everyone to place a pin on their country of origin. If one of the wonders of flight is its ability to transport us to faraway lands to explore new locations and meet different people, AirVenture helps bring these travelers together. “We are all there because of the love of flying,” Daml says. “It’s a very happy place … kind of the Disney World of aviation.”
Eric Sander
