Both the F22 Raptor and the Piper X-Cub images are credit to my friend Sean Albanese. The rest are all credit to the Air Academy staff.
Hi again Flying Musicians Association! I hope you are all having a great holiday season! Christmas is just around the corner! This article will be focused on the wonderful experience I had at EAA Advanced Air Academy back in July-August which I was honored to receive a full ride scholarship to through EAA Chapter 393 and VAA Chapter 29. Before I get started, I want to give a big thanks to these two chapters as well as Mr. Scott Cameron and his wife Julie Cameron, the camp directors, and everyone else who took time out of their summers to give me such a wonderful experience!
For those who don’t know what EAA Advanced Air Academy is, I have linked it here. It is a nine-day summer camp tailored to honor aviation from all aspects. It is wonderful experience where for the first three days, Air Academy participants like me, had the whole day to explore AirVenture and eat juicy, flavorful, and cheap Bratwursts (German hot dogs popular in Wisconsin). During the remaining seven days of Advanced Air Academy, we utilized the airfield and surrounding facilities of KOSH/OSH and the Air Academy Lodge to hold a wonderful summer camp in which we learned a great deal of aviation from aviators, aircraft mechanics, schoolteachers, welders, and more. Everyone came together and volunteered their time to share their common passion for aviation, teaching us for no personal reward. I can’t thank them all enough and will indefinitely be in debt to them for the kindness and all the hard work they put into Air Academy for us. Together, these volunteers and our amazing camp counselors who were all college aviation students, welded mugs and structures, built airfoils, made kneeboards, learned about university flight teams and opportunities, and so much more. Perhaps one of most thrilling aspects, was the fact that we all lodged together in the Air Academy lodge, creating a sense of community as we flew on flight sims, watched movies, ate delicious meals, and played pool together.
Now focusing on the famed EAA AirVenture, I loved it. It was a wonderful experience. I walked from booth to booth and met with Delta Air Lines recruiters, sat in the Cirrus SR22 T, Cessna 182T, the Cirrus Vision Jet, Bell Helicopters, flew a Boeing 787 Dreamliner simulator, spoke with Airbus representatives, and even sat in a few prototype jets that are set to debut later this year. Among those in attendance were also our wonderful sponsors: Honda, Foreflight, BOSE, Gleim Aviation, Hartzell Propeller, Sporty’s Pilot Shop, MyGoFlight, and more! They really had a wonderful showing.
Beyond the countless booths, I watched many airshows in awe, observing teams to the likes of the F-35 and F-22 demo team as well as the Ghost Writer Airshows crew perform their amazing death-defying acrobatic stunts showing the utmost degree of airmanship, unlocking previously unimaginable capabilities of flight. I also spoke to tenured commercial airline pilots and private owners, and even German Air Traffic Control professionals who were ground and center controllers in Frankfurt and Cologne, demonstrating just how diverse and international of a community EAA AirVenture attracted. The best way to describe Air Venture is to say it’s a Disneyland of aviation for three thrilling days.
EAA Air Venture is a celebration of aviation. It demonstrated to me just how powerful, tight-knit, passionate, and unique the aviation community us. You get to experience all the facets of aviation from prototype planes, to airlineners, and mom and pop businesses like newly invented parachute gear and arobatic harnesses. It’s an excellent way to meet people, to familiarize and enter yourself into the aviation lineage which is full of rich tradition and passion. AirVenture is what you want it to be, it can be a chance for you to meet airline recruiters or speak with an aviator with 50 years of experience flying and about the Super Decathlon he just restored. As long as you immerse yourself in the booths, activities, and people there, you will have an excellent and enriching time. It demonstrates the unimaginable strength and companionship unparallel to anything that you feel from being an active member in communities like the aviation community and FMA. I will forever think about those delicious $2 Bratwursts (hotdogs) and I will without a doubt be back in Oshkosh for EAA AirVenture every year I can!
Coupled with the amazing efforts of the EAA Air Academy volunteers and camp staff, my EAA Air Academy experience taught me so much about not just flying but the engineering and handiwork behind what it takes to maintain, build, and comprehend the system of mechanics which make an aircraft fly. During my nine days in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, I lived, breathed, and ate aviation, and I loved it! It is the best representation of aviation there is, and I highly recommend you all go to EAA AirVenture, and if you are an EAA member contact your local chapter or apply online for the EAA Advanced Air Academy scholarship. I also highly recommend our wonderful FMA community take a look at what EAA (Experimental Aircraft Association) has to offer. This is one of the many great opportunities they have (i.e. flight scholarships, weekly/monthly chapter meetings and Free flights and fly-ins with delicious food and wonderful like-minded people!).
Below are some videos shot during EAA Oshkosh. Enjoy a C-5 Galaxy rocketing out of Oshkosh, and a helicopter flight over the airfield after EAA Oshkosh concluded! Enjoy!
This must have been a great experience. I really enjoy my local EAA chapters. They are very motivating and offer a scholarship for advanced air academy too. Did you get to visit AirVenture with the camp? What was the most interesting part? Some day I wish to attend AirVenture and maybe even Air Academy, but it conflicts with marching band camp and our long hours in the July/August Florida sun. Thanks for all of the information.