3. Proficiency: The EAA Pilot Proficiency Center is crushing it again this year. The organizations behind this big tent space committed to ensuring pilots are better at their craft after they leave Oshkosh work almost all year gearing up for the week of helping pilots hone their skills, and they don’t do it because they’re making big bucks. Quite the opposite. It’s an expensive endeavor for them, not only in terms of dollars—Redbird Flight Simulations, along with EAA, are the most generous—but it’s also a huge commitment in time. The CFIs who patiently provide the instruction are doing it for free. It’s a glowing example of the best of aviation and the best of aviation people.
2. Year Of the Fighter: I’m not ashamed to say that when walking from one end of the show grounds to the other on Monday night, I choked up when I was surprised by an overflight of planes, four of them in formation. They were an A-10 Warthog, an F-22, an F-35 and one other plane passing by in incredibly tight formation. And that other airplane, the one leading the pack, was a P-51 Mustang. Thank you.
2A: Next Year? This is the 50th Anniversary of EAA’s show being in Oshkosh. Next year is the 51st anniversary. Hmm! 51st. I wonder if there’s any good potential theme for next year’s show.
1. EAA: This has been an absolutely incredible show, and I have to bring it to everyone’s attention that it could have gone sideways early on after EAA was forced to greet hundreds of thousands of arrivals with soggy and muddy airplane, automobile, and camping grounds. It wasn’t pretty for many of us who braved long lines to get where we were going, and Oshkosh turned away planes from far and wide for the first couple days of the show while the previous week’s heavy rains soaked in and the earth dried out enough to accommodate the weight of Aerostars and Airstreams. It took a dedicated team effort on EAA’s and its many, many partners, to pull it off. Hats off to them for crushing it, and to the attendees for their patience and tenacity in getting through those trials so we could all get to the good stuff. It’s been a spectacular week.
