EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2023: The Aero Experience Returns to America's Biggest Celebration of Aviation

By Carmelo Turdo

The Aero Experience officially begins our coverage of EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2023! We spent 10 days on site, gathering nearly 10,500 photos and video clips from the nation's largest aviation event to share with you over the coming months. This series is made possible by our sponsor, Piston Aviation, the area's newest and fastest-growing flight school and aircraft service provider located at Creve Coeur Airport. Our experience this year adds a new dimension to the coverage with the addition of working at our sponsor exhibits and flying in and out of Wittman Regional Airport for the event.

Our presentation will follow The Aero Experience theme of providing our first-hand coverage while encouraging everyone to experience the wonders of aviation for themselves. We hope that what you see here will be educational, entertaining and inspirational in the pursuit of aviation for those already in the industry and for general audiences alike.

Our coverage will include a mix of in-depth articles, pictorials and videos that will attempt to convey a portion of the overwhelmingly vast array of activities and events occurring at any given time during EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2023. The AirVenture grounds at Wittman Regional Airport, Pioneer Airport, the Seaplane Base, the EAA Aviation Museum and even nearby Fond Du Lac County Airport were abuzz throughout our visit, and we will include views from all of those locations. We will also go behind-the-scenes and include a look at what it takes to be an exhibitor at one of the hottest AirVenture weeks in recent memory. It is indeed a world of its own!

As reported in the EAA-provided graphic below, the attendance and activity numbers for EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2023 were at record highs:

Our coverage has an added dimension of being part of the Piston Aviation team hosting three exhibit booths - Skylist Pro Flight Management Software, Bristell Midwest and Future Pilots Fund. Two Bristell LSAs, the Future Pilots Fund Cherokee raffle plane and several ground vehicles set out for Oshkosh Friday morning and arrived in the early afternoon. (One of the Bristell LSAs was flown to Fond Du Lac Country Airport for demo rides later in the week). The tents were in place and the crew was ready to open Monday morning for a fun and eventful week. Here is a preview of the flight to Oshkosh and the crew at the exhibit area.

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our coverage strategy this year included splitting time between interacting with the visitors at the Piston Aviation exhibits and touring the grounds. There are many iconic sites at AirVenture, including the main gate, the Brown Arch and memorial tribute bricks shown here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The main aircraft exhibit area is Boeing Plaza. Each day brings a different arrangement according to aircraft availability and scheduled events. Here is a small sample of the unique aircraft that "landed" in Boeing Plaza.

 

 

 

 

 

Exhibitors covered a large portion of the grounds - everything from aluminum polish to business jets. Among those featured here are our friends from Wings of Hope, St. Louis University and Zenith Aircraft.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Vintage and Warbird Areas attract large crowds each day, and here we show some views of these iconic and often very rare models of pre-war and World War II era aircraft in nearly factory condition. We met Aubrey Clark, a young pilot who flew in the beautifully restored 1939 Piper Cub pictured here. We thank our friend, Mark Schuler, a ground controller in the Warbirds Tower, for letting us visit and view the grounds from his vantage point.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The EAA Museum is a must-see during AirVenture. Along with a world-class museum tracing the development of experimental class aircraft, there are speaker programs and aircraft displays around the grounds as well. Neighboring Pioneer Airport hosts the ever-present helicopter rides, KidVenture and other interesting exhibits. Our friend Patrick McAlee, of Patrick McAlee Airshows - ExtremeFlight, was working in KidVenture with his V/R airshow flight experience and Extreme Flying Adventures activity books for the young visitors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Seaplane Base welcomes a variety of aircraft operating off Lake Winnebago and is just a short bus ride from the main AirVenture grounds. We visited the Seaplane Base on Thursday morning, and here we include some views of this peaceful getaway. We also met briefly with our friend, Mark Palm, the co-founder and CEO of Samaritan Aviation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The airshows at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh were outstanding as usual, and here we feature just some of the performers who flew the Saturday day and night shows. The evening sunset and the large moon gave the crowd an amazing visual experience culminating in colorful pyrotechnics. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We hope you enjoyed this overview of EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2023. We will continue this series regularly, so check back often for more AirVenture coverage from The Aero Experience!