EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2023: EAA Aviation Museum Is World Class Destination All Year Round

By Carmelo Turdo

The Aero Experience coverage of EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2023, sponsored by Piston Aviation, continues with a visit to the EAA Aviation Museum, a jewel of homebuilt aviation history housed in a beautiful, modern facility at Pioneer Airport. On display are experimental, aerobatic, racing and prototype aircraft, including record-breaking Rutan designs that have become aviation legends due in part to the advocacy efforts of the Experimental Aircraft Association. A new statue of Tom Poberezny is featured here in its placement across from the likeness of his father, Paul Poberezny. The museum is a short bus ride from the main event grounds during AirVenture, and well worth a visit throughout the year.

We begin our coverage with a look at the EAA Aviation Museum and some aircraft on display directly outside of the main building.

The constant helicopter tour flights are conducted from Pioneer Airport near the EAA Aviation Museum and include a circuit over much of the parked aircraft, campgrounds and the aircraft on display in Boeing Plaza. One of the iconic images of AirVenture is the constant orbiting of classic Bell 47 helicopters, sometimes three or more at a time. 

Here we start with the walk from the EAA Aviation Museum to the Pioneer Airport grounds from where the helicopter flights are conducted. While on the Pioneer Airport side of the campus, we visited with our friends Patrick and Natalia McAlee, the dynamic duo ExtremeFlight airshow team featuring Patrick's amazing airshow flying in the Blue Demon and Natalia's starring role as "Wonder Woman of Aviation" interacting with the crowds on the ground. They are known as fan favorites for their accessibility and STEAM program, including a Virtual Reality flight experience and activity book that teaches the basics of aerobatic flying to our youth. Check their website often for schedule updates and be sure to see him in person in 2024!

The Aero Experience will continue our coverage of EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2023 throughout the coming spring. In the spirit of the New Year, we include a celebratory preview of the Saturday night airshow and fireworks display.

47th Annual Women's Air Race Classic Registration Opens January 2

By Carmelo Turdo

The 47th Annual Air Race Classic will be held from June 18-21, 2024, with registration opening next week on January 2 and running through March 31. The race begins at Southern Illinois Airport in Carbondale and concludes at Northern Colorado Regional Airport in Loveland, near Fort Collins. In between these airports, along the approximately 2,400-mile route, there are eight additional airports that the racers must fly over, or at which they may land, to refuel or stay the night. Since the race can only be flown in VFR daytime conditions, the crews must continuously adjust their route based on the weather and other factors to complete the course within the four days available. The route is shown below: 

(Air Race Classic graphic)

Individual pilot qualification minimums are specified by the Air Race Classic organization, notably that Private Pilot or higher rating is required to compete, with at least 100 hours PIC and one of the two crew must have at least 500 PIC hours or an Instrument Rating by the start of the race. Student pilots may also accompany the crew if they have a minimum of five flight hours.

There are three entry classes for the Air Race Classic:

Competition: non college or university-affiliated teams flying most factory-produced, general aviation aircraft

Intercollegiate: teams entered by a colleges or universities, with the pilot being an undergraduate student 

Non-Competition: teams or aircraft that do not meet the requirements of the above classes, including sport pilots, experimental and turbo-equipped aircraft

Each team will receive a handicap based on their own aircraft's performance as measured on a pre-race flight to establish the maximum speed figure with which to compute the final ranking. 

Expenses are borne by the team or their sponsors, which include registration, event costs, fuel, maintenance and lodging. The Air Race Classic website provides detailed information on all the aspects of the race, including an estimated cost scale.

The Aero Experience encourages women aviators who qualify for the race to form teams, obtain sponsorships, and participate in the Air Race Classic this year in support of women in aviation. We plan to be at Carbondale for the start of the race, and we look forward to hearing from the winning teams afterward. 

In 2018, The Aero Experience met three intercollegiate teams during their pre-race stop at Creve Coeur Airport on their trip to Texas for the start their Air Race Classic:

Racer 52 Purdue Pilots Incorporated: Nicoletta Fala, Cathy Troyer

Racer 41 Purdue University: Alyssa Harvey, Tiffany Imhoff

Racer 50 Lewis University Flyers: Megan Shaffer, Jane Zieba

   

During our coverage of EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2023, sponsored by Piston Aviation, The Aero Experience met Olivia Kidd from the 2023 Air Race Classic Team 64, the War Eagle Team White, from Auburn University. She and teammate Sophie Young flew their 2020 Cessna 172SP through the course in 19 hours, 22 minutes and 50.652 seconds. Auburn sponsored several other War Eagle Teams, each with very similar scores. She could not have been more pleasant as she represented Air Race Classic in one of the massive exhibit hangars at AirVenture.

The current Air Race Classic continues the tradition of women's air racing begun in 1929 with the Women's Air Derby and the post- World War II All Women's Transcontinental Air Race, known as the Powder Puff Derby. Those air races demonstrated the skill of the women pilots of their eras, and the Air Race Classic remains one of the great annual events that attracts women aviators from across the country to celebrate their achievements.

Check the Air Race Classic website for details on the course and register your team before the sixty team entries are filled!