39 minute read
From France to Oshkosh
OSHKOSH MOMENTS
FATHER AND SON FLY AN RV-7 FROM FRANCE
BY ERIN HENZE
AIRVENTURE TODAY STAFF
ON JULY 22, father and son duo Salvo and Bruno Sanna of France arrived in Oshkosh, finishing a 12-day journey across the Atlantic Ocean in their RV-7. Both lifelong aviation enthusiasts, Bruno is a professional pilot in France.
“Personally, I’m a professional pilot,” Bruno said. “I was a fighter pilot in the French Air Force, and then I’m a private pilot now on the jets. But, as I used to say, it’s due to my father.”
Bruno grew up watching his father, Salvo, work on a variety of builds, mostly Van’s aircraft but also one of his own design. Together, they built the RV-7 they flew to Oshkosh.
“I was always not far from him when he built aircraft,” Bruno said. “I fell in love with Van’s.”
“They are tremendous,” Salvo added.
“To build, that’s a very pleasant and awesome experience, and we share it,” Bruno said. “And to fly, it’s also a very pleasant airplane, and very efficient.”
Efficiency was very important for such a long trek. Bruno and Salvo started in Toulouse, France, jumping from there to England, Scotland, Iceland, Greenland, Canada, and finally to Michigan before arriving in Oshkosh. According to Bruno, the trip went well.
“It was awesome and everything went well,” Bruno said. “We had no rush regarding the timing, so that’s what’s very, very good for that, because of the weather. No problem. We have waited enough time to take off with the good weather.”
Originally leaving France with two other aircraft, they arrived in Oshkosh with only one other, losing a friend to aircraft repairs in Canada.
Such a long trip in a homebuilt can be daunting, and one might expect many changes or additions to an aircraft in preparation. Besides a few special aspects in the original airplane build, Bruno said they only made one change for the flight over.
“The only modification was an additional tank,” Bruno said. “In front, [the airplane] is special, because I don’t think there are too many systems like this. We have an EFII system on the engine, which is all electronic fuel and ignition system.”
After such a long flight, Bruno and Salvo are happy to finally be at Oshkosh.
“We didn’t have time to come here before because of work,” Bruno said. “[This year] the timing was perfect, when we were building this aircraft. At the end of the building, we met with our friend, and thought why not go to Oshkosh? We decided to go.”
“It’s a dream come true,” Salvo said.
BRUNO SANNA
PHOTO COURTESY OF MARIE NOELLE CABANIE
PHOTO COURTESY OF MARIE NOELLE CABANIE
AROUND THE GROUNDS
Rise and Shine!
BY JIM ROBERTS
AIRVENTURE TODAY STAFF
MOM ALWAYS SAID that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and apparently many campers in the South 40 agree. Every morning they flock to the Vintage Aircraft Association’s Tall Pines Café to fuel up for the day’s AirVenture activities. They enjoy biscuits and gravy, pancakes, French toast, eggs, and sausage, all washed down with piping hot coffee. Judging from their smiling faces and animated conversations, they’re nourishing friendships as well.
This year the Tall Pines Café celebrates 20 years as a favorite gathering spot, and it’s come a long way from the early days. In 2002, organizers set up a temporary kitchen and served diners under a tent beside a stand of pines near the EAA Seaplane Base bus stop.
Now located along Wittman Drive just north of the ultralight runway, the restaurant is housed in a modern permanent building, complete with a fully equipped kitchen and sheltered open air dining. Paul Kyle, VAA treasurer and Tall Pines Café volunteer, credits generous donors and Friends of the Red Barn, an annual VAA fundraiser, for financing the improvements.
PHOTO BY JIM ROBERTS PHOTO BY JIM ROBERTS
Paul said the Tall Pines Café serves up to 700 meals on peak days. All proceeds fund VAA projects, including “Operation Quench,” which provides water and snacks to VAA flightline volunteers.
Open daily from 6:30 to 9:30 a.m., the restaurant is staffed by an enthusiastic corps of over 20 volunteers. One of these is Sue Luke, who comes from Pittsboro, North Carolina, with her husband, Richard. Richard often works on the serving line, while Sue is the unofficial “den mother,” ensuring everyone has a job and that they’re happy doing it. What she’s most excited about this year is that “We have a lot of new young faces in here volunteering. It’s good for young folks to give back, and they seem to be having a good time.”
So join them for the most important meal of the day. Mom would be proud.
Booth 352
HOMEBUILTS
New ScaleBirds P-36 Replica Kit
BY ROBBIE CULVER
AIRVENTURE TODAY STAFF
THE WORLD OF experimental aviation offers many options to the prospective builder. New to the market is the ScaleBirds P-36 replica kit Sam Watrous and his son, Scott, have developed. Their unique kit offering allows multiple variations to be developed from a common airframe, an approach that allows multiple replica fighters to be developed from the same basic airframe and components. The initial offering will include a P-40 Warhawk kit along with the P-36. The P-36 is intended for small radial engines, and the prototype has a Verner 7U radial that develops 124 hp. (ScaleBirds is also a Verner distributor.)
According to Sam Watrous, the kit is “very complete” with almost everything except the firewall forward, engine, and propeller. The kit P-36 will include the cowling and the gun sights. As shipped, the kit is a complete airframe with “all of the hard parts done.” Using T6061 aluminum allows for cost savings and corrosion resistance. Control surfaces are fabric covered, as was the case on the original P-36, which allows additional weight reduction. The P-36 has fixed gear, but the P-40 will offer retractable gear.
The P-40 is intended for narrow engines such as offerings from Viking, AeroMomentum, Rotax, and others. A replica F6F Hellcat and Japanese Zero are also in development. Watrous envisions “squadrons” of builders in the future, all chasing their dawn patrol in the sky.
The flying P-36 replica prototype is at AirVenture 2022, with beta kits to follow after the show. Initial flight testing has shown some minor issues, including
overspeeding of the engine (possibly due to propeller pitch), high cylinder head temperature, and oil blowing out the breather vent tube — all part of the initial test phase for any new aircraft. Flight testing is expected to be complete by late September 2022. Once the test phase is complete, manufacturing improvements will be made for the final design.
ScaleBirds is accepting $1,500 deposits at AirVenture to determine how many prospective builders are interested in the P-36. The beta kit price is initially expected to be in the $40,000 range, and future kits are expected to be in the $45,000 range. Watrous said that for those interested who are unable to attend AirVenture, they can contact him directly at info@scalebirds.com or on his cellphone at 860-941-6410.
ScaleBirds is a family effort, with close friends and the design crew all pitching in to bring an 11-year old dream to fruition. Watrous emphasized the P-36 is a “passion project” with complete commitment to make it work and support the customer.
On the AirVenture grounds, ScaleBirds is in the Homebuilt Aircraft Display area in Booth 632.
OSHKOSH MOMENTS
From Street to Seat
Paige Quintana’s journey to warrant officer
BY ERIN HENZE
AIRVENTURE TODAY STAFF
CHIEF WARRANT OFFICER Paige Quintana is flying her beloved UH-60 Black Hawk into EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2022 with fellow military pilots as part of the Aviation Branch Awareness Program.
Currently residing in Alaska, Paige has flown the Black Hawk since 2020, something she’s happy to talk about.
“I’m very proud to be a UH-60 Black Hawk pilot,” Paige said. “I just think they’re so fun. I think the mission set is incredibly well-rounded. Even up here in Alaska, we get to do a lot of fun stuff. We do water bucket training for firefighting; I’m about to fly down to Anchorage to the air assault school down there next week. It’s just an incredible airframe. It’s very multifaceted, definitely deserves a spot in the U.S. Army from the missions it can accomplish.”
But how did Paige find a job like this? While many warrant officers have to climb up the ranks, starting as crew chiefs or maintainers, her experience was a little different. Paige is a “street-to-seat” officer, a small subgenre of the warrant officer population.
“There’s a small, ever-growing population of street-to-seat warrant officers,” Paige said. “You submit an application, you go to a professional board, and you’re selected for warrant officer candidate school. You come from the civilian world, with no experience in the Army; you go to basic training, you go to Warrant Officer Candidate School, which is also called WOC, and then they just fast-track you right into flight school, which is what I did.”
Paige is here specifically to represent that small community, and as well as to encourage others to join. Unfortunately, there aren’t enough Army pilots at the moment.
“The Army, like most branches, is really hurting for pilots, so we want to capitalize on that side of our recruiting,” Paige said. “I’ll be able to offer any information that anybody might like to know in order to submit their own warrant officer application. That’s kind of the basis of what I’ll be doing. I’ll be sharing the beauty of the UH-60 Black Hawk and how much I love it with the rest of the public.”
Even before flying for the Army, Paige had an interest in aviation.
“I love helicopters. I’ve always wanted to fly helicopters,” Paige explained. “Anybody that grew up with me is aware of that. It’s funny, when I was in Teen Flight back in high school, I always told everybody that I want to go to the Coast Guard Academy and I want to fly for the Coast Guard. My life took some different turns and I didn’t end up doing that, but I did end up ultimately flying helicopters, which is what I’ve always wanted to do.”
Despite that love for helicopters, Paige started out like most people, getting her certificate as a private, fixed-wing pilot. This love for aviation didn’t come from nowhere.
“I think I naturally gravitated towards it,” Paige said. “My dad was a pilot when I was younger, but as me and my sister grew up, he just didn’t really get to be as involved in aviation as I think he would have preferred. He’s a civilian pilot. He really helped me pursue that; he gave me the tools to really be able to make it out to the airport, and do what I needed to do. I definitely appreciate his unwavering support.”
PHOTO BY ERIN HENZE
PHOTO BY ERIN HENZE
PAIGE QUINTANA
Paige got her private pilot certificate in 2017. Before that, she was heavily involved in building aircraft. With the help of her local EAA chapter and a new program called Teen Flight, Paige had the opportunity to work with Van’s Aircraft specialists.
“I got selected for Teen Flight Two, and I think we started in 2011,” Paige said. “We started building our first RV-12, and I got to work side-by-side with Dick VanGrunsven and his brothers Stan and Jerry, and a bunch of other incredibly knowledgeable, qualified mentors, who come from backgrounds of A&Ps and IAs and some of them built other airplanes before that. I think it was 12 other students, and we got to learn under their expert tutelage and figure out how to build this RV-12. We finished that one, and I think the paint wasn’t even dry when we departed for Oshkosh.”
Working with EAA helped to prepare Paige for the career she loves, and she can’t wait to share it with others. She and her coworkers can be found at Boeing Plaza, and would love for you to come visit.
“I want to invite everybody to stop by and say hi,” Paige said. “I’m just really proud and really happy to be able to come full circle and share what I do for work with an organization that’s always been a part of my life.”
OWN YOUR ADVENTURE
Live The Cirrus Life™
Meet us at our booth on Celebration Way or at cirrus.link/ownyouradventure
NEWS & INFO
EAA Is Financially Healthy as It Looks to Future
BY BARBARA A. SCHMITZ
AIRVENTURE TODAY STAFF
EAA IS BACK in strong financial condition after a challenging FY 2021 due to COVID-19, which forced the organization to cancel its 2020 fly-in convention. And the future looks bright as EAA makes advocacy and the fly-in priorities.
At the 2022 EAA Annual Meeting on Wednesday, Treasurer Stuart Auerbach said they have exceeded their financial best-case scenario in FY 2022 and saw a dramatic improvement over 2021 results.
Auerbach said EAA has assets of $125.1 million, a substantial percentage of which are liquid, putting the organization in a good position to invest in programs and activities that benefit EAA members. A complete financial report will be included in an upcoming issue of EAA Sport Aviation magazine.
EAA CEO and Chairman of the Board Jack J. Pelton said the organization is seeing the highest membership numbers in EAA history — membership is up 28,265 to 258,240 — and has made advocacy and the convention priorities.
Advocacy efforts will center on three areas: MOSAIC, or Modernization of Special Airworthiness Certificates, an initiative to expand the FAA’s definition of a light-sport aircraft; the EPA mandate that lead is eliminated from aviation fuel by 2030; and the 2023 FAA Reauthorization Bill.
Pelton said EAA is promoting the delay of the lead gas proposal until a replacement fuel can be produced and transported. EAA is also on a “crusade” to ensure that general aviation is part of the FAA Reauthorization Bill. The organization has already been part of numerous meetings to ensure GA concerns are addressed, whether it be about leaded fuel being available to use until new fuel is available, or getting rid of third-class medical certificate requirements.
For the convention, Pelton said EAA also has made improvements for members. For example, EAA added 30 percent more forums and workshops this year, as well as an oasis for lifetime members.
IN OTHER BUSINESS: Pelton recognized the accomplishments of former EAA President and Chairman Tom Poberezny, who died Monday, and thanked volunteers for all their work.
Pelton presented the coveted Chairman Award to Alan Farkas for his passion for EAA and aviation, and efforts to “step forward and make us all better.” As an attorney, Farkas has made himself available to EAA members for guidance, and has spent years on EAA councils surrounding the legal issues of pilots and builders.
Five Class 1 directors were reelected to another three-year term on the EAA board of directors. They include Stuart Auerbach, Joe Brown, Jim Phillips, Paul Schafer, and Mark Van Tine.
EAA AeroEducate™
Visit the EAA AeroEducate™ Center in Aviation Gateway Park to learn how to engage students in grades K-12 with the world of aviation.
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Visit our website AeroEducate.org
OSHKOSH MOMENTS
Morning Mission
BY JIM ROBERTS
AIRVENTURE TODAY STAFF
ON OPENING DAY of AirVenture 2022, Jack J. Pelton, EAA CEO and chairman of the board, joined Vintage Aircraft Association President Susan Dusenbury in a very special ceremony. They gathered with VAA members near the Theater in the Woods to unveil the statue Morning Mission. The inspirational piece, which depicts a parachute-clad airman gazing skyward, was crafted by Tulsa, Oklahoma, artist Clayton Coss. It’s modeled after the original bronze sculpture by Robert Weinman, which graces the entrance to Tulsa International Airport.
Commissioned some years ago by the late Charlie Harris to honor the pilots of World War II, and painstakingly sculpted by chainsaw from a tree removed from his front yard, the piece now also stands as a tribute to Charlie’s contributions and dedication to the VAA. It was donated from his estate, to be enjoyed by all.
According to the VAA, Charlie was a founding member of EAA’s Antique/Classic Division, now the Vintage Aircraft Association, in the early 1970s and served in various capacities, including national director, treasurer, chairman of the executive committee, chairman of the hall of fame selection committee, and director emeritus from 1988 to the time of his passing in December 2017. He was inducted into the VAA Hall of Fame in 2006.
Charlie learned to fly as a 16-year-old, and his passion and devotion to aviation spanned his entire lifetime. Susan Dusenbury remembers Charlie, a Navy veteran from the last year of World War I, as very patriotic. Every Memorial Day, he would write a heartfelt tribute to the true meaning of the holiday, closing with “Lest we forget.”
A stone bearing that inscription now stands at the entrance to the gazebo sheltering Morning Mission, located in Charlie’s Park between Theater in the Woods and the VAA Red Barn. AirVenture attendees will find shade and tranquility in the grassy glade, along with the opportunity to pause, remember, and say “Thank you” to those who serve.
PHOTO BY JIM ROBERTS
OSHKOSH MOMENTS
Pietenpols Relive Family History at Hangar
STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY BARBARA A. SCHMITZ
AIRVENTURE TODAY STAFF
FOR LARRY PIETENPOL, it was like stepping back in history.
As he, his wife Lisa, and their friends walked through the Pietenpol Field hangar on EAA’s Pioneer Airport on Tuesday, they saw images, basically untouched, from Larry’s childhood decades ago.
Larry climbed up a ladder to see an RCA box in the attic, likely left over from the time his grandfather, Bernard, an early EAA member, fixed radios and televisions. He opened drawers to find a variety of work tools and even a mouse that had made itself at home.
He walked up and peered into the cockpit of the 1966 Pietenpol Air Camper. “I was the second passenger in that plane, after my grandmother,” he said. “She wasn’t much for the airport; that was my grandfather’s thing.”
Larry recalled going out to the airport as a child, always hoping for a calm day. “I knew if it was windy or raining, he wouldn’t take me flying,” he said. “It was a lot of fun flying around, looking at the cornfields and the lakes around southern Minnesota.”
Near the hangar had been a junk yard filled with old Corvairs. “I first learned to drive at the airport,” Larry said. His grandfather would point out a car that was still running, and Larry would take it out for a spin.
Larry recalled Bernard added a 1956 Chevy onto the front of a Corvair, and he asked him why he did it. Bernard answered, “Because I could.” It was a common answer for him, as he loved to tinker, Lisa said.
Larry pointed to the windows in the back of the hangar. “Often times people would bust through a window because they wanted to see the airplanes,” he said. “They’d leave a note and usually money to replace the glass.”
The couple, who live in McKinney, Texas, said they were surprised to see how little had changed in the hangar, despite the passing of time. Even the mouse looked authentic, Larry said. “My grandfather was always battling mice here,” he said. “He would put mothballs around planes to keep the mice away with the smell. He put mousetraps with peanut butter on the benches to catch them.”
Larry and Lisa Pietenpol stand by the 1966 Pietenpol Air Camper. Larry was his grandfather’s second passenger in the airplane he designed and built.
The Pietenpol hangar was moved to Oshkosh in the early 1980s from its home in Cherry Grove, Minnesota. “In 1982, after my grandfather had passed away, the local EAA chapter called my father, Kermit, and uncle, Don, and said they’d like to move the hangar to Oshkosh,” Larry said. One of the first airplanes EAA founder Paul Poberezny flew in was a Pietenpol.
So in one day, a crew of workers dismantled the building, said Larry, who was there with the family. “We had a big bonfire outside … and some of the arches, which were hand-laminated, were cut into pieces and sold as souvenirs to EAA members.”
Lisa recalled that the workers took photos of everything in the hangar, but she was still surprised how everything ended up back in its original place when the hangar was rebuilt in Oshkosh. The couple, along with other family members, last visited the EAA grounds about 30 years ago, just six or seven years after the building was relocated.
Lisa said they had goosebumps when they first saw the hangar this week.
“A motor was hanging on the wall, right where it always was,” Larry said. So was an engine stand that Bernard used to test engines.
Lisa said Bernard was always very humble about what he did, and often did things because people told him it couldn’t be done.
“He never retired, and he was always building something,” Larry said. “He was definitely one of my heroes. Not a lot of people get a chance to go back in history and look at things that were the same as they were 50 years ago. I’m thankful for that; it’s been fun being here.”
LARRY PIETENPOL
Larry and Lisa Pietenpol visited Larry’s grandfather’s hangar, which is now located at Pioneer Airport. It had been 30 years since they were last here.
NEWS & INFO
ADVANCED AIR MOBILITY AIMS TO SHORTEN TRAVEL TIME
BY NASA PUBLIC AFFAIRS
IN CITIES LIKE Los Angeles or Atlanta, traffic often determines how early we wake up to travel to work, what time we plan to meet friends for dinner, or how long it will take to get to the airport. For trips between cities, a road trip to a relative’s house could take anywhere from four to six hours. NASA’s Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) mission is researching how the addition of AAM could cut traffic commutes, make travel more sustainable, and make road trips shorter.
PHOTO BY NASA GRAPHICS/ ALEX GULINO
Several projects supporting NASA’s Advanced Air Mobility, or AAM mission, are working on different elements to help make AAM a reality. The team is researching how the addition of AAM could cut traffic commutes, make travel more sustainable, and make road trips shorter.
AAM can help make travel more efficient. This could look like requesting an air taxi on a cellphone app instead of a ride-sharing service to take you to the airport. This could be a two-hour flight to grandma’s house instead of a six-hour drive on the highway. This could be daily commuter air taxis taking off from a community suburb vertiport and landing on a city vertiport. AAM could also make traveling to work more affordable from a rural area into a city. With the addition of AAM, we would be using another dimension in the sky for travel below traditional aircraft and above cars, buses, or trains below.
Several projects supporting the AAM mission are working on different elements to help make AAM a reality. This includes work on automation, noise, vertiport and vehicle design, and airspace design to keep everyone safe while flying in the skies together. It is going to take an effort between government agencies, industry, and the public to build new highways in the sky.
NASA’s vision is to map out a safe, accessible, and affordable new air transportation system alongside industry partners, community partners, and the Federal Aviation Administration. Once developed, passengers and cargo will travel ondemand in innovative, automated aircraft across town, between neighboring cities, or to other locations typically accessed today by car.
EAA Aviation Gateway Park is presented by
EAA AVIATION GATEWAY PARK
EAA AeroEducate™ Center EAA Education Center
AT EAA® AIRVENTURE® OSHKOSH™ 2022
Aviation Gateway Park is your headquarters for education, careers, and networking with aviation companies and industries.
Learn more at EAA.org/AGP
EAA WomenVenture™ Center EAA Forums at Aviation Gateway Park EAA Career Center
Presented by Air Wisconsin Airlines
HOMEBUILTS
SCALEWINGS DISPLAYS SW-51 KIT AT AIRVENTURE
BY ROBBIE CULVER
AIRVENTURE TODAY STAFF
ONE OF THE most iconic aircraft designs in history is the P-51 Mustang. Ask most pilots what they would most love to fly, and the Mustang will be on the short list of favorites. Producing a replica for the homebuilt crowd of an aviation icon is a huge challenge, but ScaleWings Aircraft has succeeded with its SW-51 Mustang.
Managing partner Christian von Kessel stated being at AirVenture Oshkosh is a “huge honor for the whole team” and culminates a whirlwind process to get the SW-51 ready for demonstration. The all-carbon replica kit includes hand-formed representations of over 100,000 individual details of the original Mustang, including all rivets and seams as they would have appeared on the all-aluminum version. The kit comes highly prefabricated, but still complies with the 51 percent rule required for amateur-built aircraft. A ballistic recovery system is available for the kit from Galaxy GRS.
Builder assistance will be available through Titan aircraft in the U.S., which provides a high level of expertise for a kit Kessel describes as “frustration-free.”
PHOTO PROVIDED BY SCALEWINGS
The 70 percent replica truly looks like a P-51, with clean lines that match the original design. The roomy, tandem two-seat cockpit is authentic but allows for modern avionics. The airfoil has been modified from the original design to be much more forgiving, easy to fly, and stable, yet maneuverable, as one would expect from a Mustang.
The display aircraft has a Rotax 915 iS, which provides enough power for 185 knots indicated airspeed (IAS) at 15,000 feet. The empty weight is about 1,200 pounds, with a maximum gross weight of about 1,750 pounds. The aircraft is rated for +6g and -4g, but the wing was tested to +12g and -12g during static tests.
PHOTO BY ROBBIE CULVER
On Monday, July 25, ScaleWings demonstration pilot Anthanas Marciukaitis flew the SW-51 at AirVenture during the afternoon flight demonstrations for the first exhibition flights in America. ScaleWings is located in the Main Aircraft Display area in Booth 347.
PHOTO BY ROBBIE CULVER
Delivering the parts and supplies that keep general aviation flying
Boeing supports general aviation service providers—like FBOs/overhaul facilities, aircraft OEMs and flight schools—by supplying the products they need to keep their customers flying. Wherever. Whenever. For nearly a century, Boeing has been the preferred source for parts, supplies and chemicals from more than 450 of the industry’s leading manufacturers.
Stop by the Boeing Pavilion or visit shop.boeing.com to learn more.
OSHKOSH MOMENTS
Young Eagles Program Changes Lives
BY ABBY OLENICZAK
AIRVENTURE TODAY STAFF
THE EAA YOUNG Eagles program has changed Jodie Gawthrop’s life. And she couldn’t be happier about that.
Jodie, of Noblesville, Indiana, had an interest in aviation at age 16 but was not sure where to start. After looking for scholarships, she stumbled across a flight training scholarship from EAA.
She completed her application, and soon after heard back that she had won. Not only were her flight education costs covered, but she was also the 2 millionth Young Eagle. This meant she had the privilege of taking a Young Eagles flight with actor Harrison Ford in his de Havilland Beaver at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2016.
“Harrison Ford was the most down-to-earth person,” Jodie said. “He really made my experience incredible; he was remarkably genuine.” She said that experience helped her to see that aviation draws people together.
PHOTO BY TREVOR GRIFFIS
This experience gave her an initial taste of aviation. At 13, she joined the Civil Air Patrol squadron at DuPage Airport in St. Charles, Illinois. At 16, shortly after her flight with Harrison Ford, she started her training, also at DuPage Airport. At 18, now living in Indianapolis, she passed her checkride and became a private pilot.
Jodie earned her associate degree in A&P at Vincennes University, then transferred to Purdue University, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in aeronautical technology.
“Getting my pilot certificate is ultimately why I now have my A&P certificate. I want to understand and know how and why things happen the way they do in my aircraft,” Jodie said. At 22, she is working on her instrument rating and is a mechanic on business jets. She flies and maintains an Aeronca Champ. A personal flying goal she has is to constantly push to be a stronger and safer pilot, she said.
Jodie said CAP helped her get started in aviation, and she is grateful to still be in touch with her mentors. Another large influence in her life was EAA Chapter 67 in Noblesville, where she enjoys volunteering for Young Eagles rallies and pancake breakfasts to encourage more youths to feel the same excitement she did.
She is occasionally involved in the Warbirds community, which also taught her a lot about mechanics.
“It’s like a village and community of pilots always building each other up,” she said.
Jodie has noticed a positive shift and growing number of female, minority, and younger pilots. “EAA programs, resources, and Young Eagles flights are amazing resources,” she said. “The people in chapters are seasoned accomplished aviators that welcome people interested in aviation with open arms into the community.”
She looks forward to one day being able to fly Young Eagles and spread her love and passion to the future of aviation.
Jodie’s advice to other youths is to look for EAA resources. “There are more than you realize,” she said. “For example, with just one Young Eagles flight, you are given free ground school.” And of course, kids under 18 enjoy free admission at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh.
PHOTO BY TREVOR GRIFFIS
AROUND THE GROUNDS ONE WEEK WONDER UPDATE
MARK SCHAIBLE
DAY 2 WE SAW SOME significant progress on the construction of the Waiex-B aircraft kit from Sonex on the second day of the One Week Wonder build at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2022. The first signatures on exterior skins of the aircraft could be seen on the aft fuselage side walls of the One Week Wonder. Those aft fuselage side walls were quickly assembled into the lower tail cone box, and by the end of the day the turtledeck was Cleco’d in place. The forward fuselage side walls are also completed and are just waiting for the turtledeck to be riveted before the forward fuselage can be installed onto the tail cone. Tail and control surfaces quickly came together and were ready for the public to rivet on Wednesday morning. The wings also made significant progress, with the left wing skins installed and the right wing substructure completed — wing ribs and rear spar all installed and riveted to the main wing spar. Preparation of the Rotax 912 iS engine was also completed with clocking of the water pump elbows, installation of the straight water pump inlet fitting, installation of the required oil fitting on the bottom of the case, and fitting of the Sonex/AeroConversions Rotax prop hub extension.
The day ended with a ceremonial update to the aircraft build checklist on the back wall of the One Week Wonder tent. Sonex General Manager Heather Zahner was brave enough to climb the big ladder and put checkmark stickers on the wall to show completion of the fuselage tail cone box, forward fuselage sides, rear spar assembly on both left and right wings, aileron bellcrank assemblies for left and right wings, and wing rib installation for both wings. The fun and enjoyment of the project is contagious in and around the One Week Wonder tent, and some big milestones are set to be accomplished!
THE ALL NEW ALPHA FLIGHT CONTROLSXPC
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SWITCH FOCUS FROM LOGGING HOURS TO SAVING HOURS
At Honeycomb, we never stop development and we constantly research options to make our products better. This includes engaging with our customers and taking their suggestions and feedback seriously. The changes might be subtle but it makes a huge difference, whether you fly for fun or you’re using them as a tool in your flight training. It’s evolution, not revolution...
Introducing the ALL NEW Alpha Flight Controls XPC. Equipped with the latest generation magnetic Hall Effect sensors on both pitch and roll axis, improving position sensing by 400% for ultra-precise flight control inputs. The FAA determined that the Alpha is of such a high standard, that it has been approved to be integrated into Certified Aviation Traini ing Devices, to be used for flight training. In a home setup, it will potentially save you dozens of hours in the real aircraft or just provide you with a fun and authentic flight sim experience at home. Other upgrades include Xbox Series X | S compatibility and a new spring-loaded ignition key.
AirVenture Demo
Head over to Sporty’s booth 260 for a test flight and a chance to be the daily winner of an Alpha XPC
TAKE FLIGHT
aboard one of EAA’s unique Flight Experiences
AROUND THE GROUNDS WOMEN’S INTRO TO BUILDING
Encouraging women to break barriers
BY ERIN HENZE
AIRVENTURE TODAY STAFF
B-25 Berlin Express
$360 per EAA member $400 per nonmember
B-25 Operations are located at the southeast corner of Warbird Alley ON TUESDAY, WOMEN got the opportunity to have a handson learning experience with the Women’s Intro to Building workshop. Hosted by Val Westedt, attendees were invited to learn the basics of metal construction and get an overview on aircraft building at this womenonly event.
Val built her own Zenith 650, Rosie, and wanted to encourage other women to do the same.
“Women are much more capable than they think they are,” Val said. “My goal with this is to have the women walk out of there and say, ‘I could do this.’ They’ve got a little project [at the workshop]; it’s a notebook. That [project] does the riveting, does the drilling, does taking care of the points on the metal and everything, and they walk out with this. That is a lot of the skills you have to have to build one of those airplanes. So that’s my goal. We need more women in aviation. It is not easy to be a woman pilot. It’s not easy to be a woman builder.”
PHOTO BY ERIN HENZE
Tri-Motor Early Bird Special! Get in line at the Tri-Motor Shack before 8:30 a.m. and SAVE $10 on a flight.
Ford Tri-Motor
$80 per person
Ford Tri-Motor Operations are located at the southeast corner of Warbird Alley
Bell 47 Helicopter
$60 per person
Helicopter Operations are located at Pioneer Airport behind the EAA Aviation Museum®
VAL WESTEDT
Val has firsthand experience on the difficulties of being a woman homebuilder.
“I made my EAA chapter believers,” Val said. “They all went, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, right, she’s going to build, or of course you’re going to build.’ And so they kept coming over to the hangar and going, ‘Where’s Craig?’ I don’t know, probably back at the house! And so, they became believers, it was me that was out building the airplane. We need more of that out there. We need women building; we need women doing things in aviation; we need more women pilots! We just need more women out there doing both flying and building, and until we get more flying, we aren’t going to get more building, either. They kind of go hand in hand.”
Based off the turnout on Thursday, women’s interest in flying and building is looking up. Originally expecting around 20 participants, the workshop topped off at over 40, with volunteers having to turn people away. Participants were able to build and take home their own metal binder, courtesy of Zenith Aircraft Co.
PHOTO BY ERIN HENZE
NEWS & INFO GARMIN AWARDED 2022 AUGUST RASPET AWARD
THE 2022 RECIPIENT of the August Raspet Award is Garmin, awarded earlier this week. EAA recognized Garmin’s contribution to the advancement of light aircraft design and safety with the introduction of Smart Glide, a groundbreaking safety enhancement that assists pilots experiencing a power loss emergency by automating tasks, establishing best glide, navigating the aircraft, and assembling critical data, thereby reducing pilot workload and increasing the odds of a safe outcome. Smart Glide will activate Garmin autopilot in cases of emergency and “loads the selected airport’s CTAF frequency in the primary comm standby position,” according to Garmin.
Since 1960, the Dr. August Raspet Memorial Award has been presented every year to a person who has made an outstanding contribution to the advancement of light aircraft design.
The award is named for the late Dr. August “Gus” Raspet, a professor at Mississippi State University and avid light aircraft enthusiast. Raspet was instrumental in elevating the aeronautical engineering program at Mississippi A&M College, as it was originally known, into one of the nation’s preeminent aerophysics research centers. The Raspet Flight Research Laboratory in Starkville, Mississippi — a tribute to all of his efforts — was completed in 1962.
The first recipient of the award was John Thorp, Lockheed engineer on the Little Dipper and Big Dipper, and designer of the Thorp Aviation Sky Skooter. Since then the list of people honored reads like a who’s who of aircraft design, including Steve Wittman and Dick VanGrunsven.
EAA’s Charlie Becker presenting the award to Garmin’s Carl Wolf, who accepted on behalf of the company.
PHOTO BY DON JEFFRIES
SportAir Online
Get Hands-On
Homebuilding gets to the heart of EAA, and you can learn virtually every skill and gain the confidence you need to build an airplane while at EAA® AirVenture® Oshkosh™. Presented by Aircraft Spruce & Speciality and patterned after the highly successful EAA SportAir Workshops, these mini workshops let you experience a taste of aircraft building. Take the next step and check out SportAir Online. Extensive online course instruction, downloadable workbooks, practice project kits, tool lists, and special discounts. EAA.org/SportAirOnline
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NEWS & INFO
VIC SYRACUSE HONORED WITH TONY BINGELIS AWARD
VIC SYRACUSE HAS been awarded the 2022 Tony Bingelis Award in honor of his many years of hard work as a technical counselor.
The Tony Bingelis Award recognizes EAA technical counselors for dedicated service and/or significant contributions in assisting members to build and restore aircraft.
Recipients of the Tony Bingelis Award are carefully chosen by a committee of their peers as outstanding examples of people whose contributions have positively affected members’ aircraft building or restoration projects.
Vic has over 44 years of aviation experience, including serving in the U.S. Air Force as an avionics maintenance technician. He has built 11 aircraft, helped others finish a large number of aircraft, and performed the first flight on over 30 aircraft. He also has flown over 10,000 hours in 74 different aircraft, has flown over 350 Young Eagles, and serves as an EAA technical counselor and EAA flight advisor.
In addition to all of Vic’s experience, he is also a featured writer in EAA Sport Aviation, writing a monthly column called Checkpoints. Tony Bingelis himself also had a column in EAA Sport Aviation, starting in 1972. Vic has authored a number of books on maintenance and prebuy inspections, founded Base Leg Aviation, and posts weekly videos on his YouTube channel.
Congratulations to Vic, and thanks for all the hard work!
KLAUS SAVIER AWARDED THE SPIRIT OF FLIGHT AWARD
EAA, IN PARTNERSHIP with the Society of Experimental Test Pilots (SETP), is proud to award Klaus Savier, EAA 258013, the Spirit of Flight Award.
The Spirit of Flight Award was established by the SETP and EAA in 1996, and is presented annually to an EAA member who best exemplifies the spirit of research, development, and flight testing for homebuilt, sport, or classic aircraft.
Klaus has been pursuing aircraft efficiency since he built and started racing his first VariEze, The Delaminator, back in 1983. He has won races with top speeds of over 250 mph, using a highly “Klausified” Continental O-200 engine and significant airframe drag reduction, exceeding not just a 1:1 ratio, but well over 2:1.
He has pursued efficiency in both his airframe and in his internal combustion engine, and he has developed and shared deep expertise in how to drive our homebuilt aircraft to ever higher levels of performance.
He has proven his design improvements via both extensive flight testing and in his racing. In the latter case, he’s become impossible to beat in his race class, with 30 first-place finishes in just The Delaminator.
But he hasn’t kept his best improvements secret — nothing is Klausified for him. In fact, for several decades he’s been writing about efficiency, with several articles in EAA Sport Aviation and numerous interviews, and has been a regular forum presenter since at least 2006 at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh in his well-attended talks. He has discussed engine performance and management, the pursuit of efficiency, flight efficiency optimization, canard aerodynamics, flight testing of homebuilts, and numerous other topics in these forums.
Klaus epitomizes the Spirit of Flight — in his research and testing programs, in his demonstrated race and flight performance results, and in his driven need to share and push us all to higher performance and higher efficiency. He is worthy of this recognition.
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