Last week, FSElite had the opportunity to attend the Experimental Aircraft Association’s (EAA) AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, USA. Commonly known in the aviation community simply as “Oshkosh”, the week-long event is the largest aviation gathering in the world with nearly 700,000 visitors and more than 10,000+ airplanes in attendance and a must-visit event for anyone passionate about aviation. Our team set out to “The World’s Greatest Aviation Celebration” to take in the airshow performances, catch up with colleagues and friends, meet aviation product vendors, and see how flight simulation is becoming an invaluable tool for real-world flight training, proficiency, and safety.
Trevor:
With the constant buzz of airplanes in the air, late July in Wisconsin is always my favorite time of the year. This year marks my 6th time attending Oshkosh and the 3rd year in a row that I’ve traveled to AirVenture with my teenage son. Seeing his interest in aviation blossom has been the highlight of my experience. The sights and the sounds of the week are more than worth the nearly 1,000 nm journey to AirVenture from my home in Colorado.
AirVenture always provides a great opportunity to try out aviation products hands-on and meet face-to-face with the people behind the products. This year, I had the opportunity to visit with two vendors who are uniquely positioned within the flight sim space: Redbird Flight Simulations and RealSimGear – Look for an upcoming article with details on both. I tell people that the first time you go to Oshkosh it’s for the airplanes and vendors, but you keep coming back each year for the people. It is like a big, aviation family reunion.
Besides the people, my other AirVenture highlight is always the night airshows. The evening always starts with amazing “golden hour” flypasts and displays. For AirVenture 2024’s Wednesday night airshow, we were treated to one of the rarest warbirds in North America: the Avro Lancaster Mk. X bomber owned by the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum. The sole airworthy Lanc in North America was joined by Doc and FiFi, the only two flying examples of the B-29 bomber in existence. This made for a rare, if not unprecedented, Lancaster + B-29 formation flyover.
Following the bomber flight, the night sky was torn apart by the sounds of the US Air Force’s F-35 Lightning II and F-22 Raptor demo teams. Afterburners aglow, there’s not much better than two fifth-generation fighters performing low passes, insane turns and vertical climbs, and formation flypasts in the twilight. The cool but humid Wisconsin evening even made for some impressive vapor trails on the aircraft during their high-G maneuvering.
The night airshow is capped off by a hugely impressive fireworks display along with pyrotechnic explosions (set far across runway 36 but still close enough for your face to be bathed in heat when they’re set off). This year’s Wednesday night air show finale was the best fireworks display I’ve seen at Oshkosh, or anywhere for that matter. Accompanying the fireworks and explosions were 500 lighted drones that moved in formation to create moving images while Ghostwriter Airshows’ deHavilland Super Chipmunk, itself loaded with over 200 pounds of pyro and illuminating LED lights, performed loops and rolls around the entire display. For me, it was the perfect ending to a fantastic three days at AirVenture 2024.
Each year, being able to attend Oshkosh becomes more and more important to fit into my summer schedule. Being joined by my “FSElite family” this year certainly made for a great time – and I hope next year we’ll have even longer to spend together at AirVenture.
Calum:
This was my first adventure to Oshkosh’s AirVenture, and wow! It blew my mind just how massive the whole event was. Not only does it go on all week, it’s brimming with vendors, speakers, air shows, and plenty more.
I was shocked at just how many different areas there were to explore. This was certainly geared towards GA or warbirds, but even as someone who favours commercial aircraft, I still found it super interesting. Plus hearing Trevor geek out about all these planes to an intricate level was great.
Our purpose for the trip was to discover a little more about how these real-world airshows are thrown together and see if there were any learnings we could take away from our more sim-focused shows. There are, without a doubt, some interesting ideas to take away from the event. That said, we still had some hands-on time with some interesting simulation-related items.
Infinite Flight was there and is always a pleasure to reconnect with that amazing team. RealSimGear was also there (Trevor had hands-on for ages), along with RedBird. ForeFlight was also in attendance alongside their parent company, Boeing, and it was great chatting with them. I was amazed to learn how many people actively use ForeFlight for both real-world applications and in their simulator.
We spoke to a few people in attendance also and got a sense that flight simulation was still fairly undiscovered for many at these shows. It is very true that AirVenture is focused on real-world flying, but speaking to people about the value flight simulation can add to the real world really opened people’s eyes. It will be interesting to see how this can be developed further to further blend simulation with real-world experiences in the future.
Perhaps the most exciting part for me was experiencing a true airshow with fighter jets for the first time. Those F-18s sent literal rumbles through me with just how loud they were as they flew past. Being super close to the runway meant we got some awesome views and a great sense of appreciation for the skills and talents of the pilots in these incredible machines. My Apple Watch did not thank me and kept reminding me about how the decibels were far in excess of what I should be surrounded by – next time some ear defenders are coming!
All in all, a fun and enjoyable experience in a brand-new part of the world for me. I had lots of fun, and yet again, the sense of community was real. It will be great to see more simulator hardware and even platform holders at these events, as I think there is a real opportunity here to entice these enthusiasts to get more involved with flight simulation.
Cover photo by Nick Collett
