For the second year in a row, hundreds of EAA members attended the annual EAA business meeting but this year’s mood was entirely different. In contrast to last year’s contentious meeting, the members generally expressed their satisfaction with the evolving direction of the EAA and Chairman Jack Pelton’s leadership. Some of last year’s speakers made a point of returning to thank the EAA leadership for listening to their concerns and making notable changes this year. Read More

Moving the general aviation fleet off of 100LL and onto an unleaded fuel will bring positive changes and features to powerplants that pilots will want, Lycoming's Michael Kraft said Wednesday at AirVenture. The company says moving from leaded fuel would unlock the full feature set of its iE-2 FADEC engine for the GA market in part because leaded fuels contaminate certain FADEC sensors (octane, for example) "immediately." If that potential could be unlocked, said Kraft, Lycoming's full FADEC would be more advanced than turbine or automotive engines. Read More

At EAA AirVenture this week, the Tecnam exhibit resembles a sea of aircraft, including five airplanes being shown at Oshkosh for the first time. The Italian planemaker, celebrating its 60th year in business, arrived this week with a long list of new products, updates, and data to share with their U.S. customer base. The new-to-Oshkosh products include a turbo version of the P2008 (the standard version debuted at Sebring's Light Sport expo back in 2008), and four different versions of the P92 LSA -- a floatplane, a taildragger with cargo pod for backcountry traveling, a surveillance version marketed as a low-cost law-enforcement option, and the classic Echo LSA, which sells for about $75,000. The company also had updates on three new aircraft now in the works. Read More

"The U.S. has plenty of natural gas," said Aviat CEO Stu Horn on Wednesday morning at EAA AirVenture, as he showed off a blue-and-white Husky taildragger with a new belly-mounted fuel tank that carries compressed natural gas to fuel the engine. "This airplane has redundant systems, so you can use either CNG or aviation fuel," he said. Greg Herritt, president of the Aviation Foundation of America, had approached Horn earlier this year with the idea to try out the system. "Natural gas is a viable alternative fuel for general aviation," Herrick said, at a news conference just outside the EAA Innovations Pavilion. Read More

Aviat Aircraft's Stu Horn brought an aircraft to AirVenture 2013 that burns traditional aviation fuel (100LL) and can also fly on compressed natural gas. Horn says the first 20 hours of flight testing have started to show that natural gas burns cleaner in the engine, offers more power, and is arguably safer to store than traditional liquid fuels. Horn believes the lower cost of natural gas could become a compelling argument for flight schools and budget-conscious aviators. He also believes that technological advances will quickly result in lighter storage tanks, making the fuel an even more efficient option. Read More

Balloon pilot Noah Forden, who is flying his home-built ultralight hot-air balloon this week at EAA AirVenture, brought the aircraft here inside another aircraft -- the Van's RV-7 that he built in his garage in Rhode Island. Read More

When Noah Forden finished building his RV-7 in his garage, he wanted to use it to fly to distant hot air balloon events, so he designed a sport balloon that fits inside the airplane. Read More

Mishimasa Fujino created the HondaJet from a drawing on the back of a calendar and eventually convinced Honda to pursue light jet development. Now he is the president and CEO of Honda Aircraft Company. AVweb spoke with him at AirVenture 2013, where two of the first conforming HondaJets were publicly displayed. Read More

Students at 27 high schools from 22 states competed for the chance to build two Glasair Sportsman aircraft that were finished and on display at AirVenture Oshkosh. The effort involved aviation industry leaders organized under GAMA. Students interested in the program competed by using a derivative of X-plane flight simulator software to design and build a virtual aircraft that were reviewed and the best two designs were chosen. Read More

Lyn Freeman has championed BuildAPlane.org and has seen the project maintain a successful outreach, attracting young people to the aviation industry. AVweb spoke with him about a recent project that saw eight high school students build two planes in two weeks. Read More

Larry Durst has probably flown more passengers than some charter services but he and his wife Maxine donate their time, energy and airplane to help encourage youth who are interested in flying. The Roseburg, Ore., pilot has flown more than 5,300 Young Eagles in his Cessna 182 since he became involved in the program in 1994. For that, he's the recipient of the Phillips 66 Aviation Leadership Award. Read More

Larry and Maxine Durst of Roseburg, Oregon have combined efforts to allow Larry to fly more than 5,300 Young Eagles since 1994 to earn the Phillips 66 Aviation Leadership Award. The couple spoke with AVweb's Russ Niles at Airventure 2013. Read More

Can't make it to AirVenture this year? Photo galleries of the people, products, and planes that make Oshkosh a pilot's paradise will pepper our coverage throughout the week, courtesy of eagle-eyed aviation photographer Mariano Rosales.

Of today's gallery, Mariano writes:

I had the privilage to ride along with the veteran aviation photo team of photographer Jim Koepnick and photo pilot Bruce Moore during one of their air-to-air photo flights. Their photo plane for this mission was a Beech Bonanza, and Jim was sitting in the back shooting through the open windows. Although Jim is holding the camera, he relies on Bruce to position the subject airplane correctly and to line up the proper lighting angles and backgrounds. Bruce also thoroughly briefs each pilot before the photo flight to explain the mission and go over the procedures. The duo has been flying for years and they fly each mission to perfection.

For more information on Jim and Bruce, you can find them on the web at KoepnickPhotography.com or Photo-One.us.

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There's so much to see and touch at AirVenture that your eyes may tire of looking and your button-pushing finger can get a little stiff. That doesn't deter the AVweb team, however, as they poked, prodded, and otherwise product-tested their way through some of this year's most interesting products in a series of "Product Minute" videos. Read More

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