EAA AirVenture 2009 Photography Round-Up By Editor Here they are, all in one place — seven daily galleries of photos from EAA AirVenture 2009, one bonus gallery (filled with pictures we didn't share during our show coverage), three galleries of photos from the Seaplane Base, and seven incredible zoomable panoramas. Click through for thumbnailed links to all the galleries.
Yes, we're tired and anxious to get some sleep and all that — but we're also back home now and have a few more must-be-shared photos on our camera cards. Who's up for a bonus gallery of AirVenture pics?
It's been a long, tiring — but ultimately thrilling — week for the AVweb team at EAA AirVenture. Intern Adam should be home by the time you read this, and the remnants of our on-site team and cleaning up and putting the finishing touches on stories for Monday's regular edition of our AVwebFlash newsletter. Thanks for joining us at EAA AirVenture this year!
Shortly before this year's EAA AirVenture, contributing photographer Mariano Rosales got his daddy rating — but even with a new baby, he managed to make it to Oshkosh and take a bevy of great photos. Faced with the challenged of capturing the event for those who couldn't make it, Mariano's stitched them together into seven amazing panoramic photos. These panoramas are super-widescreen images you can view, zoom in on, and explore at your leisure — so grab a cup of coffee and click through for links to all seven.
EAA AirVenture is the world's largest gathering of general aviation aircraft. It is held each July at Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh, Wis. Of the approximate 12,000 aircraft that fly in to the southeastern Wisconsin airport, hundreds are vintage and modern warbirds flown in from all over the world by EAA members. Included are bombers and fighters from World War II, cargo and support planes, trainers, and even foreign aircraft. During the daily airshow these warbird pilots participate in some of the largest aerial formations in these types of aircraft performed anywhere in the world.
Mission Pilots Champion Kodiak By Glenn Pew The Kodiak was purpose-built in consultation with the mission organizations supported this year at AirVenture through EAA's Fly4Life program to provide a remote area reliable rough-field long-distance heavy hauler and this year is beginning to make good on its promise. Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) took delivery of a Quest Aircraft turbine-powered Kodiak earlier this year to meet its need for a larger-payload Cessna 206 replacement that runs on jet fuel for operations in remote areas around the world. The MAF announced at AirVenture Oshkosh it plans to ensure "the reliability and cost efficiency of missionary flights" by replacing 20 of its Cessna 206 aircraft with nine-seat PT6A-powered Kodiaks, or larger Cessna Caravans. As a clean-sheet design built specifically for the wide-ranging environments posed by mission operations, the Kodiak is an aircraft that can take off in under 700 feet at a full gross weight of 6,750 pounds while offering pilots a 1,500-fpm climb rate. It also comes standard with a full three-panel Garmin G1000 integrated avionics suite available with weather and synthetic vision, and can cruise at 179 KTAS at 12,000 feet for more than 1,000 nautical miles with reserves.
On Thursday, we sent Aviation Safety editor-in-chief Jeb Burnside out to the Seaplane Base at EAA AirVenture. In exchange for his freedom, we demanded pictures — and Jeb brought back three galleries' worth of awesome snapshots. This is the final of Jeb's three galleries.
Klapmeier Out As Cirrus Chairman By Russ Niles Alan Klapmeier will be replaced as chairman of the board of Cirrus Aircraft by the end of August and it will be up to the board to decide if he continues as a board member. In a wide-ranging podcast interview Saturday, Cirrus Aircraft CEO Brent Wouters told AVweb that Klapmeier has known for "several months" that his contract as board chairman will not be renewed. Wouters also said he considered Klapmeier's attempt to buy the VisionJet program a "sideshow" and a "long shot" and that in the end he believed that Klapmeier could not raise the necessary money. He said it was his belief that the two parties were "very close" to a deal when Klapmeier suspended negotiations. Wouters said he doubts there will be future negotiations but he's not ruling them out. Klapmeier said through a spokesperson that he'll have more to say on the matter later. Wouters said there may be a silver lining to the controversy.
Women Pilots Expand Their AirVenture Presence By Mary Grady If you want to get a bunch of pilots together, there aren't many better places to do that than AirVenture at Oshkosh, and this week women aviators worked hard to make the most of that opportunity. On Friday afternoon, the ad hoc effort called WomenVenture orchestrated its second-annual gathering of all the women pilots at Oshkosh, donning blue T-shirts for a photo shoot at Aeroshell Square. About 550 women, with all kinds of pilot certificates from student to ATP to military pilots and astronauts, showed up for the shoot, about 5 to 10 percent more than last year, according to EAA. The event is not only about building camaraderie, said Peggy Chabrian, president of Women in Aviation International, one of the organizers -- it's also meant to help the pilot community to grow. "As these women are walking around in their T-shirts, hopefully other women and children will go up to them and talk to them about what this is all about," Chabrian said. "Hopefully this event will spark interest in aviation for women. It tells them it's OK to be involved."
Learn-To-Fly Day Announced By Russ Niles A worldwide effort to inspire interest in aviation is being launched next May 15 with the first International Learn To Fly Day. Jason Blair, spokesman for the National Association of Flight Instructors, says the idea is to get those already involved in aviation to spend a day promoting it to their family friends and coworkers by getting them out to the airport and, hopefully, into the air. "We want to get as many people around the world to get people interested in flying for one day," Blair said.
