Theater in the Woods to Highlight Homebuilders

June 6, 2018 - “Imagination in Aviation — A Salute to Homebuilding” will be the theme at Theater in the Woods on Friday night, July 27, during EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2018, and will feature notable figures from the past half century of homebuilding history. 

Guests include Peter Sripol of Beaver Creek, Ohio, whose popular YouTube channel boasts more than a half a million subscribers. Sripol’s videos usually focus on RC models, but in late 2017, he caught the attention of the full-scale world with his homebuilt foam ultralight. The video documenting his test flights quickly reached more than a million views. 

Test pilot and air racer Elliot Seguin will also join the panel, sharing stories from his legendary career. Seguin worked for 10 years at Burt Rutan’s Scaled Composites, both as a project engineer and as a flight test engineer and test pilot. Seguin is also the founder of Wasabi Air Racing, and frequently races an airplane of his own design. He was the 2015 recipient of EAA’s Spirit of Flight Award, sponsored by the Society of Experimental Test Pilots. 

One of the most fascinating homebuilts slated to come to AirVenture 2018 is the Bally Bomber, a scratchbuilt one-third scale B-17G powered by four Hirth engines. Designer and builder Jack Bally, EAA 348338, and test pilot Richard Kosi, EAA 666459, will be onstage to talk about the design and construction of, and what it’s like to fly, this truly unique homebuilt. 

Rounding out the panel is Dick VanGrunsven, EAA Lifetime 3204. VanGrunsven is the founder of Van’s Aircraft and designer of its RV series, — the most popular homebuilts of all time. From the RV-1 prototype in the 1960s, VanGrunsven developed the RV-3 and founded his company in 1972 to sell plans and parts. Nearly 50 years later, we’re celebrating 10,000 RVs — not just sold, but built and flying. 

The evening’s programming starts at 8 p.m.