Have a Seat on Us at AirVenture

August 2022 –

Our EAA chapters continuously prove their innovation and creativity at AirVenture. We continue to receive and love the EAA chapter-built and -decorated Adirondack chairs coming from chapters around the country. This year at AirVenture, chapters dropped off a pile of new chairs, all decorated with significant design schemes identifying their chapter.

If you haven’t seen the many chairs located in the Blue Barn at AirVenture, you’re missing out, as these truly are works of art. Although we here at EAA HQ provide chapters with preferred Adirondack chair plans, we’re beginning to see more chapters provide unique chairs by design. For example, this year, EAA Chapter 1314 from Keene, New Hampshire, fabricated a chair out of snow skis, inspired by the downhill and cross-country skiing that is a big part of the area’s local identity. EAA 976 out of Carrollton, Georgia, brought two chairs this year, both child-size.

In the true EAA spirit of innovation, EAA Vintage Chapter 25 from Sacramento, California, brought their chair as a kit, as logistics required them to transport it in a more compact form. Young members from the chapter re-assembled the chair in the Blue Barn and took advantage in being the first chapter to pin their chapter windsock on the big chapter map.

There was also a strikingly memorable chair built in honor of Joseph “Joey” Ermel, one of the first EAA Ray Aviation scholars, who passed away on October 27, 2021. Joey was awarded a Ray Aviation Scholarship by EAA Chapter 15 in 2019, which he used to obtain his private pilot certificate. He became the first Ray scholar to fly Young Eagles. The chair in his memory was commissioned by his mother Aymee Zimmerman, a longtime volunteer at the Blue Barn and member of EAA Chapter 461, and built by his grandfather Arnold Zimmerman, whose 1946 Aeronca Champ was Joey’s favorite airplane to fly and which he used to fly 11 Young Eagles after getting his certificate. The chair lovingly captures Joey’s aviation experiences, from his Young Eagle flights as a kid, to attending the Air Academy, to becoming a certificated pilot through the Ray Scholarship, and eventually flying Young Eagles of his own. The chair includes a scrapbook of Joey’s adventures, filled with photos from his short yet beautiful life.

Don’t let logistics get in the way of bringing a chair to AirVenture. Once a chapter gets their chair to Oshkosh and into Camp Scholler, we’ll pick it up. Our chapters’ staff members will retrieve your chair and shuttle it to Blue Barn. We look forward to continuing to receive EAA chapter chairs, so be sure to carve out a little time this winter to make your own chapter monogram in the form of a chair.

For more information, please visit EAA Chapter Adirondack Chairs