Spirit of Aviation Week Comes to Canada

July 2020 – As we mentioned last month, the substitute for EAA AirVenture Oshkosh may not give you the experience of landing on the green dot, nor that feeling of camaraderie you get from camping alongside 40,000 of your fellow aviators, but it's coming to your home! The Spirit of Aviation Week can never be on the same "plane" as Oshkosh week, but the folks in Oshkosh are doing their darndest to make it the best possible experience.

Speaking personally, I'm very excited. We haven't seen the full schedule at the start of July, but it occurs to me that one thing I miss on my annual pilgrimage to Oshkosh is the places I intended to go but didn't. The Spirit of Aviation Week promises to be the best alternative to being there under the circumstances. The time we all spend setting up, greeting, meeting, presenting, and tearing down the Canadian tent paraphernalia means that, like many of the other volunteers, we get little time just to enjoy the essence of Oshkosh.

We already know that there'll be a virtual expo. If the last four months have taught us one thing it's how to shop online! Look forward to show coupons, show deals, and lots of interactive online content. There'll be no crowds to push through, no waits at the back of a long line to make that essential purchase, and no need to carry around that heavy bag until you can get it back to your campsite.

Expect there to be more forums than you could possibly attend, with the added bonus that you can anticipate watching archived versions on your own timetable.

The schedule of events should be live by the time you read this, giving us the time to refine our own calendar of what to watch, and when. The actual content won't go live until opening day. You might want to look out for two presentations with specific Canadian content, times to be announced:

Behind the Scenes at Buffalo Airways, with Mikey McBryan — July 23

Flying with Kyle Fowler and FlightChops — July 24

The volunteers who make AirVenture what it is get a well-earned rest this year, although many of them are multigenerational annual campers at Oshkosh who will surely be missing their annual trek to Wisconsin. If you're interested in filling up on some of those delightful stories that happen at AirVenture — such as a volunteer describing how long they've been coming, where they live, and what they do during the week — there will be heartwarming profiles of 16 volunteers to review.

One aspect that we'll really miss is the atmosphere of homecoming, meeting old friends again, and in a country with a population as spread out as Canada's that will be sorely missed. One aspect that we'll really miss is the atmosphere of homecoming, meeting old friends again, and in a country with a population as spread out as Canada's, that will be sorely missed. We have decided to have a Zoom conference meeting to share our Monday morning Tim's coffee and you’re all invited. Click on the link here (Meeting ID: 727 1571 1078, passcode: 8F51VW) or check out our EAACanada FaceBook page for a link to our simulated get together on the Monday morning of “Oshkosh week”. We'll do it at 10:00am CDT to allow our sleeping-late friends on the west coast to join us. How about getting creative with it? Show us your Tim's mug, your background shot of your favourite Oshkosh moment or your oldest Oshkosh T-shirt. Plug the 20th July, 10:00am CDT into your calendar right now and meet us in the virtual Canada Tent.

Spirit of Aviation Week content goes live on Tuesday, 21st July so this will be a great opportunity to get into the spirit of it all. Join us!

How about getting creative with it? Show us your Tim's mug, your background shot of your favourite Oshkosh moment, or your oldest Oshkosh T-shirt. Plug July 20, 10 a.m., into your calendar right now and meet us in the virtual Canada Tent. We'll post the link on our Facebook page in plenty of time. Join us.

Spirit of Aviation Week content goes live on Tuesday, July 21, so this will be a great opportunity to get into the spirit of it all.