Chapters at EAA AirVenture 2025

August 2025 — EAA saw another successful AirVenture this year, with 704,000 attendees on the convention grounds throughout the week of July 21-27, 2025. Amongst the crowds that gathered for this year’s convention, we were happy to see a strong presence from EAA chapters and their members in Oshkosh for this celebration of aviation.

Chapter Group Camping

Many chapters took advantage of the opportunity to camp together in Camp Scholler. This year, 116 chapters participated in group camping, claiming more than 525 campsites.

Chapter campsites were staked out ahead of time on July 8, 2025, by the EAA Chapters staff and a team of volunteers.

Chapters Pavilion & Chapter Pancake Breakfasts

The EAA Chapters Pavilion in Camp Scholler was used by several EAA chapters to host daily pancake breakfasts from July 19-26, 2025. This popular opportunity allows chapters to fundraise from the breakfast proceeds while also providing a hot and affordable meal for campers throughout AirVenture. Chapters from seven U.S. states hosted breakfasts, with some chapters joining forces to host a single breakfast and to split the proceeds amongst themselves.

Together, these chapters took home more than $37,000 in proceeds from the breakfasts.

Thank you to the host chapters and the volunteer liaisons who made these breakfasts successful.

Blue Barn

We hope you were able to visit the EAA Blue Barn in 2025. As the home for EAA chapters and Young Eagles during AirVenture, the Blue Barn is the place to learn about EAA chapters and the programs and activities they offer, as well the Young Eagles program. EAA Chapters staff and volunteers were available to provide information and guidance to visitors curious to learn more about chapters and their offerings.

Examples of Young Eagles Workshop activities, Young Eagles Build and Fly RC airplanes, and AeroEducate activities were on display to educate visitors about these programs. New displays included a FliteTest Scout XL remote-controlled airplane, which is a new addition to the Young Eagles Build and Fly program; several FliteTest EZ gliders that are now included in the Young Eagles Workshops program; and an AeroEducate keychain project that is another new offering for the Young Eagles Workshops.

Nineteen forums were held at the Blue Barn throughout the week, covering a variety of topics important to chapters. These included starting a chapter, the hallmarks of successful chapters, hosting a Young Eagles rally, creating a chapter newsletter, chapter success stories, and much more. The forums were well-attended, bringing in chapter leaders and members who were curious to learn new information they could bring home to their chapters.

Inspired by the One Week Wonder kit plane builds that have occurred at AirVenture in recent years, the Blue Barn was also the site of its own “one week wonder”: a rotating pancake griddle built by members of EAA Chapter 1041 from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. This is the standard rotating griddle whose plans have been offered to EAA chapters for the past 15 years. Construction of the griddle began on Monday, July 21. On Thursday, July 24, the griddle was completed ahead of schedule and was put on working display for visitors to see. This grill will be used at the Chapters Pavilion for future AirVenture pancake breakfasts.

The “World’s Fastest Clecoer” game was popular as usual, with visitors competing to see who could attach and remove Cleco fasteners from a sheet of metal the quickest. This year’s fastest “clecoer” was Jake Kuhn from EAA Chapter 509 in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, who completed the contest in 26.17 seconds.

The collection of chapter-built Adirondack chairs and directional signs at the Blue Barn grew larger, with several more chairs delivered, and one-and-a-half signposts filled up with new signage from visiting chapters.

Throughout the week, a set of flight simulator controls from Honeycomb and Thrustmaster were on display. EAA chapters were able to enter themselves into a drawing to win this set of controls. This giveaway took the place of the Lincoln Electric TIG welder giveaway that was done in recent years. The lucky winner of the flight simulator controls was EAA Chapter 23 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Congratulations!

Chapter and Young Eagle Events at AirVenture

Outside of the daily pancake breakfasts, the Chapters Pavilion was used for various other events throughout the week of AirVenture. The annual Chapter Leaders Corn Roast was held there on Sunday, July 20, to welcome chapter leaders to Oshkosh. Several chapters reserved the pavilion for their own activities as well, such as luncheons and dinners for their members who came to Oshkosh.

We were happy to see a strong turnout from chapter members for the annual chapter group photo taken at the Brown Arch on Tuesday, July 22. Many chapters brought their own banners to display.

EAA Young Eagles volunteers were recognized at two separate events on Tuesday, July 22: a breakfast at the Partner Resource Center on the AirVenture grounds and the annual volunteer dinner at the EAA Aviation Museum. The breakfast is a new event for Young Eagles volunteers to provide them with another opportunity in case they are unable to attend the dinner, which fills up quickly. At both the breakfast and dinner, attendees were provided with updates on the Young Eagles program, and the recipients of this year’s Young Eagles volunteer awards were recognized. The awards were formally presented to their recipients at the volunteer dinner. Read more about this year’s Young Eagles dinner and volunteer awards.

The annual Chapter Leaders Breakfast was held on Saturday, July 26, in the Founders’ Wing of the EAA Aviation Museum. Attending chapter leaders received updates on EAA and chapter activities, and this year’s chapter volunteer awards were formally presented. Read more about this year’s Chapter Achievement Awards.

To help inaugurate the new Youth Program Coordinator position for EAA chapters, we hosted a workshop for prospective coordinators in the Youth Education Center of the EAA Aviation Center on July 26. Twenty chapter leaders participated in that workshop, learning about the variety of activities that Youth Program Coordinators will be able to oversee at their chapters.

Ray Aviation Scholarship

Many EAA Ray Aviation scholars came to Oshkosh this year for AirVenture. Some of them were already regular attendees, while others attended for their first time. Either way, AirVenture offers plenty of excitement for youths who want to learn more about aviation and plenty of opportunities for them to discover and explore the many occupations in the aviation world.

The EAA Chapters staff hosted the annual Ray Aviation Scholarship Corn Roast on Monday, July 21, at the Chapters Pavilion to recognize Ray scholars and scholarship coordinators from EAA chapters. In addition to EAA staff who were present, the directors of the Ray Foundation also attended to congratulate the scholars and their chapters and to thank them for their hard work, while providing encouragement for their future aviation endeavors.

Ray scholars were also given the opportunity to tour Pratt & Whitney’s Boeing 747SP engine testbed aircraft, which was displayed on the Boeing Plaza during the first half of AirVenture. About 40 scholars braved the pouring rain on the morning of Wednesday, July 23, to tour this unique aircraft.

Special Thanks

The EAA Chapters staff extends a tremendous thank-you to all the volunteers who assisted us with AirVenture this year. This includes everyone who joined us in staking out chapter campsites, cleaning and setting up the Blue Barn and the Chapters Pavilion before the convention, staffing the Blue Barn during convention week, managing and assisting the pancake breakfasts and corn roasts at the Chapters Pavilion, assisting with the Young Eagles breakfast and dinner, conducting post-AirVenture cleanup, and in various other activities. AirVenture would not be possible without the time and effort committed by its large corps of volunteers.

We extend special thanks to our Blue Barn co-chairmen Ted Kirkpatrick of EAA Chapter 850 and Mark Kolesar of EAA Chapter 25, Chapters Pavilion chairman Keith Lindsay of EAA Chapter 38, and EAA Chapter Advisory Council member Sarah Pagano of EAA Chapter 1093 for helping to manage the corn roasts at the Chapters Pavilion. And another big thanks for the rest of the EAA Chapter Advisory Council for assisting in various ways at the Chapters Pavilion, the Blue Barn, and other chapter activities during AirVenture this year.

We also express thanks to the sponsors of various chapter events at AirVenture this year:

• Hangar 22 Coffee and its owner Thomas Varep-Popov for sponsoring the coffee at the pancake breakfasts in the Chapters Pavilion. If you would like to order their coffee, visit Hangar22Coffee.com.
• Matco Aircraft Landing Systems for sponsoring the Chapter Leaders Corn Roast.
• Superflite for sponsoring chapter group camping.
• The Ray Foundation for supporting the Ray Aviation Scholarship Corn Roast.

To all the EAA chapter leaders and members who attended AirVenture this year, we hope you had a wonderful time here in Oshkosh, and we look forward to seeing you here again next year!