Oshkosh 2022 Opens with Great Optimism and a Touch of Sadness

The somber note is that longtime EAA president Tom Poberezny passed away the morning of the show's start after a short illness. He was 75. In the morning press briefing, EAA spokesperson Dick Knapinski shared the sad news, but put it into perspective. This Oshkosh would be an opportunity to honor Tom Poberezny, who served as the president of the fly-in, now known as AirVenture, and helped make it into the world celebration it is today. Plane & Pilot sends our condolences to Tom's family.

The show at which the news arrived is otherwise seeing nothing but blue skies. It followed a severe thunderstorm that arrived on Saturday evening, which thankfully damaged very few airplanes---great job tying 'em down, AirVenture pilots! While the heavy rains got the field pretty wet, things turned sunny by the next morning, the temps dropped by more than 20 degrees, along with the humidity, and planes just kept coming in.

Monday's start of the festivities featured news from many companies, including Van's Aircraft, which is bringing its first-ever high-wing plane to OSH; from Sling Aircraft which, well, is doing the same; and Cubcrafters which is!well, that's still top secret as of this writing.

Plane & Pilot is here at the show in a big way. Check out our daily photo galleries and videos from the legendary aviation photographer Jim Koepnick, with video from the talented Art Eichmann. So keep your browser tuned to planeandpilotmag.com!