Experimental Aircraft Association

🛩️ Why Every Aviator Should Know About the EAA

If you eat, sleep, and breathe aviation — or even if you’re just getting started — there's one organization you should absolutely know about: the Experimental Aircraft Association, better known as EAA.

This isn’t some stuffy club. EAA is where the heart of aviation lives — from guys wrenching on homebuilts in their garage to kids getting their first taste of flight in a Cessna 172. It’s grassroots, it’s passionate, and it’s all about keeping the aviation flame burning for generations to come.

🚀 What Exactly is the EAA?

The EAA was born in 1953 when a group of builders and dreamers came together around a shared love for experimental aircraft. Today, it’s grown into a global community of 250,000+ members strong — supporting everything from warbirds to ultralights, vintage aircraft to modern builds, student pilots to aerospace engineers.

Headquartered in Oshkosh, Wisconsin (aka the aviation capital of Earth every July), the EAA is the engine behind:

✈️ EAA AirVenture Oshkosh — the world’s largest airshow
👶 Young Eagles — giving free flights to kids
🛠 Builder support — everything you need to build or restore an aircraft
🧠 Education & scholarships — training the next generation of pilots and A&Ps
🗣 Advocacy — fighting for our right to build, fly, and innovate

🌎 The Power of the EAA Community

Let me put it this way: EAA isn’t just about airplanes. It’s about people who love airplanes.

Want to learn how to build your own aircraft? There’s a local EAA chapter that’ll help. Looking to mentor young aviators? The Young Eagles program lets you give back in the best way possible — by giving kids their first flight. Want to geek out over rivets, baffles, STCs, or flap gap seals? Trust me, you’ll find your tribe here.

There are 900+ local chapters across the U.S., each one buzzing with builders, tinkerers, CFIs, veterans, and weekend flyers. Whether you're hanging out at a pancake breakfast or helping someone with their RV-10 build, you’re part of something bigger than yourself.

🌟 EAA AirVenture Oshkosh – The Aviation Super Bowl

If you’ve never been to AirVenture, you need to fix that — now. Every summer, more than 600,000 people and 10,000+ aircraft descend on Oshkosh for a week of flying, learning, airshows, camping under wings, and soaking in aviation like nowhere else on Earth.

From F-35s ripping through the sky to homebuilt taildraggers taxiing in with a GoPro stuck to the dash, AirVenture is every pilot’s bucket-list event. Workshops. Forums. Airshows. Drones. Jet teams. Warbirds. It’s all there.

👶 Inspiring the Next Generation: Young Eagles

One of the most powerful things EAA does is the Young Eagles program — offering free flights to kids aged 8–17, all flown by volunteer pilots. Since 1992, they’ve flown over 2.3 million young people.

That’s 2.3 million minds opened to aviation. 2.3 million kids who now know that the sky isn’t the limit — it’s the start.

If you’re a certified pilot and want to give back, this is one of the most rewarding ways to do it. No doubt about it.

🛠 Build. Fly. Repeat.

If you’ve ever thought about building your own airplane (yes, seriously), EAA is where you start. They’ve got:

Builder resources and guides
Technical counselors and flight advisors
Forums, webinars, and support
And thousands of members who’ve done it themselves

Whether you want to go scratch-built or kit-built, taildragger or turboprop — you’re in good company.

🧭 Ready to Get Involved?

Here’s how you can jump in:

🔹 Join EAA — It’s worth every penny.
🔹 Find Your Local Chapter — Meet pilots near you.
🔹 Fly Young Eagles — Inspire the future.
🔹 Volunteer, attend Oshkosh, or just show up to a chapter hangout — you’ll be welcomed like family.