Highlights of Airventure 2025
- Laurie Sullivan
- Aug 20
- 2 min read
Updated: Aug 22
Sixteen KMYA students and four mentors camped at AirVenture again this year from July 22-25th. The weather was ideal except for the one obligatory rainstorm on Thursday night which interrupted our daily debrief, but resulted in some unexpected fun with trash bags and mud puddles!
Zach and Quinn Lobert flew 18HS into Whitman Field for the EAA Airventure Convention and put in on display at the Teen Build area. The KMYA team shared their knowledge and expertise with interested attendees who stopped by to view the plane at the Teen Build Display area all week.
The KMYA team presented their work and experience at the Homebuilts in Review Session on Wednesday in an interview with Charlie Becker, EAA Homebuilt Director and Dick VanGrunsven, the founder of Van’s Aircraft.
Each day the students attended the airshow, lectures, vendor booths and aircraft displays and met interesting people from all over the world. Addison Gehin and Zach Lobert represented KMYA at an AOPA breakfast and talked about their build experience and Cali and Gabbi Ojstrsek even won a ride on the Goodyear Blimp! Each evening the group “debriefed” by sharing their new contacts with each other.
On Tuesday we continued the “Taco Tuesday” dinner tradition with our friends from the Waukesha EAA chapter.
Mentor Laurie Sullivan also played flute in the newly reconvened EAA AirVenture Band with 90 musical aviation enthusiasts from around the world and they are still looking for new members. If anyone is interested for next year please contact Laurie to learn more.
Thank you to all the KMYA students, volunteer mentors John Semenske, Shane Morris, Larry and Laurie Sullivan and the KMYA families who contributed food and support to make this educational endeavor a memorable and successful one. We look forward to Airventure 2026!
