Technology Changes, Passion Remains
In 1948 Mike Lyon’s father took him and his younger brother up in a rented plane. His experience “at eight or nine years old” along with his brother’s made them both grow up to become pilots. Lyon has been flying for 67 years. Because “every single time is an adventure.”
Mike Lyon has been coming to the EAA AirVenture Air Show in OshKosh, Wisconsin since 1980 or ’81. “There’s no place you can go where you can see all the new innovations and toys that you may or may not, can or can’t afford to put into an airplane.” He says it’s a real learning experience with all the different vendors and merchandise.
Even if you don’t own your own plane, you’re bound to enjoy the sight of planes flying in formation overhead and the displays of planes from all eras, from prop planes to jets, and personally-built crafts to giant transport planes.
If you do own your own plane, though, this is really the place to be. Lyon not only enjoys seeing what’s new in airplane technology, but seeing old friends as well. That makes it “a homecoming, fun, and educational experience all at once.” Indeed, the latest and greatest mixes well at the AEE AirVenture Air Show with the traditional and even the vintage because, as Lyon notes, while the technology constantly changes, the art of flying remains the same.
