LIVE FROM THE EAA!! (Hour 1)

Good, good morning, and welcome, welcome to Matt and Air on Air.

Jane Matt and Air, Gregbock.

Calvin Butenoff coming to you live.

Calvin is at Radio Park in Racine and Greg and I here live at the EAA Museum in Oshkosh.

This is an amazing space, Jane.

I am, I am, if at any point you see me just staring off at planes, just kind of snap me back.

Hey, come back to the show.

This is.

Gorgeous

it really is and if you are a history buff you abs and you've never been here you really need to come up to the EA museum just for the Variety yeah of of planes that have been involved in in various wars and It it's astonishing.

It is I I have never been in here I have been I have attended the EA before yeah, but getting close up to some of these things like this little spitfire That's over my right shoulder.

Yeah

When you get up close to it, it's tiny.

It's very tiny.

It's like teeny tiny.

And people were shooting at you in this tiny thing.

So I just think it gives you an entirely different appreciation.

for the courage and the sacrifice that these people did on behalf

of our country.

There is an emotional factor there being in this space looking at all these planes.

I'm staring at one right now.

It's made of wood and it flew to defend our freedom and our country and our values and it's beautiful.

I had this when I was walking through this.

I was taking it back.

I was getting emotional by it and I loved it.

It's wonderful.

We thank the EAA for letting us be here today on the

first day of Todd and Jane on the road or

Jane and Todd on the road, the contract.

That's just the way the show is

called.

Because our show is first.

Exactly.

Otherwise, we

can flip them back and forth.

It really doesn't.

We're not that

way.

Exactly, exactly.

But yeah, this is our first of three days.

We're going to be here today in Oshkosh, then tomorrow we're going to be in Butternut.

Butternut.

And then we'll be making our way to Hayward.

And we'll be having some great adventures along the way.

So stay tuned this week.

And then Todd will be joining.

We'll be on at 2 p.m.

today.

And it's just going to be a great time.

had a nice road trip up to Oshkosh, had a great dinner, and I'm ready to go.

I'm not going to speak for anybody else, but I'm ready to go.

We are ready to roll.

Absolutely.

Dick Napinski from the EAA is going to be joining us after 9.30 to talk about the events.

The EAA officially gets underway on Monday, but as the show goes on, you're probably going to see some things.

Some of these big planes are going to be moving these big planes behind

us because

they have a bunch of events that are coming to lead up to this event.

There's already people camping.

And that was the thing.

that Dick was telling us is that well one thing and we've mentioned this before when we've talked about the EAA is that Oshkosh for one week becomes the busiest airport in the world and also he said so this is today is July the 16th.

He said that at the end of June people were lined up.

I think it was the 27th of June to line up to get their camping spot and they stay here the whole month.

Not even just the week.

They're here the month because they just want a good space.

They want to hang out and people come from all over the world.

for it.

And I think it's one of those events too where you make relationships and this is your meetup spot, right?

Yeah.

Once a year, we're gonna

meet

you at the EAA.

We met 25 years ago and we're gonna, these are our buddies and this is what we do and so we're gonna be learning a whole lot more about that as the show goes on today.

If you have any questions, you can always text us.

Yep.

and check in at 855-752-4842.

Also, leave a comment if you're watching on the livestream.

Absolutely.

On Facebook, YouTube, and what used to be Twitter.

Again, Dick Knopinski from the EAA joining us after 9.30.

Hal Bryan also is going to give us some of the history of this event.

And why is it so important and what it does for the city of Oshkosh?

Yes, it is a huge, I mean, it's a huge revenue generator for the city.

And like we said before, it's

People are here for a month at a time.

to visit and to be here and they, you know, they go to the restaurants, they go to the other attractions and things like that.

And Tony on the live stream says, he says, I can't believe Civic Media built you a hanger.

It's really the best.

I mean, thank you.

It was amazing.

Luke Mcmethers is off in the corner.

I just want to say, Luke, thank you for the funding of this beautiful space, the new matinee on Air Office and Studios.

Todd, if you want to use it, please give us a month notice.

We'll let you know.

But yeah, this is, yeah, it's a gorgeous space.

It's a fantastic space.

And again, it's going to be interesting to see, I think,

This wall over my left shoulder here, those are actually doors.

So I think they're going to be moving some planes in and out as they make some space.

They have a big event on tomorrow night.

We have like

1,000 people in

here.

So

they're going to set up a stage right behind us so they've got to move some of these planes.

We will be driving them.

We'll just drive them out, and I'm sure it's fine.

It'll all be fine.

We did want to start, though, with something that is breaking locally.

This is from the Wisconsin Examiner, Eric Gunn, with the byline court order state to stop blocking unemployment insurance for people with disabilities.

The court order effectively ends a 12-year-old state law which disqualifies people from getting unemployment if they get Social Security Disability Insurance.

This law was passed in 2013 only Republican support in the legislature and it was signed by Governor Scott Walker.

It was based on the premise that most social security disability insurance recipients don't work and that when they did file unemployment claims they were double dipping and probably committing fraud.

Victor Forberger, who has legal practice almost exclusively focused on unemployment insurance, says that impression is completely false.

Many people with disabilities who qualify for SSDI are still able to do some kinds of work and they often want and need to.

Yes, and this goes back to, I mean, this actually kind of ties in with the Medicaid discussion we've been having for quite a few weeks now, where they're trying to paint

those who get medicaid with a broad brush as being lazy, shiftless, layabouts, playing video games, doing nothing when that is in fact the opposite.

We can talk about the matter of fraud or abuse and things like that.

But when we're talking about just a broad generalization, it is absolutely inaccurate.

And I mean, we did a little bit of research and with regard to quote, double dipping, right?

It said the monthly SSDI payment is fifteen hundred and thirty eight dollars There's about eighteen thousand dollars a year.

That's not a lot and the weekly the the maximum unemployment benefit that's paid in Wisconsin is three hundred and seventy dollars a week So that's about fourteen thirteen fourteen hundred dollars So you you're looking at it if you were to get the maximum every week plus the maximum SSDI

you're coming away with about 30 grand a year, or more than that, about 35 grand a year.

And that's if you're getting maximum on both.

And that's the maximum, which most people don't.

If you're getting the maximum on employment and the average SSDI.

And when you think about today's day and age, that for a person to live and survive, if that's the only means that they can't work, that's still not

That doesn't guarantee you a quality of life.

No.

I mean, maximum SSDI payments is just about the poverty line.

So if you add unemployment, it's not like they're getting high on the hog here.

Nobody's buying Mercedes.

Yeah.

And also, this is a matter of people do want to work.

If they can work, they will work.

But if they can't, they need a way to.

And they pay into this, too.

Like, SSDI.

unemployment.

Those are things we all pay into.

It's not just a magical thing.

Come out of our checks.

Exactly.

Exactly.

So this is money that you invested into the into the state and or country and you're getting your investment back to take care of you for however long you need.

If it's permanent, one thing, but if it's not, it's just this drawing a line to make you despise poor people, working poor people.

disabled people for some reason, but it's just this wave and stealing feeling, othering those who need help because they're seen as takers.

Yes.

And I also don't understand they have this great way of saying was Bob Kennedy Jr.

said this the other day.

People who are on disability or on social security spent on average 6.1 hours watching television.

How do you know that?

Yeah, that's a very specific.

Are you

going to everybody's house and checking in with them?

Are you calling them every day?

What are you watching right now?

How do you quantify that for me?

Well, and I mean, I mean, then do you have the average time spent watching TV by those who just have a full-time job because I know people who watch television from four to five hours a night when they get home.

So

It just seems like a very specific statistic.

And I'm sorry, but I just, you know, based on his performance so far in the job, I really don't believe any statistics he's bringing to the table, honestly.

Well, and Robert Kennedy Jr.

just fired two of his top deputies.

What have they been in there for four months?

Yeah.

Yeah, of course, as compared to the first Trump administration, some of these people

are actually sticking around quite long.

I mean, yeah, it is.

I mean, that it is a record is being held by certain people.

But you know, we'll see where we'll see where we're at by the end of the year with all the other stuff going on Epstein file.

We won't get into that, though.

Yeah, but but but back to the notion of the it was a it was I remember when Scott Walker pushed this narrative back in the early 2010s of this double dipping.

Epidemic, right?

And everyone was saying like look no one's no one's getting a hundred grand and and and PJ on the livestream points out SSDI is paid by the federal government unemployment is paid by the business owner and it's not like you're taking money from the it's It's just trying to make it seem like they're takers and they're not they're just trying to get what they've earned

Well, and I think they're trying to divert from the real takers

Yes.

I do.

Let's talk double dipping.

Let's talk about all the members of Congress who are trading stocks on information that they've gotten, that something that the Trump administration is going to do in the next two days.

Let's follow that double dipping.

Let's look into that a little bit.

I mean, and it's also the notion of looking at when we talk about fraud and abuse, the major funds usually come from business fraud.

Yes.

I mean, people...

individuals can definitely do a number.

And there is a huge amount of fraud in the social safety nets.

That's without argument.

But we always put it on the individual.

We always place the blame on the people so we can fear them, other them, and

and have something to fight.

That's a scapegoat.

Exactly.

A scapegoat.

While never looking at the businesses and the organizations that are doing it with impunity, as well as almost the endorsement of the federal government itself.

Christine from Slinger texting in, listening on WAUK.

People forget that people who get these benefits spend the money putting it right back into the economy.

Yeah.

And Tiffany from River Falls listening on WLAK in Amory.

And that's before taxes come out.

I've received max unemployment payment years ago and it didn't even pay my rent while I was job searching.

Yep.

And that, yes.

Yes.

These

If you quote unquote get well, I'm not going to call it double dipping.

I'm not using their lingo to attack others.

If you get a revenue stream from two separate insurance payments, whether it's with SSDI and work for unemployment, the the max total you can get is not going to really cover a luxurious lifestyle.

Exactly.

Yeah,

exactly.

There is this.

Yeah, there is this idea again that people who are receiving benefits

Again, all driving Mercedes and getting a Lexus and another yacht.

Oh, wait.

No, that's Jeff Bezos.

Oh,

those

guys.

Yeah.

Oh, I was confused.

When we return, our administration is all about catching waste, fraud and abuse.

We don't want to be wasting money.

That's a terrible, terrible thing.

Let me guess.

Oh, we're wasting a whole bunch of money.

And we'll explain it on the other side.

Stay with us.

You're listening to Matt Nair on air on the Civic Media Radio Network Live from Oshkosh.

Stay with us.

Good morning.

Welcome.

Welcome to Matt Nair on air.

Jane Matt Nair, Greg Box, Sweet Calbee back.

At the studio and radio park in Racine, we are live on location at the EAA Museum here in beautiful Oshkosh, Jane McNair.

Greg Bach, Todd Alba, also going to be doing his show here live starting at 2 o'clock today.

If you're in the Oshkosh area, we would love to meet you.

Absolutely.

The museum is open.

So if you'd like to stop by, we actually have Kringle.

We have Kringle and coffee that will

You'll grow.

I think you will grow.

It'll wake up the rest of your days.

Todd Alba knows how to make one strong pot of coffee.

So stop by and see us.

We would love to meet you.

This is just day one of our road trip with Matt Nair on air and the Todd Alba show today, Oshkosh, tomorrow from Butternut.

And then on Friday, we will be in Hayward.

If you're in those areas, again, come and see us.

We'd love to meet you.

I think we have some t-shirts and some other.

potentially swaggy things

um jane i want to just want to admit to you something oh you forgot the shirt i

forgot

I knew Luke Mathers would be looking at me right now while I said that I forgot.

No problem.

We'll give you a coupon for sure.

Yeah, like when we were kids, like at the Star Wars stories that they'd be like, here's a coupon.

Send it to us and in February you'll get

something.

Sure.

Stop on by.

We'll give you a coupon and then we'll send you a shirt.

I promise it's coming.

Oh, that's awesome.

Yes.

Ida Pinsky from the EAA is going to be joining us after the 9.30 news.

Just to talk about all the do-ins here, there is a lot going on in Oshkosh.

EAA officially kicks off on

to Monday and then help Ryan also connect it to the EAA going to learn more about why Oshkosh and how this thing all got

started and what this means to the

community.

Before we get to the news, though, I did want to mention this because it makes me furious.

We're all about saving money.

We can't waste money.

There's waste and fraud.

This is terrible.

Oh, no, no.

Well, you asked to destroy 500 tons of emergency food as aid freeze stalls global relief efforts.

So we cut off USAID.

Yes.

Yes.

Nearly 500 metric tons of high energy biscuits that the administration bought, the Biden administration bought for $800,000.

We've had this stuff.

We bought them.

We have these things.

Yeah.

So we had this $800,000 worth of these high energy protein biscuits that were meant to feed children.

in crisis zones like Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Well, now USAID staff had asked if we can still do this.

Can we still distribute this stuff?

We have it.

It's already paid for.

No, we're going to destroy it.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio testifying in May that no food aid should go to waste.

Oh, but internal documents reviewed by the Atlantic

show that already by that time he was testifying before Congress that they plan to destroy the food that had already been issued.

Burning up this food is going to cost us an additional $130,000.

I

mean this they have been talking about the effects and I know that Todd wrote a wonderful story on civic media on our website about how his life was impacted by USAID but the

the effects that were felt by cutting this program were felt immediately.

And they spoke about the food that wouldn't get to people, the people who would die because of it.

And there was no convincing anyone differently that this was a terrible idea.

And now, and we're what?

We are five months into the administration.

We are now starting to see just like those numbers are starting to come out.

I mean, this is just, this is shameful.

It is shameful.

This is, I mean,

From a bunch of people who try to speak from a spiritual, faithful point of view, the idea of being, you know, pushing a narrative that is faith-driven, this is something that is actually in the book.

They talk about, like, you know, I don't know, feeding the poor.

That is

in the book.

I believe that's mentioned specifically

in

a very

specific book.

They made a couple fish feed a lot of people.

But, like, that's just it, though.

They're saying instead, like, now we're just gonna, we're not only gonna not do it, we're gonna burn it.

Yeah, I just find this appalling and atrocious, and the height of hypocrisy.

It is the height of hypocrisy to say that we are so concerned about, oh, we already bought

this stuff.

What would it harm getting those, like what would it harm putting it on planes, getting it to the people who needed it, and whatever, you want to cut it off after that, that's reprehensible, but I'm not in charge.

But to do this, it's just a slap in the face.

And also, it's going to have consequences on the perception of this country by those who once needed our help.

They're going to see us as just a horrible nation.

And let's just say that, let's say 2028 happens without a hitch, there's an election.

Donald Trump is not elected into office.

The repair work that the next president is going to have to do is going to be two years of their presidency.

It's going to be, yeah, this is going to take a decade.

Yes,

absolutely.

All

right, we are live here at the EAA Museum in Oshkosh.

I absolutely want to drive that.

I need one of those.

I don't even know what that is.

It's a big car puller thing, or it pulls things.

It's a plane puller.

It's a puller of planes.

Luke, we need one of those.

Can you, Lou, can you put that into the budget?

Just put it as miscellaneous spending, please.

Thank you very much.

Jane wants a toy.

You know what, actually, get two.

Why get one when you get two for twice the price?

Oh, two is better.

Absolutely.

That's

great.

We have news coming up next.

And then when we return, Dick Nabinski from the EAA is here.

He's been doing this forever.

He's also an old TV guy.

Radio guy?

Radio

guy.

So we're going to share lots and lots of stories.

And again, if you were in the Oshkosh area, come out and see us.

The EAA Museum is open.

We are here until 11 o'clock.

You are listening to Matt Nair on air.

Stay with us.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

Next flight to London will be morning in five minutes.

Next plane to London.

Good morning and welcome to Matt and Air on Air.

Jane Matt and Air.

Greg Bach.

Calvin Butenoff coming to you live.

Calvin live at our home at Radio Park in Racine.

We are on the road, baby.

Matt Nair on air and the Todd Alba show on the road.

Our first stop today at the EAA Museum in Oshkosh.

If you're in the area, the museum is open.

We would love to meet you.

Stop on by.

We have fresh coffee that will make you grow several inches.

And we also have Kringle if you are so inclined.

So please join us.

We would love to meet you.

Thank you, Mike.

on the live stream who says, welcome to Oshkosh.

We are so happy to see you both here.

Civic Media is the best.

We really appreciate that, Mike.

Thank you so much.

You know who is the best who is making time out for us and let us in this morning and helped us get all set up.

Dick Nabinsky is here from the EAA.

Good morning, sir.

How are you?

Welcome to the house.

Great to be here.

There we go.

That works a little bit better.

There we go.

Yeah.

People have said that's always been my best voice And but yeah, welcome to the house.

It's there's a lot going on There's a lot going on today's airplane moving day by the way in fact of us going on as we get ready for air venture next Monday We were moving these airplanes out onto the flight line and people can see them outdoors when they're here And then we use this eagle hanger inside our museum for a lot of public functions as well during the week

because there are I mean other than there's the great air show which which happens every day which is

Fantastic.

I used to come up every year for it.

I knew some of the skydivers.

But you have all kinds of classes, and there's so much involved with the EAA beyond just the air

show.

Oh, you're right, Jane, because you think about this event during the course of the week.

We have nine air shows in seven days, two night air shows and so forth.

We have one of the largest aviation education conferences in the world.

We have 1,400 different seminars going on here in the week.

We have more than 800 exhibitors.

So it's one of the biggest aviation trade shows in the world.

And then in this facility here on Thursday night, we put on a fundraiser for our education program that raises $2 million.

Oh, wow.

And so it's a big fundraiser, too.

And for a lot of organizations, any one of those things would be a full year.

thing.

And we do it all in one week.

Oh, by the way, we've got 40,000 people who are going to be camping right here too.

So we've got the second largest city in Winnebago County that pops up for a week as well.

That's amazing.

It's amazing.

Wow.

I mean, and you were saying before we got on the air that people, and I mentioned this earlier, that people show up like a week and a half ago to get good camping spots.

Like they're here.

They're particular

spots.

And they

spend the month here.

And

this

is their summer thing.

Oh yeah, we opened up our campground on June 27th and we had several hundred people lined up ready to get their camp spots.

In fact, we've got a system to make sure, okay people, let's be orderly and get your numbers.

It's kind of a deli system.

Okay, number one, go get your camp spot.

And so they get in and a lot of these people have camped next to each other for 20, 30 years.

Their families have grown up next to one another.

A lot of them are volunteers.

They'll spend some time out here and doing everything.

Some of the people you see pulling airplanes today in the red shirts, they're all volunteers.

No kidding.

They're out here and they're tugging airplanes around and just having a great time with

it.

And we talked about this before we even got on the air, just about.

the history and the relationships and at the hotel we were at the myriad last night in downtown Oshkosh and I heard two guys speak and I couldn't even understand they were foreign

but it's

like I know why you're here yeah I

know

you're here for the A.A.A.

I'm sure you're here for the A.A.A.

I mean it's just it's and walking into this room alone and we've got a shot of it right now on the live stream and now that some of the planes are gone but

in front of us right now are just these beautiful planes that have fought wars.

And next to us, we have a Huey that fought, you said, I believe you said three.

Three tours in Vietnam.

Three tours in Vietnam.

So the history is just, it's over, it's almost overwhelming.

And there's just such beautiful artwork on the wall showing exactly where these planes fought and the things they did for this country.

Just this room alone is perfect and wonderful.

The rest of the campus is excellent.

And I love the component of the education.

And I know that when I was listening last year, I believe you were on as well, you talk about the educational programs you have for kids.

Yeah, we do.

It all starts off with our Young Eagles program.

Our members throughout the country donate their time, the airplanes, the fuel to fly kids for absolutely free ages 8 through 17, our Young Eagles program.

We have flown

2.4 million kids in 40 years.

Wow.

Wow.

Matter of fact, there are approximately 20 to 30,000 of today's pilots under the age of 40 who started with a young eagle's flight.

No kidding.

And so the people flying your regional jets today, your airliners, they're in the military programs, they are in all the college aviation programs right now.

A lot of them started as that first flight, young eagle, and it might be here.

It might be in a chapter someplace in California and Arkansas and Delaware that they got that first flight with an EA member and said, this is cool.

I want to do this.

I want to do this.

We've talked to the EAA in Racine.

We talked to, and

they actually, yeah.

They came on, talked about the Young Eagles program, and we actually made us official members of the EAA last year, and we have our badge at home,

and I was

just like, it's wonderful.

And I love that educational aspect for young people, because another thing I remember you discussing is that this industry is an industry that is teaming with jobs.

It is.

All kinds of jobs.

good jobs too.

These are like they're almost like they remind me of like trade jobs in the sense that you get trained, you get you learn how to do these these tasks, and then eventually like you're employable pretty much.

Oh, anywhere

in the world who needs this work?

Exactly right.

Not just pilots, too.

A lot of people think airline pilots, but you need the technicians, the people that fix the airplanes.

You need engineers within the aviation industry.

There are room for marketers, people in finance, slubs like me in the communications.

I'm a schlub.

I can get a job here.

That's right.

Yes.

Look for the listing under schlubs.

Those kind of things.

are all available within aviation and now with the drone community, the urban air mobility community, starting all that technology coming to the fore, there's a whole new horizon developing right now

in the world of flight, in the world of aviation.

Well I never even considered the whole drone aspect of it, that's huge.

One

thing we're going to have during AirVenture

is a company called Wing and they're actually going to do demonstrations over part of our campground on what

The delivery service is going to look like in the future.

And there's a lot of airspace issues that we're working out right now between drones and manned aircraft and things like that.

And there's some controversy and some conflict.

But that is part of the future as well.

And that airspace is going to be shared.

And so how do we do that safely and effectively?

That's one of the questions coming up for the future.

Well,

we got to start talking about how we're going to navigate it now because it's coming.

It's not going to go

away.

And if you're just joining us, we have Dick Npinski, who's here from the EAA.

They are good.

I'm not doing anything.

You don't want me near this.

But next week is the big EAA event that happens.

And it brings in, how many people does it bring in?

Just from the people driving in their campers alone, flying in, how many people do you have on the property?

Last year, we had a record attendance.

This is an aggregate attendance, much like the Brewers have an aggregate attendance throughout the year, 686,000.

of total attendance here now that's between two hundred thousand three hundred thousand separate bodies that is on who are on these grounds during the course of the week and you're right a lot of them fly in uh... think about the draft and that the green bay had back in late april right tremendous event they did a great job of their hosting the draft and they had about six hundred thousand people there

once in a lifetime event for Green Bay.

We do that every year.

And so it's bringing it together.

We had people here from 94 countries last year and you take a look at that and the world literally comes to Oshkosh for a week.

And if you talk to pilots around the world and simply say the word Oshkosh.

They know exactly what you're talking

about.

That's amazing.

What a wonderful bonding thing for everybody.

Seriously, and even if you think that's not my thing, I don't want to... If you get in here, there is something that's going to grab you.

I'm telling you.

Just the museum

alone.

Just

the

museum.

We were talking about this before you joined the stick.

That little spitfire.

I mean, it's tiny.

It's this teeny, tiny little thing.

And being able to get up close to it and see it like this gives you a whole different appreciation for what our armed forces went through and what they experienced.

Looking at the spot where the Bombardier

set.

and uh... uh... yeah

i mean

it's it's

at the belly turret that's amazing that's a scary place after you were five foot six they stuck you in there and you spent eight hours on the bottom of the project and uh... hoping that first of all nobody was shooting at you exactly and second of all that the pilot remembered to put the landing gear down when you landed

that would be

important that's helpful that's very

very helpful that is

helpful now dick i wanted to ask you something there's been a lot of there's been a lot of controversy within the

Transportation Department, FAA, we had huge tragic accidents happening this year.

And I wanted to talk more to you about, you said something interesting off air about the safety record.

in America with regard to air travel, that we do not hear.

I personally have never heard anyone from the organization talk about the record versus what we see in the news.

Can you speak more

on that, please?

Sure.

When those accidents happen and they're tragic, the one that happened in Reagan National, of course, earlier this year, the Air India one that happened recently.

Tragic stuff, when that happens with airliners, very high profile and so forth, people say, oh my goodness, is air travel safe?

Yes, actually, if you take a look at the graph over the last 50 years, air traffic has gotten considerably safer.

For instance, just in our recreational community, the accident rate has dropped by about 50% over the last 40 years.

Really?

You know, better training, better technology in the cockpit, things like that.

So those kind of things are happening.

And one reason it makes the news is because it is so rare.

Yeah.

And, you know, we get on an airplane and there's a level of trust there.

All of us do that.

We get on an airliner, go someplace, and there's a level of trust there.

And when something like that happens, you go, oh boy, I'm not in control of that.

What is going on there?

One thing that these accidents did do, however, is put a focus on the FAA and the technology needs that they have.

Everybody's talking about, hey, we have to update the air traffic control system, which is entirely true.

The FAA knows it.

The air traffic controllers know it.

They are understaffed.

They need resources.

They still have people printing off paper briefings on strips of paper as they did 40 years ago, 50 years ago.

That technology has to be upgraded.

And so it's great to see that Congress and the White House have agreed saying, we have to put resources behind this and update this and bring this up to the technology.

which matches what the pilots in many cases have now in the cockpit with ADS-B, the sea and avoid, the weather radars and everything else that are such a part of what we have here on our computers, our iPads.

And a lot of us who fly actually use iPads now just as much as the instruments to see what the weather is, where the airports are, what alternate airports are, our routes.

It's an amazing thing.

And that's another

job too that we were just speaking about, you know, air traffic controllers.

I know they need them.

They're desperately desperately neat.

And those are jobs that are out there that

I understand that they're high stress, but they are important and critical.

Things that kids can, if they see that, if they see that, they'll be like, oh, that's something I want to do.

And if they're given the support and technology they need, it becomes more attractive to get into the industry, to do that versus seeing the stories we're seeing now.

I mean, I applaud the White House and Congress for taking, because as you mentioned, it's been decades of back and forth.

Yeah.

And

now they're finally.

We'll do it later.

We'll do it later.

We'll do it later.

But now they're taking charge, and that's

great well it's like you know you have a house and you always put off that maintenance pretty soon you know everything falls apart all at once yeah you know same type of situation you've got one of those things where you you've patched a long technology for so long right how do you bring it up to where it needs to be and since you've patched it for that long it's going to take

a subspecable investment to put into it.

Absolutely.

Nick Nipinski is our guest.

We are here at the EAA Museum, day one of On the Road with Matt Nair on air and the Todd Alba show.

So delighted to be here.

If you are in the area, the museum is open.

Please come in and say hello.

We got coffee, we got crinkle, all kinds of things.

No shirts though.

Yeah, that's, no, that's not

me.

No

shirts.

No shirts.

No shirts.

No, sorry.

We'll give you a coupon.

It's all

good.

We only have a couple of minutes before we got a

take a short pause but I when we come back I want to talk a little bit more about the scholarship opportunities for kids and what this can mean because as you and I had talked about learning how to fly can be an expensive proposition yes and so what this offers them and also

What this does for the city of Oshkosh and why this is so important to this area.

Stay with us.

You are listening to Matt and Air on Air.

This is the vast statewide, countrywide.

You can pick us up globally on the app, baby.

The Civic Media Radio Network.

Good, good morning and welcome, welcome back to Matt and Air on Air.

Jane Matt and Air, Greg Buck, Calvin Butenoff.

Calvin is holding things down at the Fort at Radio Park in Racine.

Greg and I and Todd Alba on the road.

It is our summer road trip for Matt Nair on air and the Todd Alba show.

We are here at the EAA Museum.

EAA Air Venture kicks off on Monday.

And one of the grounding people you've been here forever.

Dick Nipinski has been with the EAA.

How long?

How many years?

This is 33 now.

33.

Wow.

I'm old.

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

went there spent nine years in park falls and butternut and i've got a lot of those stories i can even tell you about wood tick racing and oxbowl and all of those things

you're coming you're going to have with us now

wood

tick racing a very a

severely wisconsin thing or it is yeah now happy to say we won the wood tick race back at the hockey with the plot there

you

go

There's actually a photo in the Sawyer County Gazette from May 1984 that I still have back when I had hair.

And

it was

holding the trophy with the bug on top of

it.

That is priceless.

That is just priceless.

One of our colleagues, Terry Barr, worked with you years ago, I believe, in television.

And was your nickname Napster?

Mostly Napper.

Yeah,

mine's too,

but it's usually because I'm sleeping

a

lot.

Let's go back to the scholarship program that the EAA offers, because learning how to fly can be a very expensive venture.

How far do you take these kids?

It all depends you know some of them are we have college scholarships several hundred thousand dollars of scholarships that we hand out for our kids that are going to aviation programs maybe technician programs some of them are very dedicated some of them general scholarships but we've got a lot of great benefactors who have helped fund that through the years and one we have is called the Ray scholarship program aviation scholarship program and it allows kids up to you know we've got more than two million dollars a year that we fund

through local chapters throughout the country and their full flight training scholarships up to $12,000.

These kids can earn their private pilot certificate and they become chapter members.

They help with the chapter and it's for young people basically ages 17 through 21.

They earn these things.

They go off, get their pilot certificate.

A lot of them get into the track and what's really nice is out of every hundred people who start flight training normally, 80 of them drop out.

We've reversed that.

80 to 75 to 80 percent of them complete their pilot training and the dropout rate is only about 20-25 percent which is incredible.

That's amazing.

That's what we're trying to do throughout the industry to get people engaged to make sure that affordability comes into it because yeah flying is an expensive

pursuit

with everything involved but once you learn it

you have it and so many doors

open up to you.

And we were talking about jobs a little bit earlier.

Airplane maintenance jobs are really good jobs.

I have a friend whose son just finished.

And again, he doesn't want to fly.

He doesn't want to be a pilot.

That's not his thing.

Maybe, you know, the math was the math because there's a lot of math involved in being a pilot.

That wasn't his thing, but he found his niche.

in in the mechanics of it

yeah and that's goes back to what you were saying earlier is that it's not just about pilots it's not just about flying this industry has so many opportunities for careers and that's something that you at the EAA talk about to expose to people and let them understand

the all of those things that are available because I mean we don't you don't think about that you don't think you don't think about that all the people involved you think about pilots and you think about the people who directly affect you yes

and

there's so much

more and so much more behind the

scenes yeah and all of us who fly have somebody who takes care of our airplane yeah most of us are no can do some of the simple stuff yeah but they have somebody who you have to have your plane inspected every year every 100 hours whichever comes first and there are people that have to sign off and do that

And a lot of those people are getting to retirement age.

And so there is a whole backfill situation here for young people to get involved and we can help them with scholarships and help them direct them toward that career path.

It's a great, come and check it out.

Absolutely.

And the other thing I wanted to just mention real quickly in the time that we have left it is people who are afraid to fly.

do you deal with you are other there are programs for people to to take advantage of our third programs

in their reasons why why are they afraid right is it something that they're not in control is it something that

You know, the weather.

You get a little bit of a bump sometime.

You're flying along and things might bump.

And so you have to have those kind of things.

And so we'll work with people.

A lot of the aviation organizations will have that, the fearful flyer type situation.

Or the pinch hitter course.

Let's say your spouse is a pilot and you ride along.

Well, what happens if something happens to him or her?

Can you land the airplane?

We have courses and other organizations have courses that say, OK, we can do basics.

It will teach

you how to operate the

airplane.

And so what is the fear, first of all?

What's that individual fear?

What can we do?

And sometimes it is getting people to take that first lesson with a flight instructor to understand how it all works.

It's not a magic box that propels itself into the air.

And some people think, people often ask me,

How do airplanes fly?

What makes them fly?

So that's easy, money.

But actually, it is.

It's a machine like any other machine, like a car, lawn mower, motorcycle, power boat.

It's learning to understand how it operates

and what

you

do.

Then it all comes together.

Yeah, that makes perfect sense, though.

Aerodynamics play a role in shear and all these things.

And so, yeah, I can see once it is explained with logic.

that, right, it's not just a magical box that all of a sudden we don't know how it works.

We just

get in, we start it up and we drive and it goes.

I trust the two people, the three people in the front to just press the right buttons and I'll be in Cleveland and it'll be fine.

And so do I when I

fly commercial.

Any last tips for folks who might be heading up next week?

Okay, first thing, July 21st through the 27th.

Next week we start on Monday morning.

You can go to EA.org slash tickets to get the tickets.

If you're coming up here by car, go online, get your parking.

You'll save seven bucks a day on parking.

get it there and you'll zip right through, can get to the flight line.

Dick Nipinsky with the EAA, thank you so very, very much.

Always a pleasure.

We are delighted to be here.

We have news coming up next, and then Hal Bryan is going to talk about a little bit of the history of the EAA.

Can't wait.

Why Oshkosh?

No one knows.

And we have t-shirts.

And we got t-shirts.

I didn't bring them.

You are listening to Matt Nair on air.

We are live on the road from the EAA Museum.

Stay with us.

You are listening to the Civic Media Radio Network.

Good morning and welcome.

Welcome to Matt Nair on air.

Jane Matt Nair, Greg Bach, Calvin Butenoff holding things down at Radio Park in Racine.

Greg and I and Todd Alba, we are on the road.

We are live from the EAA Museum in Oshkosh.

You can join us.

The museum is open.

If you're in the area, we would love to meet you.

Stop on by.

Now we have t-shirts.

Courtesy of Eliza.

Thank you so much, Eliza, for bringing the t-shirts down.

Oh, let me hit my plug.

We need one, I need one at home.

Just at your house?

Yes, I just want one at home.

And Cassandra on the live stream says, well, now I'm definitely stopping by if there's t-shirts.

Absolutely.

Come on by and pick up a W-I-S-S t-shirt.

Have some Kringle, have a cup of coffee, and hang with us here at the E-A-A Museum.

Delighted to be joined by Hal Bryan.

You are the emperor, we were told.

There may have been something slightly lost in translation.

Slightly missed there a little bit.

A slight fluffing

of the title, perhaps.

I feel like I've been demoted a little

bit.

My working title, my actual title is Managing Editor.

Managing Editor.

So I work on EA's publications team year round and we produce magazines and digital content and next week during the big event we'll do a daily newspaper every day.

Wow.

A daily newspaper.

I guess it's redundant to say it's daily every day but it sounds like more work that way doesn't it?

You gotta remind people

daily

every day.

They may have

lost track between those birds.

That's a

lot of pressure.

Does it show?

No, you look calm as a cucumber.

Let's talk a little bit about the history of the EAA and out of all the places in the world, out of all the airports in all the world, why did you fly into mine?

Why did you fly

into mine?

Well, it goes back quite a ways, actually.

So, yeah, founded in 1953 as a membership organization, starting with about 30 people, wanted to get together and share their passion for building airplanes, and then very quickly thereafter that grew into also restoring old airplanes, whether they were old military airplanes, we call warbirds, vintage, things like that.

Then it came time with the founders were deciding, hey, we need an annual get together.

So they did some things in Milwaukee for a couple of years.

Well, they did in

Curtis Wright, now Timmerman Field.

Right.

Right.

Then in 1956, a guy named Steve Whitman, who was the manager of the Oshkosh Airport for many years, a notable air racer.

We've got exhibits devoted to him here and the airport is now named after him.

He said, you know, Oshkosh has some interesting traits.

You should come up here and give it a try.

So 1956.

the organization came up here.

The weather was terrible.

It wasn't a great, it just wasn't a great year.

So they went back to Milwaukee, 1959.

They kind of outgrew that, moved up to the, out to the Rockford Airport in Illinois.

So did Rockford from 59 to 69 and then really, really outgrew that.

So a good old Steve Whippen came back and said, Hey, let's, why don't you take another look at Oshkosh.

And it's got

A lot of great things going for it.

Number one, for an airport that doesn't have sort of scheduled airline service, although we did briefly in the 80s, the runways are really big.

It's a big property.

You can accommodate all kinds

of aircraft.

All kinds of aircraft and large numbers of people.

There was a lot of property around it.

And one of the other key things is that our two biggest runways, which are 927, which goes east-west, 1836, which runs north-south,

unlike most airports, they don't cross over each other.

Oh, they're actually separate.

So this is one of the I can't name another airport at the top of my head.

There's not does that.

But it's very uncommon.

And that's what lets us accommodate so many airplanes coming in

as

we can have one whole

you know a major operation going on one runway while they're coming in and coming in and we can accept arrivals on the other runway or departures going the other way we can keep them totally totally separate like that and You know that was somewhere between some really really good

you had a foresight.

And I also think a stroke of luck because as big as it was when we came here in 1970, it's nothing compared to what it is.

It is just exploded.

My goodness, Dick was telling us with 600,000 people, that's astonishing.

Yeah,

yeah, that's like that.

I mean, those are amazing numbers.

And we said before and we'll mention again, the busiest airport in the world for one week.

I mean, I have friends who have memories of coming here with their their parents flying in, not just driving in, but flying in from all over the country.

And I mean, this, you know, I have passed the EAA hundreds of times in my

travels.

Coming up 41,

right?

Yep, always you pass it.

I've never, this is my first opportunity to be here.

And just in the museum alone, where we're at right now, is for me would be like, oh, that's enough for me.

But to see everything else is, I mean, absolutely amazing.

And all of the programs that are happening, I'm sure have grown over these.

Decades upon decades.

I mean like was it just as you said?

Just people coming together and talking.

When did the educational component come into the event?

That actually pretty early on.

You start with, hey, let's get together because you're into this thing and I'm into this thing.

Let's hang out and show off each other's airplanes.

And it was really within the first few years that we started seeing people, hey, I know how to do this.

Maybe I know a little bit about welding or fabric covering or sheet metal.

wouldn't have been composites of fiberglass back then.

That wasn't until the 70s.

But so we say, maybe I can set up a tent and I can teach people some tips and, you know, trade things back and forth.

And it just grew organically from there.

And that organic growth is really

the secret, well, one of a thousand secret ingredients

that made this whole

thing.

If you set out today, you looked at what we do here, and we've had people from other countries, Dick can talk at length about this, that have come and said, okay, we want an air venture in our country, so how do we make it?

Well, start with 30 people that are really

enthusiastic.

We're

very passionate.

you know, wait 70 years and see what happens.

I mean, there's, you know, we've got, I mentioned secret agreements real quick.

I do have to say that the biggest secret agreed in, of course, is our volunteers.

Yes.

Six thousand volunteers have made this happen and we have, we have some that are at least into their fourth generation in a family.

And we're writing stories about them and they just, they show up, they realize how magic it is, they love it, they want to be a part of it, and they keep it going.

And

They could do it without us, we couldn't do it without them.

That's amazing.

It probably isn't a specific Wisconsin thing, but I think of the same thing with the State Fair.

And there are people who have worked at the Cream Puff Palace for 20 years and their mother did and their grandmother did.

And they take vacation during that event just to work at the Cream Puff Palace because that's history.

That's their family.

And it sounds like the same thing here at EAA.

It

absolutely is.

I mean, we've had proposals here.

We've had marriages here.

I'm sure other, you know,

other families.

Maybe some heartbreaks involved in there.

Probably a heartbreak or two here and there.

But it is really, really humbling.

And you've spoken to volunteers over the years, you know, and they're showing up here in, maybe in March, and they start camping to work through the summer.

And then, you know, maybe they go back home in, like, November or October.

Really?

And so, you know, I'm asking, well, you know,

you know, where are you from as well?

We're in Florida or wherever they are.

And I say, but if you're here more than you're there, you're, you're, this is home.

Yeah.

You know, when you're

here, you know, you're, you're going somewhere else and that, that dedication is, is staggering.

It's humbling and, and thank goodness it's infectious.

If you're just joining us, we are talking to Hal Bryan, who is the managing editor of EAA, also known as the Managing Overlord, as he has asked me to say.

Or

Emper.

Emper, you know, it's such a thing.

Vice Roy, whatever he wants, we'll call him that.

The question I have for you personally with this event, first of all, two parts.

One, how long have you been doing it?

How long have you been at EAA doing this event?

What are the things that you look forward to during the

week?

Oh, wow.

It's a terrific question.

So prior to EA, I was living out in Seattle and we're a company out there that was a sponsor and an exhibitor here.

So I came out here.

I came out here once when I was 21 because I'm an airplane guy.

Yeah.

And this is the place to be.

We flew out of Seattle.

Right.

Then about 10 years after that, I started coming every year with my company.

So it became a became this thing I would look forward to every summer.

And then 16 years.

ago.

I was hired to come on out here and take a job initially working on some social media type things before I moved into publications.

So it, again, it's that sort of organic growth.

It's hard to say, but for me personally as an employee of EA, it's been 16 years.

I'm a second-generation pilot.

I'm an aviation nut.

This was a place, from the time I could talk, I would say, you know, hey, Dad, when are we going to go to Oshkosh?

Sure.

I

wouldn't have told you where it was or what

an Oshkosh was.

I just

knew that this was the place that's synonymous with aviation.

So of course, I'm looking forward to all of that.

But I work, and this is going to sound hokey, but it's as sincere as it could be.

I work with the absolute best team in the business.

And what I look forward to more than anything else is just we grab our laptops, we leave our offices up here, we have a remote building down in the thick of things on the convention grounds, and we just work and work and work and work, you know, 19 days straight on everything, and we love every

second of it.

How many jobs can you say that about?

Honestly, though, that's a gift.

I mean, that's really a gift.

You know, that's not to be like sounding like a supreme suck up.

But like, that's how I feel about what we do here.

It's like we work with great people.

We talk about great things.

We talk to have great conversations with individuals having a great impact on communities.

And it's you feel lucky to do it.

And and and.

the stories we hear about EAA and the camaraderie and the fun.

It sounds like it sounds like summer camp for all ages.

That's a great way to put it.

And, you know, that that enthusiasm store, if it's not it's not just staff, it's not just it's not just volunteers.

Of course, it's the those hundreds of thousands of people who come and some of them this is their this is their vacation.

They write every year.

Some of them you might meet.

This is their bucket list thing.

They wanted to do this

their

entire lives.

But everybody who comes here