Thursday, July 26, 2018, was Day 4 of AirVenture, and was easily the most emotional day of the week. As they do every year, the RPA honored America’s military veterans by performing a flyover of the Kingman Veterans Hospital on Thursday morning. This year, the flyover included L-Birds, which brought Birddogs and Navions to Kingman. After making several passes over the hospital, the pilots landed at nearby Waupaca Municipal Airport, where two busloads of ambulatory veterans arrived to meet the pilots and share memories of their military service. This is a meaningful tradition that the RPA intends to continue.

We had an interesting armada of aircraft that headed to the Kingman Veterans Hospital.  The RPA was joined by L-Birds, including Navions flown by Tom Burlace and Greg Young, as well as the Warbird Heritage Foundation Skyraider flown by John Shuttleworth

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Shuttleworth led three Nanchang CJ-6s over Waupaca Airport before heading back to Oshkosh.

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It was difficult not to get emotional seeing these militay heros who came out to greet us. This was obviously a big deal to them, which made it a big deal to us. A group of us landed at Waupaca to meet two busloads of veterans. Dan Booker is seen here greeting several veterans.

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Lee Haven and his son also spent time talking with the veterans who made a point of coming out to Waupaca.

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Herb Coussons also brought his son along to thank the veterans for their service

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The veterans took great interest in the CJ-6s at Waupaca

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Joe Oram answers questions about his Yak 52

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Our pilots looked every bit as happy as the veterans were

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Rico Jaeger and his First Lady, Carrie Ann.

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Jaeger’s good-looking Yak-52

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Tom Burlace and Greg Young were the two Navion drivers.

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Getting ready for a break right to land on Runway 27 at Oshkosh. Man, look at all those airplanes!

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Back on the ground at Oshkosh, Bob Graves (R) is greeted by RPA member and aerobatic expert Jon Elam.