AirVenture 2022 was a record-breaking week with 650,000 attendees, 18,684 take-offs and landings, twenty hours of eye-popping airshows, 3,226 planes to be judged, and a record 1,156 homebuilt aircraft along with an eye-popping 369 warbirds. The commercial side of the show was equally exceptional; 803 exhibitors jammed into booths and tents sprawled across the site, 5,000 volunteers, and 1,000 portable toilets cleaned daily (take THAT, Sun-n-Fun!). Even Mother Nature played nicely this week. Exceptional, amazing, record-breaking. One eye-popping accomplishment right after the other. By the end of the week, it’s just normal. I became numb to shiny aluminum and exotic airfoils, the engine noise, the simulated explosions, the astounding avionics, even the bad food. At an event full of the amazing, I wandered aimlessly, looking for something interesting. I had normalized AirVenture.
