FOND DU LAC (NBC 26) — Fans call it a “mini EAA.”
Warbirds and Classics Over the Midwest is back in Fond du Lac for its 17th year. The event features model airplanes that are near-exact replicas of their full-size counterparts, and pilots from across the country come to participate in the show.
“You'll go to the EAA, you'll see lots of airplanes, lots of pilots… and you'll see that here too; it's just on a smaller scale,” said event organizer Doug Woolridge. “But many of the people who've built these airplanes don't spare on the details.”
Woolridge explained the difference between warbirds and classics.
“A warbird is a model airplane that's designed based on a real military aircraft," Woolridge said. "Classics for us is a scale model of an airplane that was designed and flown before 1960."
Looking through the airfield, spectators will see the intricately-made planes and the pilots and builders behind them, most of whom are men.
But female flyer Bonnie O’Meara said that doesn’t deter her.
“I was in the Army for four years, so I'm not intimidated by guys who huff and puff and you know, puff their shoulders up, and Mr. Macho Man… so I just joined right in,” O’Meara said.
She said she became interested in flying by watching her husband Brian O’Meara practice his hobby. She soon decided to get involved herself. Not only does she work with the model planes, she’s currently getting her own pilot’s license to fly private airplanes.
“I never dreamed that I would even want to learn to fly, but nobody told me I couldn't,” Bonnie O’Meara said.
Brian O’Meara said she flew them from Colorado to Fond du Lac for the weekend.
“She turned 70 years old and she said, ' I want to learn a new trick,’” Brian O’Meara said. “I said, ‘Oh boy, what do you want to do?’ She said, ‘I want to be a pilot.’”
Together, the two attend and host flying events like Warbirds Over the Midwest.
"She's the person who's standing right next to me, telling me what maneuvers to do,” Brian O’Meara said.
One focus of the event that the O’Mearas and others enjoy is the history of the aircraft. Aviation enthusiasts learn about the pilots who flew the planes, and what wars they fought in.
“It’s the story of how our country became our country,” Bonnie O’Meara said.
Pilots and event organizers said these planes can cost upwards of $25,000 and take 100 hours to build, which is not an easy task.
But for the pilots in Fond du Lac this weekend, it’s worth it.
“We just love this event,” Brian O’Meara said. “The field is like no other field anywhere in the world.”
