Future Sport Pilot Kevin Kopp waits while flight instructor Jim Kress works up an application for Kopp’s student paperwork, one of the many services offered at the Learn to Fly Center at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2008. Photo by  Dave Higdon

Ted Sanders, chairman of the Learn to Fly Discovery Center at AirVenture, has a medical warning for potential pilots.

"It is addictive," he said. "And there’s no 12-step program for it."

Aviation could hardly have a more enthusiastic advocate than Sanders, who is otherwise a flight instructor. Teaching, he said, is his way of giving back for the privilege of flying.

"I get to see things nobody else can see," he said.

The Learn to Fly Discovery Center has received a great response from visitors to its speaker program, with expert flight instructors—members of the National Association of Flight Instructors—telling audiences about the joy of flying. The center also has been issuing sport pilot student pilot certificates at a rate of more than 100 a day.

Some 3,000 people will pass through the Learn to Fly Discovery Center by the time AirVenture ends. That is just fine with Sanders. "I’m selling flying," he said. "It couldn’t get any better than this."