The 2022 EAA AirVenture event at Oshkosh was the biggest ever, with more than 650,000 people attending what the association bills—arguably so—as the world’s largest annual aviation event. With so many new airframe manufacturers on the grounds, the FLYING staff came back with a long running list of aircraft for future “We Fly” pilot reports.
With a large editorial team with varying degrees of experience, ranging from student all the way to the most advanced military fighters, FLYING has a great opportunity to divide and conquer when it comes to presenting our audience with the latest offerings and classic flying companions. I hold a private pilot certificate with single-engine airplane and seaplane ratings, so aircraft in these categories tend to be the ones that I focus my attention on.
Enter the VL-3
One such aircraft that I have been dying to fly is the VL-3 with retractable gear built by JMB Aircraft. When I was looking for a cross-country airplane to complement my ICON A5 amphib, I looked at the JMB lineup as an option. I was not intimately familiar with the brand, so I went with the Tecnam Astore instead.
JMB is based in the Czech Republic and is run by two Belgium brothers that got their start by being the exclusive reseller of Aveko in France and Belgium. In 2018, as JMB they purchased Aveko and went through a massive redesign and performance upgrade to the original VL-3 aircraft, then marketed as the Sprint.
