By Barbara A. Schmitz
It’s the “one week wonder” of pancake grills.
AirVenture attendees and chapter members are helping to fabricate and assemble a pancake grill in the Young Eagles Blue Barn each morning of EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2025.
John Egan, EAA senior chapters manager, said he came up with the idea to build the grill during AirVenture, having created the chapter blueprints in 2010. Chapters can pick up the blueprints and a “secret recipe” at the Blue Barn. The grill should take about 25-30 hours to build.
One of the first chapters to build the grill was Chapter 1041 in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Chapter President Henry Hartman said the grill is durable and makes about 40 pancakes at a time. The Gettysburg chapter also created the “secret recipe.” The secret ingredient is applesauce — Gettysburg is located in Adams County, the No. 1 fruit-growing county in the state, he said.
“We couldn’t make pancakes fast enough with the grills we had,” Henry said. Now their chapter puts on two pancake breakfasts per summer, in June and September.
“If we have a good weekend, we can make as much as $5,000,” he said, adding that they serve from 8 a.m. to noon Saturday and Sunday. On a good morning, they’ll serve up to 600 breakfasts, on a not-so-good day, the number is closer to 300-400.
Henry said their breakfast includes all-you-can-eat pancakes, as well as scrambled eggs, sausages, hashbrowns, coffee, tea and juice.
John said: “A traditional pancake breakfast is common for chapters. It’s an opportunity to fly to a destination on a Saturday morning and have a breakfast, and it’s a fundraiser for a local chapter. In fact, one of the most common chapter fundraisers is pancake breakfasts.”
Chapters are also holding pancake breakfasts each morning in the northeast corner of Camp Scholler throughout the week. A different chapter hosts each day, and chapters usually serve up to 900 breakfasts between 7 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. The cost is $9.
Once completed, the grill will be used at AirVenture indefinitely.
Photo Caption: Henry Hartman, an EAA chapters volunteer and president of Chapter 1041 in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and John Egan, EAA’s senior chapters manager, stand by the pancake grill being built in the Young Eagles Blue Barn.