Greg Koontz, the Super Decathlon, and the Quiet Craft Behind the Loudest Photo at Oshkosh

On August 3, 2026, AVweb published a Picture of the Day featuring airshow pilot Greg Koontz and his American Champion Super Decathlon, photographed at EAA AirVenture 2026 in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Behind the simple image of a high-wing taildragger is a bigger story: the Super Decathlon is one of the few certified airplanes built both for aerobatics and for training, and it sits at the center of aviation’s most stubborn safety problem - loss of control in flight.

Why This Photo Matters for Pilots

The airplane in the frame is a working tool, not just a pretty subject. The Super Decathlon is one of the very few certified aircraft you can buy new that is genuinely built to be flown upside down and to carry two people out for a hundred-dollar hamburger.

It is stressed for aerobatics to positive 6 G’s and negative 5 G’s in its certified envelope. Yet it’s docile and honest enough that flight schools use it to teach tailwheel flying, spin training, and upset recovery to pilots who have never rolled an airplane in their lives.

That combination is rare. Most aerobatic airplanes are single-seat, twitchy, or built strictly for competition. Most trainers get nervous in a steep turn. The Super Decathlon does a clean loop and a crisp roll, then settles down to let a student practice wheel landings until sunset.

What Is the American Champion Super Decathlon?

The design is not new. Its roots trace back through the Champion line to the Aeronca family of light taildraggers that taught a generation of Americans to fly. Today it’s built by American Champion Aircraft, based in Wisconsin.

The Decathlon belongs to a small group of fabric-and-tube taildraggers still in new production, alongside the Citabria and the Scout. These are honest airplanes: fabric over a steel-tube frame, wood or metal spars depending on model and year, a stick instead of a yoke, and a tailwheel that demands your feet stay awake all the way to a full stop.

Who Is Greg Koontz?

Greg Koontz has been flying airshows for decades. Pilots who’ve attended regional shows across the American South and Midwest over the last thirty or forty years have likely seen his act.

He is best known for two things: precision aerobatics in the Decathlon, and a comedy routine in which it appears an unqualified spectator has stolen an airplane and is barely keeping it aloft. In reality, it’s one of the most demanding low-level acts in the business, flown by a master.

The part the photo doesn’t show: Koontz is also an instructor. He runs a flight training operation teaching tailwheel, aerobatics, and the recovery skills that keep pilots alive. The performer and the teacher are the same person.

The Real Story: Loss of Control in Flight

Loss of control in flight has sat at or near the top of the general aviation fatal accident list for years. Stalls, spins, botched base-to-final turns, disorientation, and unusual attitudes the pilot never trained to recover from - the airplane was flying fine, then the pilot lost control, and too often that was the end.

The FAA and the NTSB have said the same thing for years: the single biggest lever to move that number is training - specifically, training that takes pilots outside the gentle box most of us fly inside every day. Steep unusual attitudes. The onset of a spin and how it feels in your body before the airplane departs. A real cross-controlled skid when you’re slow, low, and distracted.

You cannot learn that from a book or a video. You learn it in an airplane built to be taken there safely, with an instructor who has been there ten thousand times - an airplane like a Super Decathlon, an instructor like Greg Koontz. This is exactly what the industry now calls Upset Prevention and Recovery Training (UPRT).

How Oshkosh Fits In

For one week each summer, EAA AirVenture Oshkosh becomes, by traffic count, one of the busiest pieces of airspace on the planet. The Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) runs it, moving something on the order of 10,000 aircraft through the wider area, with controllers brought in specifically for the event.

The famous arrival procedure over the railroad tracks at Ripon and the town of Fisk demands a specific speed and altitude - you rock your wings when told and don’t touch the radio. It’s a masterclass in the same skills discussed above: precise airspeed and altitude control, situational awareness in heavy traffic, and doing what you’re told, when you’re told, without hesitation.

What You Can Do Next

If that photograph stirred something in you, there’s a concrete next step - and it doesn’t require buying an aerobatic airplane. Note: this is general guidance, not time-sensitive news.

Most of the country has an instructor within reasonable range who offers an introductory aerobatic or upset recovery flight - about one hour. You don’t need a fancy rating. You need a medical (or the relevant self-certification for your operation), a willingness to be uncomfortable for roughly twenty minutes, and an open mind.

The payoff is enormous. The first time you watch the horizon roll all the way around and recover to level flight under control, something changes in how you understand the airplane. Fear of the unusual attitude gets replaced with a procedure - and a procedure is something you can execute when it counts.

The same logic applies to the tailwheel endorsement. Tailwheel flying is unforgiving in the best way: it tells you the truth about your feet on every landing. Many pilots describe earning it as the moment they finally felt like they were flying the airplane, instead of the airplane flying them.

One Critical Distinction

Airshow flying - the kind Greg Koontz does - should never be confused with the training discussed here. Low-level airshow aerobatics is a specialized, tightly regulated discipline with waivers, altitude floors, and years of qualification behind every performance.

What’s recommended for the everyday pilot is the opposite of low and dramatic: training done at safe altitude, with margin, with a qualified instructor, for the purpose of coming home safe. Admire the airshow. Do not imitate it. The professionals are the first to say so.

Key Takeaways

• AVweb’s Picture of the Day for August 3, 2026 featured Greg Koontz and his American Champion Super Decathlon at EAA AirVenture 2026.
• The Super Decathlon is one of the few new certified airplanes rated for aerobatics (+6 G / −5 G) that also serves as a docile trainer for tailwheel, spin, and upset recovery work.
• Loss of control in flight has long topped the GA fatal accident list, and both the FAA and NTSB point to training as the biggest lever to reduce it.
• An introductory aerobatic or UPRT flight takes about one hour and is one of the best safety investments a general aviation pilot can make.
• Airshow aerobatics and recovery training are different disciplines - train at safe altitude with a qualified instructor; don’t imitate the airshow.