Visiting the Av-Con 2026 in Atlanta

My trip to the United States in late March / early April 2026 had two destinations, Nashville and Atlanta. While the Tennessee part was majorly dedicated showing my wife the heart of country music in Music City, Atlanta was about aviation. Multiple major aviation bloggers and YouTube creators, including Josh Cahill and Noel Philipps, organized the very first aviation convention in Atlanta. Here is my report from the Av-Con, which took place on 4th April 2026 at the Delta Flight Museum.

This posting comes with a section of 180 major size pictures in the travel galleries. 

 

Delta Flight Museum – Location & Av-Con Admission

The Delta Flight Museum has been founded in 1995. However, it was initially limited to Delta staff and prior arrangement, before it became open to public in 2014. Apart from two historic hangars, it features a couple of additional exhibits. The museum is located right North of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL). Parking at the aviation museum is free. It is rather close to I-85. There are numerous airport hotels in the area. The Av-Con had arrangements with multiple of them. However, my wife and I stayed at the Home2 Suites by Hilton Atlanta Airport North.

Typically, the museum opens from 9:00 to 15:00. You should check on their website if all facilities are open at your time of visit. The Av-Con was scheduled to take place from 10:00 to 16:00 on 4th April 2026. The admission price for the convention was 40 USD, including the visit of the entire museum (which is, on weekends, 22 USD). There were no additional fees for visiting panel sessions or meet and greets with creators. The admission included a goodie bag with a water bottle, a neck fan and a notebook, all branded in Av-Con style.

Delta Flight Museum – Impressions

This post does not reflect a review of the Delta Flight Museum. However, the museum definitely won the heart of many aviation fans. The event took place in the historic, so-called Spirit Hangar, in which the central Boeing 767 exhibit strikes and catches the eyes of the visitor inevitably. However, this hangar also features multiple other minor and major exhibits and the possibility to ride a B737-200 motion simulator (pre-booking and additional fee required).

The other hangar, called Legacy Hangar, especially features the Douglas DC-3, one of my favorites. This part of the museum especially reflects the early steps of the Delta franchise. The Legacy Hangar was used to enter the main hall and to grab your goodie bag. Additionally, the museum has a couple of outdoor exhibits. At select dates, you can especially have a step inside the Boeing 747-400 aircraft.

 

Delta Flight Museum – Services during the Av-Con

The museum also offered some catering during the event. The burgers and similar items were a good value for money and definitely beat prices of many other exhibition venues and trade fairs I visited before. Apart from the vendors acting as partners of the event, you could also stock up your merchandise at the Delta Flight Museum Shop, which was open during the entire event.

 

Av-Con 2026 – The Event

The event was scheduled to last from 10:00 to 16:00. The event had two guest speakers, Elliot Epstein, CEO of GeminiJets, and Jim Banke, Aeronautics Managing Editor at the NASA. In addition, there were three panel discussions. The first one was themed Aviation Storytelling: Bringing Flights and Destinations to Life. The second one was Live Aviation: Streaming, Sims & Real Time Content, while the final was one Aviation Reviews & Expertise: Airlines, Products & Insight. The panels had some notable creators of the aviation blogging and creator scene, like Noel Philips and Josh Cahill. The major creators also had their own tables, where you could meet and greet them, as well as vendors.

Rachel Philipps., wife of Noel, was in charge of the host role for the event, also keeping track of the schedule. Overall, the event stayed within the given time frame, opening doors a bit earlier than expected and running a bit out of time towards the end. A key factor for that were long lines at the most popular creators as well as a much higher number of bids than expected in the silent auction. Like other proceedings, the gains from this auction have been donated to the American Cancer Society – so that the Av-Con 2026 even served a charity cause.

 

My Day at the Av-Con 2026

I arrived at the Delta Flight Museum at around 9:15, when there were already some 100 people in line at the entrance. The organizers decided to open the doors early. Even though the Spirit Hangar was not ready for the event at that time, this has been a wise decision. With the first panel sessions to take place slightly later, the lines at the different creators built up quickly. There were multiple reasons for it. First of all, the Av-Con debut hoped to for some 300 to 400 visitors – finally, there were over 1,000 in Atlanta on that Saturday. At one point, the lines were even reaching inside the Legacy Hangar.

Secondly, this event was not like a movie convention, where you pay a truckload of money just being able to have a picture and leave quickly thereafter. The creators took a lot of time for each and everyone and had chats with the individuals about different aviation and non-aviation topics. The clear audience favorites were Jeb Brooks, Josh Cahill, and Noel Philips. The long lines also took a bit of focus away fron the “minor” creators – which still include aviation YouTubers like 840k subscribers Swiss001.

 

Merch, Sponsors, Community

While the content creators were majorly located on tables under and around the B767 (which was, unfortunately, a bit of dark…), sponsors and exhibitors were located in the front of the venue, close to the panel stage. I would have loved to have some more aviation memorabilia vendors in Atlanta, but nonetheless, the mixture was really nice. From 3D-printed airport souvenirs to shirts, and aviation information and logging software, there were companies from quite many parts of the world. You could even inform about the travel insurance appropriate for your needs.

Similar to the creators, you had quite some time for discussing their products. I feel that the Av-Con might even lead to interesting feedback for them. However, a key part of the success was outside these organized locations. You simply ran into people from all over the world. Quickly, you ran into a stranger and started discussing the impact of the The Club introduction for British Airways or the best options for certain travel routes. .

 

Panel Sessions & Speakers

Of course, the panel sessions and speakers were somehow the highlight of the event. The people were very open minded  and gave good answers, even on more critical questions. The audience asked them questions from a wide range of traveling. From award miles strategies to credit card and lounge hints to how long they need to prepare for their flights or simply whether their channel is already paying them sufficient to drive their online content. Surprisingly, many creators run their contents in parallel to a professional job.

 

The keynotes were really interesting. A US plane scale model manufacturer introduced Atlanta to the process of finally having a realistic product under increased challenges like increased shipment prices. NASA Aeronautics Managing Director talked about his organization is managing communication. The stage was also used to announce the silent auction winners and to honor two participants, who won an aviation painting competition. Despite that there were typically less microphones than people on stage, at the panels, these sessions worked out very smoothly. However, some of the panels in fact deviated quite a bit from the topic originally announced.

 

Av-Con 2026 – My Thoughts

I don’t want to give a review and rating on the event. But I really had a great time at the 2026 event. You ran into many people (quite a lot from Europe, especially Germany and the U.K.). The atmosphere was really relaxed, respectful and friendly and I highly appreciate the effort and patience the creators put into serving over 1,000 people. Regarding that this event had its debut in Atlanta, there were surprisingly few organizational issues. Thanks a lot to Rachel and her family, who did an amazing job keeping the whole event running and enjoyable for anyone. It felt like a global aviation geek meeting, definitely coming with the potential becoming an even more established event in the future.

A special thanks, of course, also goes out to the creators, who did not earn money with the evet and traveled to Atlanta at own expenses. It was definitely interesting running into you, hearing your thoughts about topics the community.

 

Av-Con 2027 – Aftermath

During the event, there was already the announcement that Av-Con will come back in 2027 – and it will be even bigger (and better?) than this year. One factor for that is that it transforms at to a three day event, being held at Orlando Airport (MCO, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel there). The 2027 dates are Thursday, 20th May, to Saturday, 22nd May 2027. It will be interesting how the event will consolidate and even reaches out to more diverse topics. I felt that some central topics, like customer loyalty and airline communication from a customer perspective, could be interesting topics being discussed in this group. I also feel that you might have to adjust the way people meet the creators. Being in line for more than an hour at a six hour event does not feel sensible

With a quite significant attendance from Europe other parts of the world, there were obvious discussions if Av-Con should be held on other continents as well. I feel it is wise deciding to grow the event step by step. A multi-day event in 2027 will already lead to new challenges. I am quite optimistic that the organizers can sort out the rather minor issues of the 2026 event in the meantime. I would also love that a longer event gives you the chance to dig deeper into certain topics you just could touch briefly at the Delta Flight Museum.

 

Av-Con 2026 – Gallery

In the travel gallery, a designated major size picture gallery with 180 pictures features a subset of the pictures in here:

• 2026-04-04 Av-Con 2026 (Atlanta)

 

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