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Flying into Oshkosh Sat - mass arrivals

Driving '67

Well Known Member
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Hi All,

I'm planning to fly into Oshkosh Saturday around noon. First time flying in. I watched the EAA webinar last night and they mentioned there are several a/c type arrivals planned throughout the day. Does this have a major impact on the arrivals over Ripon? Do they use the same planned setup or are vectored in via a different waypoint. Any suggestions would much appreciated!

Thanks Jim
 
Do the mass arrivals have an impact on the VFR arrivals? Umm, you bet your boots they do!

Any suggestions:
Well, for starters, you should go to the EAA website to see the schedule for the mass arrivals:

https://www.eaa.org/airventure/eaa-...oshkosh/mass-arrival-schedule-airventure-2022


After that you might start thinking about a different time for arrival. 12:00 noon is going to be smack in the middle of the arrivals. If you are in the air anywhere near Oshkosh you will find yourself flying circles around the lake holding patterns for a long time, or more likely, landing at some nearby airport to wait out the time.

Suggestions:
Come in on Friday.
Come in on Sat before 10:30 or after the last of the Cessnas land.
Come in on Sunday after the Cirrus arrival.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the reply and PM’s. I saw the list (it’s on the webinar). I gather they form up elsewhere and work their way in. Do they take 20 minutes or an hour to complete the exercise?

Not intimidated by the arrival, just want make sure I make the appropriate adjustments to the plan. My goal now is to be there by 10 or after 4 Saturday, weather permitting. First beer is on me!

Cheers Jim

BTW, Ive seen busy before in a previous life. (taking new hires with no jet time into a wet LGA on a stormy Friday afternoon in a A321 ….. lots of fun … loved the challenge!)
 
Sounds good, love to see your completed “8”. I owe you a beer or six for all your help.

Cheers Jim
 
Note

Just note that if it rains/storms and airport shuts down VFR arrivals before the mass arrivals are scheduled, once it opens they will have to get them in somehow. In the past, that has been the start of unpleasant arrivals. I'm not going to dig up old discussions but generally when weather shuts the place down, the day gets interesting.
 
My experience arriving during but not part of Mass Arrival

Just got home from my 21st time flying into AirVenture Oshkosh. Want to post what I learned on my 21st time for future reference.

Everyone (myself included) typically try to avoid arriving when the "Mass Arrivals" are taking place. This year, 2022, I spent an extra hour getting to OSH going around storms. I always get gas about one hour before reaching OSH. Gives me a break and allows me to go over the arrival procedure so that I am as fresh and mentally prepared as I can be.

This year, I learned that they dedicate one runway for the mass arrivals and the other runway is used for arriving traffic. Typically 36 is used for mass arrivals and 27 used for other traffic.

The arrival procedure (notice / NOTAM to us old timers) typically has 1/2 mile spacing going up the 'congo line' from RIPON to FISK. During mass arrivals, that 1/2 mile spacing is changed to 1 mile spacing.

I had plans had me arriving at OSH 1/2 hour after the Cessnas arrived. Well 1/2 hour after the scheduled start time they were still landing and arrivals were 1-mile spacing. I could NOT see an airplane in front of me but ADS-B IN showed one that was 2 or more miles. I heard FISK direct an airplane to make a right for landing on runway 18. That told me that the last Cessna had landed. I was the 2nd airplane directed to 18R. The airplane in front of me was never seen by me but did a go around. I was the 1st arrival to land on runway 18L after the Cessna mass arrival. Other than all the ATC radio talking, the low turn base to final with a very short final, it was pretty much an easy operation for anyone that can fly the entire RV flight envelope.

Figure I would post this as future reference that an arrival while or right after the Mass Arrival is a little easier than the normal arrival when they are saturated.

This years departure was very undesirable. Had Wx to deal with whatever day I depart so chose to leave early in case I needed to take two days to get home. The taxi for departure was one of the worse if not the worse. After 50 minutes of taxi and waiting in line, I had 220 F degree oil temperature.

This is just an opinion of someone that has taken an RV aircraft to OSH 21 times.
 
Saw Gary takeoff many planes ahead of us. He was headed to NC and we were headed to SC.

Waited in the same LONG line. There was a DC3 that even made the controllers mad ... not ready, took way too long to get ready. I think the AeroShell team did TWO flights while we waited (intersection takeoffs while others we getting in position.

Interestingly enough when we landed for fuel THERE WAS GARY! At the same fuel stop!

He went high. We stayed low and both of us were able to SAFELY make it home. Only a "spit" of a few raindrops from a cloud that was far away. Many thanks to my friend Ken who led us home with ease.
 
Saw Gary takeoff many planes ahead of us. He was headed to NC and we were headed to SC.

Waited in the same LONG line. There was a DC3 that even made the controllers mad ... not ready, took way too long to get ready. I think the AeroShell team did TWO flights while we waited (intersection takeoffs while others we getting in position.

The DC3 was the "Rapid Rabbit". They were anything but. When they asked for full length, the controllers said words to the effect of "Oh, ****". They had a number of L-39's inbound and had to send them around because the speedy bunny was slow in doing its runup.

As I posted in a different thread, someone needs to have a chat with the warbird folks about minimizing out and back trips during the big departure windows. "You're welcome to depart, but please don't come back before 10:00".

Yesterday's departure reminded me of the 4 hours I waited to depart 27 a few years back because of a crash on 36. The two trimotors probably cycled 20 times, the warbirds came and went, and everyone else was so far down the priority list it didn't matter.
 
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