The Traffic Pattern At Wittman Regional Airport During AirVenture Can Be Challenging, But You Can Make It Safe

You won’t often find accident reports as a topic in AeroSports Update, but this accident occurred at EAA AirVenture last year and it points out the need for being prepared if you’re going to experience the thrill, and challenge, of flying into Wittman Regional Airport during the event.

Over the last few months AeroSports Update has published articles regarding loss of control prevention. This subject has a direct application to safely navigating through the landing and takeoff traffic procedures at AirVenture. Over the next few months we will be covering loss of control prevention tips specifically aimed at safely flying into AirVenture. With a little practice, any pilot should be able to pull it off safely, and we’ll provide the practice tips.

The accident last year involved a Piper PA-46 and the NTSB report says probable cause was: “The pilot's failure to perform a go-around after receiving a modified landing clearance and his failure to maintain adequate airspeed while maneuvering to land, which resulted in the airplane exceeding its critical angle of attack in a steep bank and entering an accelerated stall at a low altitude.”

When AirVenture is in effect, the runways have colored dots to indicate extended landing points and short landing points. In this case, the clearance from the controller was to land on the green dot, which on this runway is located about 2,500 feet after the landing threshold. Then, another airplane taxied onto the runway and the controllers changed change his landing point to the orange dot, which is about 1,000 feet after the landing threshold. In attempting to bring the airplane down for the shorter landing, the pilot lost control.

Any pilot can look at this scenario and see that is challenging. But it’s also possible for any pilot to prepare for such things by practicing specific maneuvers in a safe training environment prior to flying into AirVenture, or any high density traffic situation.

Stay tuned for future AeroSports Update articles dealing with loss of control prevention where we will bring you advice from a flight instructor who specializes in loss of control prevention training and experimental airplane test flying. We’ll make it easy for you to take the steps to improve your piloting skills.

FMI: www.ntsb.gov