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

In March of this year, the NTSB issued a Safety Alert about the need to be well prepared when flying into major air events. In this Safety Alert, they reviewed accidents that have occurred at air events, in particular, at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh.

We at ANN have been to AirVenture often enough to know that some pilots arrive thoroughly prepared for the task of participating in the heavy flow of traffic, and some don’t.

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. Now, in the coming weeks, 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 training tips for actually practicing AirVenture procedures in preparation for the real thing.

To accomplish this, we will be taking advice from a flight instructor who has flown into AirVenture many times, and has also been teaching loss of control prevention as a part of his curriculum designed for preparing pilots to test fly their home-built aircraft. To accomplish this, he will be introducing our readers to step-by-step practice procedures they can perform in their own aircraft in preparation for the flight to AirVenture.

Our advisor will be breaking his recommended practice training into the same phases of flight that occur when flying into AirVenture while using the procedures described in the FAA Notice To Airmen (NOTAM). All pilots going into Wittman airport during AirVenture are expected to read and adhere to this AirVenture NOTAM.

Stay tuned for future the AeroSports Update articles dealing with loss of control prevention where you can actually practice Oshkosh procedures in your local area. We’ll make it easy for you to take the steps to improve your piloting skills and make your flight into AirVenture a pleasant experience.

FMI: NTSB Safety Alert