Safety First …

Owing to expansion of aircraft parking at the south end of Oshkosh, Wisconsin’s Wittman Regional Airport (OSH), the flight pattern for ultralight/homebuilt rotorcraft attending EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2023 has been slightly altered.

The enacted changes will create a more standard pattern for those using the Fun Fly Zone airstrip, home for ultralights, homebuilt rotorcraft, light planes, balloons, and the Twilight Flight Fest.

The revised pattern will maintain its parallel course with County Highway N, but will then make a northeast turn toward the airport and Wittman Road. Subject change replaces the hard northerly turn followed by an easterly turn prior to reaching Wittman Road. The remainder of the pattern will remain unchanged.

The antecedent change was implemented for purpose of occasioning an additional margin of safety, as expanded South 40 aircraft parking has been established in a previously unoccupied area in the southwest sector of the airport grounds. More information on this change to the ultralight pattern will be included in this year’s FAA NOTICE to Airmen (NOTAM) for AirVenture, which will be released in spring 2023. In addition to NOTAM data, the EAA will supply complementary informational resources—to include a June webinar—that pilots attending 2023’s AirVenture at Oshkosh may fully understand the new pattern in advance of the 24 through 30 July event.

Held annually since the inaugural event in 1953, the EAA’s AirVenture Oshkosh—often referred to as simply Oshkosh—is the world’s largest air-show/fly-in by number of participating aircraft. Year after year, upwards of ten-thousand display and visiting aircraft grace the event, which is held jointly on Oshkosh, Wisconsin’s Wittman Regional Airport (OSH) and the adjacent Pioneer Airport (WS17). The southern portion of the air-show grounds, as well as the Camp Scholler campgrounds, are located in the town of Nekimi. A base for attending seaplanes is located on Lake Winnebago in the town of Black Wolf, Wisconsin.

EAA AirVenture goes on for one week, usually beginning on the Monday of the last full week in July. During the gathering, the airport's VFR control tower frequency is the busiest in the world.

FMI: www.eaa.org