Oshkosh 2025

[Ed Haywood]

“show up over Ripon early…..beat the chaos later in the day."

The chaos is part of the fun!

 

[SixPapaCharlie]

Watch these videos from EAA: Click Here. My first year flying in, I watched every video I could find on YouTube and when I arrived, it all looked familiar.

Print the NOTAM, highlight the important parts. Throw away the sheets you don't need. For me, I throw out Seaplane, IFR, etc. You can highlight a lot of things before you even print it out, then highlight anything else you think is important.

On the morning you're flying in, listen to ATIS to determine which Transition Point they're starting at and which runways are in use. Pull out the two sheets that have the Runways in use and have them at the top of the stack for quick reference. Don't forget to breathe!

Here's an example of what I have printed for landing on RWYs 36L/R. Quick and easy reference for when things get overwhelming.
View attachment 137862

^^^ This is good advice.
The NOTAM contains a lot of stuff you dont care about.
Bookmark the pages you may need so you can get to them quick.

It is likely they will say on the radio "Everybody on Page 5,6,7,etc"
You will hear around 1:20 he tells everyone to be on page 10

 

[tsts4]

Some additional advice to piggyback on what’s already been posted:

— Read the NOTAM (notice a recurring theme here?)
— print out your parking signs (see the links I already posted)
— bring good tiedowns
— practice maintaining airspeed and altitude (ideally 90kts and 1000”AGL) while following a ground track, plus spot landings.

 

[flyingcheesehead]

My bucket list has on it "Fly FISK Arrival". When is a good day to arrive and depart as a "first timer"? What day is less crowded than O'Hare at Thanksgiving? Arrive Monday July 21? Tues July 22? When to depart? Friday, Sat, Sun?

This is somewhat dependent on weather. In a normal year, coming in the weekend beforehand can work well because despite the large amount of traffic arriving, there are plenty of hours to space it all out. I have had particularly good luck starting the procedure at 7-7:30 PM, because most people coming from farther away are already in. Sometimes, the traffic starts getting slow enough that they even let you skip part or all of the procedure, but that's cheating!

However, if there's IFR weather in the days before the show, all that traffic can become concentrated. In particular, a few years ago we had IFR weather for several days up to and even including Sunday morning, and then the entire world tried to fly in simultaneously on Sunday afternoon and it was an absolute $#!+ show.

During the week, there's a BIG turnover on Thursday. There's a lot of (generally more OSH-experienced) people who want to be there for the big announcements that happen on Monday, and they don't want to spend the whole week. They'll usually stay for the night airshow on Wednesday night and then fly out Thursday morning. There's another big contingent that doesn't want to burn too many vacation days and they'll usually show up Thursday and stay until Sunday.

Because of that, it seems like there's maybe more parking in the second half of the week.

Depends, If you want a reasonable parking space, I recommend just going ahead and flying it now.

I've been leaving the plane at home when parking fills up, so for the last several years I've mostly been planeless at the show. I think it was 2023 that parking never technically filled up, but when I brought the plane in I was against the fence at the far south end of the airport, an area that wasn't even available for parking until the last couple/few years - They keep opening up more area to parking each year.

I literally taxied past a sign that said "Welcome to Fond du Lac."

It is of course weather dependent but I would say avoid Arriving via Fisk on Sunday unless you are feeling bold and have a second pair of eyes. If weather messes up Sunday, the hornets nest starts at whatever day/time it clears up. I think Saturday or Monday will give you that bucket list / rush without feeling like you have just flown through chaos.

This is good advice. And I would avoid trying to arrive before maybe 10 AM, because there are a TON of people who will overnight somewhere in or near Wisconsin and then fly in first thing. Later in the day things can be a bit more spaced out. If you come in after the show has started, there'll be another surge right at the end of the airshow, so if you can come in during about the 10 AM - 1 PM timeframe it'll be a bit calmer.

If your plane is like mine and "Can't maintain 90 knots" you can fly the high route which is much quieter but you still have to merge with the common folk when they turn you off the tracks. Read the NOTAM and at the endeavor bridge if it is really busy, just pick a plane and follow it a mile in trail and you will be fine.

They're starting to crack down on people who can fly at both 90 and 135 knots now, though. If you're in an airplane like a Cirrus, an old Cirrus (Bonanza), an efficient old Cirrus like me or a "poor man's" old Cirrus like @SixPapaCharlie and you show up at Fisk at about the same time as someone on the low arrival, you're gonna be the first one they send back to the beginning. They're also starting to watch for bad behavior on the arrival and pick those folks off and make them start over. So follow the procedure, and don't be a d!çk. It's enough of a challenge for them to get all those planes in when everyone is following the rules.

Lastly, whatever day you go, plan for early. Stuff can happen, weather, crashes, closed runways, holds, etc and the window to get in before they close the airspace shrinks.

This. Stop somewhere within ~1 hour of Ripon. Stretch your legs, fuel your plane, have at least a snack, maybe do a quick final review of the NOTAM procedures, and THEN go in. Even when it's not a madhouse, you need to be on top of your game and that isn't what you are at the end of a four-hour leg. Plus, you don't want to get near the front of the line and then realize you need to divert for fuel.

Print the NOTAM, highlight the important parts. Throw away the sheets you don't need. For me, I throw out Seaplane, IFR, etc. You can highlight a lot of things before you even print it out, then highlight anything else you think is important.

It is worth looking at those segments that don't apply to you once, just to understand where everyone is going to be. There is not a section of air that doesn't have traffic in it. Helis and ultralights at 300 feet, departures at 500 feet, arrivals at 1000 and 1500 for the most part. Fisk arrivals from the southwest, seaplanes and warbirds from the southeast, locals and demo flights from the northwest, IFR from the east.

It is definitely worth paring things down to what is most important once you understand the big picture, though. I put it all onto a single page flowchart/checklist for reference during the flight. This is no place to be heads down in a 35-page NOTAM.

On the morning you're flying in, listen to ATIS to determine which Transition Point they're starting at and which runways are in use. Pull out the two sheets that have the Runways in use and have them at the top of the stack for quick reference. Don't forget to breathe!

And be ready for this, and everything else, to change.

On the arrival, last time I departed from KUES (only about 15-20 min from Ripon) and they were advertising the Ripon transition. In about 10 minutes it went from Ripon to Green Lake to Puckaway Lake to Endeavor Bridge to "Just find a spot and hold there".

On approach, be ready for last-minute changes to your pattern size and shape (except for 18R, where you will NEVER go north of the tower/blue dot). I've had the tower tell the plane in front of me "High wing, start your base, cleared to land on the orange dot, High wing, start your base! High wing, start your base now!" and the guy just kept going to make a full downwind, base over the lakeshore and then turn final. As soon as the controller realized he wasn't going to follow instructions, he told me "Mooney, turn your base, make short approach, cleared to land green dot." So I cut in and landed while the controller gave the other guy as much of a chewing out as he had time for (not much).

And once you land, apply moderate braking, find a gap between the runway lights, and get the heck off the runway as quickly as you can... Unless you're on 36R, in which case you let it roll all the way to the end as quickly as you can.

If you're on your game, you get to hear the best thing a pilot ever gets to hear on the radio: "Mooney, great job! Welcome to Oshkosh!" I've been lucky enough to have flown the Fisk arrival ~35-40 times, and I've heard that a number of times, and I tell ya, that just NEVER gets old.

 

[flyingcheesehead]

Some additional advice to piggyback on what’s already been posted:

— Read the NOTAM (notice a recurring theme here?)
— print out your parking signs (see the links I already posted)
— bring good tiedowns
— practice maintaining airspeed and altitude (ideally 90kts and 1000”AGL) while following a ground track, plus spot landings.

Excellent advice.

In terms of other things to practice:

1) Right hand patterns.
2) Short approaches.
3) Landing on a spot.
4) This one will require you to find an airport that isn't in a congested area but has a longer runway... Practice leaving pattern altitude on the crosswind-to-downwind turn, descending through the whole downwind and base, flying your base at the numbers (start your base before you're abeam the numbers), then turn "final", flare and land. That's what the 18R approach is, and it's very weird the first time you do it. So, better to do it the first time without the world watching and all the distractions that are part of OSH.

Also, for the 90 knot 1000AGL practice, you may want a notch or two of flaps out to improve forward visibility - You'll want to be able to see below the horizon. You should also find a power setting that lets you consistently maintain that speed and altitude in that configuration so that you can set it and forget it and keep your eyes outside instead of jockeying the throttle trying to maintain 90 knots. If you have retractable gear, find this power setting for both gear up and gear down, and plan to extend your gear no later than Ripon. Fisk Approach will want your gear to be down by the time they can see you for obvious reasons. (You can do the whole thing with gear down too if you'd like, which simplifies things and I would recommend for your first time.)

 

[masloki]

I don’t see it covered by those above but be prepared to bug out and start over for safety. I lucked into a guy varying speeds between 60 and 90 kts in front of me. My plane is not happy at 60. I bugged out, flew back five miles and found an opening. And caught up to him again. If it looks sketch for any reason, head on back to the starting point and work your way in. There are some pilots where this is the only flying they do the year and you want a wide berth from them.