READ THE NOTAM!!!! Sorry about the rant, but it's important. The flight in is really very easy,
if you read and follow the NOTAM. Although the first Saturday morning will be less busy than other times of the week, it's still a pretty busy place, so it's necessary to follow all of the NOTAM instructions--and what you've trained for all of your life isn't quite the same. Other things:
- Over the next couple of weeks, practice spot landings with the load you'll be carrying. You'll be instructed to land on one of 2 or 3 colored dots on the runway, and you'll muck things up for others if you can't do that.
- If you don't regularly do a right hand pattern, practice that, too. There are several approaches, depending on the wind, which involve right hand patterns.
- Also practice go-arounds from short final in the landing configuration. Rarely the controllers make mistakes, but often landing traffic fails to depart the runway expeditiously--I've had to make a go around from a full flap approach on short final, due to the aircraft ahead of me failing to taxi into the grass and instead going to the next taxiway.
- Practice flying at a consistent 90 knots at a consistent altitude. The flight from Ripon to FISKE and on in is at 90 knots for most of us, at 1800' MSL (about 1000' AGL), but every so often you'll encounter aircraft which seem to go up and down and vary speed a lot, usually faster--so don't be one of those guys.
- High traffic isn't totally predictable, so you may be told to hold at Green Lake or Rush Lake (that's an important reason to refuel before heading into OSH). Once ATC advises holding is released, DO NOT cross the lake to exit holding--you'll cut off others who are properly departing holding. I've only had to hold once in several years, but that involved several circuits around Green Lake--and when ATC released holding, a couple of airplanes went straight across the lake, cutting off others (including me).
- If your passengers are qualified, have them call out traffic while you concentrate on flying the airplane--reduces stress a bit. I've flown in several times alone as well as with passengers at other times without difficulty.
- Once on the ground, follow the directions of the volunteers--most really do know what they're doing and understand what you need to do.
- You'll be taxiing a lot on grass, which is all fairly smooth and mowed--you do NOT have to carry extra power or speed to avoid getting stuck. Don't be the jerk that blows over tents and campsites with your propeller blast.
- Have fun!
Cary
