Flight of 3 Arrival at Airventure

[cjmartinflyers]

Hello. I have been flying into Airventure for many years but this year I am planning to do so as a flight of 3. Can anyone offer any recommendations as to how to fly the approach as a flight of 3. I am not concerned about the formation flight aspect but I would like to hear from those have have done multi-aircraft arrivals regarding communications procedures. At the beginning of the approach does the lead aircraft announce over the radio that it is a flight of 3 and when handed off to the tower does the lead aircraft again call out that it is a flight of 3. One last question, will the final tower instruction be for the flight of 3 to land on the same colored dot or will the tower space the group out over 2 dots. Any advice from those that have done multi-aircraft arrivals would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

[Eric Page]

Procedures for multi-ship flights arriving via the VFR Fisk arrival appear on page 7 of the 2021 AirVenture NOTAM. You'll definitely want to re-verify once the 2022 NOTAM is issued.

[steve]

We flew in as a flight of 3 last year arriving on Thursday afternoon before the show. We maintained a trail formation at 1800 ft and flank speed all the way from the Endeavor Bridge, slowing to 90 kts approaching Ripon. Traffic was extremely light. As we neared Fisk, the controller asked if we were a flight of 3 RVs. I replied affirmative. Then I was asked what runway we wanted. I was told to continue to rwy 27 and monitor tower on 1xx.zz.
The tower controller shortly verified we were the inbound flight of 3 RVs and got the wing rock request. From then on it was, "flight of 3, begin your descent after the gravel pit", then "flight of 3, begin your base turn", followed by "flight of 3, cleared to land at or beyond the orange dot." Finally hearing, "flight of 3, welcome to Oshkosh and where are you camping?"
Although traffic was non-existent that day, the Green Lake arrival was in effect. Not a big deal as I had all 3 new waypoints in the GPS and we fly over them anyway coming in from out west.

[FlyingRon]

Nice to know. We've only done the formation departures. I did that when we had mine and another Navion with two of the RCAF Snowbirds in the right seats along with an RV6 camera ship. One of their bucket list items was to fly the Ripon approach, so we let them do one practice landing out somewhere and then had them fly back in.

One of their other items was to ride around the show for a bit in one of the Volkswagons (which I borrowed from one of the chairmen).

[cjmartinflyers]

Hi Eric. Thank you for the info and the link!

[cjmartinflyers]

Hi Steve. I was curious about being identified as a flight of 3 on the approach and then the hand off to the tower. It sounds great and I hope to have a go-pro on the wing capturing the action. Thank you for the info!

[steve]

I figured it was a slow day, allowing the Fisk controller time to reference our N numbers from ADSB-Out before contacting me on the approach.

[marktrav]

We did it last year as a flight of two. A Bonanza lead and me in a Baron. We stayed tight formation (one plane length out and one plane length sucked - on the 45) all the way in including Ripon and Fisk. Flight lead identified us as Bonanza flight of two (oh well, what can you do) and that was all we needed to do. We flew the lower approach at 90, but briefed what we would do if we got behind a Cub or a lot of slow traffic (go around.) Uneventful.

I would add that I was on the left, which worked for either 27 or 18, which is what they were using. That gives the Baron a little bit of margin since I'm outside on the turns. RVs probably don't have to worry about that.

[FlyingRon]

Tower called me a Blue Tomahawk once. What part of my Navion looks like a tomahawk?

[steve]

My RV is as red as Rudolph's nose but the rwy 27 tower lady said, "Blue RV, cleared for takeoff." I held. She got testy and cleared the blue RV for takeoff again. So off I went. I hope her day improved.