Simulating Flight into the AirVenture at Oshkosh
One of the hard parts of learning to fly is learning to communicate, so you can navigate into busy airspace and not be a danger to other pilots. As part of this I've been using PilotEdge to make sure I have proper controllers available when trying things in my home flight sim. This week PilotEdge is doing an event where they simulate hundreds of pilots flying into the Air Venture festival at Oshkosh.
It's actually a pretty easy arrival because it's optimized to get as many planes in as quickly as possible, meaning there's no need to talk back, just fly the route laid out in the notice, listen and follow instructions.
Easy in principle, but the hours are limited and I made a stupid mistake that meant I damaged my plane, forcing me to fly the rest of the route with an aircraft that constantly wanted to roll to the left as the flap was missing. Still I made the landing and I hope I'll have another chance to try this tomorrow.
Comments (4)
Thanks for sharing this Scott. I didn't know this simulation existed. I've been flying into KOSH for 12 years straight (if I can count 2020 "Noventure") in my RV-8A. I'm hoping I don't lose any aircraft parts on my approach this year :) I think your landing was better than 3/10 considering you lost a flap. If you ever do it for real, stay flexible and ready to improvise. Often times the experience doesn't go exactly by the book.
After a few years as an active pilot, I stopped flying when we had the kids and bought the house, but I never liked the radio. I flew out of KSQL and would do the SFO Bravo transition to fly north. It always made me nervous. One time coming back from Boonville the radio got jammed after I entered the Bravo from the North. I assume the radio was not well shielded and the issue was Sutro tower because all I could hear was a Mexican music radio station on the SFO frequency. I squawked 7600 and it only lasted a few mins, but man they were pissed when I was able to get back on the frequency. Rental planes can have individual quirks. I never took that one up again.
Not going this year…. But who knows what the future holds
Which color dot did they give you? I had the opportunity to right-seat the Airventure arrival in a Cessna 172 for the Civil Air Patrol. If you haven't already, I suggest downloading the arrival handbook from the EAA website. Lots of cool information to read in there as a student pilot. Are you going to Airventure? I'm was planning to go but now have a work trip planned right through the show...