The mass arrivals in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, begin on Friday, July 19, at 11 a.m. CST with the Piper Cherokees. Later at 5 p.m., the Cessnas will make the scene. On Saturday, July 21, at 10 a.m., the Mooney contingent will arrive, followed at 1 p.m. by the Bonanzas. On Sunday, July 21, at 10 a.m., the Cirrus group arrives.

How to Get Involved

These group aircraft arrivals are organized by specific type clubs well in advance of the annual aviation convention. To participate, you need to be registered, as there are a limited number of spaces available in the mass arrivals. Move quickly on this since reservations fill up rapidly.

Pilots are also required to attend a flight clinic and to be very familiar with the multipage Notice to Air Mission (NOTAM) issued each year for AirVenture.

• READ MORE: Dates for Next 4 EAA AirVenture Conventions Announced

The mass arrival aircraft stage from an airport near Oshkosh’s Wittman Regional Airport (KOSH).

For pilots who aren’t going to be part of the mass arrival, the times of these events are published in the EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2024 NOTAM to help with planning. You do not want to cut in line and disrupt the mass arrival—that’s like cutting in on a funeral procession. Just don’t do it.

More information on EAA AirVenture can be found here.

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Even before the last aircraft had left the hallowed ground of Wittman Regional Airport (KOSH),

many visitors to the world’s largest general aviation event knew they had been part of something massive and unprecedented.

Dick Knapinski, EAA’s director of communications, validated this by supplying the numbers that marked this year’s fly-in convention.

• READ MORE: Oshkosh 2023 In Pictures

Number of visitors: 677,000

That’s a record total, up from the previous mark of 650,000 set in 2022.

Total aircraft: More than 10,000 arrived at Wittman and other airports in east-central Wisconsin.

According to EAA, there were 21,883 aircraft operations from July 20 through 30 at KOSH alone.

To break it down further, that’s approximately 148 takeoffs and landings per hour during the airport’s hours of operation.

Showplanes for Viewing

A total of 3,365 aircraft made the scene, including:

• 1,497 vintage aircraft
• 1,067 homebuilt aircraft
• 194 ultralights
• 134 seaplanes and amphibians
• 52 aerobatic aircraft
• 41 rotorcraft
• 380 warbirds

The People Numbers

More than 13,000 campsites, both the drive-in and fly-in variety, were booked, housing an estimated 40,000 visitors.

It is well known that AirVenture could not run without its army of volunteers. This year more than 5,500 helped out, contributing in excess of 250,000 hours.

The display hangars and showgrounds were stuffed with commercial exhibits, 848 in all.

Learning took place with more than 1,400 forums, information sessions, and presentations hosted throughout the week.

For 2023, international visitors returned in a big way, with 2,372 attendees registering at the International Visitors Tent from a record-tying 93 countries outside the U.S.

EAA officials were left impressed by the numbers. 

“We had record-setting totals of campers, exhibitors, volunteers, and more,” said EAA CEO and chairman Jack Pelton. “It was also a challenging year at times with weather, logistics, and other factors, which makes me even more proud of the efforts by our volunteers and staff to organize an outstanding event.”

AirVenture is a popular platform for product and aircraft introduction, two aspects that would be lost were it not for the vast media presence on site. This year there were 863 media representatives in attendance, representing six continents.

Virtual Visitors

Those who couldn’t make the actual trek to Oshkosh did so virtually, as social media and internet and mobile traffic registered that more than 18.3 million people tapped into EAA’s social media channels. That’s a whopping 78 percent increase from 2022.

The Gathering Shines

It was a good year for the EAA Aviation Foundation’s Gathering of Eagles, the annual event that raises funds to support aviation education programs. More than 1,000 people attended, raising more than $2 million that will be focused on EAA’s mission of growing participation in aviation.

It is well known that AirVenture is an economic engine for Oshkosh and the surrounding communities. According to a 2017 economic study from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, the economic impact was estimated to be $170 million for the five counties in the Oshkosh region: Winnebago, Outagamie, Fond du Lac, Calumet, and Brown.

According to Pelton, planning begins soon for AirVenture 2024.

“We are already looking at a number of big activities, including the 100th anniversary of the Royal Canadian Air Force,” he said. “Plenty of ideas have also been forwarded to us from EAA members and others that will be part of the planning for 2024.”

The dates for the 2024 EAA AirVenture are July 22 through 28.

The post AirVenture 2023 by the Numbers appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

While heliports figure to do some of the legwork, the U.S. will require more vertiports designed specifically for eVTOL aircraft. Volatus Infrastructure, one of the firms building those airfields, on Tuesday announced its third planned vertiport at Greenport International Airport (GIA), a sustainable airport project currently under construction near Austin, Texas.

Volatus’ letter of intent with Greenport builds on the firm’s commitments to construct vertiports at Wittman Regional Airport (KOSH) in Oshkosh, Wisconsin and Bellefonte Airport (KN96) in Pennsylvania. The company also has strategic agreements with eVTOL manufacturers such as SkyDrive, Air, and Plana to allow them to use its facilities and will be the exclusive vertiport provider for eVTOL fleet management company EVFly.

Each Volatus vertiport will receive eVTOL traffic management services from Embraer’s Eve Air Mobility and will be outfitted for drone delivery services through a partnership with Valqari. Agreements with real estate companies such as JLL, meanwhile, will support the company’s efforts to open more locations across the U.S.

Volatus’ Greenport vertiport is expected to open in early 2024.

“This partnership is revolutionary for the AAM industry,” said Grant Fisk, co-founder of Volatus and a member of the National Air Transportation Association’s AAM Committee. “Greenport is going to set the tone and create standards for the U.S. vertiport market by being one of the first FAA-compliant, fully operational eVTOL vertiports open.”

Greenport International Airport—a 2,600-acre project under construction in Bastrop County, Texas, 17 miles outside Austin—is expected to be “fully sustainable off-grid” and privately owned and operated. It will feature a 10,000-foot runway, 2.9 million square feet of hangar space, and now a vertiport, primarily serving large business jets and AAM aircraft.

The airport will be surrounded by the 2,800-acre Greenport International Technology Center, a corporate campus with 9 million square feet of data center space and research and development facilities. Both projects are supported by real estate developer CBRE Group and Carpenter and Associates, a local corporation that first unveiled the concept in 2010.

Greenport also has its share of detractors, who claim the development would pose a danger or nuisance to local residents. They add that the decision to undertake the project was made without public input. And interestingly, opponents say the airport may actually harm the environment.

CBRE and Carpenter and Associates did not immediately respond to FLYING’s request for comment.

Greenport is billed as “the world’s first green airport,” but others claim they have already achieved net-zero operations.

Swedavia, a Swedish airport group, eliminated Scope 1 and 2 emissions at 10 facilities in 2020, reaching net-zero airport operations. The group does not address Scope 3 emissions, which come from aircraft themselves. But Airports Council International (ACI) Europe lists Swedavia as the only operator to achieve the organization’s net-zero goals.

Vertiports, like the ones Volatus plans to build, could speed international aviation sustainability goals by promoting the use of electric aircraft.

In June 2021, ACI World, its five member regions, and its 1,950 member airports committed to reaching net-zero carbon emissions from airport operations by 2050. Industry leaders at the National Business Aviation Association Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition would announce the same target a few months later.

This spurred the U.S. to roll out its own “net-zero by 2050” goal in November 2021. The following April, the FAA got involved, partnering with U.S. airports to eliminate carbon emissions from airport operations. The U.K., too, is targeting zero-emissions airport operations by 2040.

In fact, 235 airports across 29 European countries pledged to do away with carbon emissions in 2021, a number that expanded to over 300 airports last month. Of those, 132 are set to fully decarbonize by 2030.

ACI World publicly promoted the International Air Transport Association’s Net-Zero Roadmaps, released in June, as a model for airports making the switch. It also teamed with the World Economic Forum to launch the Airports of Tomorrow initiative, which aims to bring together public and private stakeholders committed to reducing airport emissions.

Volatus and Greenport, though, may offer a complementary solution: constructing a net-zero airfield from the ground up. So far, no airport operator has launched carbon-free operations from the jump. But, if construction stays on schedule for early 2024, that could soon change.

The post Volatus to Add Vertiport to Texas ‘Green Airport’ Project appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Answer: 

Practice reading notice to air missions (NOTAMs) because for  EAA AirVenture, there is a huge one. The NOTAM is released a month or so in advance. It comes in PDF form, and it’s often more than 30 pages long. The NOTAM contains all the information a pilot flying into and out of AirVenture needs. There are arrival and departure procedures, radio frequencies, details about Wittman Regional Airport (KOSH), notes on parking, and so on. The NOTAM is updated yearly. Study it and print it out in a hard copy and have it in the cockpit just in case your tablet—if you are an e-document pilot—fails.

• READ MORE: How Do I Report Braking Action?

Pay special attention to communications procedures. Because there are so many pilots and aircraft in the area during the event you need to keep your radio calls brief and to the point—the NOTAM has pointers on that too—and expect to rock your wings.

As far as flying techniques go, practice that wing rock—and staying coordinated—because it’s easy to get squirrely doing that. Also, practice your spot landings, because at AirVenture it’s all about landing on the green dot, the red dot, etc. You don’t want to be the pilot who messes it up for everyone else.

• READ MORE: Should You Add Flaps Mid-Takeoff on a Short Runway?

As an added layer of protection, you may want to find another pilot to fly in with, perhaps even a CFI who is experienced with going into these big airshows. Have them come along as a second set of eyes during the great adventure.

Do you have a question about aviation that’s been bugging you? Ask us anything you’ve ever wanted to know about aviation. Our experts in general aviation, flight training, aircraft, avionics, and more may attempt to answer your question in a future article.

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