EAA AirVenture Oshkosh: Arrival Day Sunday 2024
With over 1,000 aircraft on the ground already at Oshkosh, I guessed that Sunday would bring a rather orderly, steady stream of general aviation aircraft to watch. A quartering headwind for arrivals on runways 36 Left and Right was not very strong and most landings were OK according to the crowd that set up lawn chars to watch the parade. Here’s a short report with some of my highlights from the day before AirVenture 2024 began.
The steadiness of the arrival stream didn’t last too long, for by mid morning, inbounds to the airport were stopped, and the first of a number of surprises unfolded. A new Boeing F-15EX Eagle II from an operational test squadron made an overhead break and landed. Spectators quickly found out that military arrivals were scheduled to arrive at intervals, allowing controllers to preplan “holes” in the arrival stream to ease the burden of – lets say – mixing a Piper Warrior with the F-15.
A B-52 arrived from Edwards AFB, California. Named the Tagboard Flyer, it was a test aircraft that launched some secret D-21 drones during the Cold War.
A Navy F-5F wore the Navy Test Pilot School special colors too.
The Cirrus mass arrival occurred around midday, with a seemingly endless amount of the low-winged aircraft in flights of three… one would break off for the runway 36 Right while the remaining pair took the wider runway 36 Left for landing.
Several interesting dissimilar formations were seen, with one containing Grumman HU-16 Albatross leading a North American OV-10D+ Bronco.
Towards suppertime, both flyable B-29 bombers visited Oshkosh… FIFI landed and Doc overflew the field enroute to nearby Appleton airport.
Monday is already shaping up to be warm and clear, with more arrivals streaming inbound, and a four-hour long air show in the afternoon to watch too.
Stay tuned for more reports from AirVenture 2024!