Within Feet of Another Airplane and Never Saw Them - AirVenture Fisk 2024

A few suggestions from a lot of fisk arrivals: - eyes outside all the time. the traffic display can be handled by your copilot. - don’t succumb to the temptation to fly faster than 90-95 kts. if you go fast, people behind you go fast too, then everybody has to slow down near ripon/fisk. result is the traffic jam you saw. go 90-95 kts out by the lakes and let the traffic behind settle in a bit, even if you have a big gap ahead. yes, you might get cut off but you can see that coming. - minimize talking. commentary can wait. - assign your copilot very specific tasks like distance callouts, radio frequency setting, and traffic lookout. do it ahead of time so you don’t have to discuss in the plane. - stay over the tracks 90/1800 even when the plane ahead appears to wander. just keep your eye on him. - if you get too slow due to traffic ahead, full power, right turn. try again. no harm, no foul great videos. thank you.

I'm a glider pilot, and we have to do lookout like this literally all the time, as glider pilots will always all converge on the same sources of lift. We routinely end up getting very close. The one thing most of us know - never wear a baseball cap like your copilot in this video - you're blocking out half your field of vision.

If you flew in over Fisk on Sunday that was me talking to you! I also waved you off when you departed! Sweet looking RV! I didn’t realize it was you until I saw the flight chops stencil on the side then noticed you flying it!

Like I told my step-daughter when she was learning to drive, "You can be 100% legal and still be dead, killed by someone else's stupidity"

Imagine realising you messed up THEN realising that it’s flightchops and he’s definitely filming.

ADS-B should be a requirement for all aircraft on the FISK arrival. The SimVenture virtual arrival simulation is a great tool that more pilots should take advantage of.

Glad I could snag you guys and that you got on the ground safely! Great landing!

Steve, what I learned a long time ago was handed down from someone with far more experience than you and I “probably combined”. I’ll share it with you. He said whenever you’re in a situation where your life could be compromised, don’t try to figure it out, just get out of it. In that regard this advice was ringing loud and clear as you spent so much time trying to spot that “intruder”aircraft and second-guess where it was and further guess whether or not your GPS was relating to that aircraft position. I would’ve left the situation. I would’ve broken out immediately. That’s the wisdom I share with you sir. Use it as you will.

Mirrors help in watching your back, and popping some smoke can help you get noticed. And remember, not everyone in the arrival has ADS-B! Slide that shade back and look up too.

I've only flown in to AirVenture twice so far, and it was easy. As you near the area you can see all the other planes 30-50 miles out on your screen, and as you get to the start point of the approach (I had Green Lake both times), everyone just seems to naturally funnel into line. The fact that this guy was right on your six for so long, and so close that tower thought you were a flight of two....he had no business flying in with that sort of situational awareness/skills!!

I went through and looked at ADSB and saw the Cessna 177 that was behind you. I won't list the tail number here. Your altitude separation had been close to under 25ft at their closest range which is scary for how close they got to you. This could have been another accident at KOSH due to their negligence and I'm glad you took the initiative and had the situational awareness to keep yourself and that pilot flying again.

I saw your plane at AirVenture, it was cool seeing the plane I’ve watched on your channel in person!

Great video! A little unsettling that you never saw that other guy despite being so close for so long..... Great job fellas.

First time flying into OSH for me this year. The stress is so real. Oddly we had the same thing happen with the guy behind us. Landed 18 on the yellow dot. The show was great and your plane looked amazing. Thanks for sharing!

I had an even scarier one ,approaching oshkosh in 2007 ,first we had 2 planes going the wrong direction around the rush lake. We were flying a globe swift ,had a j3 in front of us , we were following the tracks, it was on the verge of going vfr. We were trying everything to give the J3 enough space, we pop out the cloud, he's going as fast as he can ,we are going as slow as he can. Just before we make our turn, they brought a citation in in front of the j3. I don't know how the hell the J3 didn't up in a smoking hole in the ground, it was the sketchiest thing I have ever done in an aircraft. I have never stood on the brakes like that before, possibly the shortest globe swift roll out ever, I was vibrating with adrenalin by the time we pulled off the runway.

Glad you guys are all good. Fisk approach seems very stressful.

Awesome to see a large chunk of that arrival. For those of us who have only dreamed of flying into Osh it was fun to see how it works. Dang, spooky having a target that close. Thanks for the episode FlightChops!

One word describes the chaos: INTENSE!

Hey Steve - Good to meet you at camp SA! See you next year!

So crazy, I've done that a 1/2 dozen times, you've gotta, just gotta be on your game. I couldn't see that joker either, well done thought. Nice job Steve 👀👀👀👀