22K+ flights to land at tiny airport

OSHKOSH, Wis. (WLUK) - For one week every year during EAA AirVenture, Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh is one of the most popular landing spots in the world.

An all-star cast of air controllers from all over the United States is assembled to make sure everything goes smoothly.

“The controllers normally run this tower with five controllers, and during AirVenture, we bring in an additional 68 controllers,” said Wanda Adelman who is the air traffic manager at EAA Airventure.

Controllers are stationed in the tower, on the runways and seven miles southwest of the EAA grounds in the town of Fisk.

The job of the controllers at Fisk is to organize the planes. They sequence the planes a half mile apart and line them up for landing at the appropriate runway.

“We do that to give the tower some more time, slow things down a little bit for them up there,” said Jim Hovick, an air traffic controller from St. Louis who is working at EAA for the week. “It's still pretty hectic up there, but it all starts out here at Fisk.”

From Fisk to the control tower at Wittman, the controllers direct the planes for landing. A unique part of the landing operation at EAA is the controllers ask the pilots to not respond to the controllers.

“There's so many aircraft that we don't want a response from the pilot,” said Adelman. “If we need an acknowledgement, we'll ask them to rock their wings.”

During the week of AirVenture, more than 22,000 planes will land and take off. Last year at its peak, controllers dealt with more planes in a 10-hour period than Chicago's O'Hare International Airport handled in a day.

“They did an excellent job,” said Larry Vitatoe, who flew into Oshkosh from Ohio.

Vitatoe has been flying since 1976. He says the controllers did a great job helping him get to EAA safely.

“These people are the cream of the crop,” said Vitatoe. “You don't get to be at Oshkosh unless you're good. They do an excellent job.”