Welcome to Cessnas 2 Oshkosh 2013!

Hello One and All!

We would like to welcome you to the 8^th Annual Cessnas 2 Oshkosh Mass Arrival into EAA AirVenture. Craig, Gil, and myself are honored to be able to put this together for you. Through the years, this has become a labor of love for the three of us, and all those of you who so freely give of your time and expertise to make this the preeminent Cessna event at EAA AirVenture.

We have a fantastic cadre of experienced "off-site" instructors! I encourage you to make every effort to complete the required annual training as early as possible. Naturally, as we try to coordinate the schedules of multiple instructors, along with those of the participants, things are prone to "furballing". Please be patient and flexible. We thank you in advance for your understanding.

Once again, this year we have partnered with Mr. John Frank and the Cessna Pilots Association. In the past, we have benefited from John's mentorship and familiarity with all things Oshkosh to make our event flow ever smoothly. The annual CPA BBQ will again take place on Tuesday, July 30th at our North 40 campsite. We look forward to hosting the BBQ and reuniting with our CPA friends again. Please consider supporting the Cessna Pilots Association during your visit, and make it a point to thank John Frank for his generosity.

Whether you are a first-timer or a seasoned participant, you know this is a grass roots effort. We ask that you help spread the word through word-of-mouth and by posting our flyers as you move about your flying area. Last year, we set a new record in the number of new participants! We would like to repeat that feat, along with seeing our old friends again. Help us get the word out and let's make Cessnas 2 Oshkosh 2013 the biggest one yet.

We are excited and look forward to seeing all of you in Juneau on July 27, 2013.

Take care and fly safe!

To Fly Our Mass Arrival...

...a pilot must register through our website, pay the registration fee at the time of registration, attend at least one of our formation flight training clinics this year, and be present at the mass arrival preflight brief on Saturday July 27. The preflight brief will start promptly at 11:00 CDT (UTC-5) and will be held at the main hangar of Wisconsin Aviation at Dodge County Airport (KUNU) in Juneau, Wisconsin.

The registration process is simple: click on the Registration tab (the first from the right at the top of every page) and answer a few questions. Pilots who registered to fly the mass arrival in the past, whether they flew it or not, can save some time by retrieving their personal information from our database. To do so, look for the appropriate link on our registration page, click on it and retrieve your information using the same email address and zip code you used in the past. If the email address and zip code match the information in our database, the registration form will be prefilled with the information previously submitted. Review the form, make any necessary corrections, and submit it.

The final step in the registration process is paying the registration fee. The fee covers the cost of the polo shirt embroidered with our logo, breakfast and lunch in Juneau, and the BBQ dinner at Cessna Base Camp. We are happy to announce that we have kept the registration fee at $50.00 per person. Children, up to 12 years of age, will not incur a fee. We use Paypal® to handle payments, and the process is simple and intuitive. You can pay the fee using a major credit card, or your PayPal® account, if you already have one.

Formation Training Clinics Update

From the early beginnings of Cessnas 2 Oshkosh, back in 2006, the formation flight training clinic has been the main focus of our training program. This year, we continue our effort to organize clinics in as many locations as our limited resources allow. Our most valuable resource is the volunteer lead pilot. Every year, lead pilots make this event viable, safe and enjoyable by conducting formation flight training clinics at their home airport. Some of them go the extra mile (quite literally!) and travel very long distances to hold clinics in locations where there are no volunteer lead pilots available. A good example is Steve Wolf, who last year traveled from Fort Collins, CO (near Denver) to Olympia, WA (near Seattle) to lead a clinic for our pilots in the Pacific Northwest.

We need more clinic hosts and lead pilots. If you have participated in one of our clinics, you already know that our clinics are not intended to train pilots for certification in formation flight or to prepare pilots for participation in airshows. The only purpose of our formation flight training clinics is to prepare our pilots to safely fly our mass arrival into Oshkosh. We keep it simple, safe and fun. If you have already flown three arrivals with us, and feel ready and able to host and lead a clinic, we invite you to Contact Us. We provide all the necessary training to become a lead pilot, and will assist volunteer lead pilots in organizing and conducting a training clinic at your home airport.

In 2013 the leadership of Cessnas 2 Oshkosh, in consultation with our available clinic hosts and lead pilots, has selected the following locations to hold formation flight training clinics:

In addition, we have designated two periods of time within which all clinics will take place. The first period, designated the Spring Block, extends from April 13 to May 11. The second period, designated the Summer Block, extends from June 15 to July 13. Ideally, each location listed above will hold a clinic during each of the two blocks, but we cannot guarantee that will be the case. Many factors are involved in planning a training clinic, the most critical one being the availability of a volunteer lead pilot at the location.

The list above is an effort on our part to provide pilots who register early in the season a list of locations from which to choose a training clinic at the time of registration. The goal is to assuage any concerns of registering pilots about whether or not a clinic will be held near their home base airport. And, if a location is not available nearby, to afford you ample time to plan your attendance to the clinic closest to they home base airport.

Pilots who register before the end of the Spring Block should choose the clinic nearest to their home base airport. We urge you to plan to attend it, and to the extent possible, avoid scheduling any activity for any Saturday between April 13 and May 11, until a date for the clinic they have chosen is confirmed and posted on our Clinics page. We will provide at least four-week notice prior to a to clinic's date. A finalized date for each clinic in the Spring Block will be posted on our Clinics page by March 15, 2013. Pilots who register after the Spring Block has ended should plan to attend the clinic nearest their home base airport during the Summer Block. We will post the dates and locations of the Summer clinics no later than May 15, 2013.

As always we encourage all our pilots to avoid delaying training. Get your training out of the way early! Take into consideration that weather is always an unknown variable at the time that clinics are planned. As you well know, weather forecasts are only good for a few days prior to the date of a clinic. Invariably, some clinics may have to be cancelled due to adverse weather conditions. Don't let the weather keep you from flying the mass arrival.

To get the most up to date clinic schedule, click on the Clinics tab at the top of every page.

Congratulations Cessnas 2 Oshkosh 2012!

Thanks to all the pilots, relatives and friends who made the 2012 Cessnas 2 Oshkosh Mass Arrival a wonderful experience. We flawlessly flew our forty-one (41) planes into Oshkosh and had a great time at Cessna Base Camp! Congratulations to each and every one of our pilots, relatives and friends!

On July 21st, the Saturday before the start of EAA AirVenture 2012, Cessnas 2 Oshkosh conducted its seventh annual mass arrival into the Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. This was the fifth year in partnership with the Cessna Pilots Association.

The 2012 Mass Arrival Flight consisted of forty-one (41) aircraft. Eight (8) models were represented. The Skyhawk (C172) led the way with twelve (12) aircraft, followed by the Cardinal (C177) and the Centurion with eight (8) aircraft each, the Skylane (C182) with seven (7), the Skywagon (C185) and the C310 with two (2) each and the Stationair (C206) and the Skymaster (C337) with one (1) each.

The forty-one (41) aircraft in the 2012 Mass Arrival Flight were arranged in fifteen (15) elements. The Skyhawks (C172) led the flight with twelve (12) aircraft arranged in four (4) elements, followed by eight (8) Cardinals (C177) arranged in three (3) elements, a mixed element of two (2) Skywagons (C185) and one (1) Skylane (C182), another mixed element of two (2) Skylanes and one (1) Stationair (C206), four (4) more Skylanes (C182) arranged in two (2) elements, eight (8) Centurions (C210) arranged in three (3) elements and a mixed element of one (1) Skymaster (C337) and two (2) Cessna 310 closed the flight.