I hadn?t written this up before now, because frankly, I was not at all comfortable with what happened. However seeing the other eye witness accounts, thought I would add mine. If I could add a second recommendation to the READ/FOLLOW THE NOTAM it would be learn AND PRACTICE flying your aircraft on altitude and on speed.
I was also in the middle of the Sunday insanity. Little did I know when departing KFNT direct Ripon what was waiting. With nearly 20 arrivals over as many years, this was absolutely the worst.
We made it to second in line approaching Fisk at about 11:30am when the only runway open was abruptly closed. We were told to hold at Rush Lake and turned west. I was following another aircraft to try and keep an orderly Rush lake circuit going. I have never held at rush lake and didn?t realize Rush lake is what is otherwise known as an area of swamp grass, and the next thing I knew we were joining traffic around Green lake.
I saw the aircraft circling the opposite direction on the east side of the lake. I just assumed they were making their own hold and had almost overlapped the circles? not a good situation. Every way you looked 5-10 aircraft were overtaking, swinging out, swinging closer to the lake shore. Above 1800, below 1800 ? Since aircraft were at several speeds and altitudes, there was no way to set up a stable course. I just had to keep eyes out and constantly adjust.
I was just coming around the Ripon end of the lake when the controllers called for Green lake hold to start single filing in. We had a good 2 mile opening ahead and started in when a 172 cut in front from above to the east (not a Green lake hold) .. So OK, I had the speed and space to pull ahead and put him behind me, but decided to be nice and re-space prior to Fisk. Bad move
This idiot proceeded to fly +/- 500 feet and +/- 20 knots. Runway 18 was the first opened, but two planes ahead everything suddenly switched to 27. I managed to keep enough spacing to get the cleared to 27 call over Fisk. Working to keep idiot 172 in sight I really felt sorry for anyone directly behind me. I held a constant 1800 feet, but speed to keep from overflying stupid in front of me was another matter. Then to top it off, the ?person? flew 3 miles out over lake Winnebago and descended to about 300 feet off the water before turning final with nothing in front of them for a few miles. All the while the controller was telling people not to fly past the lake shore. It reminds me of the guy in the left freeway lane doing 55!
Working to stay behind and not cut off the now 60-70 knot low approach of (did I mention the pilot of the 172 was an idiot?) I chirped the stall horns several times during base and final turns? bad bad juju in my book! I almost turned back out at that point. (Thank heavens for slow flight maneuvering practice at altitude in my prep/practice before flying into Oshkosh)
Hanging on the prop I dragged it in and plopped on the runway. It felt sloppy all the way around, but we were there safe and sound for the wife?s first Oshkosh.