Aircraft ID assistance?

airguy

airguy

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airguy
First off - let me say I've never been, so I don't have any real idea what the traffic flow is really like on the VFR arrivals. I've heard some horror stories and some fairy tale stories, and everything in between.

I know that ATC will be trying to ID airplanes as they come in by color/type, but I would be flying a mostly white Cessna 172, which will look like just about every fourth aircraft arriving. Would it be helpful (or useful at all) to use duct-tape block letters on the bottom of the wings with the last 3 digits of the tail number for the ground-based ATC to see on approach? Are they even going to care?
 
Nope, no need to do that. Even Cubs and other older planes that have big numbers on the wings don't get called by N-number. You'll just be white hi-wing or white Cessna. If you're properly spaced out by a half mile or whatever, there's not too much ambiguity.
 
So, I'm not going to Oshkosh, and not planning to in the near future, but I'm curious. For someone with no experience in any type of formation flying, are there any tips for estimating what 1/2 mile spacing looks like? I mean, I can estimate ground distances, but those are generally only accurate to within a mile or two, and those are two big ground references that aren't moving. I'd imagine if I saw another plane in the air it would be a wild guess as to how far away it was if it were more than a couple hundred feet.
 
The most important thing to know is where Fisk is, lest you take an instruction for a preceding airplane in your excitement. It takes a little bit to get from Ripon to Fisk - 6:32 at 90 knots groundspeed.

The Fisk controllers who will be talking to you will be wearing pink shirts and they'll be located right here (east side of road, south side of the gravel lot): https://www.google.com/maps/@43.9590394,-88.6793669,120m/data=!3m1!1e3
 
If you're worried find a school with a red bird sim and fly the arrival
 
Lots of videos on youtube.com of the Fisk arrival.
 
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