Smoke fills the sky from Canadian wildfires at EAA AirVenture, July 24, 2023. PC: Fox 11 Online
OSHKOSH, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — EAA’s 70th AirVenture kicked off Monday.
It’s considered to be the world’s largest air show and fly in convention.
Not only are airplanes and helicopters filling the sky in Oshkosh for AirVenture, but also a smoky haze.
An air quality advisory has been issued until tomorrow, but that didn’t stop event-goers from attending AirVenture’s first day.
The air quality alert has been issued for almost the whole entire state. It’s due to smoke from western Canada wildfires.
“It really hasn’t been too bad. Earlier in July, we had much worse air quality in Wisconsin, you know, everybody was looking at that, how would it affect things,” said Dick Knapinski, EAA spokesperson.
Knapinski says visibility is what matters most.
“Right now, as long as the visibility is enough miles for the pilots to say, ‘I can make a safe approach, safe landing,’ and that varies from pilot to pilot depending on experience, depending on their ratings and so forth,” he said.
Steve Taylor, a pilot from the Seattle area, has been coming to AirVenture since 1975.
“We flew in on Friday from Hartford and we had a beautiful day to fly, it was a really pretty morning, and yeah, it was really good,” said Taylor. “In fact, on the way out here, we flew through some pretty heavy smoke that was in South Dakota as we came through, and had to use what we call instrument flight rules in order to be able get to the stop that we were planning to go to.”
Taylor says for visual flight rules, you have to have three miles of visibility.
“So anytime the visibility becomes less than three miles, then you sort of have to switch the rules that you fly under and fly under instrument flight rules,” said Taylor
Instrument flight rules are a set of regulations under which a pilot operates an aircraft in weather conditions not clear enough to see where they are going, according to Avlite.
“This airplane we can’t fly like that, so when it gets less than three miles, you literally can’t even fly the airplane,” said Taylor.
“Your first certificate you earn is private pilot, which allows you to fly with reference to the horizon,” said Jason Schappert, pilot and president of MzeroA, an online ground school.
Schappert says smoke and haze not only impact your visibility, but also the aircraft and yourself.
“What is that doing to my aircraft engine? What is that doing to my lungs? I’m already up at altitude where oxygen is deprived, now I’m inhaling something else that isn’t oxygen,” he said.
The air quality in Oshkosh was considered to be “Unhealthy For Sensitive Groups” Monday, meaning the general public is usually not affected.
Taylor says the visibility could be better, but is still more than three miles. His bigger concern when flying, especially a smaller plane, are thunderstorms.
“Thunderstorms are something we just can’t even deal with at all, so we have to steer around them,” said Taylor.
There is a possibility for some scattered thunderstorms later Monday night. The Air Quality Advisory is in effect until noon Tuesday.
EAA AirVenture goes until Sunday, July 30.
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