OSHKOSH, Wisconsin -- For one week every year, the air traffic control tower at the small airport here is the busiest in the world. And today is the busiest day of all for the hand-picked all-star crew of controllers who will handle more than 3,000 flights in just 10 hours.
On a normal day, Wittman Regional Airport might see a few hundred take-offs and landings. But more than 10,000 aircraft from around the world descend on Oshkosh for the week-long AirVenture aviation show. On a slow day the controllers might direct 1,500 flights. Some days see more than 2,000. But with many of those who arrived early in the week heading home -- and those coming in for the weekend arriving -- Thursday is usually the busiest day of the week.
On this day last year, the tower directed 3,035 flights in just 10 hours. That's about 400 more than the crew at Atlanta-Hartsfield International Airport -- usually the busiest in the world -- handled on the same day, and the flights coming into Atlanta were spread out over 24 hours. Oshkosh tower manager and veteran controller Wanda Adelman told Wired.com there are some bragging rights that come with the job here, "we actually beat O'Hare" she says referring to the Chicago airport which is the busiest in the region, "we beat Atlanta too, but nobody cares about Atlanta. They just want to know that we beat O'Hare."
That kind of pace (and competitive spirit) requires incredible skill, which is why only the best air traffic controllers get the gig in Oshkosh. AirVenture is called the Super Bowl of air traffic control, but the 50 men and women directing all that traffic don't get a ring.
They get a bright pink polo shirt that is one of the most sought-after prizes of their profession.
There are two runways at Wittman, one that runs east-west and another that runs north-south. But during AirVenture, the Federal Aviation Administration issues a special exception that divides the runways into multiple "lanes" to handle the increased traffic. (See the map below.)
The north-south runway (18-36, for you pilots) is broken into several smaller sections. It is split down the middle so pilots can land on the left and right sides. There are four sections marked by colored dots. Pilots are instructed to land on a specific dot, which means two airplanes can land almost simultaneously on each half of the runway.
The east-west runway (09-27) also is similarly sectioned, with pilots directed to land on a specific dot. All of this slicing and dicing of the runway allows controllers to land multiple airplanes simultaneously. At peak traffic times, there may be as many as 10 airplanes coming or going per minute.
It's a carefully choreographed ballet that requires the utmost attention from both the controllers and the pilots, who must read a 32-page guideline (.pdf) of the procedure. Flying into or out of Wittman during AirVenture can be unnerving for the uninitiated, as pilots often find themselves flying much closer to other airplanes than they typically would.
"We try as hard as we can to keep the noise level down, keep our voices calm" Adelman says, "because when people fly into Oshkosh it’s a lot more traffic than they’re used to and the anxiety level can get high."
Controllers in the tower are joined by controllers in checkpoints in the towns of Ripon and Fisk who talk to the pilots as they get closer to Oshkosh. Fisk is considered a "visual radar," where instead of following blips on a screen, controllers on the ground track planes through binoculars and guide them into the airport.
We flew into Wittman on Monday aboard a Cessna 172 sandwiched between a Piper Super Cub and a Beechcraft Bonanza. Only a half mile or so separated us as we approached Oshkosh. A conga line of 20 airplanes stretched all the way to the airport. It's unusual to be so closely spaced, and everyone's head is on a swivel to make sure no one gets too close. About a mile from Wittman the line was broken as different airplanes were directed to different runways, then assigned to different dots on the runway. We were told to put the Cessna down on the green dot.
Once we were on the ground, we paid a visit to the control tower. Traffic was light -- by AirVenture standards -- with about 1,500 or so planes expected. It's a new tower this year, with a taller model which puts the controllers at 121 feet replacing the classic old brick tower (where controllers were at 53 feet) that came down after last year's show.
The controllers love the view from the new tower which has rid them of a blind spot they had to deal with with the old tower, "especially the approach end of runway nine, the joke used to be that you would lose the aircraft underneath the trees" Adelman recalls, "when they would go down below the trees a Mooney would go in and a Cessna would go out."
Inside, there are two teams of controllers at any given time. Each team has two people. One keeps watch over the airfield and the airspace through binoculars and relays information to the other person, who communicates with the pilots.
It feels like controlled chaos inside the tower. Controllers are talking a mile a minute as they track many more airplanes than they would on a normal day. Yet everyone is cool and calm. Everyone's wearing pink, of course. One unique aspect of flying into AirVenture is pilots are instructed not to talk back to the tower. Instead, pilots are told to rock their wings to acknowledge they understand what the controller is telling them without clogging up the radio with excess chatter.
Despite all the traffic and the frantic pace on the runway, there has never been an air-to-air accident at AirVenture.
We recorded some audio from the control tower on Monday to put you in there with us. Download it here. (.mp3)
*Photos and map copyright Experimental Aircraft Association / AirVenture.
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