Remembering Craig Chipley...

Updated April 11, 2025 07:48 EDT

It is with a heavy heart that we announce the unexpected passing of Craig Chipley. After a short illness, he slipped the surly bonds of earth at 12:05 PM EDT this past Sunday, April 6.

His passing leaves a large hole in our Juneau and Oshkosh operations that will unlikely be filled again. Craig was a friend, confidant and one of the three legs that comprises Cessnas 2 Oshkosh.

In November of 2007 he joined Cessnas 2 Oshkosh at the exact necessary moment to keep the organization viable. He has provided expertise and a varied outlook on civil aviation.

Craig will be sorely missed. We will soon be taking donations to fund a High School "Build a Plane" in the Granbury area of Texas. He had recently suggested supporting the maintenance side of GA, We can't think of a better way to honor the memory of a dedicated A&P/IA, aircraft builder and pilot.

Blue Skies and tailwinds Craig!

2025 Registration Closed!

Updated April 09, 2025 14:57 EDT

Hello Cessnas 2 Oshkosh 2025 Pilots, Relatives and Friends:

We're excited to inform that the registration period for 2025 has reached its goal. It has been, without a doubt, a successful registration year. We achieved our goal of registering one-hundred-twenty (120) aircraft in sixty (60) days, the vast majority of them within the first five (5) days. We thank each of you for your enthusiastic support.

Why stop registration at one-hundred-twenty (120) aircraft? The leadership of Cessnas 2 Oshkosh arrived at this number based on two facts:

First, the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA), the FAA Oshkosh Air Traffic Operations Manager and Cessnas 2 Oshkosh (C2O) agreed to execute a ninety (90) aircraft mass arrival into Wittman Regional Airport on Saturday, July 19, 2025 5:00 PM CDT (UTC-5).

Second, analysis of eighteen (18) years of data collected by Cessnas 2 Oshkosh showed that C2O experiences a twenty-five (25%) to thirty (30%) percent attrition rate each year from the closure of registration to the Juneau check-in deadline. What this means is that, using this statistic fact, we can safely project that between now and Saturday, July 19, 2025 11:00 AM CDT (UTC-5), twenty-four (24) to thirty-six (36) pilots will withdraw from participation for different personal, family, work, weather or mechanical reasons. Therefore, we can safely count on eighty-four (84) to ninety (90) aircraft reaching Dodge County Airport (KUNU) in Juneau, Wisconsin by Saturday, July 19, 2025 11:00 AM CDT (UTC-5) ready to fly the mass arrival.

What would happen if more than ninety (90) aircraft reach Juneau ready to fly the mass arrival by Saturday, July 19, 2025 11:00 AM CDT (UTC-5)?

In that case, since the ninety (90) aircraft limit is a hard stop determined by flight operations at EAA and the FAA Oshkosh Air Traffic Operations Manager, we will include in the mass arrival flight, out of the aircraft on the ground at Juneau, the first ninety (90) aircraft whose PIC registered. The order of registration is shown on the 2025 Main Roster page on our website. We will not take into consideration any other criteria. The aircraft not included in the mass arrival flight will arrive Oshkosh via the Fisk arrival. We will make every effort in our discussions with EAA ground operations to have these aircraft marshaled to Cessna BaseCamp to join the mass arrival group. The decision to allow this is beyond our control and we cannot guarantee this outcome.

We would like to remind those who stated that they would not be camping with their aircraft at Cessna BaseCamp in the North 40 that the EAA flight and ground operations leadership decided that those aircraft must park and will be marshalled to General Aircraft Parking, whether they flew with the main arrival group or separately via the Fisk arrival.

We would also like to remind every registered PIC that the three absolute criteria to participate in the mass arrival flight are still current and will be enforced without exception. For more information on these requirements, visit our Training page. We encourage every pilot intending to fly the mass arrival flight to sign up for a formation training clinic early and get the training requirement out of the way. The schedule of the 2025 Clinics is posted on our Clinics page. Pilots who intend to participate in the mass arrival flight may sign up for a clinic very easily by following this link: Clinic Registration.

We hope to see each one of you on Saturday, July 19, 2025 in Juneau, WI.

Fly safe,

Rodney Swanson
Jason Skelton
Gil Velez

2024 Final Report

Updated February 01, 2025 19:59 EST

2024 Cesnnas 2 Oshkosh pilots attending final preflight briefing. - Photo by Dmitry Zaslavsky - Cessnas 2 Oshkosh.

We are excited to report that sixty-four (64) aircraft actually participated in the 2024 Cessnas 2 Oshkosh Mass Arrival Flight. Seventeen (17) of the sixty-four (64) PIC flew our mass arrival for the first time in 2024. Our sixty-four (64) PIC brought with them forty-six (46) passengers over the age of twelve (12) years and four (4) children under 12 years of age. We warmly welcome the new pilots and their passengers to our group and wish all of our pilots, relatives and friends the most fun during our week of celebration at Cessna Base Camp and AirVenture. Thirty-six (36) pilots withdrew from participation for different personal, family, work-related and mechanical or technical reasons. We missed them and hope that they will join us next year.

2024 Cesnnas 2 Oshkosh pilots with their sons and daugthers at Cessna Base Camp in the North 40.
Photo by Dmitry Zaslavsky - Cessnas 2 Oshkosh.

Twenty-five (25) states and three (3) Canadian provinces were represented. Texas led the states with twelve (12) aircraft, followed by Virginia with seven (7), and Massachusetts with five (5). The Canadian province of Ontario sent three (3) aircraft and Alberta and Nova Scotia sent one (1) aircraft each.

The Cardinal (C177) led the models with twenty-two (22) aircraft, followed by the Skylane (C182) with nineteen (19), the Skyhawk (C172) with twelve (12), and the Centurion with six (6).

Thirty-seven (37) were aircraft with fixed landing gear and twenty-seven (27) were equipped with retractable landing gear.

Needless to say, we are very happy with these results and want to express our heartfelt gratitude to all of our pilots, relatives and friends for their support.

2024 Annual Dinner Door Prize Winners!

Updated January 01, 2025 10:07 EST

Titan Aerobatic Team Ride - Lance Stuke / G-1 received from Aspen Avionics' President John Uczekaj	GoodYear Flight Custom III Set of Tires - Alex MacLean / M-1
$300 Off Power Flow Exhaust System STC - Kevin Stakem / R-3 received from PowerFlow Representatives	Kennon Products Set of Sunshields - Chad Halls / B-2 received from Brooke Collins / Kennon Products Representative
Whelen Aeroled SunSpot Landing and Taxi Light - Nick Thornsbury / E-3	Tempest Complete Set of Spark Plugs - Joel Kirschner / U-1
ForeFlight 1-Year Performance Plus Subscription - Brad Willcocks / O-3	ForeFlight 1-Year Performance Plus Subscription - Tracy Mahoney
ForeFlight Sentry Plus - Jonathan Baxter / P-3	Garmin D2 Air X10 Smart Watch - Michael Bendett / D-2 received from Garmin's Rep
Concorde Battery - Thomas Knapp / J-3	McFarlane $500 Gift Certificate - Nathan Miller / A-3 received from McFarlane's Representative
McFarlane Bernier Throttle Control - Javier Camba received from McFarlane's Representative	McFarlane $3,000 off a Propeller Certificate - Thierry Saint Loup / E-1 received from McFarlane's Representative
All Photos by Dmitry Zaslavsky - Cessnas 2 Oshkosh