What does FAR 91.103 require pilots to do?

It requires the pilot in command to become familiar with all available information concerning a flight before beginning it, including runway lengths, takeoff and landing distance data, and - for many flights - weather, fuel, alternates, and known ATC delays.

How long is the Oshkosh AirVenture NOTAM?

It runs roughly 32 pages, depending on the year, and contains charts, diagrams, altitudes, airspeeds, and radio procedures unique to the event.

How do you acknowledge ATC on the Oshkosh arrival?

You rock your wings when the Fisk controller calls out your aircraft type - there is no read-back and no call sign, because the traffic volume leaves no time for standard radio exchanges.

Is missing part of the Oshkosh procedure usually a piloting-skill problem?

No. It's almost always a 91.103 failure - a capable pilot who treated the long NOTAM like a short one and didn't absorb the procedures before flying.

When should I read the AirVenture NOTAM?

Well before departure, on the ground and calmly - ideally weeks ahead, reading it twice and chair-flying the arrival, so the procedures are familiar rather than new in the cockpit.

Ninety-One One Oh Three and the Duty to Become Familiar With All Available Information, Starting With That Thirty-Two Page Oshkosh NOTAM

Federal Aviation Regulation 91.103 requires that every pilot in command, before beginning a flight, become familiar with all available information concerning that flight. For a routine local hop that might mean twenty minutes at the kitchen table. But for a flight into Wittman Regional Airport during EAA AirVenture, “all available information” includes a roughly 32-page NOTAM that rewrites the rules for that airspace from scratch - and reading it on the couch, not in the cockpit, is what separates a safe arrival from a dangerous one.

What does FAR 91.103 actually require?

The core of the regulation is short: each pilot in command shall, before beginning a flight, become familiar with all available information concerning that flight.

Sit with three of those words: all available information. Not some of it. Not the convenient parts. Not the weather app you glanced at while the coffee brewed.

The regulation then gets specific. For any flight, the information must include the runway lengths at airports of intended use and the takeoff and landing distance data. For flights not in the vicinity of an airport and for any flight under IFR, it must also include weather reports and forecasts, fuel requirements, alternatives available if the planned flight cannot be completed, and any known traffic delays advised by ATC.

Here is the key insight, and the trap: that list is not the limit - it’s the minimum. The controlling phrase is all available information. The runway lengths, weather, fuel, and alternates are the floor. The regulation trusts you, as pilot in command, to figure out the rest based on the flight you’re actually flying.

Why is the Oshkosh NOTAM different from a normal NOTAM?

For most of the year, a NOTAM is a quick note - a closed taxiway, an inoperative light. But sometimes a NOTAM is the entire rulebook for a piece of airspace, rewritten for a single week.

The AirVenture NOTAM, published jointly by the FAA and the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA), is exactly that. It runs about 32 pages. It contains charts, diagrams, colored dots painted on the runways, and altitudes, airspeeds, and radio procedures that exist nowhere else in American aviation.

FAR 91.103 does not care that it’s long. The regulation says all available information. That booklet is available - so legally and practically, it is yours to know.

During AirVenture, Wittman Regional handles more takeoffs and landings than any airport on the planet. The document is what makes that possible.

How does the Oshkosh arrival procedure work?

Picture arriving from the south. The procedure routes you to a town called Ripon. From Ripon, you follow the railroad tracks northeast to a spot called Fisk.

Along that route, you don’t talk on the radio the way you normally would - you listen. A controller on the ground at Fisk looks up at a river of airplanes and calls them out by what they look like:

“High-wing Cessna over the tracks, rock your wings.”

That’s the clearance. You rock your wings to acknowledge. No read-back. No call sign. There are too many airplanes and not enough seconds.

Every piece of that - the route, the exact altitude, the airspeed, the wing rock instead of keying the mic, the frequency you monitor - lives in the NOTAM. There is no other document that teaches it, and no instructor can hand it to you perfectly from memory, because it can change year to year.

Why do good pilots still bust the arrival?

When a pilot shows up at Ripon at the wrong altitude, the wrong speed, or talking on a silent frequency, that is almost never a skills failure. It’s usually a good pilot who treated a 32-page NOTAM like a two-line NOTAM - who met the minimum in their head and didn’t realize the minimum had moved.

That’s a 91.103 failure, not a stick-and-rudder failure.

Consider two pilots in the same aircraft type:

Pilot one downloads the NOTAM three weeks early, reads it twice, prints the arrival diagram and clips it to the yoke, and chair-flies the procedure out loud at home. Over Ripon, nothing is new. The altitude is a number already held a hundred times in the mind. The wing rock is a reflex.
Pilot two is just as good a stick - maybe better - but glanced at the NOTAM the night before and launched planning to “follow the crowd.” Over Ripon, this pilot is task-saturated, reading the document for the first time while flying formation with strangers at pattern altitude. They miss a call, drift up 200 feet hunting for the tracks, and everyone behind them compresses.

Same airplane. Same rating. The only difference is FAR 91.103.

The reg doesn’t say when to become familiar - only before beginning the flight. But the practical truth it can’t legislate: information absorbed calmly on the ground is information you own. Information you’re skimming at a hundred knots is just paper in your lap.

How do I meet 91.103 on an ordinary flight?

Oshkosh is just the loudest example. The regulation touches every flight you make.

Runway lengths at airports of intended use. Don’t glance - calculate. Run your book numbers against the actual runway, at your weight, on a hot day. In summer heat, density altitude eats performance you assumed you had.
Takeoff and landing distance data. That’s your performance charts - the POH section many pilots haven’t opened since the checkride. It’s available information.
Weather reports and forecasts, and fuel requirements. The baseline of any cross-country.
Alternatives if the flight can’t be completed. The reg literally requires you to have a plan B before you leave - where you’ll go if the ceiling drops, or if Oshkosh goes to a ground stop because the field is saturated, which happens routinely every year.
Known traffic delays advised by ATC. At AirVenture the delays aren’t a surprise - they’re published and expected. Build fuel and patience around them, or you became familiar only with the fun parts.

What is the examiner really looking for on the checkride?

The Airman Certification Standards (ACS) cover preflight planning directly. The examiner is not looking for you to recite 91.103 like a parrot. They want evidence that you gathered the information and then used it to make a decision.

“Yeah, I checked the weather, looked fine” demonstrates knowledge of a task.
“Here’s the forecast, here’s why the timing pushed my departure two hours, here’s my alternate, and here’s the fuel that gets me there with legal reserve plus a cushion I’m comfortable with” demonstrates judgment.

That’s the whole point of all available information: it isn’t a box to check. It’s the raw material for a go/no-go decision.

The one question to ask before every flight

Before you fly, ask yourself honestly: What information is available for this flight that I have not looked at yet?

Not “have I done my usual routine” - available. What’s out there that you’re choosing not to open because it’s long, boring, or you assume you already know it?

For a hop to the practice area, maybe the answer is nothing. You’re good.
For a strange field, maybe it’s the airport diagram and a phone call to someone based there.
For Wittman Regional during AirVenture, it’s a 32-page booklet you read the way you’d read a contract before signing it - because when you launch, you are effectively signing it. You’re telling the FAA and everyone in that conga line that you became familiar with all available information.

Make that true before you take off - not while you’re flying.

Key Takeaways

FAR 91.103 requires the pilot in command to become familiar with all available information before a flight - the regulation’s list of items is the minimum, not the limit.
The EAA AirVenture NOTAM runs about 32 pages and functions as the complete rulebook for Oshkosh airspace; it can change year to year, so it must be read fresh each season.
The Oshkosh arrival routes pilots from Ripon along railroad tracks to Fisk, where you rock your wings to acknowledge ATC instead of using the radio.
Most Oshkosh arrival mistakes are 91.103 failures, not skills failures - the fix is reading the NOTAM calmly on the ground, well before departure.
On the checkride, the ACS rewards judgment (using gathered information to make a go/no-go decision), not memorized regulation text.