Ninety-One One Thirteen and the Right-of-Way Rules That Keep You Alive in the AirVenture Fisk Conga Line

Federal Aviation Regulation 14 CFR 91.113 governs which aircraft yields when two converge in flight, and it opens with the rule that matters most: regardless of who has the right of way, every pilot must see and avoid other aircraft. Right of way never grants permission to fly into someone - it only predicts who should maneuver first. This becomes life-or-death during events like EAA AirVenture Oshkosh, where roughly 10,000 aircraft funnel into Wittman Regional Airport and the radio often goes silent.

Why Right-of-Way Rules Are a Survival Tool, Not Trivia

Most pilots memorize right-of-way rules to pass the written test and recite them to an examiner, then forget why they exist. The entire regulation solves one problem: when two aircraft converge, somebody has to give way. If both pilots assume it’s the other guy’s job, nobody moves - and physics settles the argument.

During the peak of AirVenture, held each July, Wittman Regional Airport near Oshkosh, Wisconsin briefly becomes the busiest airport in the world - busier than Atlanta or Chicago O’Hare. When controllers can’t talk to every airplane in the arrival stream, the regulation is the only thing keeping the aircraft in that line apart.

What Does FAR 91.113 Actually Say First?

The first substantive line is the one almost everyone skips. Paragraph (b) states that regardless of who has the right of way, each pilot is responsible for seeing and avoiding other aircraft, and that vigilance shall be maintained so as to see and avoid.

Read that again: regardless of who has the right of way.

Having the right of way is not a license. It does not give you permission to fly into somebody - it only tells you who is expected to maneuver first. If the other pilot doesn’t move and you sit there confident in your legal right of way while the gap closes, you will be correct and dead at the same time. See and avoid comes first; everything else is second.

This is also exactly what an examiner wants to hear on the oral. Before you recite the pecking order, lead with “First, I’m seeing and avoiding no matter what.” That shows you understand why the rule exists.

Who Has the Right of Way? The Order of Priority

The mental model to carry: the rule gives right of way to the aircraft least able to maneuver out of the way. It’s a hierarchy of maneuverability. The airplane that can dodge is the one expected to dodge.

At the very top sits an aircraft in distress. Under paragraph (c), an aircraft declaring an emergency has the right of way over all other air traffic. A pilot fighting an engine failure or fire has no spare capacity to jockey for position, so everyone yields. Full stop.

Below emergencies, the order from most right-of-way to least is:

• Balloons - a balloon goes where the wind takes it and can’t turn to avoid you, so you avoid it.
• Gliders - a glider has no engine, and every maneuver costs altitude it can’t recover.
• Aircraft towing or refueling - a banner tow or glider tow plane is dragging something and can’t maneuver freely without endangering it.
• Airships - a blimp sits between tow planes and powered aircraft (you’ll rarely deconflict with one).
• Powered aircraft - the Cessna, Cirrus, or Bonanza. You and me. We yield to everyone above because we have the engine and controls to get out of the way.

The memory aid: the aircraft that can’t get out of the way wins. The less control you have over your flight path, the more everyone else must respect it.

How Do You Handle a Glider or Balloon Converging With You?

Run the rule in your head, then act. Say you’re on a stable approach into a Saturday pancake-breakfast fly-in and you spot a glider working a ridge off your left, converging on your track. Glider versus powered airplane - the glider has the right of way. You give way.

Here’s how to give way:

1. Alter course early to pass well clear.
2. Don’t play chicken and don’t assume the other pilot sees you.
3. Make an obvious, early change - not a last-second twitch.
4. Keep the other aircraft in sight the entire time.

Who Has the Right of Way When Two Airplanes Converge?

The deadly encounter isn’t the glider you see coming from a mile off. It’s the airplane at your exact altitude, same type, same speed, on a converging course where neither of you appears to move in the windscreen. A target that isn’t drifting across your glass and is simply getting bigger is a target you are going to hit.

For two aircraft of the same category converging, paragraph (d) says the aircraft to the other’s right has the right of way. Right of way goes to the right.

Picture a four-way stop. The airplane on your right is the one you yield to. If a converging airplane is off your right side, he wins and you give way. If he’s off your left, you have the right of way - but you’re still seeing and avoiding, regardless.

What Do You Do in a Head-On or Overtaking Situation?

Two special cases inside the same paragraph trip pilots up constantly, and examiners love to probe them.

Head-on: When you’re approaching another aircraft head-on or nearly so, nobody has the right of way - both pilots give way, and each shall alter course to the right. You pass left side to left side, like two cars on a road. It only works because you both do the same thing. If you break left or hesitate, you’ve broken the pattern that keeps you both alive. Head-on, go right.

Overtaking: The aircraft being overtaken has the right of way. The slower airplane in front owns that airspace. As the overtaking (faster) pilot, you must alter course to the right to pass and stay well clear until you’re past. This matters enormously at a busy fly-in, where fast and slow airplanes share one arrival stream. The fast airplane does not get to bull through - it goes around, to the right, well clear.

Who Has the Right of Way on Final Approach?

Paragraph (g) decides the whole ballgame in the traffic pattern: aircraft on final approach or landing have the right of way over other aircraft in flight or on the ground. When two aircraft are approaching to land, the aircraft at the lower altitude has the right of way.

Lower airplane on final wins. But the regulation says out loud that you cannot use this rule to cut in front of another aircraft on final or to overtake it. You can’t dive for the deck, claim you’re lower, and squeeze in ahead of an airplane already established ahead of you. That isn’t right of way - it’s dangerous and rude.

How Do the Oshkosh Arrival Procedures Apply These Rules?

The AirVenture arrival is FAR 91.113 with the volume turned all the way up. You join a stream of airplanes over set ground references near Ripon, Wisconsin, holding a specific altitude and airspeed, in trail, one after another. Controllers famously ask you not to talk - they’ll transmit something like “blue high-wing, rock your wings,” and you waggle the airplane to acknowledge.

Look at what that system is built on:

• Everyone flies the same altitude so nobody converges vertically.
• Everyone flies the same speed so spacing never collapses into an overtake.
• You keep the airplane ahead in sight, you don’t pass, and you don’t cut in on final.
• You see and avoid, always, because no controller has time to deconflict every airplane.

The regulation is the skeleton; the Oshkosh procedures are the muscle built on top of it. Same speed, no overtaking. Single file, no cutting in on final. Eyes outside, regardless of who technically has the right of way.

Even if you’re not flying in - standing on the flightline or watching from the fence - you can learn the rule by watching the stream self-organize: faster airplanes waved off and sent around instead of forcing in, nobody diving under the airplane on final to steal the spot. That’s 91.113 executed live by thousands of pilots, and it works because they all agreed on the same rules of the road.

Three Practical Habits to Build Into Every Flight

1. Don’t ask who’s right - ask who moves. Right of way is about predicting what the other pilot should do and being ready when they don’t.
2. Burn the two direction rules into reflex. Head-on, both break right. Overtaking, pass on the right. In the U.S., right is almost always the safe direction - if you both move right, you both live.
3. Respect the stationary target. An airplane that sits still in your windscreen and grows is the one that will kill you. Move your head, scan in segments, and if a target isn’t drifting across the glass, act early while you still have room.

Key Takeaways

• See and avoid always comes first. FAR 91.113(b) requires every pilot to see and avoid other aircraft regardless of who holds the right of way.
• Right of way follows maneuverability: aircraft in distress, then balloons, gliders, towing/refueling aircraft, airships, and finally powered airplanes.
• Same-category converging: the aircraft to the other’s right has the right of way.
• Head-on, both turn right; when overtaking, pass on the right and stay well clear.
• On final, the lower aircraft has the right of way - but you may never use that rule to cut in front of or overtake another aircraft.

The right-of-way rules come straight from the Federal Aviation Regulations, and the FAA publishes its AirVenture NOTAM every year - worth reading cover to cover before you ever point the nose toward Wisconsin.