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The normal Fliars Club breakfast flyout and SkyDive KC operations last Saturday morning were interrupted by a mishap, as the runway was closed by an airplane sitting on its belly instead of the wheels. The Beech Twin Bonanza landed normally, but the left main landing gear collapsed during the rollout. Fortunately, these incidents don’t cause injuries, just inconvenience and expense. Veteran airplane retrieval person Tom Spencer came riding to the rescue and had the field open after a couple of hours.
Other less-eventful visitors were a Cessna 182 a Cessna Skyhawk, a Piper Warrior and a Beech Bonanza V35. Locally, Jon Laughlin was flying his beautifully-refurbished Piper Cherokee 180C, and Jeremie Platt and I flew our respective Grumman and Cessna planes to Paola, returning after taking temporary refuge at Harrisonville’s nice new concrete runway.
If you’re not inclined to take on the job of Butler Airport’s airport manager position, now open, you might check out the Joplin Airport’s posting. They are looking for something qualified to run their airport, which has airline and corporate flights, along with a control tower and FBO, encompassing nearly 1000 acres of land. Starting salary is $67,860, and you must agree to be on call 24 hours a day in case of emergency.
Nevada airport is reportedly due to re-open November 12th, after a summer-long closure while the auxiliary runway 13/31 was reconstructed. Hopefully, Butler’s planned lighting maintenance upgrade won’t tie us up as long as our neighbors have had to endure.
FAA press releases touting the benefits of the removal of Flight Instructor expiration dates are entirely one-sided. As of December 1, 2024, CFI certificate holders will no longer have their new ID cards come with a two-year life expectancy. But, that doesn’t mean they can instruct forever; rather, it just means the FAA won’t bother printing up a new certificate after one makes application and meets the renewal criteria. CFI’s still have to be sufficiently active, or attend a renewal course, to avoid losing their privileges, and they still have to fill out paperwork and keep track of their due date. The change just saves the government a rather-bloated claim of $5.6 million.
Last week, we asked for someone to tell us what Charles Lindbergh is known for being the first to do when he hopped over the Atlantic Ocean in 1927. Lots of other people had flown across the Atlantic before Lindy. But no one had flown from New York to Paris non-stop, and publisher Raymond Ortig offered a $25,000 prize for it, which Lindbergh won. For next week, tell us, what is a Powered Lift aircraft? You can send answers to kochhaus1@gmail.com.
