Despite the occasional bouts of inclement flying weather, or perhaps because of it, the Butler airport saw considerable traffic this past week. You see, when the weather turns bad, we sometimes get unplanned visitors dropping in, seeking refuge. The mix of visiting aircraft types was certainly eclectic. A Eurocopter EC130 medical helicopter sat down on the ramp Saturday night, an AirTractor 602 sprayplane was parked between aerial application jobs, a nicely-restored 1978 Cessna Cardinal RG came in, and a 1960 Piper Comanche shot a few landings. On Sunday, a Cessna Pressurized Centurion took on fuel, accompanied by a 1964 Cessna 210H and a Piper Cherokee 140.
Locally-based pilots taking to the sky included Jim Ferguson in his Cessna Skylane, Roy Conley in his experimental autogyro, Brandt Hall flying his experimental Slipstream and KIS Cruiser, and Curtis Grimes with his 1947 Cessna 140. The SkyDive KC King Air was grounded by bad weather over the entire wasted weekend, and the Fliars Club breakfast flight was thwarted by thunderstorms as well.
On the training scene, a new student pilot became active on Friday, when Jeffery Adams of Adrian made his first solo flight, circling the field three times in a Cessna 150 completely unaided. Jeffery has worked diligently on his training, progressing rapidly to the solo stage. He now continues polishing his skills, toward the private pilot certificate.
The tower controllers are talking faster than ever in these short-staffed Covid days, mostly because they are being forced to cover more than one working position. Doing local tower, ground control and clearance issuance is really a multi-tasking nightmare. So, you can now expect the chatterbox in the glass cage to make requests even as you bore down final, intent on the task of landing. They used to let you roll off the runway and contact ground control to see where you wanted to park. Then the tower started asking you “where you parking” during the rollout. Now they query you on the downwind or base leg. Soon they’ll want to know before you take off.
If you want to participate in our brain-teaser quiz of the week, be the first to tell us who goes first when two pilots have to eject from a crippled military jet. You can send the answer to kochhaus1@gmail.com.
