What’s Up By LeRoy Cook
The wildfires out in the northwest caused pilots considerable extra work here in the mid-section, as the smoke from the fires drifted in and combined with our humidity. The flight visibility dropped to five miles or less, so it was difficult to stay oriented. Many times, the GPS showed where we were, but the airport ahead was still shrouded in haze.
This being “Oshkosh Week”, meaning there were lots of airplanes dropping in for fuel at Butler en route to the gigantic AirVenture airshow in Wisconsin, the transient traffic count was up. A Rutan Quickie homebuilt bounced in, accompanied by a Wittman Tailwind, and a Cirrus SR-22 and a Cessna Skylane were in. A Cessna Skyhawk and a new Cessna 182T spent time in the traffic pattern, and we had the usual contingent of agplanes making quick loading stops.
Some of the local airplanes observed were a Beech Bonanza N35 flown by Christian Tucker, the Cessna Skyhawk, taken on several trips by Jeff Arnold, and the Cessna 150 trainer doing multiple training runs to Boonville. I flew the Aeronca Champ to Clinton, and the SkyDive KC King Air was up dropping skydivers.
In training news of the week, we can announce the appearance of a new Private Pilot. Rebekah Knight of Deepwater took her checkride with Examiner David Bradley on Thursday and came home with her license in hand, despite heavy haze that limited flight visibility. Added to her many other accomplishments, the ability to fly anywhere anytime is a great achievement. Congratulations, Rebekah!
Another private space flight was successfully carried off last week, as Jeff Bezos burned up some of his Amazon money making the first manned launch of his New Shepherd space tourist capsule. As with the recent Virgin Galactic parabolic arc, it was only a hop to the edge of the atmosphere, defined as 100 kilometers up, where the four passengers floated around the cabin for three or four minutes of weightlessness. Fortunately, the parachute opened and an uneventful touchdown was made ten minutes after the blastoff.
The best part of Blue Origin’s achievement was the donation of a seat to 82-year-old veteran aviator Wally Funk, a spunky lady who had participated in a privately funded “female astronaut” program in the 1960s. All 13 of the women pilots proved they could do the job of a Mercury-series astronaut, but NASA was not set up to accommodate anything but male test pilots at the time. While the media reports said Funk was “turned down,” that’s incorrect; there was never any intention of having women in the program.
Our question of the week from last time wanted to know if a diabetic person could be issued a pilot’s medical certificate. It wasn’t always possible, but the FAA now permits well-controlled insulin-dependent diabetics to fly, if they test with normal blood-sugar readings before and each hour during the flight. Special Issuance restrictions apply, but it is allowed. Our brain-teaser for the next week is, what’s the meaning of “mist” shown as a visibility restriction in an aviation weather report? You can send your answer to kochhaus1@gmail.com.
