RIP, ADB
As summer officially arrived, the steamy season is upon us, requiring open windows and doors for ground operation and fast climbs to get up into cooler air. The long days of June always give ample hours of daylight to commit acts of aviation. I remember one determined trip I made several Junes ago, leaving Butler at 7 a.m, picking up a passenger in Camdenton and recrossing BUM at 8:30 enroute to Long Beach, California. Three stops later, I gratefully landed in Lawn Beech around 8:30 Pacific time.
It was a somewhat quiet week for transient traffic; a big CH-47 Chinook Army Reserve helicopter came by, a Piper Warrior trainer and a Cessna Skylane stopped in, and Bill Koons came in from Arizona in his 1956 Cessna 172. Out of the local sheds, I took the Aeronca Champ up, Jim and Mike Ferguson flew the Cessna Skylane, the Cessna Skyhawk got an evening shakedown cruise and Jeremie Platt made a hop in his Grumman Tiger.
We were saddened to learn of the passing of Alden Dale Buerge on June 14th, whom I taught to fly 52 years ago. Alden never quit learning about aviation; he went on to get all the pilot ratings, including an Airline Transport ticket, and I recommended him for his flight instructor’s certificate so he could teach his sons. He still enjoyed flying his little CT sport airplane, making a final flight three days before his death.
There’s a current fad of tricking-out light airplanes to perform extremely short takeoffs and landings. Like all such endeavors, other capabilities are subordinated to STOL operation, so they wind up with odd-shaped slow flying machines that won’t haul much, but they can fly at 20-some mph. With big engines, fat tires and powerful brakes, these machines can squeak to a stop in 50 feet or less, taking off in a similar distance. One enterprising demo pilot landed on a helipad atop a skyscraper in Dubai using a reported 28 feet of space. Stationed as he was 700 feet above the desert, taking off was no problem; roaring over the edge of the pad, gravity produced airspeed in short order. Okay, what else can you do?
Last week, we had several inquiries about teaching teenagers to fly, specifically early teens. At 13, there’s not much opportunity to advance; you have to be at least 14 to solo in a glider, but you can’t get the full license until age 16. For powered airplanes, solo has to wait for the 16th birthday, and the test for the license can’t come until you’re 17. My advice is to proceed slowly until 15 ½ and then start regular lessons, but be prepared to wait until turning 17 to take the checkride.
HondaJet announced a new model last week, speculated about for the past couple of years. It’s to be a big 11-seat airplane, capable of flying non-stop across the U.S. and operating as high as 47,000 feet. This puts it in a different class than the HondaJet Elite light jet, which uses Honda’s own GE-collaborated jet engines; the new airplane will be equipped with Williams FJ-44 engines, like most CitationJets and other pocket rockets. Price is TBD.
The weekly question concerned naming the high-performance single-engine airplane that was built without a boarding step, reducing drag for more speed. That would be the Piper Comanche, which had short main landing gear legs so the wingwalk was less than a foot above the ground. No assist step was needed. For our next brain-teaser, what famous aviator was forced-down at sea in World War II and drifted in a life raft for weeks before rescue? You can send your answers to kochhaus1@gmail.com.
