What’s Up by LeRoy Cook

 

You Gets What You Pays For

Halfway through the year, we swing into July with hopes of rain and a break in the heat. I drove a trip instead of flying it last Saturday, and it seemed to work as a rainmaker. It all depends on where you are, of course, because thundershowers can be spotty.

Considerable transient traffic came through last week, such as a Cessna Skyhawk, an AirTractor sprayplane/spreader, a Piper Cherokee and a Cessna 182. Locally, Dennis Jacobs and Christian Tucker flew Cessna 150 sorties, Jeremie Platt flew his Grumman Tiger, Les Gorden exercised his T-18C Trojan and I delivered a broken 150 to the maintenance shop. It’s always my job to bring in the cripples. 

The price of used airplanes is still going up. A friend of mine showed me pictures of her “dream plane”, 1948 Stinson Station Wagon, priced at $127,000. I remember when those old Voyagers could be had for $30,000 or so, but the cost of restoration has escalated and good aircraft are worth a bunch. What else can haul four people in style at 110 mph? Problem is, such a fine old ride would need a hangar, and like most airports, her’s has a very long waiting list for storage. 

Airplane owners are getting new Aircraft Registration certificates in the mail, not because they’ve applied for them, but because the FAA is reprinting them with the new seven-year expiration date, now that the Oklahoma City office can no longer keep up with the three-year cycle of re-registering. It takes up to six months to get a transfer of ownership done, at least on paper. Until then, a check of the N-number will show the ownership as “pending”, meaning new registration is in process.

The FAA is taking bids to replace 31 old control towers that have issues like unsafe environmental quirks and non-standard workspace. I’m sure the one at Rosecrans Field in St. Joseph probably is on the list, as it used to be known as the oldest working tower in the country, manned by the Air Force as part of the Reserve base.

The U.S. Air Force is marking 100 years since the first mid-air refueling mission; on June 27, 1923, a hose was dangled from a DeHavilland DH4 to transfer fuel to one flying formation below. Now they are working on a drone refueler that may obviate the risk to tanker crews in combat zones. Bet it won’t wash the windshield as part of the service.

The week’s question was about the Morse code letters, dash-dot-dot-dot, dot-dot-dash, dash-dash, which stands for BUM, the identifier for the Butler VORTAC station, broadcasting since 1948 out by Virginia. In order not to confuse GPS navigators, we have to add a “K” in front of the ID so the box will take us to the runway, not the radio facility. For next week, what maker of fish-finders also built some early GPS receivers?  You can send your answers to kochhaus1@gmail.com.