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As we closed out July (“Hottest Month On Record” according to global alarmist media) there’s no doubt that it’s been hot, but it is summer in the midwest, so it’s not unexpected. At least it hasn’t been as bad as in other places; Travis Briscoe came in from Flagstaff, AZ last week, where it was 117. We were at 6500 feet Wednesday afternoon and the outside air was 80 degrees, about 44 degrees over standard atmospheric. The runway temperature was 102 as we landed.
Les Gorden made it back from the Oshkosh airshow with no breakdowns in his T-28C North American trainer warbird, having survived the multiship formation display. Other travelers this week were Dan Ferguson in Dad’s Cessna Skylane, airport commission chairman Dennis Jacobs in a Cessna 150 and CFI Christian Tucker in a Cessna 182.
The monthly Fliars Club flyout to Miami County airport for breakfast was aborted after an uninformed participant flew over to K81 and found “X’s” on the runway. Turns out the place was NOTAMed closed effective July 5th and will remain so until August 15th. Plans for refueling the plane and occupants had to be scrubbed and a return-to-base was executed.
Three lessons were learned by such stupidity. One: Don’t make a flight without proper planning; snap decisions are fraught with hazard. Two: Check the Notices To Air Missions for any flight away from home; you never know when something will have changed. Three: Always carry enough fuel to reach an alternative refueling point; you can’t depend on avgas availability even if the runway’s open.
Our wonderful “robust economy” has some holes in it, termed “supply chain issues” as a fancy excuse for things being outastock. We have grown to expect overnight shipment of internet orders, coming from unknown warehouses, and now the tenuous connections are becoming fragile. I ordered new navigation charts back in mid-June; when they didn’t show up at three weeks, I ordered again, from a different source, which came promptly. Then the original order showed up, a month late, so I was stuck with two piles of short-dated charts. I also ordered a battery, since the three-year-old one in one of our planes had given up the ghost. Naturally, it was back-ordered, finally showing up last week, after a lengthy period of having to swap batteries back and forth between planes. And the tailwheel hubcap clip, needed to keep dirt out of the tailgear bearings, never has showed up, although it’s on the invoice. Keep stocked up, if you want to be able to fly.
The week’s quiz was aerodynamic in nature, wanting to know which primary flight control produces a turn in flight. It’s actually the elevator, which by deflecting upward while the airplane is banked serves to “lift” the aircraft in the desired direction. For next week, tell us what early-day aviator was recently honored with a commerative 25-cent piece. You can send your answers to kochhaus1@gmail.com.
