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Cooler climbouts
Having to shut the vents during climbout was a different experience last week, after the heat experienced earlier. Airplanes perform more spritely in the denser air, and the post-cold front skies are clear and clean. Don’t worry, it’s still August so it’ll heat up again.
Arrivals seen this week included a nice Piper Cherokee 140, a Cessna 182, a Piper Archer and a Zenith homebuilt. Tom Bowles was in from New Century with his Cessna Turbo Skylane RG, Darrel Yeltsin flew from his Taylorcraft 20 down from Pleasant Hill, and a Cessna Stationair came by.
Locally, Randy and Bettie Miller were out in the Cessna Skyhawk, Les Gorden’s Beech Twin Bonanza was up, the SkyDive King Air flew a few loads and BCS’s AirTractor sprayplane was up working. I took a Cessna 150 for some proficiency.
Nevada airport is now shut down for reconstruction of the crosswind runway, 13/31, and Harrisonville remains closed, but we observed paving in progress last week, so they hope to reopen ahead of schedule. Clinton’s new terminal building is coming along nicely and GLY remains a viable alternative fuel stop if Butler’s out of reach.
Plan ahead for September fly-ins and airshows. St. Joseph Rosecrans Field is hosting big airshow on the 14th and 15th, competing with a show at Jefferson City on the same dates, so check NOTAMS (Notices To Air Missions) for closure times. And Lamar is putting on a fly-in breakfast and open house on Saturday, September 21.
In national aviation news, the union representing FAA inspectors has announced that the agency has agreed to a $5000 bonus for the GS-scale workers, and they will continue to go in to the office only two days per week, as they started doing during the Covid scare. The other days, they’ll work from home or be out in the field.
ALPA, the Airline Pilots Association, has sent a we-object letter to the European airplane maker Airbus, which is thinking of developing single-pilot airliners. Replacing the co-pilot with a computer would save air-carriers money, of course, and heaven knows, Airbus’ are already mostly computer-driven, lacking mechanical controls and programmed to overrule pilot mistakes. I wonder if we passengers get a vote in the debate...
Last week’s question wanted to know the difference between DME and the military’s TACAN distance-finding equipment, the mileage-measuring feature of the Butler VORTAC station and most others. The answer is, there isn’t any; DME uses military Tactical Air Navigation signals, but pairs VOR azimuth information to the TACAN channel by tuning the associated frequency. For our next brain-teaser, what was the name of the founder of Lockheed Aircraft? You can send your answers to kochhaus1@gmail.com.
