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Beautiful autumn skies welcomed flyers last weekend, even though we need rain. All eyes are on the possibility of Maybe Hurricane Francine in the Gulf of Mexico, which could run up the Mississippi Valley to bring relief from the drought. Meanwhile, it’s always the best season of the year for aviating..
Among the week’s traffic were a TBM 850 turboprop parked on the ramp briefly, a Beech Debonair C33, a Cessna 182 and a Piper Archer or two, bringing training flights from Kansas City and Springfield. Locally, Gerald Bauer had the club’s Cessna Skyhawk up, Jeremie Platt exercised his Grumman Tiger, Todd Proach flew his Beech Bonanza A36, Doug Hartzler had his Cirrus SR22 out and Allison Olson practiced in a Cessna 150. The SkyDive KC King Air C90 jump plane made several runs and BCS’s AirTractor sprayplane applied some crop protection.
We recently learned that our friend Mark Bentch, the capable mechanic at Clinton airport, is closing up shop, so his departure will leave a big hole in the local airplane support arena. Mark has accepted a position as a professor at Missouri Technical Institute in Linn, MO, teaching young A&P’s-to-be their craft. We’ll miss having you on call, Mark, and wish you well.
If you’re looking for airshow action this weekend, you can head over to Jefferson City on Saturday and Sunday, or up to Rosecrans airport at St. Joseph. Both are big airport-closing extravaganzas; St. Joe closes down on Friday for show preparations. Check NOTAMS before flying in, for closing hours.
In national news, it finally happened; last week we learned of a money-making scheme out of Florida attempting to extort money out of visitors to some of the state’s airports, using ADS-B information. An enterprising computer company offers to bill airplane owners for landing fees for cities, proposing
$3 per 1000 pounds of weight, tapping into the surveillance broadcast data we were mandated to start sending out in 2020. Anybody can receive the plane owner’s info over the internet. It’s all about money, of course, and most cities need extra income. But this would be like putting in a toll booth at the off ramp from the interstate, charging visitors to come into your town. Hardly welcoming.
The state of California, ever-eager to be on the woke edge of societal evolution, passed a bill in the legislature last Friday week to ban aviation fuel containing lead from being sold in the state after 2036. This despite such a fuel not being currently available. Studies have had an embarrassing lack of success in finding enough lead around airports to constitute a health hazard, but that doesn’t stop true believers. Airplane owners in the Golden State will have to relocate eastward unless common sense returns.
Which brings us to our question from last week, about the ingredients used to make up “sustainable” jet fuel, widely touted as being carbon-offsetting by European airlines and business aviation. The answer is, it can be just about anything that isn’t petroleum-based. To earn the greenwashing label of “sustainable,” as little as 10% of the pricey renewable-energy stuff is blended with good old Jet-A; more than 50% concentration is not approved for use. Some of the sources are biomass from trash, used cooking oil, alcohol-to-diesel, wood by-products and other plant-based materials. Nothing works as well as processed dinosaurs, however.
For next week’s brain-teaser, we’d like to know if any reader’s grandparent would have been a CPT pilot. If not, tell us what the designation means. You can send your answers to kochhaus1@gmail.com.
