My annual January thaw arrived a week late this year, but last week’s warm-up gave pilots a preview of things to come. Many folks took wing, and as one of our new pilots said, “Never seen Butler airport this busy!” Airport bums and hangar rats gathered to at least think about spring cleaning and putting in fresh gasoline, even if they didn’t fly.
My checklist of comings and goings netted the usual suspects; a Cessna Skyhawk, a Piper Archer, a Warrior and a Cherokee. A big throaty Piper Saratoga shot some landings as well. A Cessna 172 from a Kansas City flight school suffered an electrical system failure and had to tie down here for a few days. It had a full compliment of modern instrument panel upgrades, so without juice none of the fancy glass gauges would work.
Locally-based movements included a Piper TriPacer, the resident Cessna 140, a Beech Bonanza and assorted Cessna 150 flights. I took the 1946 Aeronca out for a half-hour of traffic pattern exercise and did some test flying.
Last week, I had the sad duty of answering questions about the tragic East Coast accidents. As far as the horrible mid-air collision at Washington National airport goes, there’s not much to be said other than the obvious; They got together. The Philadelphia Lear Jet crash that occurred a few days later is more complex, and it’ll take a lot of analysis to determine the cause.
We’ve had a 16-year run of perfect safety in U.S. airline flights, so after thousands upon thousands of uneventful arrivals, one could say our luck just ran out. We must never forget just how hazardous flight can be, and we have to constantly work to mitigate the risks. Taking 64 people halfway across the country at 500 mph, miles high where the air can’t support life and temperature is 50 below zero, is a marvel of engineering. PSA’s little CRJ-700 American Eagle airliner was doing it day in and day out.
So, what went wrong at DCA? Simply put, somebody wasn’t watching and two aircraft tangled. In the dark, punctuated by bright lights, it’s not hard to lose one’s traffic. You have to understand that tower controllers only control the airspace, it’s the pilots that control aircraft. All the required warnings and advisories can’t separate traffic; somebody has to steer. Exacerbating the Washington D.C. flight scene is the plethora of restricted airspace, which crowds air traffic into tight corridors, just asking for a mid-air collision. National Airport was supposed to be replaced by Dulles International out in the suburbs, but the pampered members of our Ruling Class didn’t want to give up the convenience of landing downtown, so it handles far too much traffic.
In our previous column, we asked readers to give the origin of the “Mayday, Mayday” radio distress call. It came from the French term “M’aider” meaning “help me.” For next time, what’s the oldest still-operating airport in the United States? You can send your answers to kochhaus1@gmail.com.