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Last weekend was like being released from a prison, as airplanes again took to the skies after being locked away in the deep freeze. It wasn’t just cold, it was sub-zero cold after the eight-inch snowfall. The airport hadn’t seen that much snow depth for many years.
I had continuous conversations with non-flyers about flying in the cold, to which I just muttered “Not" most of the time. For those desiring explanation, I related the difficulty of getting air-cooled engines to start in single digit temperatures. One basically has three choices: putting the plane in a heated hangar, of maybe 50 degrees, or applying heat to the engine, like with a oilpan or block heating element, or trying a cold start, which risks damage to bearings and cylinder walls, if not an intake fire. Mostly, we just deferred flying until it warmed up.
At the week’s end, we saw a Piper Archer and a Cessna Skylane landing on our plowed runway, and CFI Delaney Rindal had her Cessna 150s pulled out. The city street plows took excellent care of getting the field open, but this was enough snow to take up ramp space just to store the piles of pushed snow. And there was some re-drifting that reduced the taxiway and runway width.
The month’s spate of nationwide aviation accidents generated some ill-considered news coverage, always a risk when there’s not a lot of other happenings to take up airtime. The fact is, none of the spectacular tragedies had any relation to each other. It was just coincidental that a nighttime mid-air in D. C. and a departing Learjet crash followed each other, and the Navy losing an F-18 Growler at San Diego and a couple of lightplanes colliding in Phoenix were entirely unrelated. The Toronto CJ flip-over was simply the result of a broken-off maingear. In each case, it’ll take months of investigations to determine causes.
Last week, Southwest Airlines announced the first-ever layoffs in its storied history, a 15% reduction in its workforce. Most airlines have seen some overcapacity after going on a hiring binge last year, so LUV is no different from the other carriers. The cancellations and delays of this winter haven’t helped the airlines’ profit margins.
This Saturday marks another opportunity for the Fliars Club to assemble for a breakfast sojourn. If interested, gather on the Butler ramp at 0730 hours and see if there’s interest. I don’t have a plane to fly anymore, but I’m there in spirit.
The previous column asked if anyone knows the WW-II fighter plane that was flown by the most “Aces.” It turns out to be the Grumman Hellcat, which arrived in the Pacific theater to thwart the Japanese Zeros. Now, for this week, what is the minimum visibility requirement for a helicopter pilot to fly without an instrument clearance? You can send your answers to kochhaus1@gmail.com.
