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This being Oshkosh Week, the annual pilgrimage from far and near heading toward the AirVenture convention in Wisconsin, the usual expected impediments like fog and thunderstorms prevailed to keep pilots from getting there. There was a dearth of transient traffic at Butler associated with the show, since it has been eight months since we’ve had fuel for travelers available here. Notwithstanding, a nice old 1956 Cessna 172 did stop in over the weekend.
As far as fly-over traffic is concerned, we saw a couple of B-2 Stealth bombers flying out to heaven-knows-where, and a distinctive twin-rotor CH-47 was heard beating along under the Thursday overcast. Randy Shannon was planning on flying his CH-750SD homebuilt up to Oshkosh, and Mike Newman of Harrisonville was taking his Cessna Skyhawk to the show. Last Monday, Delaney Rindal and I flew two Cessna 150s home in loose formation after refueling them at Nevada.
If you’re flying up to Harrisonville, be aware that their Common Traffic Advisory Frequency is no longer 123.0 megacycles. They have given up their unused Unicom station in favor of 122.9 Multicom, just like Butler, Lamar, Warsaw and most everyone else. We presume the pilot-controlled-lighting made the switch as well, but be prepared either way.
In national news, the most-popular kit airplane seller, Van’s Aircraft, has announced that it no longer will offer kits for the early RV-3, -4 and -6 models. Improved RV-8 and -9 kits took their place years ago, along with the RV-12 light-sport. Parts and customer support for the flying fleet will continue.
A sad loss of a Cessna Columbia airplane last week seems to be a pilot incapacitation event. The pilot and only occupant received a radar vector prior to landing to the west at San Diego’s Montgomery airport, but never touched down. Instead, the unresponsive airplane continued out to sea on autopilot at 2,600 feet, crashing into the Pacific 470 miles from shore, presumably after the fuel ran out.
The on-going investigation into the Air India Dreamliner crash seems to have zeroed in on the Captain being the one whose hands moved the fuel-control switches, briefly shutting down the engines. Unable to relight them in time, the automated airplane did its best to fly but settled into a schoolyard. How the mistake happened, assuming it was here human error, may always be a mystery.
Our question from last time wanted to know why certain World War I airplanes with radial engines were termed to have “rotary” motors. As reader Terry Bishop was first to point out, those powerplants had the propeller fixed to the crankcase, not the crankshaft, and the whole engine rotated around the stationary crankshaft for cooling and lubrication, at about 1200 rpm. For next week’s brain teaser, why did the twin-engine Lockheed P-38 fighter of WW-II use a control wheel in the cockpit instead of a joystick? You can send your answers to kochhaus1@gmail.com.
