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In my 50-odd years of trekking to Wisconsin in July for the Oshkosh airshow festival, I don’t think we ever had as tough a time as this yearfinding a slot of good flying weather for the trip. A low center with trailing warm fronts sat over Iowa all week, blocking the Mississippi river valley with thunderstorms, fog, low ceilings and even wildfire smoke to restrict visibility. Only the hardy and half-witted prevailing in making the journey. Much welcome rain in July favored Bates County, of course.
There were many and varied airport visitors last week. A big King Air 300 corporate turboprop dodged thunderstorm cells to drop off a passenger, a Cessna Skylane was in from Temple, Texas, a 1967 Cessna 182 stopped by en route from Oshkosh to Coffeyville, KS and a Piper Archer came in. Out of the local hangars, I loaded up the Cessna Skyhawk, Roy Conley flew his experimental gyrocopter, Jon Laughlin made a parts run in his Piper Cherokee 180C and Instructor Delaney Rindal had her Cessna 150 out on teaching runs. The SkyDive KC Cessna Caravan lofted several parachute runs and BCS’s AirTractor did battle with crop pests.
The biggest announcement coming out the AirVenture convention last week was the long-awaited final rule for FAA abandonment of lightplane certification, in favor a simpler industry-led consensus design approval, replacing the Light Sport category with more-capable aircraft. Supposedly, we’ll see many more new airplane models brought to market under the ASTM certification, more quickly and cheaper. Probably foreign manufacturers will dominate, given the U.S. general aviation companies’ lack of interest in making light airplanes. The new rules specify a maximum clean stall speed of 59 knots, with no limitation on gross weight or top speed. Sport pilots will now be able to fly four-seat planes, but with only one passenger aboard.
During Oshkosh presentations about developing a 100-octane replacement fuel with no tetraethyl lead content, expected by 2030, one of the company CEOs pursuing the approval of a new fuel finally said what we’ve always suspected. A true 100-octane no-lead gas can’t be done, he said, so engines will have to be de-rated and less horsepower means rewriting performance tables for some airplanes. And only one company’s product will be approved, because none of the contenders wants to be responsible for the performance of its fuel when mixed with other, unknown competitor’s, formulations. It isn’t going to be pretty.
Kudos to City Administrator Cory Snead and his crew for getting the vending machines at the airport restocked, after a months-long drought. Having chips, candy and soda available to travelers is not just a courtesy. When someone pulls into a town and climbs out of an airplane, there may be health reasons why a revitalizing snack is immediately required. When we stopped at Kirksville for refueling last week, the city offered free hamburgers and hot dogs, chips and drink, and knocked off 25-cents a gallon as well. There was a steady string of Oshkosh pilgrims coming and going.
Last week, we asked you to tell us why the twin-engine Lockheed P-38 fighter of WW-II used a control wheel in the cockpit instead of a joystick? It turns out that the narrow pilot compartment didn’t have enough room for a stick, much like a de Havilland Mosquito. For next week, why are most of the skydive drop zones using turbine-powered airplanes instead of piston-engine aircraft: You can send your answers to kochhaus1@gmail.com.
