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Last weekend’s flying weather was plagued by a Canadian export; forest fire smoke drifting south from the burning taking place in our Northern Neighbor. Ground visibility wasn’t reported as too bad, 5 to 7 miles, but in flight, looking into the sun, one was lucky to see a mile. Without GPS, the only navigation we had were landmarks directly under the aircraft.
The in-and-outs observed last week were limited to a Piper Cherokee taking off downwind on Friday, a National Guard Black Hawk helicopter in later that day, along with a Beech V35 Bonanza, and a Cessna 182 that pulled up to the fuel pump, vainly seeking sustenance. Locally, activity was student learners in Sky4’s Cessna 150s, spraying in BCS’s AirTractor and skydivers descending from SkyDive KC’s Cessna Caravan.
Some 40 years ago, Cessna Aircraft Company (before the Textron merger) decided to scale up the six-seat piston powered Model 206 and create a utility airplane with twice the horsepower and triple the payload. The result was the Model 208 Caravan, a stroke of genius that kept the company afloat in the hard times of the 80s, when all of its other single-engine planes were out of production due to limited sales and unlimited liability lawsuits. Federal Express adopted the Caravan as a feeder package mover, taking over half the production, soon requiring a stretched 208B version, which continues to this day.
Cessna/Textron’s latest package hauler is the 408 SkyCourier twin-engine airplane that can swallow standard air cargo container through its big side door, still retaining the fixed-gear strut-braced high-wing concept. As with the Caravan, it’ll fill other roles besides cargo carriage, like charter passenger work, bush flying and parachuting. Sometimes, simpler is best.
Once again, last month’s AirVenture EAA convention at Oshkosh, Wisconsin set an attendance record. This time, the organization claims 704,000 people were there, up from 686,000 recorded last year. All we can say is, there were lots of bodies on the grounds, even if one person counts as another attendee if returning the next day. The usual total of 10,000 airplanes flown in was reported, over a quarter of them showplanes; 1000 were vintage aircraft, 910 were homebuilts and 361 were warbirds. Weather aside, it was a safe, enjoyable week without major problems.
In the aftermath of January’s aerial disaster at Washington, D.C. involving a regional airliner and an Army Black Hawk helicopter, Senator Ted Cruz has introduced legislation requiring the military to install and use ADS-B surveillance equipment, just like civilian flights. Military aircraft typically have transponders and are on flight plans, but it’s understandable that they might not want ADS-B putting out information that everyone can see on FlightAware apps. If the bill goes through, there’ll have to exceptions.
Last time, our question of the week asked why skydive drop zones mostly use turbine-powered jump planes rather than piston-engine ones. It’s because big loads of parachutists need lots of horsepower, and the biggest piston engines can only put out 350 to 400 horses. Turbines scale up more easily, so the typical turboprop puts out 600 horses, or perhaps near 1000. For next week, tell us what event caused Muroc research air base in California to be renamed Edwards AFB. You can send your answers to kochhaus1@gmail.com.
