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A trip out to Emporia on Wednesday reinforced our belief in personal flight. The gusty surface winds abated above 4000 feet, leaving us in smooth air atop the haze as we buzzed back and forth in 45 minutes each way. As I told my seatmate, this is the best time of year to own an airplane.
In and out airport traffic this week included a Mooney M20, a couple of Cessna 182s and a Piper Archer. The biggest visitor was the Missouri Conservation Department’s chubby Kodiak turboprop from Jefferson City, which was in for a waterfowl survey. From the Butler hangars, Jim Ferguson was up in his Cessna Skylane, Jeremie Platt breakfasted in his Grumman Tiger, Chris Hall worked on his Cessna 182 and Pat Ryan exercised a Cessna 150. I did some ferry work in two Cessna 172s.
On Friday, we heard a report that the replacement gas pump for the long-thirsty Butler airport was “in Kansas City,” giving us hope we may soon be able to tap the stored aviation fuel that’s been sitting in storage for months. Can’t come soon enough. At least we have the advantage of leaded 100-octane avgas’ ability to store stably, unlike regular car gas.
On the Emporia trip we attempted to raise Flight Service on the charted 122.3 frequency, seeking a weather update, but couldn’t raise Wichita Radio. That leads us to suspect that the FAA’s plan to eliminate in-flight radio assistance has come to fruition. Another withdrawal from serving the flying public.
During the Guvinmint Shutdown, we had several folks ask me how the air traffic controller shortage was affecting private flying. They assumed a lack of ATC service was keeping us out of the air, like the canceled airline flights, but I explained that we in General Aviation have the option of staying under Visual Flight Rules, largely outside the air traffic control system. Thus, as long as the weather was good, which we how like to fly, we didn’t burden the over-stressed controllers.
On the national front, the popular flight bag application Foreflight is no longer owned by Boeing. It and the Jeppesen data service were sold off to Thoma Bravo for $10.55 billion. The battered airframe manufacturer can use the money, after having to pay a $1.5 billion fine for allowing two 737 MAX airliners to crash. Boeing is having to concentrate on its core business to regain dominance..
On Friday, it was announced that Archer Aviation has bought the operating rights for the Hawthorne airport in Los Angeles, a historic 80-acre General Aviation field near downtown, only three miles from LAX. The city of Hawthorne retains ownership, but the worry is that Archer is a developer of electric autonomous aerial vehicles, who plans to use the airport to deploy its low-level flying Ubers over the coming L.A. summer Olympics. Based users at Hawthorne are concerned that they may soon be out of a home. Los Angeles doesn’t need to lose another airport to non-GA development.
There were no takers to our brain-teaser from last week, telling us at least one of the three disqualifying medical conditions that require a special issuance before a pilot can get a medical certificate. They are cardiac, diabetes and psychosis issues. For next week, what percent was the luxury tax Canada imposed on airplane purchases over $71,000, now repealed ? You can send your answers to kochhaus1@gmail.com.
