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The year 2026 came in like a lamb, once past the chilly start. Some flying was possible, by staying south of the low ceilings in the Kansas City, and 60-degree temperatures ushered in by strong south winds encouraged aerial activity. Some Piper Archer arrivals took place, from the Olathe flight schools, and we had a holiday-painted Piper Cherokee come in for parking last week. Locally, a couple of the Cessna Skyhawks were taken up and Jeff Gorden flew the family’s Beech Bonanza.
Harrisonville plane owners are once again searching for storage options while undergoing pavement repairs on their airport; it was two years ago that LRY had the whole runway rebuilt. This time it’s the cracking taxiways around hangars that need fixing, and like most construction projects it’ll take months to get it done. April is the projected start time. Meanwhile, pilots wanting to use their planes have to tie them down or seek hangar space elsewhere. Airport manager Mike Newman called last week, hoping to find temporary space for his maintenance shop. Butler, of course, has no hangars available and can only offer bare tiedown spots.
Nationally, two departing airliners at Houston almost got together on December 18, when a Volaris airlines Airbus initially went right instead of left, into the path of a United Express commuter jet taking off on a parallel runway The El Salvador-bound crew caught their mistake and apologized, but there were the usual warnings and vectorings taking place. Seems to be a simple case pf human error, which is easier to straighten out than an automation glitch.
We’ll be waiting for news from a 55-day ocean search mission that just started, seeking the wreckage of Malaysia Airlines flight 370 that disappeared without a trace in March 2014 while bound from Kuala Lumpur to Bejing. The Boeing 777 lost communications and was observed deviating on radar before going out of sight. Debris has washed up on Indian Ocean shores, but the main wreckage was never found.
Cirrus Aircraft recently delivered its 11,000th airplane, after 26 years of production. Owned by the Chinese government, it claims to be the third largest aircraft manufacturer in the world, Produced in Duluth, Minnesota, Cirrus is famous for its whole-plane emergency parachute system, lately augmented by Garmin’s Autoland system. There was a time when Cessna delivered 11,000 planes in just two years of production, back in the late 1970s.
Boeing, meanwhile, is increasing production of its 737 airliners to 47 per month, up from 42, trying to regain traction after embarrassing assembly-line incidents two years ago. Big BA has 6,000 orders outstanding for the Seven Threes, which are sold out through 2030 unless they can play catch-up.
Our week’s brain-teaser wanted to know the definition of “decelerons.” found on the B-2 bombers heard flying over. They are aileron surfaces outboard on the wings that can be split open to serve as airbrakes, sometimes seen in photos of landing Stealths. For next week, can anyone tell us how many categories of FAA Notices to Airmen there are? Hint: it’s more than two or three. You can send your answers to kochhaus1@gmail.com.