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As we pass through the Pit of Winter, the mid-January coldness that keeps airplanes behind hangar doors and pilots in the airport lounge, we can only enjoy memories of better times. The Gardner, KS pilot group always kicks off the month with a New Year’s Chili Feed, I didn’t make it over there this year, but I admire their enthusiasm.
Transient air traffic was limited this past week or so. I did spot a hard-to-miss Velocity homebuilt plane, a tail-first design with a big Lycoming six-cylinder on its aft end. I was told it’s based at Harrisonville, just down to shoot a landing. A Cirrus SR-22 came in from St. Louis and a Piper Archer dropped by. Locally, Dan and Jim Ferguson made another sortie in the Cessna 182 and Randy Miller tried to go flying in the Cessna Skyhawk, but was thwarted by a flat tire.
The shocker news of the week was that the new owners of ForeFlight, private equity firm Thoma Bravo, who paid Boeing several billion for the popular flight planning app, have laid off half the ForeFlight employees, outsourcing the support to overseas. So much for the “no changes” promise made in October. And they already told me my old iPad Mini’s operating system is too old and won’t be supported anymore, even for $129 per year.
Seems like we have a new drone threat to report on every week. An outfit called Meteomatics has signed up with the U.S. National Oceanogaphics and Atmospheric Administration to launch weather information-gathering drones to report data from 50 to 20,000 feet. Just how pilot’s are supposed to dodge those “meteodrones” wasn’t made clear; it wasn’t long ago that a weather balloon’s information box cracked an airliner’s windshield. I can’t imagine that a drone device would weigh any less.
The Government Accounting Office reported last week that the FAA received 200,000 applications for air traffic controllers in the past several years, but the number of working controllers has dropped by six percent in 10 years, while traffic is up by ten percent. Given that only two percent of all applicants actually finish the training course to full proficiency, it’s no wonder the FAA is chronically understaffed.
Are you planning to fly into a San Francisco area airport for Super Bowl 60 on February 8th? Better have your credit card ready to accept “special event” charges for parking your plane. All the fixed-base operators are jacking up rates for any convention or show that attracts traffic, and Super Bowl is a good excuse. Atlantic Aviation at San Jose is charging $400 for parking light planes, and business jets will pay between $10,000 and $18,000 for a surcharge.
On top of the parking fees, pilots flying in for Super Bowl have to comply with special NOTAM’ed air traffic procedures, not the least of which is a time slot system that limits how many aircraft can get into the Bay airspace. If you don’t have a reservation for your flight plan, or you miss your allotted time, you won’t be accommodated by air traffic control.
For the weekly question, we asked where the largest building in the world is located. It’s Boeing assembly plant in Everett, Washington, where the 747’s used to be built. It covers over 98 acres, with 472 million cubic feet of volume. Next week’s brain-teaser is, how wide is the famous Meteor Crater landmark near Winslow, Arizona that pilots fly over? You can send your answers to kochhaus1@gmail.com.
