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Over the last week, February’s weather was kind to general aviation flying, but March roared in like a lion, as it often does. Once the last gasp of winter passes, soggy rain should be all that’s left. March is, of course, the windy month so there will be 50-mph days to contend with.
Traffic picked up for this period, including a revisit by the Cessna 340 pressurized twin out of Amarillo, TX, roaring across town on the RNAV 36 instrument approach despite a clear morning. Other transient types were a couple of new Cessna Skylanes out of Warsaw and Olathe, along with a 1973 Piper Cherokee Challenger, n Piper Archer, a Cessna Skyhawk and a Beech Bonanza F33. Local movements were the final departure of a long-time resident Piper TriPacer and a visiting Cessna Skylane, while Christian Tucker’s Cessna 140 was rolled out. Jeremie Platt made a Sedalia run in his Grumman Tiger and Gerald Bauer flew the Cessna Skyhawk. The $100-omelet flyouts had to dodge thundershowers on their way to breakfast.
A non-event off-airport landing occurred at mid-week when a homebuilt single-seat Sonex suffered engine failure over southern Johnson County, KS and landed on a gravel road off of 119th Street. It made the news, even though there were no injuries or damage. Recovery was facilitated by the design’s folding wings feature, allowing it to be trailered away.
Another drone-shootdown brouhaha cropped up last week, when a Customs and Border Patrol drone was blasted out the sky by a DOD laser gadget as an “unidentified aircraft” near the Mexican border over Fort Hancock in west Texas. The FAA immediately designated a no-fly zone up to 18,000 feet, good until June 23. This three-way lack of communication caps the turf war taking place between agencies, each of which wants to be told in advance. Problem is, if a real intruder was coming across the border it would be long gone before the phones would be answered.
In the current tariff climate, aircraft and components thereof have been exempted under a 1979 agreement that allows planes and parts to be imported duty-free among the agreeing countries. Most turboprop airplanes, for instance, use Pratt and Whitney PT-6 engines built in French-speaking Canada, while French Daher TBM airplanes use avionics made in Olathe, KS by Garmin, perhaps with Taiwanese components. We’ll see how long the arrangement can continue.
Big Boeing continues to be a target for litigation and payouts. The Southwest Airlines’ pilots union is wanting damages for lost wages incurred during the 737 MAX airliner groundings in 2019, and a survivor of one of the pilots killed in January’s UPS MD-11 crash in Louisville is suing everyone connected with the airplane, including Boeing, which bought the McDonnell Douglas factory in the 1990s and shut down production of the big MD Trijets. Settlements will no doubt follow.
The answer to last week’s brain-teaser was provided by reader Bill Wheatcraft, who knew that a civilian plane carrying the President of the U.S. could use the call sign “Executive One” in place of Air Force One. For next week, our question is, in what year was the oldest hangars at the Butler airport constructed? You can send your answers to kochhaus1@gmail.com.
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