Serious Weather Grounds Flights
That Was The Week That Was, as went the title of the old UK spoof show TW3, showing what kind of general aviation activity we noted. There weren’t a lot of movements at the local runway, because the dire predictions of the weather guessers kept most aviators at home. As it turned out, there were many periods when at least local flying would have been possible, but plans had already been made.
Even the instrument-rated pilots had to to forego some trips last week, when the rain generated low cloud decks so widespread that no legal alternate airports, a requirement for instrument flying, were within reach. Alternate airport weather minimums are generally 600 feet of ceiling and a mile of visibility, and the whole midwest was reporting clouds at 300-foot or so.
A Minnesota pilot who had an engine failure while flying over the Red Lake Nation Indian Reservation and had to set down on a tribal road in October has yet to get his plane back. It was impounded by the tribe for infringing on its airspace and a fee of $7250 is being charged to release the 1947 Stinson. The pilot refuses to pay, citing Federal preemption, and there’s doesn’t seem to be any movement to settle the dispute. Wampum must be paid, the tribe council says.
The undeclared war between the U.S. and Iran has stranded hundreds of thousands of travelers in the Mideast, with 2800 airline flights canceled and private emergency charter by business jets going for $230,000 as of last week. Despite warnings by the State Department against travel to the region, and to evacuate while you can, some tourists evidently just thought they would be rescued. When the bombs started dropping, travel became impossible.
The U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels’ first two airshows of 2026, in California, have had to be canceled out of security concerns. While their show planes are hardly likely to be conscripted for the war, it’s noteworthy that it was a similar Kuwaiti F/A-18 that shot down three USAF F-15’s. Two more and that pilot will become an ace.
An instructor and student pilot had to make a cold swim in the Hudson River north of New York City on Monday of last week, when their power failed and there was no other option for landing except the icy waterway. The unhurt pair was fortunate that they could touch down on an ice floe before coming to a semi-submerged stop, because most fixed-gear planes flip over when the landing gear hits in a water landing. The 1978 Skyhawk appears to be salvageable.
Hyundai Motors has thrown in the towel on its plans for building eVTOL air mobility flying taxis. It laid off 80% of the group’s employees and won’t be making its Supernal electric vehicle that was being tested at Mojave, CA. A reported $1.7 billion had been spent by the car maker on the tilt-motor project.
There was no response to our weekly question about the age of the oldest hangars at Butler airport, probably because there are few alive who remember 1948, when Grover Gilbert put up the original concrete block buildings. Our quiz for this week is, why won’t a Cirrus airplane fit in those old T-hangars? You can send your answers to kochhaus1@gmail.com.
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