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Some good flying conditions prevailed during the past week, allowing a lot of trips to take place. It’s still spring, so there’s always the chance of a pop-up shower among the benign outlook. And the thermal updrafts are always out there, even on pretty days. I had a rough ride all the way back from St. Louis on Friday, getting 400-foot altitude deviations up and down.
The Big Iron of the week award went to a Cessna 441 Conquest II executive turboprop that made a passenger stop on Friday, its whining Garrett engines announcing its arrival. Also in were a Piper Turbo Lance II, a Piper Cherokee 180, a Cessna Skyhawk and a Lycoming-modifiued Cessna T-41A trainer. Local flyers were Jon Laughlin in his Piper Cherokee 180C, Jerald and Steve Koehn in their Cessna Skyhawk, Jeremie Platt in his Grumman Tiger and myself in the club Skyhawk.
In news of the world, Boeing St. Louis has flown its production-version MQ-25 aerial refueling tanker drone, developed for the U.S. Navy. It’ll be landed and launched at sea from carriers, flown autonomously to replace the F-18 tankers used at present.
The ups and downs of aviation continue. Spirit Airlines made it official over the weekend; they are shutting down after 34 years of low-budget operation, unable to pay their bills. And Waco Aircraft at Battle Creek, Michigan, builders of the Waco YMF-5 and Great Lakes replica biplanes, has ceased operation, the 60 employees laid off by the German DIMOR Group that was the latest owner. Meanwhile, Sonex Aviation is back in business after taking bankruptcy; an enthusiastic purchaser of the kit airplanes’ tooling and fixtures promises to fill all orders and supply parts.
Vern Raburn, developer of the Eclipse very-light personal jet, passed away last week at age 75. A former president of Microsoft, he is most remembered for burning through a billion dollars of investors money trying to mass-produce a little twin jet to sell for a million bucks. After bankruptcy, it finally got built but sold for many times more. Only 260 of the six-seat jets were built.
The Florida legislature has passed a bill that prohibits using ADS-B data, now publicly available for most civilian aircraft, from being used to collect landing fees. Software users have been convincing cities to let them bill airplane owners who visit their town’s airport and extort money, which it shares with the municipalities looking for free income. Because it’s not legal to shut off the FAA-mandated ADS-B equipment, pilots are effectively caught by the toll-takers. Not any more, said the lawmakers; “skinning the public is our job.”
Last week, we asked about “toss bombing” nuclear weapons by B-47 bombers, proposed back in the 1960’s. The idea was to loop the big jet, release the bomb as it went over the top, and complete the loop to scoot away from the blast. It was never done for real. For next time, what kind of airplane was used to spray Agent Orange defoliant in Vietnam? You can send your answer to kochhaus1@gmail.com.
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