What’s Up by LeRoy Cook

Amazon overrun ends tragically

Finally, some fall flying weather arrived last week, revitalizing airport activity around the area. Unfortunately, the timing of some of the badly needed rain affected some of the scheduled fly-in and airshow events last weekend. A Commemorative Air Force show at Camdenton was competing with a Mid-America airshow at Jefferson City, and everybody’s favorite, the Lincoln, MO Grassroots fly-in, may be rescheduled for September 26th. 

The plucky little town of Lincoln is justly proud of its well-maintained 3000-foot grass airstrip, one of the few public turf runways in the state. Every second Saturday in September, for the last two decades, they host an informal fly-in breakfast and lunch that attracts a bunch of vintage and homebuilt airplanes. Check out their Facebook page for details.

The visiting aircraft at Butler aerodrome last week included several visits by a Piper Aerostar, along with a Cessna 340 pressurized twin and a St. Louis-based Cirrus SR-22. There was little movement from the local hangars; Jay McClintock moved his Piper Tomahawk trainer down from Harrisonville, offering flight instruction by local CFI Christian Tucker.

Newsworthy items from the past week were mostly centered on the tragic Amazon air freighter overrun accident at Miami, leaving five workers dead, who happened to be off the end of the runway when the Boeing 767 left the pavement. It apparently was the result of tricky weather and poor piloting.

The results of the World Aerobatic flying competition at Mason City, Iowa, held last week, wasn't good for the U.S. France dominated the individual standings, taking first and third places, and the France team racked up the most judging points. The best U.S. pilot narrowly slipped down into fourth place.

In world-wide coverage, fighter jets were scrambled in Hungary a week-ago Saturday, as an errant Cessna Skyhawk appeared to be heading for a nuclear power plant. However, it crashed landed in a field before reaching the nuke plant and a very drunk non-pilot was taken into custody. It's doubtful that a 2,000-pound Cessna would do much serious damage to a highly-fortified nuclear plant.

The U.S. Treasury Department has rescinded its requirement for U.S. owners of Limited Liability Companies to file a yearly Beneficial Financial Ownership report. LLC's are often used to provide ownership of private pilot aircraft, as well as other purposes. The BenFin form, originally designed to catch money laundering, has served no purpose, and now ordinary citizens can forget keeping track of that one more annual requirement. 

Even the high-and-mighty suffer equipment failures; Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullen was among 14 people aboard a Coast Guard Gulfstream V business jet flying from Atlanta to Washington last Wednesday when the right engine failed. The powerful G-V had plenty of thrust remaining with its left engine, so it successfully diverted to DCA airport for an uneventful landing. I'm sure the event will be thoroughly investigated.

For us commoners who need to fly into the highly-restricted moat-guarded airspace around Washington, D.C., the most-used outlying airport is Manassas, VA. Now Manassas may be opening up to airline service, mixed into its 420 based private airplanes. The field recently received Part 139 certification for commercial passenger service, although no airline has announced plans to use it as of now. 

In an interesting turn of events, an occasional airline departure is delayed from oil fumes stinking up the cabin, coming from the auxiliary power unit in the airplane's tail. To eliminate the nuisance, Eastman Chemical Co. has developed a new APU oil that doesn't give off the foul odor, but now flight attendants and other crews have lodged concern that leaks may go undetected because they can't smell them. One thing leads to another.

Our previous column asked for the origin of Nashville, TN, airport’s ICAO code of “BNA”, which may soon be renamed “Dolly Parton International.” It was because it was Berry Nashville Airport, named for its developer, Col. Harry S. Berry, back in 1936. For next week's quiz, what kind of airplane was built by the U.S. Naval Aircraft Factory in the early 1940s? You can send your answers to kochhaus1@gmail.com.

#MidAmericaLive