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Pilots have to be especially careful in this modern age of cell phone cameras, surveillance broadcasts and instantaneous communication. Last Thursday, the pilot flying a Lufthansa Airlines Boeing 747 landing at Los Angeles, after an over-the-Pole flight from Frankfurt, Deutschland, made a horrible touchdown, porpoising severely before going around for another try, recorded by some plane-spotter for all the world to see. The tough old Jumbo Jet took it in stride.
We hid our sloppy landings here last week, but they were only a few unobserved Cessna 150 forays. Other traffic seen was a Cirrus and a Piper Archer shooting landings, plus a Cherokee and a Skyhawk. Locally, the Air Tractor agplane made a few swaths, Les Gorden fired up his re-engined T-28 trainer, Jim Ferguson helped ferry the flying club’s Skyhawk to the shop by retrieving us with his Cessna 182 and Randy Miller and Nate Schrock flew Cessna 150s. CFI Jay McClinstock gave instruction in his Piper Tomahawk.
The weekend’s wild weather kept most airplanes safely tucked away in their hangars. Winds were clocked at up to 40 knots, and the one trip we made on Saturday provided continuous bouncing. No Fliars showed up for the monthly breakfast flyout, due to the looming inclement weather.
We can report that Captain Les Gorden has traded off his Piper Twin Comanche for a nice 1977 Cessna 310R with turbocharged engines. Fuel burn is about doubled, but it delivers much more speed and climbing ability.
There appears to be a not-invented-here obstruction in the drive to develop a lead-free 100-octane aviation gasoline. Such a formulation is going to be costly to create and produce, just to solve a problem that doubtfully exists. General Aviation Modifications Inc. holds approval for its G100 unleaded avgas, and reportedly has a million gallons ready to sell, but FBOs are reluctant to stock it because it was developed privately, not in a government program, under Supplemental Type approval. California, ever the land of the fruits and nuts, has passed a law mandating no-lead fuel to be sold at all the state’s airports as soon as it’s “commercially available.” Defining that clause is the issue; GAMI says G100 is, but California airport operators say it isn’t, preferring to stay with less-expensive proven low-lead 100 instead of the new GAMI-juice. Environmentalists won’t ever give up, of course, reason and logic notwithstanding.
The weekly quiz was solved by avid reader Stephanie Poe, who knew that our question about the “fingers” term for a radio frequency meant 123.45 megacycles. Although it’s not allocated for routine plane-to-plane chit-chat, but is reserved for remote area operations, it often is dialed up by pilots just wanting to talk to each other, regardless of FCC rules. We’re supposed to use 122.75 for such purposes. For next week, what airport is known as “MIA”; no, it’s not “missing in action.” You can send your answers to kochhaus1@gmail.com.
