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Despite the approach of autumn, it was still August this week, so there was a last battle with heat and humidity. We flew early and climbed high out of the discomfort, dodging the cumulus buildups. Soon we’ll be enjoying crisp fall flying weather, the finest time of the year to have an airplane at our disposal.
There was a bustling load of comings and goings at the airport last week, the usual trainer craft and some travelers stopping over. A Piper Cherokee came in, a homebuilt Van’s RV-9A visited, and a Cirrus SR joined in the fun. Dr. Ed Christophersen made another of his weekly arrivals from Olathe in his Archer and Darrel Yeltsin departed for Pleasant Hill in his classic 1956 Taylorcraft.
Out of the Butler hangars, Les Gorden’s Beech Twin Bonanza flew, Randy Miller and Gerald Bauer made trips in the club’s Cessna Skyhawk, Samantha Bruns flew a Cessna 150 to Olathe, and I ferried in a 150 from Clinton. The SkyDive KC Beech King Air braved rainy skies to carry some jumpers aloft on Saturday.
This coming Saturday, the 31st, will be the appointed time for a breakfast fly-out of the Fliars Club, so named for the fanciful tales embellished in our conversations. Should it be suitable weather, we’ll assemble on the Butler ramp at 0730 hours, departing in a gaggle of airplanes to parts to be determined.
Sikorsky Aircraft’s S-92 transport helicopter is now serving as the official “Marine One” delivery aircraft for the U.S. President. It replaces the 60-year-old S-62 amphibious ‘copter that has carried every president since Nixon. It was used last week to bring President Biden from O’Hare airport to McCormick Place in Chicago, for his appearance at the Democrat convention. Actually, any helicopter with the President aboard, even the transportable Black Hawk UH-60s preferred by Secret Service, has the radio call sign “Marine One.”
Airlines For America, the air-carrier industry’s lobby group, let it be known last week that the airline industry now has one million employees working in its sector. Employment at the airlines has risen to the highest in 23 years, since the dark days of the Covid collapse, and ridership is crowded, as any passenger knows when being shoved into the aerial cattle cars filling the skies.
There were no takers to our last-week quiz, which wanted to know the weight of a gallon of jet fuel. While the official weight varies by temperature and formulation, we figure on an average mass of 6.7 pounds per gallon. And what, pray tell, is in “Sustainable” jet fuel, widely touted as being non-polluting and carbon-friendly? For next week, you can send your answers to kochhaus1@gmail.com.
