Butler Airport Closing DownOnce the strong winds blew through early in the weekend, flying resumed among the surviving aircraft population. Gusts to 53 knots (61 mph) were recorded around the Kansas City area, and visibility was restricted in Wichita by blowing dust. Shades of the 1930’s!
Users of the Butler airport were informed last week that crews are expected to arrive on March 25 to begin the long-awaited reconstruction of the runway lighting system. As they take over, the runway and taxiway will be closed for up to a month, even during non-working hours. Based airplanes will have to relocate elsewhere or sit idle for the duration.
In ancient times, like when I was a young pilot, airport project contractors would cooperate and let some flying take place on the weekend or late in the day. In our present overly-litigious society, nobody wants to risk the liability of someone taxiing off into an open trench or attempting to use part of the runway, even far from any activity. Common sense no longer applies.
Aircraft visiting last week included a Piper Arrow, a Mooney M20, and a Piper Archer or two. Walt Brownsberger came over from Olathe in his Cessna Skylane and a Tecnam P-Mentor visited from New Century’s KC Aviation. A Bellanca Citabria pilot took refuge here with a fuel injection problem that developed while enroute to Lee’s Summit. Activity from the local hangars last week included Jeremie Platt flying his Grumman Tiger, Delaney Rindal teaching in Sky4’s Cessna 150s, and meself stirring the air in my 1946 Aeronca Champion.
The previous Wednesday, Airport Commissioner Dennis Jacobs responded to a missing-plane call from Whiteman Approach Control, who was looking for a Beech Debonair that lost radio contact after reporting it was diverting for electrical issues. The pilot of the Debbie was indeed on the ground at BUM; thankfully, it was just a disconnected alternator wire that left him speechless.
Looks like we’re going to have another airline guy heading up the Federal Aviation Administration. Bryan Bedford, CEO of commuter airline Republic Airways, has been selected to take over as FAA Administrator; the previous one only lasted a little over a year. We wish him well and hope he’ll understand the needs of private airplane fliers as well as Big Iron.
Because the current administration is working to relocate federal agencies out of the high-rent, ivory-tower Washington D.C. area to places closer to the people, NASA is looking at moving its headquarters to Florida, Texas, Alabama, or even Ohio, all states where it presently has facilities. Silly me; I always the space agency HQ was in Houston.
Last week, we asked readers to tell us how long B.F. Goodrich has been flying blimps over sporting events. Former Ohioian Rodney Rom didn’t take the bait and responded correctly. He knew that it was Akron-based Goodyear that started building lighter than air vehicles 100 years ago and has hovered above events since 1935. BFG was the “other tire company.” Okey-dokey, let’s try a true-false for this week’s brain-teaser: Does a plane’s magnetic compass align itself with the North magnetic pole? You can send your answers to kochhaus1@gmail.com.
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