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An early fall gave pilots a boost over the Labor Day weekend. As I’ve always said, autumn is the only real reason to own an airplane; the rest of the year it’s either too cold and dark or too hot and miserable to get an airplane out. But the clear, crisp days of fall are the absolute best time to fly.
Observed air traffic were a Cessna Skylane, an ATD Skyhawk trainer, and a business jet flying the VOR-A practice instrument approach. Fallout observed from last weekend’s Commerative Air Force open house at New Century Airport were an AT-6 Texan WW-II trainer, rumbling along at 10,000 feet or so, and the CAF’s B-29 bomber giving us a dose of four R-3350 Wright radials at about 5,000 feet. They were heading southeast, no doubt repositioning for the next event.
In the news of the world, aviation-wise, the U.S. Navy has announced that it will no longer be necessary to land and take off on an aircraft carrier in order to earn one’s pilot wings of gold. The distinction of being a “tailhook Navy” pilot, compared to runway-using Air Force or Army aviators, is now an option. The excuse quoted in the press release is that not all Navy pilots are carrier-based, so if they are needed for such duty they’ll just ship them off to specialized carrier training, after they “earn their wings.” It just ain’t right.
Last Saturday, a United Airlines flight from Philadelphia to Phoenix didn’t get very far, diverting to land at Washington, D.C. after a passenger’s “electronic device” started smoking. Smoking, of course, isn’t allowed on U.S. domestic flights, so the burning lithium battery object had to be secured in a flame-proof bag and removed from the aircraft after landing. Too bad they couldn’t have just chucked it overboard and saved all the trouble.
The Lord was evidently displeased with the debauchery and counterculture displayed at the Burning Man festival held in the Nevada desert last week. The temporary city was hit with thunderstorms and dust storms, grounding the 100 airplanes that had flown in to the makeshift runway on the lake bed. Two years ago it turned into a mud-a-thon from torrential rains, and there’s always blowing dust to contend with. Not that I’ve ever attended; just thinking, their crazy behavior out there should be reexamined.
The Air Force is testing the use of unmanned Cessna Caravan airplanes, identical to the one used as a jump plane here at Butler’s SkyDive operation. The idea is to have the remotedly-piloted planes fly supplies and other stuff in overseas areas where maybe it’s too dangerous to use manned aircraft. An outfit called Reliable Robotics has been given a measly $17 million contract to demonstrate the worth of its systems.
The question of the week in last week’s column was about the age of the last-surviving World War fighter ace, who died earlier last month. Donald McPherson was 103 years old, a Navy pilot in the Pacific theater who shot down five Japanese airplanes. For next week, what’s the meaning of “vertical visibility” when given as part of an aviation weather report? You can send your answers to kochhaus1@gmail.com.
