It was a memorable week, best filed away and forgotten.
Any optional flying had to be deferred until cooler weather, as the 100-degree
heat was just too much to deal with. We found reasonably livable temps up at
4000 feet but the oil temperature indication was still nudging the redline.
Still, there was some transient traffic. Last weekend,
former resident Dylan Morris flew over from Augusta, Kansas in a Piper Cherokee
140. Dylan has aviation family ties; his grandpa Darrel Diehl was a pilot, and
great-grandfather “Mac” McDermot was a long-time mechanic for us at Pittsburg,
Kansas. He took his friend Devon Page up for a ride in the heat.
Other visitors seen were a rare Vashion Ranger trainer, a
Piper Archer, a Robinson R-44 helicopter and Les Gorden’s Piper Twin Comanche.
Local flyers out were Jim Ferguson in his Cessna 182, Jeremie Platt in his
Grumman Tiger, the Turbine AirTractor sprayplane and Captain Gorden in his
Beech Twin Bonanza.
The ever-vigilant New York Times newspaper published an
opinion piece last week about the “alarming” number of near-collisions
involving airliners in the U.S., reportedly up to 46 last month alone. What
gets tallied are actions taken to avoid another plane or when
less-than-specified separation distance occurs. It could be an air traffic
controller error, a pilot not paying attention or a plane moving faster than
expected. The point is, nothing happened, because the system worked; the pilots
involved saw the problem and acted to prevent tragedy, or a controller issued a
go-around order. We all need to work together to keep the system safe, and
learn from these reports so it doesn’t recur. The numbers quoted are the result
of better record keeping and reporting.
The big aviation accident news of the week was the
sabotage-caused crash of an Embraer business jet in Russia, carrying staff of
the Wagner Group paramilitary group that had been on the hit-list of Vladmir
Putin for an unauthorized revolt. The bomb went off as the plane reached 28,000
feet after departing Moscow, as if it was triggered by an altitude-sensing
device. T’warn’t no accident, most
likely.
The weekly question was about a landing area’s beacon
light with yellow and white beams, instead of the normal green and white
lights. If you’re following it in for a landing you had better be in a
seaplane, because that’s the designation of a lighted seadrome, or water
landing area. Yes, they do exist, with lighted buoys outlining the sea lane.
For next week, tell us how many tower-controlled airports there are in the
state of Missouri. You can send your answers to [email protected].
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