What's Up LeRoy Cook

 What’s Up by LeRoy Cook

 Other than for weekend cloudiness, our string of perfect flying weather continued last week. The wildfire smoke abated and temperatures couldn't be nicer. Yes, the days are getting shorter, so it's time to get night current. Don't forget to check the flashlight batteries. Definition of an aircraft flashlight; a device for storing dead batteries.

 

Observed traffic was light and intermittent last week. A Cessna Skyhawk, three Piper Archers and a Robinson R-44 helicopter visited, and Jay McClintock was down from Harrisonville in his Piper Tomahawk. I had the Cessna Skyhawk out, Les Gorden's Piper Twin Comanche flew, a couple of Cessna 150 missions were flown and Captain Les' Beech Bonanza F35 was up.

 

Everybody wants to know “what's going on out at the airport?”, referring to the dirtwork and machinery seen near the south end of the property. It's the construction of a long-delayed hangar project by BCS Spraying, which will finally see the erection of a building that's been lying in pieces for months. It will be a base for their Turbine AirTractor and associated support equipment, allowing the original south access drive to be converted into a primary taxiway with a gate, as the Federales want.

 

With our Roaring Economy's upswing in auto gas prices, I'm frequently asked about the price of airplane fuel. It kinda varies by location, not so much in logical supply-and-demand response but by whatever the market will bear. Here, JR Aviation has been stable at $5.50 per gallon for several months, but that's for self-service you-pump. If you are around the Big City and want it dispensed into your airplane from a truck, be prepared to pay $7 or more. A friend of mine went to Dallas recently and got socked for just over $9 a gallon. Jet fuel is where they make the money, so avgas is only offered as a convenience. And that holds true from the refinery to the distributor to the dispenser.

 

Paul Williams, a U.K.-based meteorologist recently reported his opinion that a El Nino cycle in the Pacific Ocean causes a 50% increase in high-altitude Clear Air Turbulence for air traffic (not of much concern for small aircraft) and a similar decrease when La Nina replaces the El Nino. Naturally, the ax-grinding human-caused climate change “experts” latch on and blame all of it on western civilization and political extremism. Stay in your seat and keep your seatbelt fastened.

 

Our question of the week was Jeff Turner's request for the name of a pioneer aviator whose experience spanned from fabric-covered airplanes to the space age. That would have been Jimmy Doolittle, who lived see it all. For next time, tell us from what language the word “parachute” originated. You can send your answers to [email protected].