What’s
Up
by LeRoy
Cook
11-20-23
Suggested
banner: Horseplay In The Air
Dry
weather prevailed until the effects of a Pacific storm rolled in last Sunday,
allowing considerable flying to be accomplished. Naturally, there are always
those of us who put off good opportunities until “tomorrow” thereby letting
chances to aviate expire.
We
missed a lot of interesting aircraft coming and going last week, being occupied
with other tasks, but a Mooney Ranger, a Cessna Skylane, a Piper Cherokee Six
and a Piper Warrior were spotted. CFI Jay McClintock and his student Sarah flew
down from Harrisonville in his Piper Tomahawk, and a Grumman Yankee shot some
landings. Locals out and about included Les Gorden in his Piper Twin Comanche,
me doing a couple of introductory flights in 150s, and Jon Laughtlin, who
winged out to Amarillo, Texas in his Piper Cherokee 180C
In the
odd-news of the week department, an Icelandic Air Boeing 747 freighter had to
turn around at 31,000 feet over Long Island, NY and return to Kennedy airport
when a horse got loose in the cabin. I kid you not; the frightened equine
bolted from his stall and couldn’t be restrained, so the Captain had no choice
but to abandon the trip to Belgium with 15 head onboard. Sadly, the horse
injured itself and had to be put down.
The
diversion required 44,000 pounds of jet fuel to be dumped off-shore of Martha’s
Vineyard because the Jumbo would have been too heavy to make a landing;
airliners frequently depart at a weight far in excess of the maximum landing
weight, expecting to burn off tons of kerosene getting to their destination.
Fuel dumping is relatively harmless, messy as it sounds, because the liquid
disperses and evaporates before it reaches the ground, as long as the dump is
undertaken above 5,000 feet. Petroleum, after all, is a naturally occurring
substance pumped out of the ground.
The
much-hyped Formula One Grand Prix in Las Vegas this weekend has drawn private
aircraft in large numbers, but it’s a headache for less-affluent users of the
five Clark County airports there. As a Prior Permission Required event,
operators are charging $3000 for a parking spot, and getting it. Business jets
from sponsors, race teams and spectators take up all the room. The airport
authority did find 40 extra lightplane spots for only $750. Signature Aviation
at the big airport is charging up to $10,000 for a Gulfstream space. Good
grief, it’s just a car race. I think it’s time for us to host a Ballard Grand
Prix.
Our
last weekly quiz wanted to know if any airplanes have ever been fitted with
brakes on the nosewheel. Yes, the old trimotor Boeing 727 airliner had
nosegear braking, as an option, helping get it stopped on small-town runways.
Our question for next week is, why did Southwest Airlines start offering packs
of peanuts on their flights? You can send your answers to [email protected].
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