Suggested Banner: Free Safety Seminar At Harrisonville
This week’s aviation problem was wind, gusty breezes that
challenged piloting and created rough rides for airplanes big and small. But,
hey, it’s March, we go through this every year, people, although it’s a little
early this time We had to scrub some planned flights, and others got terminated
early. Some tolerable air could be found early and late. Remember, this coming
weekend marks the pointless change to Daylight Saving Time, so get to bed early
Saturday night ‘cause you’ll be getting up the dark on Sunday, losing an hour.
In
aviation, we side-step the DST scam by using UTC (Universal Coordinated Time)
for flight planning and weather forecasting. All times are shown as Zulu time
zone hours, based on Greenwich, England’s meridian of longitude. Thus, if
converting Zulu to our local time we need to subtract five hours, for the next
eight months, not the six hour conversion we’ve been using..
Traffic in
and out of the local airport was, as we said, hampered by strong winds, but
several visitors did drop in, mostly a parade of Piper Cherokee Archer
trainers, along with a Cessna 172 and a visiting Mooney M20C. Locally, Eric
Eastland made several sorties in his Cessna Skyhawk, Jeremie Platt had his
Grumman Tiger out, Les Gorden’s Piper Twin Comanche was up, and Roy Conley flew
his Grumman Tr2 and a gyrocopter.
Should you
be reading this on the web, rather than in print, you’ll have ample time to
mark down Wednesday evening, the 6th for an FAA seminar at the
Harrisonville airport, starting at 7 p.m. The topic being presented is
“Uncontrolled Airport Operations.” Credit will be given toward the Wings award
program.
I was
reading some Kansas City aviation history the other day, specifically about the
North American Aircraft bomber factory at Fairfax airport during World War II.
I always knew the plant was built just before Pearl Harbor to make the B-25
Mitchell bomber, but it turns out that it was also under consideration in 1942
for sub-contracting Boeing B-29 Superfortress production, going so far as to
build a “high bay” addition before the government changed its mind. And then
Lockheed wanted to build its new P-80 jet fighter there, late in the War, but
hostilities ended before rushing it into production. In wartime, America could
get facilities built in months by cutting all red tape, not the months
bureaucrats need to tie up things today.
Our week’s
question was about the meaning of EASA certification of airplanes; that stands
for European Aviation Safety Agency, Europe’s equivalent of our FAA. Their
standards are pretty much modeled on our rules, with some unique changes. For
next time, tell us the meaning of “UP” in an airport’s hourly weather report,
pertaining to restriction to visibility. You can send your answers to [email protected].
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