The week bounced between shirt-sleeve warm and jacket cool,
interspersed with rain showers, so pilots had to be adaptable. Ofttimes, fifty
miles made a difference in the flying weather, so not every forecast worked
out. Weather prognosticators tend to err on the side of dire, in case someone’s
plans might be spoiled, so the weather is generally better than the TAF readout
shows.
Traffic here-bouts depended on the day, but a few in-and-outs were
spotted, chiefly single-engine trainer types like the Piper Archer and Cessna
Skyhawk. Saturday, a Cirrus SR-22 and a Piper Cherokee Six executed touch and
goes, and a Piper Saratoga stayed for a few hours. Dennis Walrath was over from
Clinton in his Beech Bonanza V35 and Jay McClintock evacuated from
Harrisonville with his Piper Tomahawk. Local participants included Les Gorden
and grandson Patrick flying his Beech Bonanza F35, Travis Briscoe firing up his
Bonanza N35, and Samantha Bruns practicing in the Cessna 150.
This Saturday, being the last weekend, marks the time for the
Butler Fliars Club to assemble for a breakfast fly-out, so all interested
Fliars should be on the Butler airport ramp at 0730 hours for liftoff. We hope
for favorable weather.
Special circumstances affected the much-ballyhooed potential
collision between two airliners at Washington, D.C.’s Reagan National airport
last Thursday. A taking-off Airbus and a taxiing Boeing occupied the main
runway at the same time, both cleared to do so by different air traffic
controllers, one handling ground movement and the other local flight
operations. Lack of coordination seemed to be the problem, but fortunately
nothing happened because the pilots involved took quick action. The problem is,
Reagan airport is too congested, encouraging such hurried mix-ups. Dulles
International was supposed to replace the old National field, but its handy
location is favored by Congresspersons zipping in and out of town, using it
like their private airport.
It’s time to start making note of the summer fly-in schedule. The
EAA’s restored 1928 Ford TriMotor pioneer airliner is going to be in
Springfield May 23rd through the 26th, so if you want to
book a vintage flight, go to the EAA.org website. It’ll also be at Lee;s Summit
June 20 to 23. The St. Louis airshow, held at Spirit airport, is scheduled for
June 8 and 9, and Daris Magoffin tells me that the biennial Wings Over Whiteman
show, featuring the USAF Thunderbirds, is going to be July 13 and 14.
The brain teaser from
last week asked why the old DC-3 airliner’s throttle knobs were in the center
of the power quadrant, between the propeller and mixture controls, instead of
on the left like smaller airplanes of today. It was so the copilot had equal
access, a style copied by Walter Beech in his twins. For next week, tell us the
communications radio frequency often referred to as “fingers.” You can send
your answers to [email protected].
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