Monday, May 6, 2024

What's Up LeRoy Cook

 Suggested Banner: The Force Wasn’t With Us

 

No Millennium Falcon lookalikes were spotted on Star Wars Day, observed on last Saturday, May The Fourth. There is a strikingly-painted battle-scarred Embraer Phenom 100 business jet, flying around for the past several years, dubbed the “Millennium Phenom”. Its owner just wanted to pay homage to his favorite movie saga.

 

Visitors dropping in this week were headlined by our friend Tom Turner, up from Wichita in the American Bonanza Society’s Beech Bonanza A36 flagship airplane. Tom is the executive director of the ABS Air Safety Foundation and presently doubles as ABS’ executive director as well. He was in town to drop off his wife who is a Rich Hill native. Other movements noted were a Cessna Skyhawk, a Sikorsky Black Hawk Army Guard helicopter and a Diamond DA-40.

 

Local traffic included the BCS turbine AirTractor sprayplane, SkyDive KC’s turboprop -converted Cessna 206 jump plane, Les Gorden’s North American T-28 trainer and the club Skyhawk, flown by Gerald Bauer. Jay McClintock’s Piper Tomahawk made some first-passenger flights with a new-graduate pilot at the helm.

 

In national news, the periodic battle to pass a funding bill for the Federal Aviation Administration is going on in Congress. What should be a simple reauthorization of the bureaucracy always turns into a turf war over pet projects added in, plus unrelated amendments that get attached. Would that all federal agencies had to hold their tin cup out for such Congressional oversight, rather than run on automatic budget increases.

 

Republic Airlines’ Lift Academy training center has placed an order for 50 more of Diamond Aircraft’s DA-40 trainer versions, along with a half-dozen DA-42 twin-engine diesel-powered trainers. The Astro-Canadian Diamond is about the most cost-effective glass-cockpit training tool on the market. Meanwhile, a Utah-based company has announced a 50%-better storage battery that can improve the chances of electric-powered training airplanes becoming viable. Presently, the electric planes are good for about 30 minutes before having to head back to base; the new batteries are supposed to extend that to an hour.

 

The week’s brain teaser asked for the location of an airport known by its ICAO code “MIA”, and it was correctly answered by Rodney Rom, who knew it was Miami, Florida. That was one of the easy ones, just like “BUM” for Butler, Missouri. Some tougher-to-decypher codes are “ORD” for Chicago and “MCO” for Orlando. For next time, what direction provides the most stable magnetic compass indication, in the Northern Hemisphere?. You can send your answers to [email protected].




 

June Alberta Talley, 86, Adrian, MO

  June Alberta Talley, 86, of Adrian, Missouri, passed away on Monday, December 2, 2024 at her home.  There will be a private family Inurnme...