Suggested Banner: Don’t Bug Me
It was 17 years ago that we were on a family vacation in
Washington, D.C. before son Will was to go off to college, and after flying in
across the Alleghenies in the old Skyhawk, we found ourselves surrounded by the
periodic Cicada hatch. They were the egg-laying ancestors of these venturesome
pests we’re seeing this year, returning on schedule, noisy, harmless red-eyed
critters flying around everywhere.
At Nashville’s John Tune airport last week, the FBO was attempting
to perform an auxiliary-power start on a Challenger 350 business jet, and the
APU cart wouldn’t spin up enough power to get the old Fat Albert’s engines
running. After several tries, they looked inside the APU’s air intake and found
it clogged with buzzing Cicadas, evidently looking to mate with the rumbling
power cart. So far, Butler has escaped the hatch, but the infestation is only
one county away to the east.
The local airport news has settled back to normal after a week of
nationwide exposure from the sad loss of a skydive airplane on May 25th.
At press time, the small pile of wreckage was still in the hayfield by the
airport’s east fence, awaiting official investigation. The facts of the
incident are pretty well known, from the owner/pilot and skydivers statements;
a premature parachute deployment caused damage to the horizontal tail, leaving
the plane uncontrollable, so all occupants had to bail out. End of story.
Visitors this week included a B-2 Spirit bomber on a low-level run
over town at about 3000 feet last Friday, and a couple of A-10 Warthog attack
planes cutting the traffic pattern at 500 feet on Monday. Less impressive
flyers-in were a Piper Archer or two, a Beech Debonair and a Cessna 182.
Locally, Les Gorden refueled his Beech Twin Bonanza, Roy Conley had his Grumman
Tr-2 out and Lance Dirks flew the club Cessna Skyhawk.
In the who-cares department, it was reported last week that a 1997
Cessna Citation X bizjet owned by one of Donald Trump’s companies has been
sold, after having been on the market for a while. The Citation “Ten” was the top of the line jet 25 years ago,
able to nudge the sound barrier in speed and cruise at 51,000 feet, but fuel
efficiency is the goal today, so they don’t sell well used. Our local boy
Milton Sills developed the airplane for Cessna, as head of engineering. Price
of DJT’s former ride wasn’t disclosed, but $10 million would be a ballpark
guess. His present Boeing 757 airliner suits the current purpose better, with
more room for an entourage.
Our weekly question was, what were “colored airways?” Back in the
1930s and 40s, those were the low-frequency range routes between major cities,
guiding planes with a “beam” of audible tone in the pilot’s headset. For some
reason, they were named “Red One” or “Green Three” or other designation. They
were replaced by the now-passe VOR airways like the ones crossing Butler
VORTAC. For next week’s brain-teaser, tell us the expected range in nautical
miles of Bye Aerospace’s still-forthcoming e-Flyer 4. You can send your answer
to [email protected].