Suggested Banner: Your
Liatris Is Ready
“Not bad for July,” seemed to the assessment of last week’s
weather, as we enjoyed below-normal temperatures while much of the Coastal U.S.
was sweltering. The cool front’s slow progress led to the thunderstorm
deviation for cross-country pilots, and some flight cancellations from foggy
mornings.
It always interesting to see what Oshkosh-airshow bound aircraft
will visit the refueling pump in late July. On Wednesday, we saw a homebuilt
Carbon Cub on bush wheels that was sporting an air-brush paint job featuring a fanciful
Cheshire Cat scene on its side. As expected, it departed from the mid-field
turnoff in just a few hundred feet of runway.
Also seen were a Cessna 210 making touch-and-goes, a Piper
Cherokee, a 1950s Beech Bonanza V-tail and a Tecnam trainer. J.J Curtis was up
from Nevada in his Beech Bonanza V35B and Ed and Hunter Christophersen were in
from New Century, KS with Dr. Ed’s Piper Archer. From the local hangars, the AirTractor sprayplane flew from dawn to dusk,
Jay McClintock’s Piper Tomahawk flew every morning and there was some Cessna
150 traffic, including Josh Poe’s training trip to Emporia and Topeka.
Thanks to the conservation efforts of MODOT and Butler’s Fire
Department, the fringes of Butler Memorial airport are currently ablaze with
“Liatris pycnostachya”, otherwise known as Blazing Star or Gay Feather. Seen on
the Business I-49 right-of-way beside the SkyDive landing zone and in front of
the Native Prairie Park sign, the tall bright-purple wildflower spikes are on
their annual blooming display. It was the late Marvin Keirsey who helped
preserve patches of native plants on the property so can we have them to enjoy.
In the longevity department, it was reported last week
that the last surviving British fighter pilot from the 1940 “Battle of Britian”
defense against Hitler’s Luftwaffe just celebrated his 105th
birthday. Paddy Hemingway flew Hawker Hurricanes in the epic resistance, making
it through despite being shot down four times.
Not quite so long-lived was Air Force General Joe Engle,
who passed away last week at age 91. Gen. Engle had the distinction of having
flown both NASA’s X-15 research rocketplane and the Space Shuttle orbiter,
racking up 15,400 hours in 185 different aircraft types.
The quiz from last week asked "what kind of weather can be
found in the Stratosphere?" Technically, there is no weather up in the
stratosphere, the region of the earth's atmosphere where temperature no longer
declines with increasing altitude, roughly 50,000 feet high. However, some
especially energetic thunderstorms do build up into that layer. For next time,
what was the horsepower of the Piper Cherokee 140 trainer's engine? You can
send your answers to [email protected].