What’s Up
by LeRoy Cook.
7-29-2024
Suggested Banner: Heat
and Haze Predominate
As can be expected, global warming notwithstanding, Missouri in
August has turned hot, leaving most flying to the early hours or perhaps after
supper. The air aloft has been filled with drifted-in smoke from Canadian
wildfires, along with dust that has circled the northern hemisphere from Asia,
according to meteorologists. All we know is, we’ve been flying without a
visible horizon line this week.
The refueling traffic had an Oshkosh-airshow flavor this week,
including a lady flying a 1941 Piper J-4 vintage airplane, an RV-6A homebuilt,
an experimental EAA Biplane flown by a bearded chap out of Abiline, Texas, and other
show-bound planes too numerous to mention. Locally, Bill and Ryan Sparks flew
their 1967 Cessna Skyhawk up to the show, as did Jeremie Platt in his Grumman
Tiger. Randy Miller and I took the club Skyhawk over to Miami County for the
Fliars breakfast and I ferried a Cessna 150 to Clinton for maintenance.
The story in last week’s paper about wildlife artist Rebekah
Knight failed to mention that she’s also an accomplished pilot, including
seaplane certification. As well as a violinist of some renown, an art she also
teaches. There’s nothing Rebekah can’t do if she puts her mind to it.
The latest news on the Stockton, MO airport is that it’s been
purchased by a private individual and is going to be developed as a commercial
enterprise, with an eye to supporting the Stockton Lake area as a destination.
So, the airport has a future rather just being abandoned.
If you want to use the Nevada airport, do it in the coming week.
It’s scheduled to be shut down on August 12th while the secondary
crosswind runway 13/31 is being rebuilt. The work involves that runway’s intersection
with the primary 2/20 runway, but liability concerns cause the whole airport to
be closed. You and I would just throw up some barricades and keep one runway in
use, but contractors in this day and age want to take the easy route and keep
all traffic away. No word on how many months it’ll be unavailable, but with
Harrisonville also still closed, Butler or Clinton are about the only options.
“Whacha see at Oshkosh?” is a query fellow air-nuts tossed
me this week. I’d have to say “lots”, but the flavor was decidedly military
this year. The most impressive formation flight was a Heritage Flight link-up
with a WW-II P-51 Mustang, an F-22 super-fighter, an F-35 and an F-16, in
diamond formation. The RCAF’s Canadian Snowbirds put up a 9-ship show, but the
Italian Air Force did them one better with a 10-plane Frecce Tricolori (3-color
arrow) grouping.
Our question from the previous column was regarding the horsepower
of the Piper Cherokee 140 trainer. Widely reported as a 140-hp Lycoming, the
actual type certification calls it a 150-hp O-320; the 140 designation was for
a training setting at 2450 rpm. The brain-teaser for next week is, when the
American paratroops dropped into France at night 80 years ago on D-day, how did
they locate one another after they landed? You can send your answers to
[email protected].
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