What's Up
by LeRoy Cook
9-02-2024
Suggested Banner: It's Not Easy Being Green [Kermit]
The big airport news of this week was Thursday's targeted
windstorm that destroyed the little-used three-ship hangar at the south end of
the ramp. It was lifted off its pad and dumped in pieces across the hayfield
and highway to the west, without damage to the tractor and mower inside.
Fortunately, none of the planes in the tiedowns were disturbed.
Otherwise, the storm took out the nervous landline
phone/internet connection, leaving us without the ability to pump fuel, a
particularly critical shortcoming on a holiday weekend, especially since both
Nevada and Harrisonville airports are closed. CenturyLink responded to the
outage in its usual plodding manner.
As the skies cleared with fall's first cold front on Labor
Day weekend, the cool temperatures encouraged aviation. Gerald Bauer had the
club's Cessna Skyhawk up, Roy Conley exercised his Grumman Tr2, Todd Proach
flew his Beech Bonanza A36 and Cody Barker practiced in a Cessna 150. The
SkyDive KC King Air C90 jump plane made several runs and BCS's AirTractor
sprayplane applied some crop protection.
We recently learned that our friend Mark Bentch, the capable
mechanic at Clinton airport, is closing up shop, so his departure will leave a
big hole in the local airplane support arena. Mark has accepted a position as a
professor at Missouri Technical Institute in Linn, MO, teaching young
A&P's-to-be their craft. We'll miss having you on call, Mark, and wish you
well.
If you're going to visit Camdenton's airport this weekend,
be aware of the NOTAM taking effect at noon on Friday, extending to Saturday at
4:30, for “aerial demonstrations” below 10,000 feet. They always put on a nice
airshow over there. Jefferson City is holding its airshow on the following
Saturday and Sunday, as is Rosecrans airport at St. Joseph.
The state of California, ever-eager to be on the woke edge
of societal evolution, passed a bill in the legislature last Friday to ban
aviation fuel containing lead from being sold in the state after 2036. This
despite such a fuel being currently available. Studies have had an embarrassing
lack of success in finding enough lead around airports to constitute a health
hazard, but that doesn't stop true believers. Airplane owners in the Golden
State will have to relocate eastward unless common sense returns.
Which brings us to our question from last week, about the
ingredients used to make up “sustainable” jet fuel, widely touted as being
carbon-offsetting by European airlines and business aviation. The answer is, it
can be just about anything that isn't petroleum-based. To earn the greenwashing
label of “sustainable,” as little as 10% of the pricey renewable-energy stuff
is blended with good old Jet-A; more than 50% concentration is not approved for
use. Some of the sources are biomass from trash, used cooking oil,
alcohol-to-diesel, wood by-products and other plant-based materials. Nothing
works as well as processed dinosaurs, however.
For next week's brain-teaser, we'd like to know if any reader's grandparent would have been a CPT pilot.
If not, tell us what the designation means. You can send your answers to
[email protected].
Posts
