Suggested Banner: Lincoln Airport Had A Party
The only sign of Hurricane Francine's impact on our flying
weather last week was a southeasterly wind flow and some widespread fog
Saturday morning. Otherwise, we had decent flying fall conditions to enjoy,
even though we'd all like to see run-off rain.
It is with saddened hearts that we learned of the passing of
Peggy Gorden last Thursday. She was always a bright joy around the Big Blue
hangar at Butler, helping her husband Captain Les Gorden and their children and
grandkids. Her long illness came to an end; we extend condolences to the
family.
I regret not getting the word out last week about last
Saturday's fly-in breakfast and lunch over at Lincoln Airport. My recollection
of the date slipped up in the month's confusion. They had a slow start due to
weather but by mid-morning there was continuous traffic on the advisory
frequency. Lincoln has a lot of small-town spirit when it comes to keeping up
their nice little airport.
Among the steady flow of transient aircraft here last week
were a Cessna Skylane, a few Piper Archer trainers, a Cessna 172 and a
twin-rotor CH-47 Army Reserve helicopter. Pat Svoboda was over from the farm
with his modified Piper J-3. Locally, the SkyDive KC jump plane hauled weekend
loads, Jeremie Platt had his Grumman Tiger out and Jay McClintock weighed his
porcine Piper Tomahawk trainer.
Congratulations to the City of Butler's work crew for
quickly disposing of the remains from the small hangar that was destroyed in a
freak windstorm on August 29. The pieces scattered across the field took
considerable clean-up, and the pile of debris required a lot of loads to haul
away. Now to put the empty pad to good use.
Last week's 23rd Anniversary observance of the
9/11/2001 terrorist attacks was, like on that fateful morning, clear and
beautiful, and it always holds particular memories for pilots. There was a lot
of confusion on that day, as everyone scrambled to figure out what was going on
and how to proceed. I saw an airliner contrail make a U-turn. No one was
allowed to fly for a week or more, and even then there were restrictions; we
weren't supposed to do “training flights” for some reason. My logbook shows a
fly-in lunch trip to Bolivar on 9/20, signed off as recurrent training in spite
of the ban. My flight review was about to run out of currency.
The question from last week asked if anyone remembered a
grandparent being a CPT pilot, and what it entailed. CPT stood for the Civilian
Pilot Training program, a Roosevelt-era preparation for World War II from 1939
and into the early '40's. It took 435,165 individuals off the street through
private pilot training for free, and even beyond, leaving them ready to go to
military training if needed. I should have known I would hear from loyal reader
Butch Leuthart, formerly of Amsterdam, who reminded me that his Dad, Robert
Leuthart, was an instructor for the program. Bob taught me a lot in my early
days.
All right, for next week our question concerns the Cessna
190 and 195 airplanes. Everybody knows a Cessna 180 and 185 are same except for
engine horsepower; what's the difference between a 190 and 195? You can send your answers to [email protected].
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