Monday, September 16, 2024

What's Up LeRoy Cook

 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].




Chanz Gerleman of Amsterdam does his part to bring a New Casey's General Store to Butler

  FM 92 spoke with Chanz Gerleman of Amsterdam on Thursday,  December 12 th   after his Facebook post released information to the public re...