What's Up
by LeRoy Cook
2-24-2025
Suggested Banner: It Hasn’t Been Easy
Last weekend was like being released from a prison, as
airplanes again took to the skies after being locked away in the deep freeze.
It wasn’t just cold, it was sub-zero cold after the eight-inch snowfall. The
airport hadn’t seen that much snow depth for many years.
I had continuous conversations with non-flyers about flying
in the cold, to which I just muttered “Not" most of the time. For those
desiring explanation, I related the difficulty of getting air-cooled engines to
start in single digit temperatures. One basically has three choices: putting
the plane in a heated hangar, of maybe 50 degrees, or applying heat to the
engine, like with a oilpan or block heating element, or trying a cold start,
which risks damage to bearings and cylinder walls, if not an intake fire.
Mostly, we just deferred flying until it warmed up.
At the week’s end, we saw a Piper Archer and a Cessna
Skylane landing on our plowed runway, and CFI Delaney Rindal had her Cessna
150s pulled out. The city street plows took excellent care of getting the field
open, but this was enough snow to take up ramp space just to store the piles of
pushed snow. And there was some re-drifting that reduced the taxiway and runway
width.
The month’s spate of nationwide aviation accidents generated
some ill-considered news coverage, always a risk when there’s not a lot of
other happenings to take up airtime. The fact is, none of the spectacular
tragedies had any relation to each other. It was just coincidental that a
nighttime mid-air in D. C. and a departing Learjet crash followed each other,
and the Navy losing an F-18 Growler at San Diego and a couple of lightplanes
colliding in Phoenix were entirely unrelated. The Toronto CJ flip-over was
simply the result of a broken-off maingear. In each case, it’ll take months of
investigations to determine causes.
Last week, Southwest Airlines announced the first-ever
layoffs in its storied history, a 15% reduction in its workforce. Most airlines
have seen some overcapacity after going on a hiring binge last year, so LUV is
no different from the other carriers. The cancellations and delays of this
winter haven’t helped the airlines’ profit margins.
This Saturday marks another opportunity for the Fliars Club
to assemble for a breakfast sojourn. If interested, gather on the Butler ramp
at 0730 hours and see if there’s interest. I don’t have a plane to fly anymore,
but I’m there in spirit.
The previous column asked if anyone knows the WW-II fighter
plane that was flown by the most “Aces.” It turns out to be the Grumman
Hellcat, which arrived in the Pacific theater to thwart the Japanese Zeros.
Now, for this week, what is the minimum visibility requirement for a helicopter
pilot to fly without an instrument clearance? You can send your answers to [email protected].
