Many good flying opportunities presented themselves last
week, Pilots who missed those nice days probably are living with regret, given
that January isn’t prone to being a welcoming month for aviation. The advisory
frequencies were filled with chatter as traffic patterns were busy with fun
flyers exercising their wings. About the only visibility restriction was a
smoke layer in the lower 3000 feet of the atmosphere, generated by brush and
grass fires burning off debris.
Hereabouts, we had a Piper Warrior or two come by, a rare
Vashon Ranger trainer dropped in, a Cessna Stationair made a landing and a 1967
Cessna 172 visited. The pilot of a Beech Sierra expressed his thanks for a
“nice little airport,” when he landed Saturday with a minor maintenance issue.
He borrowed a car to get repair supplies and used the waiting room before
proceeding on.
Local flyers taking wing last week were Jim and Dan
Ferguson in the family Cessna Skylane, Jeremie Platt in his Grumman Tiger, Roy
Conley and daughter in the Grumman Tr2, Lance Dirks in the club Skyhawk and
Brandt Hall in a Piper TriPacer. Gerald Bauer and I flew the 172 to
Higginsville and back.
On the national scene, a Latam Airlines Boeing 767 landing
at Atlanta International airport Tuesday evening on a flight from Lima, Peru,
had all eight maingear tires blow out, shutting down that runway for a while
until the big widebody could be removed. All passengers and crew had to
evacuate via the emergency slides.
During the Caracas, Venezuela extraction last week, one of
the pilots of the CH-47 Chinook helicopters carrying Army Delta Force commandos
was wounded in the leg three times by ground fire, but managed to fly back to
the USS Iwo Jima base ship. A total of 80 commandos were involved in the
nighttime strike, with seven casualties.
Boeing’s order book was enlarged by an order from Alaska
Airlines last week, with the carrier signing up for 105 737-Max 10 and 5 787
Dreamliners, to be delivered over the next 10 years. Even with increased
production rates, the need for replacement airliners is exceeding factory
capacity. Boeing also received an order from Israel for 50 F-15 Eagle fighter
jets, which will be built at the St. Louis division.
Confusion remains about foreign-made drones being allowed
to be imported. In December, the Federal Communications Commission issued
restrictions on foreign (mostly Chinese) drones due to national security
concerns with the communication gear used in them. But last week it was
determined that public sector users of drones couldn’t get by without
continuing deliveries, so we’ll have to let them in until 2027. Somebody should
have seen this coming.
The question of the week was about FAA NOTAMs, specifically
how many categories of notices there are; airports, navaids, VIP, national
secuirity, etc. It turns out that there’s 13 different types of NOTAMS, most of
which are never read by anybody. For next time, tell us where the largest
building in the world, measured by volume, is located. Hint, it has to do with
aviation. You can send your answers to [email protected].
