What's Up
by LeRoy Cook
3-2-2026
Suggested Banner: Another Blasted Drone
Over the last week, February’s weather was kind to general
aviation flying, but March roared in like a lion, as it often does. Once the
last gasp of winter passes, soggy rain should be all that’s left. March is, of
course, the windy month so there will be 50-mph days to contend with.
Traffic picked up for this period, including a revisit by
the Cessna 340 pressurized twin out of Amarillo, TX that roared across town on
the RNAV 36 instrument approach, despite a clear morning. Other transient types
were a couple of new Cessna Skylanes out of Warsaw and Olathe, along with a
1973 Piper Cherokee Challenger, n Piper Archer, a Cessna Skyhawk and a Beech
Bonanza F33. Local movements were the final departure of a long-time resident
Piper TriPacer and a visiting Cessna Skylane, while Christian Tucker’s Cessna
140 was rolled out, Jeremie Platt made a Sedalia run in his Grumman Tiger and
Gerald Bauer flew the Cessna Skyhawk. Participants in the $100 omelet run on
Saturday morning had to dodge thundershowers to get to breakfast.
A non-event off-airport landing occurred at mid-week when
a homebuilt single-seat Sonex suffered engine failure over southern Johnson
County, KS and landed on a gravel road off of 119th Street. It made
the news, even though there were no injuries or damage. Recovery was
facilitated by the design’s folding wings feature, allowing it to be trailered
away.
Another drone-shootdown brouhaha cropped up last week,
when a Customs and Border Patrol drone was blasted out the sky by a DOD laser
gadget as an “unidentified aircraft” near the Mexican border over Fort Hancock
in west Texas. The FAA immediately designated a no-fly zone up to 18,000 feet,
good until June 23. This three-way lack of communication caps the turf war
taking place between agencies, each of which wants to be told in advance.
Problem is, if a real intruder was coming across the border it would be long
gone before the phones would be answered.
In the current tariff climate, aircraft and components
thereof have been exempted under a 1979 agreement that allows planes and parts
to be imported duty-free among the agreeing countries. Most turboprop
airplanes, for instance, use Pratt and Whitney PT-6 engines built in French-speaking
Canada, while French Daher TBM airplanes use avionics made in Olathe, KS by
Garmin, perhaps with Taiwanese components. We’ll see how long the arrangement
can continue.
Big Boeing continues to be a target for litigation and
payouts. The Southwest Airlines’ pilots union is wanting damages for lost wages
incurred during the 737 MAX airliner groundings in 2019, and a survivor of one
of the pilots skilled in January’s UPS MD-11 crash in Louisville is suing
everyone connected with the airplane, including Boeing, which bought the
McDonnell Douglas factory in the 1990s and shut down production of the big
Trijets. Settlements will no doubt
follow.
The answer to last week’s brain-teaser was provided by
reader Bill Wheatcraft, who knew that a civilian plane carrying the President
of the U.S. could use the call sign “Executive One” in place of Air Force One.
For next week, our question is, in what year was the oldest hangars at the
Butler airport constructed? You can send your answers to [email protected].
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