What’s Up
by LeRoy Cook
November 9, 2026
Suggested Banner: Learjet Tragedy
Fine fall flying prevailed most of the week, with low
ceilings for a couple of days that grounded most flights. Now that we’ve
shifted over to flying in the early morning rather than late afternoon, it’s
time to watch out for ground fog around sunrise. Those starry predawn skies can
turn to misty overcast in minutes.
It was a mostly a quiet week for visitors around the Butler
aerodrome; I saw a Piper Cherokee 180 come in, and a Cessna 172 visited
briefly. Locally, only Jerald Koehn was out exercising his Cessna Skyhawk. Much
good weather went unused.
In national aviation news, I regret to add to the frenetic
reportage surrounding the tragic crash of a Learjet 60 at Palm Beach, Florida
on the previous Sunday. All the arm-chair experts are rushing to solve the
mystery of a chartered private jet nosing straight in from 35,000 feet,
shedding tail parts on the way down, during a routine flight from Texas to the
Bahamas. It’ll challenge the National Transportation Safety Board investigators
to come up with answers after a year’s work. It does appear that the bad
weather pounding Florida at the time was a factor, along with high-altitude
aerodynamics. No, the qualifications of the 20-year-old copilot were
impeccable, so you can cease picking on that factor.
Out at Edwards AFB in the California desert, the mystery of
NASA’s missing Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, which had been parked on display at
the Dryden research facility, appears to be put to rest by NASA Administrator
Issacman, who said last week that it was “just being cleaned.” Speculation has
been rampant that the Mach 3 bird was being prepared for flight, but that would
involve a lot more than cleaning. Son Will recalls walking past it daily when
he was working on a Boeing project there years ago.
A sign of the times: The last Jeppesen paper instrument
flying charts were published last month. Once a staple in cockpits, the brown
ring binders of approach plates have been largely retired in favor of iPads
loaded with digital charts. The few of us yet referring to a printed page are
now using U.S. government supplied charts, printed by contractors. Jeppesen is
still in the data business, but just not on paper. One of my first jobs for the
U.S. Army was updating the flight detachment’s neglected Jeppesen binders, 63
years ago.
A 15-year effort to build a shared new airport in southern
Iowa ended last week. The idea was to build a bigger and better airport between
Pella and Oskaloosa, to replace their smaller fields, but land acquisition has
stalled and the project is no longer viable. With the price of farm ground in
that area, it probably got too expensive. It’s cheaper to fix up what they
have.
The Navy is having a hard time coming up with a replacement
for its aging fleet of well-abused T-45 trainer jets, now over 30 years old.
Northrop pulled out of the competition last week, after Boeing had already
given up. Textron Aviation is the only prospect left, but they won’t be selling
military-ized Citations. Their option is a shared venture with Italian
planemaker Leonardo. The new Navy trainer won’t even be carrier capable.
In last week’s column, we wanted to know about fuel storage
in airplanes; fuel tanks, cells and bays. Tanks are aluminum containers, cells
are rubber bladders and bays are sealed portions of the wing itself. For next
week, what’s the “One”-style radio call sign used for an aircraft carrying the
Pope? You can send your answers to [email protected].
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