AVmail: April 7, 2003

Reader mail this week about the the closure of Meigs Field, Bruce Bohannon's records and more.

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The Death Of An Airport

I have an idea! Let’s have a fly-in at Chicago for single-engine General Aviation aircraft owners! As we strive to do at all our fly-ins, we’ll show the people of Chicago how nice, professional, and interesting General Aviation can be.Since Mayor Daley doesn’t see any value in General Aviation airports and so unceremoniously closed Meigs Field, I figure our best option is to hold the fly-in at O’Hare International Airport (ORD).I think Monday Mornings are best for Fly-Ins, so as not to conflict with people’s busy weekend schedules. Single-engine aircraft owners should plan to arrive at ORD leisurely between 7:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m.To add to the convenience of the Fly-In participants, we should find a Monday with a number of simultaneous business conventions or conferences. This would serve two purposes — It would allow the pilots to attend the conferences, and allow the conference participants to experience General Aviation. The more participants, the better!We’ll show Mayor Daley that he’s right about General Aviation airports. They are completely unnecessary. We can utilize the larger, better equipped airports instead!After that, let’s hold EAA Airventure at Chicago Midway!K.C. Budd



Brian Crawford


Holey Safety Net

If a 406 MHZ ELT costs $2500, 600,000 will be replaced, and annual savings for searching is $7 million, ignoring NPV (net present value) considerations it will take 200 years to pay back the cost of the ELTs. Doesn’t sound like a very good deal to me.Anybody around making investments with an expected return like that? Peter Goldstern

AVweb responds …

The critical matter is your expected return home after crashing in the wilderness with an older-design ELT on board.

Kevin Lane-Cummings
Features and AVmail Editor

AVweb’s Picture of the Week

When did they move Mt. Jefferson from Oregon to Washington?!!! R. Norris

AVweb responds …

Budget shortfalls in Oregon have forced the state to sell certain assets to Washington State …

Actually, as you and several other readers pointed out, Mt. Jefferson (at least the one in this photo) is in central Oregon.

Kevin Lane-Cummings
Features and AVmail Editor

Bohannon: Head, Shoulders, Airplane, Above The Rest

While Bruce’s six world records in one day on one flight is impressive, it is not a record. On April 20, 1999, a Lockheed Martin crew of two, flying a production C-130J Super Hercules, set 21 world records in Class C-1.N Turboprop on one flight and on May 14, 1999, the same crew set 29 world records in STOL aircraft, Class N, Group II in one flight, which also included a flight to 30,517 feet with 22,405 pounds of payload and taking off and landing in less than 1,000 feet. At the time, the NAA said they thought that was the most records set in one flight on one day. It may not be the all-time record either, but it is a lot more than six! I was “self-loading ballast” (I wasn’t crew and I couldn’t not count, so I was considered payload!) on both of the flights.Jeff Rhodes
Communications Office
Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company

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