UCAP Vectors 113
U.S. ATC system more or less returns to “normal” just in time for the biggest travel weekend of the year…Textron ends Bonanza/Baron production…building an antique without plans…and more!
It’s that time again: Here’s another issue of Vectors, the Uncontrolled Airspace podcast’s regular newsletter. There’s a lot to examine in this issue, including the ATC system’s status in the wake of the recent government shutdown. And then there’s the tragic UPS MD-11 freighter crash in Louisville, and what the NTSB’s preliminary report says. Plus some ideas on fun places to fly, insights on building an antique airplane from scratch, without plans or drawings, and more! So sit down, strap in and hold on!
The Shutdown Is Over…Until The Next One
If you’ve been paying attention to aviation news over the last few weeks, you probably know about air traffic controllers working without pay during the recent federal government shutdown, which ran from October 1 through November 12. With the shutdown itself shut down, the pieces of government are slowly being picked back up and restored to their proper place. The aviation link to the shutdown, of course, is the lack of FAA funding, including compensation of air traffic controllers, safety inspectors and the technicians that keep the system running, plus TSA workers. Though “nothing bad” happened, the shutdown wasn’t without pain, and the post-game shouting isn’t over. The bad news is we may get to go through this again in late January, when “Fiscal Year 2026 Shutdown II: Electric Boogaloo,” comes to a screen near you.
That pain included several days of restricted operations at 40 of the nation’s busiest airports, accompanied by outright bans on transient, non-scheduled (i.e., general and business aviation) flights, a move that predictably earned the wrath of GA’s alphabet soup. Also predictably, and as we told you in our last issue of Vectors, “If memory serves, staffing gaps and resulting slowdowns among both air traffic controllers and TSA employees during the 35-day shutdown in 2019 had a lot to do with ending it and putting the federal government back to work. I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if something similar happens this time.”
In other words, they keep doing the same things but expect a different result? There’s a word for that.
This go-around, SECDOT Sean Duffy got to be the public face of air transportation troubles, mainly delays and canceled flights. The DOT/FAA went so far as to publish a list of 40 U.S. airports at which an escalating portion — up to 20 percent — of flights would be reduced. That didn’t seem to have much of an effect. The airlines apparently complained — with some justification — pointing at all the Gulfstreams and Globals who were moving around freely, so the FAA then published NOTAMs closing 12 airports to transient, non-scheduled flights. The 12 facilities were: ORD, DFW, DEN, BOS, IAH, ATL, JFK, LAX, EWR, PHX, DCA and SEA.
With all that drama out of the way, Congress is now getting into the act. In the U.S. House of Representatives, four leaders of the transportation and infrastructure committee introduced a bill to “allow air traffic controllers to get paid during future shutdowns,” according to the Associated Press. Meanwhile, the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Aviation took testimony from controller union NATCA, airline trade association A4A and the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) . They pointed to resignations at the ATC training academy — students at which were not being compensated, either — plus the difficult airline logistics resulting from airplanes and crews not winding up where their schedules said, and delays in new certification projects.
One thing the shutdown did seem to accomplish? Angering air traffic controllers, especially after it was announced those who had perfect attendance during the shutdown would receive $10,000 bonuses. According to NATCA, 311 controllers meet the requirements; the FAA’s numbers are different. Those who had long ago scheduled personal time off, experienced a death in their family or were legitimately too sick to work won’t see a penny extra, even if they otherwise worked throughout.
One thing’s certain, the shutdown’s effect on controllers isn’t going to help ongoing attempts to train and hire more of them, or keep who they have. According to SECDOT Duffy, 56 controllers a day retired during their time without pay. (Taken at face value, Duffy is saying some 2300 controllers submitted their retirement papers. Before the shutdown, FAA numbers said there were 13,000 certified controllers. Yikes.)
Did I mention that we’re likely to go through this again in a few weeks? The legislation ending the recent federal government shutdown expires January 30, 2026. With the looming holidays and Congressional inertia, what are the odds legislation authorizing controllers to be paid during a shutdown, if one occurs, will be passed by then?
[Jeb]
Did High-Octane Avgas Help Win World War II?
There are many legendary stories about how the advanced technology of the Allied Force’s codebreakers played a large role in the Allies’ ultimate victory in World War II. But computers and crypto-devices were not the only innovative technology to make a significant contribution to the war effort.
In the early days of the war, before the U.S. became an active combatant, the British struggled to compete in the skies over Great Britain and Europe against Axis fighter planes.
Due to some special circumstances in Germany, and an absence of certain things in England, early in the war Germans had access to 100 octane aviation fuel, while the British could only make 87 octane avgas. One result was that, although the British pilots and planes were very good at combat when maneuvering at more or less similar altitudes, when it came to climbing and raw speed, the Germans were able to outperform the British aircraft. It should not surprise you to learn this was a problem for the British.
Years earlier, in pre-world war United States, 87 octane and lower-rated fuel was what was available. The still-young petroleum industry knew how to make higher octane fuels, but it was difficult and expensive, and there was just no profitable demand for it. One area that really wanted higher octane fuels was the airplane racing world. This was the Golden Age of airplane racing in the United States, and one of the key players in that world was the already legendary Jimmy Doolittle.
Doolittle used his connections in the American military to convince them of the value of high octane aviation fuels to any future war effort. And as a result, the military started ordering enough of this fuel to make it economically viable.
In fact, the U.S. avgas industry leapfrogged the German’s 100 octane. They went from 87 octane all the way up to 130 octane. In those early days of the war in Europe, before the U.S. became actively involved, we were providing them with a lot of material support, and one of the things that we provided was a supply of 130 octane fuel.
There’s a story, perhaps apocryphal, of a flight of German fighters who were flying high over British territory, feeling safe because they were above the reach of anti-aircraft fire and the British fighter planes’ known performance limits. So the story goes, the lead fighter’s wingman was signaling excitedly, and his lead couldn’t understand what was so exciting. He was certainly just pointing to the arrival of the British fighters well below them. But he was shocked to realize that the British fighters were actually arriving from above, and now they had a greater tactical advantage.
Whether this specific story is true or not, higher-octane fuel was definitely a turning point in the war. The Allied and Axis fighters were now on a much more even footing.
The Allied fighters were now able to both better defend the British homeland, as well as provide better protection to Allied bomber missions over Germany. The superior fuel not only improved the performance of existing aircraft, it enabled the development of new engines and airframes that would make good use of the additional power.
For more details:
[Jack]
All MD-11s And Some DC-10s Remain Grounded After Louisville UPS Crash
The fiery November 4 crash of UPS Flight 2976, a McDonnell Douglas MD-11F, on takeoff from Louisville, KY, remains under investigation, and the U.S. fleet of the three-engine transports — along with a handful of similar DC10s — remain grounded by an FAA emergency airworthiness directive (AD). All three crewmembers — captain, first officer and relief officer — died in the crash. Another 11 on the ground were killed as the crashing airplane swept through a light industrial area adjacent to the Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport (SDF).
The NTSB on November 20 released a preliminary report on the tragedy, with detailed images of the accident sequence during the airplane’s takeoff roll as well as components used to secure the #1 (left) engine to the wing. The airplane caught fire and went out of control after that engine departed the left wing, rising up and over the fuselage to impact the opposite side of the runway while leaving behind a growing fire that began consuming the wing root area.
The crash sequence was eerily familiar to those familiar with American Airlines Flight 191, a DC-10, that suffered a similar fate during an attempted takeoff from Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport on May 19, 1979. All 271 aboard, plus two on the ground, died when the airplane’s left engine departed the wing, a result of which was retraction of the left wing’s leading-edge slats, which altered the aerodynamics and resulted in loss of lift.
The images above, showing the UPS Flight 2976 accident sequence, are from the NTSB’s preliminary report.
[Jeb]
Fun Places To Fly
I typed “Fun Places to Fly” into my search engine of choice (Duck Duck Go, weird name, great search engine, but that’s another story.) A few of the results were for airline travel. But a satisfying number of them were for our kind of flying. Let’s explore.
The #1 result in DDG was for the Fun Places To Fly site. Clicking through, their homepage offers lists for “places to fly,” “aviation events,” “aviation videos,” and “aviation photos.”
Clicking “places to fly,” I next selected the U.S. Northeast region and then my home state of New Hampshire. Some good places were on the list:
Hampton Airfield Airport Cafe, NH. I’ve talked about this charming little GA strip here in southern NH. Lots of tailwheel activity. Until recently it was a unpaved, but now they have parallel paved and turf runway surfaces. The list also includes Hampton’s very fun on-field restaurant “Airfield Café,” where Jeb and I had a thoroughly enjoyable time when he was up here a while back.
Boire Field Airport Midfield Cafe, NH. This has been the location of many UCAP meetups over the years. Based on the GA-active Boire Field Airport in Nashua, it’s definitely a fun place to fly to. There’re a lot more NH locations on funplacestofly.com’s lists. Explore.
Next in my search results was Sporty’s “50 Fun Flying Destinations.” I was disappointed that it requires you to enter a name and email address to receive the PDF. But it’s kinda worth it. It’s not simply a massive list of places, but includes a page for each destination showing its features and special attributes. It also offers a ForeFlight pack to import into your EFB.
One destination that jumped out at me was Benton, Kansas’s Lloyd Stearman Field Airport. This was a favorite of our late friend Dave Higdon. During one of my visits he took me there for lunch. Good restaurant, excellent airport activities.
My internet search returned a lot of results, but I’ll only highlight one more: Van’s Aircraft, makers of the very popular RV line of airplanes, maintains a crowd-sourced database of interesting airport destinations.
I’m headed to Florida in a couple weeks, so I also looked at area suggestions. First on the list is Albert Whitted in St. Pete. Definitely a good destination; Jeb and I have been there a couple times, and I know it’s a regular stop for him year-round. The restaurant is on the second floor with a great view of the parking ramp and a nearby runway. If you want to make a day of it, a very good Salvador Dalí museum, a music venue and other attractions are an easy walk away.
So many other great places to fly in Florida:
There’s a lot more there. Check it out.
My DDG search produced a lot of results. I may explore them more in future issues of Vectors. But do it yourself. Type “Fun places to fly” into the search field, and then get out there and explore. (Oh and report back to us here at Vectors with what you find.)
[Jack]
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Textron To Cease Bonanza/Debonair/Baron Manufacturing
The prototype Beechcraft Bonanza first flew 80 years ago next month, on December 22, 1945. The Pearl Harbor attack had been 48 months earlier; the U.S. had just decisively won World War II, and all the pilots who learned to fly in the military were expected to continue using their skills for business and personal travel in the coming decades. That translated into a forecast spike in demand for new civilian airplanes. Various manufacturers licked their lips at the prospects.
But it didn’t work out that way, and lots of manufacturers came and went, some having obvious success, but perhaps not over the long haul. The end came for many, and now it’s coming for the Beechcraft Bonanza, which in one flavor or another has more or less been in production since 1947, when the first Model 35 Bonanza was certificated.
It was an all-metal design (early examples had fabric control surfaces) with a Continental E-185 165-hp engine, seating for four, retractable landing gear and a distinctive V-shaped tail. Later models went to six seats and 300 horsepower, plus a more conventional three-surface tail design. Another engine was added to the basic design, resulting in the Model 95 Travel Air, plus the Model 55, 56 and 58 Barons, one of which even gained pressurization.
After the Model 35 grew a third tail surface, the four-seat Model 33 was born, which was stretched a few years later into the six-seat Model 36. That model will be the last Bonanza built. More than 6000 twin-engine Beechcraft Travel Airs and Barons were delivered, joining more than 18,000 single-engine Bonanzas.
Textron, Beechcraft’s current owner, told AOPA, “As part of Textron Aviation’s product investment plan, the company will end production of the Beechcraft Baron G58 and Beechcraft Bonanza G36 models once all current orders are fulfilled.” Wonder why?
In 2024, Textron delivered two G58 Barons and five G36 Bonanzas. That same year, Cirrus delivered 630 SR2x piston airplanes (plus 101 SF50 VisionJets).
I’ll have more to say about Bonanzas, Barons and, especially, Debonairs, soon.
[Jeb]
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An Old Rhinebeck Project Report
Jimmy DiResta is a prolific Maker who shares his projects — made from wood, metal, ceramic, leather and just about any other material you can imagine — with his over two million YouTube subscribers. But I’ve never seen him be interested in airplane building.
In this recent video, Jimmy, who lives in New York State about halfway up the Hudson River Valley, visits the nearby Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome to get a shop tour, and see one of the projects of airplane builder Ken Cassens. And in particular Jimmy gets shown the nearly completed replica 1933 Arup flying wing aircraft.
The replica that Ken is building, which is nearly ready for its first flight, has a tail number from one of the original instances of this aircraft. Ken explains why the replica has an ‘R’ tail number.
“...the registration number. Normally it would have an ‘N’ in front of it, because ‘N’ is the United States. In the old days the ‘R’ was for restricted. Okay. So, I was able to retain the ‘R’ because of the experimental nature of the airplane. And I got the original number that this airplane had back in the 30s.”
Ken explained some of the ways he’s used modern materials on the replica.
“They would have covered it [the wings] with a cotton or a linen fabric. I used synthetic fabrics, Dacron stuff, so it’s more durable.”
And there are no surviving engineering documents for building the plane, so he had to get inventive in coming up with plans.
“...there’s no blueprints for the airplane. So, I worked everything off of this pretty accurate preview drawing. Pretty messy right now, but the artist that did this drawing knew the exact dimensions of the engine, so he scaled everything in reference to the engine. And then he worked with a lot of photographs and stuff.”
Check out Jimmy DiResta’s video of his visit to Ken’s shop at Old Rhinebeck.
[Jack]
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