Bringing out the big balloon

Oh, such excitement. A weather balloon floating across the United States. A big balloon visible from the ground but at a very high altitude. The news pundits on TV expounding on whether it was a spying device for China that maybe was snooping on our defense installations. Fear of casualties on the ground if they shot it down. The truth of the matter we ordinary people know not. Then pictures were all over the networks when one of our F-22s shot it down just off the East coast. I’ll bet that the fighter pilots were all eager to volunteer for that mission. Our pastor summed it up nicely when he said in couldn’t be much of a problem because after all it was made in China.

Now the Democrats are saying that no big deal, it happened three times during the Trump administration. Not so is the reply from those in charge when the Republicans were in power, never happened. Sadly we the people have no real way of knowing what really happened. It will be too secret for us common people to know the good or the bad---classified. Sad.

Aside from all the political hoopla that the balloon caused it is of interest to this old student of the earth’s weather patterns. Balloons are non-maneuverable and they just float where the wind blows. Our atmosphere doesn’t move as one solid mass, there are separate currents intermixed within the flow so if the balloon is brought higher of lower some adjustment can be made to the track it follows. We are shown that this balloon was launched inside China, likely near the area that we flew in the Vietnam conflict. Then it meandered up the east coast of China, past Japan, across Alaska, through Canada than then diagonally across the whole United States. That is where the high-altitude wind blows that brings our weather to us and it varies by the season. Interesting to me at least.

Happier thoughts and that is Bison Days in progress as I write. The program is to have students go out into the community and experience visits with the different business that make this place we love perk. Oh, the list is long for what the students volunteer to learn about some are for hobbies like cake decorating, jam and jelly making, hands-on, boater safety, creative writing (maybe I ought to take that one) soap making fantasy sports, and the list goes on to over forty categories. Of course some can lead to careers like trade, cooking, hair styling, cosmetology, on-air broadcasting, modern military experiences (National Guard) and my love of aviation. Each student gets the chance to attend four different sessions. All presenters are volunteers and the high school has made great effort to schedule the events and deliver the students to the locations for the three-hour sessions.

Your old columnist recalls that when I was in high school I thought only of a career in agriculture. I grew up on a farm and I fully intended to be a farmer all my life. Flying was a hobby and I couldn’t really care about any of the other professions or that made this community a success. Luckily for me the brand new Air Force Academy opened up and the McCook schools had prepared me well to qualify for an appointment. A wonderful career in military aviation opened up for a kid who always had a love of farming in his heart and I got to do both.

When the Bison students that have volunteered to attend a session on aviation show up at the airport they are invited into our big comfortable pilot lounge. There Dave Fulkerson and I, the two active flight instructors at McCook, explain that, behind the fence, there are actually four professions at our airport. We have an airline terminal staffed by caring personnel, we have TSA that insures the security of the traveling public. In our lounge is where transient pilots request fuel for their aircraft and where pilots wait for their passengers, visiting doctors, etc. to conduct their business. Then Whitney, and aircraft mechanic and our fixed base operator, FBO, takes the students to his shop and explains the workings of prop jet engines and regular reciprocating engines. He also explains what aircraft maintenance is required and how it is accomplished. Then the students get to do some hand-on sample metal work like riveting and shaping. The fourth business is the agriculture application, spray pilots and their aircraft.

Our presentations seem to be well received by those youth that have chosen to attend and hopefully one or more will consider some part of aviation as a career that they might pursue. Here they have had a chance to meet face to face to those of us that actually do those things and learn that each is welcome to come back any time to explore what might be in their future.

Bison Days is a busy two days and a chance for our youth to explore what makes our community tick. Hopefully, each learns that they are welcome to be a part of it. Besides that, I suspect that it is a welcome break from their day-to-day classes. Hats off to all those teachers and volunteers that make Bison Day a success.

That is the way I saw it.

Dick Trail