The good, bad, ugly

It is wonderful to see a varied group of local governmental bodies, schools and industry all coming together to work out a win-win solution to benefit us all. I am talking about the new welding school going into the mid-'50s Safeway/Hinky Dinky/Modern Appliance/Youth Center structure built by farmer neighbor Fred Johnson. They call it CAST, Center for Applied Science and Technology welding and machine shop. No matter the name it will be a boon to this area. The idea is to train interested people to become certified welders. Valmont has a hand in the enterprise which it will be a source of properly trained workers for them to staff local and other manufacturing plants. The WEC is interested because it will provide training for meaningful jobs when their inmates earn their freedom. The local High School and College are interested for technical job training of students. Gosh having students learning something useful in the way of employment along with a diploma, what a novel idea! Congratulations to those community leaders who are making it all happen.

The Bad!

Whoever came up with the idea that TSA type airline security was necessary for the County Court? Well, after all, it is only tax money that will be spent to make the modifications that will ensure complete safety for judges and staff. Yes they deal with a very small percentage of the bad people in our society but the vast majority of their customers are like you and me, harmless! So the solution is to hassle everybody, especially the vast majority of good people trying to succeed in day to day life so a judge can feel "comfortable" sitting on his/her throne, oops, "The Bench."

I thought it ironic the same day the Gazette reported on the commissioners gearing up to authorize and fund this great improvement for the court's ego big news in other media was of the shooting of a preacher in his pulpit. What is next? Are we going to have metal detectors, pat down searches of gray-haired old ladies, and removal of shoes for all who darken the churches doorways? It would make as much sense as doing the same nonsense for our local courts.

The Ugly!

This week it was announced that President Obama is going to straighten out the United States food supply safety. Talk about a scary thought for Nebraska, a premier beef, corn and wheat producing state. Are "they" going to tell us what variety to raise? Will genetically modified be allowed? Further limit our irrigation water? Limit our use of fertilizer, diesel fuel and pesticides? All those things could contribute to a much safer--if non-existent is safer--food supply. I hope this misguided effort doesn't turn out as good as "their" manipulation of the housing industry.

The good, the bad and the ugly combined. That is what I had in a flight to Denver and back last week. The forecast was for icing in the clouds departing McCook and the same for the descent into Denver.

Bad! Fortunately the cloud layer was not very deep; the prediction being tops around 6,000 feet above sea level. Good! The beautiful twin that I fly is equipped for in-flight icing conditions, a good thing, but any flight in icing conditions is necessarily ugly!

Takeoff time allowed me to return to McCook before dark. An airliner landed right before I received my clearance to depart and that pilot reported moderate icing during his approach. Hmm!

It was cold, minus 6 degrees Celsius, and the wind made the temperature even more uncomfortable. The heater in the airplane felt good. Into the clouds we went with all the anti-ice equipment on and functioning. In short order I could hear bits of ice impinging on the fuselage as ice built up and then vibrated off the propellers. The right windshield grew opaque with ice and I could observe ice building to 3/16 of an inch thick on parts of the engine cowling. The left windshield, the one in front of my seat, is electrically heated so remained ice free. Then voila, we popped into clear air as we climbed above 6000 ft. The sun was bright and the sky a beautiful blue above an ocean of pure white cloud. Everything seemed right with the world. The temperature on top a plus-6 degrees. And that was the reason for the icing conditions, a layer of warm moist air moving over the cold surface of the earth. The moisture in the cloud is cooled below freezing, so when the "super-cooled" droplets are disturbed by airplane parts they freeze instantly and stick to whatever surface they touch. In the clear at altitude all that excess frozen moisture sublimated and simply disappeared.

By the time we arrived in Denver, the clouds had moved about six miles east of the Front Range airport so no clouds = no ice. The temperature there was like McCook a minus-6 with a biting east wind.

I didn't really relish the trip back home, but on approach accumulated about half the ice as on takeoff. After descending below the clouds I had to circle to the right to align with the runway into the wind and that was a little interesting with the right windshield all iced up again.

But then I was home in familiar territory and a few minutes later happy to be back on the ground. Good equipment helps make ugly weather just a normal flight.

That is the way I saw it.