Bad weather blamed on new gear
The ice storm and its repeat, and the cold temperatures, low clouds, high winds... not due to El Nino this year.  The culprit is "Cool Jason" Witt who just got his new gear in.  His stuff was actually in mid-December, but as Murphy's Law always hits, Cool Jason had to work plus travel.  Finally able to be at Skydive Kansas, he brings his Murphy luck to all of us.  Saturday, January 8th, motivated by the thought of a skydive within the next 24 hours, Jason (and Jen & Kermit helped) chipped ice away from the hangar door by hand, on his hands and knees, without gloves, using only a small hammer!  (And some ice melt.)  Although successful in his quest to get the door open, Jason was thwarted by Mother Nature on Sunday the 9th with wind shears at 1,000 feet AGL. 

Below is a gallery of what the ice and snow looked like on a dark, dreary Kansas winter day.  2 inches of ice beneath another inch or more of snow would shut down operations even despite bad weather.  Thank you to the City of Osage City for managing to shovel what they could off the runway, even while dealing with power outages, tree limbs, and other problems in town.  And a special thanks to our neighbor J.D. for using his small tractor with a scoop to make quick work of clearing the tarmac in front of the hangars!