Warbird Information Exchange

I need to add a couple of hundred posts to these threads ......

One example: this individual of questionable judgement let his two brats climb under the rope of a real nice fellows P-51 to sit under the wing on the other side of where the owner was sitting, without asking at all if those little monkeys could sit there. The kids start to hang off the right wing like monkey bars. The poor owner didn't know this was happening as he and his friends sat under the wing on the other side. All of a sudden the owner starts screaming to get off the wing and on the other side of the rope. The kids father started a yelling match with the owner about the owner being a real A-hole. I stood there with my jaw hanging, I couldn't believe it, of course no one standing in that area saw the beginning of the mess, so many fools thought the owner was an A-hole as well. This was at Chino last year while 3 P-38's flew by, I almost missed the flyby because of the drama behind me. The Mustang was the P-51D parked next to "Princess Elizabeth" .... I got to talk to the owner, real nice guy. I feel for ya's who attend airshows and deal with crazy people with no respect.

I would have yelled at them too... swinging from a million dollar artifact warrants a tongue lashing...

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Taylor Stevenson

Seen the same thing at airshows too, but the owner/operator didn't go into a low altitude earth orbit. In the museum at Warner Robins, I was taking a photo of a Beaver (yes an airplane), and this dude(Dud) climbs up on the strut, then lets his kids start climbing up so they can look into the cockpit, and I *hangs head* went the Fu** Off on him about it. I told him "Hey guy, this is a frickin' Museum...got it a MUSEUM...keep off the Fu**in' airplanes, show 'em to your kids, enjoy the facility, just keep off the Frickin' aircraft...Got It?!! man was I PeaEye double sed

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Kind Regards,
Gary Lewis
J.A.F.O.

Also, I approach the owner/operator and Ask "permission" to touch the heritage, and I never ever never touch trim tabs or fabric. I also try to get a photo of the owner/operator and the machine.

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Kind Regards,
Gary Lewis
J.A.F.O.

I can't stand those idiots that come walking up to an airplane on a hot ramp with a LIT cigarette in their hand. The last one I saw doing that was a woman walking along like it was no big deal as I could see AvGas seeping from one of the planes nearby. I stepped in front of her and told her to either back up, or put the darn thing out, unless she liked the idea of exploding.

Idiots!

It happens at car shows, Military vehicle events and any place else enthusiasts gather to show off their pride and joy. The gene pool needs a serious shot of disinfectant sometimes

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Rob

Sheeshus that was happening in within mere feet of airplanes at the Cable show Sun, way down the line from show center. I didn't say anything, because I get tired of being the cop of the world. I'm out to have a good time, not to get in an argument and pissing match. The smokers are going to kill themselves anyway.

John

That's terrible, if I owned a Mustang I wouldn't let anyone I didn't know near it at an airshow. You see these morons at them all the time
They are bad enough in the crowd, let alone near rare old aeroplanes

Well, lets look at from this stand point that those morons, aren't educated in the field of aviation, and what it takes to put one of these babies back into, or keep it in the air, and that these morons and sponsors pay for the fuel to bring the babies in so kids can hang all over them. Pisses one off, but....its something we just have to bear, and attempt to educate the often times unfortunately...uneducated.

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Kind Regards,
Gary Lewis
J.A.F.O.

Famous quotes heard at airshows;

" How'd ya'll get this here ? "

" How long did it take ya'll to put this together ? "

One of my personal favorites;

Man says to small child, "Grandson, there'll never be an airplane as fine as this B-29",...said as he slaps the tire on a B-17 !

Of course a common question asked while manning the question line with the A-26;

"Is this the one they call the Widowmaker ? " or " What's the difference between a 25 and a 26? ". That last one is asked over and over in the course of a weekend.

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"You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind each blade of grass..."
Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto

Isn't the obvious answer "One"

Yeah, I thought that I would get words of wisdom from Art McKinley. We had been answering that question all weekend back when Frontiers of Flight used to have an airshow at Love Field, so I asked Art what was the short answer. Art says, never missing a beat, " 1 number ". Gee, THANKS ART !

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"You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind each blade of grass..."
Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto

check out this thread. Amazing stuff:
http://www.flyingsquadron.com/forums/in ... 112&st=100

Me, I'm civilian but I was a volunteer in a SQN. One day one of our jets was static on an airshow far away from base, but close to my home. The crewchief and CO asked me to watch over it during the show and gave me the necessary credentials and papers.
Forward to the show, I arrive, check in at the desk and receive my crew badge and everything. I removed all the covers from the jet and stood next to it answering questions from people. All went well for a few hours until one of the (civilian)airshow security guys walks over to me and starts screaming about that it's a military jet and I'm a civilian and I can't be there because he used to be in the military and knows everything better then me. I needed to re-apply all the covers and then he kicked me out
The guy didn't know the difference between a B-25 and an F-16 and wouldn't even look at my official paperwork! Needless to say, that airschow never got a jet from our SQN again!

Most asked question I got at airshows: Do these jets still fly? (most of the time when our CO was starting it up right next to our tent )

another one: Our jets still flew but we had one that was used as a static recruiting objest. No engines,.... After the 1000th person came asking when that one was gonna leave, I decided it was time to get my pilots license. I donned all my flightgear, grabbed my helmet, did my walkaround and strapped in. A friend played CC. We pretended like I wanted to start but had engine problems (DUH, no engine ). Canopy back open, talked to my CC a few minutes, went to the public: sorry folks. engine problems. No flight today. Most shut up after that :p

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Magister Aviation
It's all in my book

As silly as it may seem, Fouga, your issue with the security nazi is exactly why we wear a flight suit when we are with the aircraft at an airshow. It's hot most of the time and some folks think that you are playing a wannabe, but it keeps those kind of folks at bay. 99 percent of the time if you look like you belong then most of those guys won't bother you.

We were helping at the Houston show with the CF tug. We were asked by some of the marshallers to help out on an ad hoc basis. None of us had a ramp badge but we were on a tug, so we were never questioned about entering the hot ramp, not once, by anybody ! People that we knew did ask us where we going, we just replied "shopping ! " , another guy we knew saw us heading over to the ramp with a towbar and asked us "whatcha gonna steal ?" Our reputation precedes us .

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"You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind each blade of grass..."
Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto

I had my flight jacket on, airshow crewbadge and I had a key for the aircraft. Oh well their loss Nice story with the tug. You should've gone shopping for real

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Magister Aviation
It's all in my book