Warbird Information Exchange

Well unfortunately, and(or) fortunately, depending on the point of view and the issue, the proliferation of technology has happened at the sacrifice of some privacy. Anyone with an internet browser (they have these on refrigerators now) can have access to detailed satellite images. There is a whole hobby around mapping various interesting (and some uninteresting) locations. Geocachers, warbird nerds, etc. all have the ability to search out anything they want in an instant. This is even the case with once completely inaccessible government properties.

I do wish we lived in a society where people would be more respectful of other peoples’ things and it is sad that we have to keep a loaded shotgun and a junk yard dog around to keep people from misbehaving. I don’t think this is a problem of today’s making. When you read about Lindberg he had to repair the “Spirit of St Louis” prior to departing Paris because it was damaged by those trying to take home a souvenir. The “Memphis Belle” was stripped within a decade of being on open public display.

I've known Carl my whole life and I know and understand his frustration with it, but it has been an issue for a couple of decades now. I wish there was a good answer, but I think it is hard to place much blame on WIX or other similar sites. The fact is that “Scholl’s Ranch” or whatever we want to call it has been subject to stories in various warbird rags for year long before you could Google it. Like anything else that has a following, it is a double edged sword. Fame will happen at the sacrifice of privacy. While Carl and Tony aren’t Brangelina, but when it comes to warbird mythology they are close to royalty.

Ryan

Many of the better digital cameras and just about all smartphones now have built-in GPS and geotag each photo they take, and most folks will forget to (or forget how to) ever turn the feature off. So somebody visits the boneyard, snaps a few pics, posts to flickr or here, and bingo, exact coordinates available to anyone with an exif reader.

Examples -- from the recent thread about the Geneseo A-26 being offered on Courtesy, click through to the photo on the Courtesy site, copy the url into a typical web exif viewer, and you get this:

http://regex.info/exif.cgi?dummy=on&img ... 282%29.JPG

We knew where it was, of course, but you get the point.

So disclosure of the exact location is inevitable, and Carl's main defense is having the thing many miles from where anyone wants go to. And he has that in spades. Americans are lucky that way when you think about it. Lots of god-forsaken wasteland available. Imagine trying to find a place to hide something like this in Britain or Europe.

August