GRNDP51 wrote:
My "problem" with Kermit and Fantasy of Flight has always been the simple fact of what's the point of making 10 new planes airworthy (which he seems to be doing now) if they aren't going to be flying much anyway? I am not well researched in Kermit by any means, but it seems that Kermit flies his planes... and ONLY Kermit flies his planes. What's the last show that any of his planes have been to besides the WWI's at Oshkosh? Being in CA, I could be wrong and maybe he does bring his planes to some shows, but I would personally rather see some of his "airworthy" planes sold to people that don't have 20 of them to fly. Lewis' collection is getting that same vibe from me lately too, what's the use of all the airworthy planes if they aren't ever out of the hangar/going to airshows? Not saying I would rather them NOT be airworthy, but maybe focus on getting some pilots accustomed to your planes so they can actually go places? I realize it may be uncomfortable to have someone else fly your planes, but there are a ton of capable vintage aircraft pilots out there that would love to do it!
Kermit is definitely the "main" pilot for most of his collection. Other than letting a few of his staff fly the "light" stuff, i.e.- General Aviation type classics, L-birds, Storch, etc., I don't believe anyone else flies his aircraft. I don't have a problem with that, as virtually every aircraft in the collection is personally owned by him and not FoF or the 501(c)(3) entity he created that owns a few more. In his defense, Kermit does fly his aircraft to local shows in Florida. He attends Sun n' Fun every year as well as a few others locally. I have seen his aircraft at Oshkosh over the years as well as the Mustang gathering a ways back.
Regarding Rod Lewis. Yes, he has scaled back his flying operation and completely given up on racing at Reno. That is a shame, but it's not without justification. The main reason this has happened was due to his divorce where he lost over a Billion dollars in the divorce settlement. If you lost a Billion dollars, you too, would have to reassess your "play toys".
I think we should cut them both some slack, as they do a lot of wonderful things behind the scenes in support of this passion we all love. One example, and this is not widely known, for a while before Rod's divorce, he used to subsidize the entire fuel bill for the annual airshow at Chino. How many warbird owners/operators do you know who would do that?
Before we cast aspersions at owners for not doing things the way we want them done, just consider two things: 1) it's their money and they are gracious enough to share their toys with us, the general public, 2) there is often a lot of "behind the scenes" good they are doing which is not publicly known.
My two cents!
Back in the day Linda Meyer flew many of the aircraft in the collection. I had the pleasure to ride in the P51 Cripes with her at the controls.
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