Warbird Information Exchange

Eaa getting away from their roots? Never.

I started going to EAA Conventions in 1966 in Rockford. I was 6 years old. (I started taking my son at age 3). Dad took me. If you look at the pics dad took, there were FEW warbirds, mostly homebuilts, that were built from wood and fabric from plans in a garage. Pitts Specials were VERY popular, lots there and if I recall correctly Betty Skelton flew aerobatics (I saw that plane (the Little Stinker) in the NASM Museum at Dulles a few months back. There was the first S2 Pitts there now in the EAA Museum); Ray Stitts little biplane (wingspan 8' or so?) which was loud and he woke everyone up with at 6am. We slept in a Corvair (the car). Few people, all loved airplanes, built airplanes and knew a lot about airplanes.

The changes in the EAA Conventions are like the changes in the people who "operate" and "homebuild" airplanes over time.

There were people in the past like Floyd Burke from Finleyville PA. Floyd built 14 airplanes before he bought his first store bought plane, a C150. Floyd built the Cassut Racer that Hoot Gibson set a few records in. His last projects in his late 70s were 2 Pitts Specials. He built them because a friend gave him a set of plans and 2 fuel tanks. He figured since he was building one, he might as well build 2. Its took a few years and were powered by converted ground power unit engines. They looked more like the first one Curtis built than a state of the art factory built Pitts. Watching Floyd fly one off grass was cool. Most of those guys are gone. He could fly; he learned to fly when "controlling the plane" was the important part of flying. He was (Floyd died a few years back) an AVIATOR and a HOMEBUILDER.

Now Aviators are few and far inbetween, as are homebuilders. Now we have PILOTS who do more planning and more reading and worrying about the FAA and the REGS than they do flying. Some can fly, but never reach the Aviator stage. The guy in the F22, Learjet or other high tech plane in his 30's is a pilot.

My father was an aviator. Dad and another guy read the Pilots Operating Handbook and hopped into a surplus Bell 47 one evening and learned to fly a helicopter. They got it to hover in about 20 minutes. Neither had ever been in a helicopter before. Both were exceptional pilots and both were truely aviators. I will not say when I soloed an airplane, except that it was sometime before the FAA thought I could and dad let me do it. Their generation is pretty well gone. Few people would get in a helicopter and try and fly it with no instruction today.

When I bought a helicopter I got an instructor. where I live, I had to send one of the few helicopter pilots in the area to get an instructor's rating and I took real lessons. I'm a pilot not an aviator. My son? Probably a pilot, I got him a new Cub to learn in. At least he'll start with the right plane. Being an aviator is more of a way of life than a hobby.

Homebuilders have turned into "kit assemblers" or have gone a step further bought "hired guns" to build their homebuilts. Homebuilders are pretty much gone.

Oshkosh is BIG now. Big money, big planes, something that most can relate to in their minds but not in the real world. I'm not sure where the Concorde, or the SR-71 relates to Sport Aviation. Space Ship One? We'll at least it's a "homebuilt" to some degree. The Ruttans are the Wright Brothers and Glen Curtis es of our generation.

For Oshkosh, heck try and find a Pitts Special there now. Even Flying Magazine lost all of us. In the 50s up to the early 70's it was cool, had articles about planes we all could fly some day and things we could relate to. Now its hard to relate to a Lear 45 (which few will ever own and the owners should be smart enough to have professionally flown), other than to read it and try to relate to it.

Times have changed, America changed, the EAA changes, all seem to be living beyond our means. Oshkosh gives us a chance to escape the real world. Maybe some people only get one vacation a year to experience aviation, at least at Oshkosh gives them "WalMart"; every avaition experience under one roof (or on one field). For that Oshkosh is good.

The EAA didn't get away from its roots, it evolved as aviation in America did; Aviation is what got away from it's roots.

OK guys, flame me.

Mark H

_________________
Don't touch my junk!!

I am a huge fan of the EAA, and just recently became a lifetime member. The quality of people that are associated with the EAA is just amazing. Really great people. I think warbirds should be a bit different since you are talking about much more complex machines in most cases. The story of the restored L-4 is great though.

_________________
Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Manager

I can see the pros and cons to the EAA establishment as it has evolved. BUT, on a personal note, EAA, through my Father and Grandfather, introduced me to aviation. We attended MERFI religiously, and a couple chapter meetings here in the Akron area regularly. I received my first airplane ride in a Cub at a chapter meeting long before the young eagles. My dad and I met Ed Fisher and Don Berliner at "Birdland" which later (inspired) lead to my father and I building a Cassutt. My other Grandfather competed at Fondulac in his Dart and attended Oshkosh every year he owned it. EAA has become many things but to me it was an open door to many possibilities beyond spam cans and made aviation accessible and affordable. One thing that always eluded me for one reason or another was a trip to Oshkosh. The highlight of my aviation career was last year when Jimmy Rollison and I took Tondelayo into the show for a two day visit. It was an amazing and proud moment to key in "warbird arrival green grey B-25 ...." and as Jimmy said it was the "big time". He wasn't kidding. As corporate as it was, it was still grass roots in my eyes. As politically driven as it has become the doors to endless possibilities are still readily at hand. It is what you make and make of it. It is the aviation Mecca that has grown to proportions that I don't think they ever envisioned.

JimH

I'm sorry, I screwed up. I should have posted this under the Warbirds Judging Post. (Well I intended to post it there anyways, fingers do not always work).

Jack Thanks for the Flame, its an honor to get one from you (Its also rare to see a post from you without a new PIC (pic bait here))

Mark H