Warbird Information Exchange

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tenthousandmarbles/439694982/

Spotted this guy at Thunder last year. A re-enactor no less. Lost him in the crowd before I could give him the ear-full he deserved.

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Phil K.
Yankee Air Museum
Systems Admin / Ramp Crew / Professional Photo Ruiner

You would think that a living history person, that has a little more exposure to aircraft would know better.

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Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Manager

Hey Bill, what's this about?

"No other place but WIX, has anyone threatened to pour something on my plane"

No Sir, I did not "threaten", I was making a point using that as an illustration of YOUR WORDS. YOU WORDS, DOING THE SAME THING TO OUR NATIONAL WAR MEMORIALS. You felt it was 1st Ammenndment protected speech. Funny now it is not protected speech, and it is a threat in your mind.

I've had swiches turned. 2 kids got in our UH-1H and I do not think we found a single switch where we left it. Luckily we secured the battery immediately on landing so there is minimal threat from switch changers.

We had our M-3 Scout car at an airshow, I came back from flying to see a family in the cargo compartment standing on and bending. $2400 worth of rare NOS seats I'd looked 10 years to find.

Sometime, I think shows would be more fun without the people.

Wasn't insinuating that, just adding to the toll of stories that we've all experienced.

And I used to be a car show guy...many years ago. The general public and their behavior has ovbiously changed since I was showing cars, as I had no bad experiences with them at that time. I reckon that it's just the way the modern public is nowadays when they go see things that don't belong to them...whether it's airplanes, cars, boats, or whatever.

Naturally, the large majority of folks behave themselves, but it's a shame we have to tolerate the few that don't.

Interesting thread indeed.

Gary

Wow, these stories are just sick! I can't believe some people. I don't have any stories off hand, but im sure I have seen people doing stupid things to aircraft several times. Mostly climbing up on the wings to look into the cockpits.

I don't know if this was bad, but at the Scranton, Pa airshow. I was 5 or 6 years old. I asked a man sitting by an open door to a C-47 if I could go inside. He kept repeating no. I finally realized that you had to pay to go inside. Man, I was embarressed!

Yes. My same friend who I chased the smoker away from his airplane, was on a cross country flight with a customer in a warbird a few years back. They stopped at a museum for lunch, came back out only to find some japanese tourists helping themselves to a tour of the fighter's cockpit. My friend was of course, furious and quickly kicked them out. I can only imagine what the owner's reaction was. What's that quote about foreigners being more rude? How apropo, even when they are from a polite country they still lose their manners when they get here.

JH

I was one to gripe about how back in the day security was so relaxed and the aircraft were more accesible to spectators at an airshow compared to now they're pushed far back and ropped off.

but all your responses have educated me and made me aware of the need for this to be done.

Let's face it, society isn't getting better as time goes by.

Let's keep our eyes peeled for more of these happenings or potential happenings.

Todd

I think the one that bugs me the most is people who smoke around our aircraft. Smoking around aircraft is stupid. As someone who smoked for 18 years and quit in 1988 and has lost a few friends to cancer I will also say if you smoke I guess you know what I think of that. But the one that comes to mind that I enjoyed the most was a couple of years ago when we were about to fire up the Bearcat. I noticed a visitor standing about 50 feet behind the tail. This gentleman had a beautiful Nikon camera and a 400mm lens in his hands. I gently suggested that he might want to stand to the side as we fired up. He told me that he felt he was quite safe where he was. As that wonderful Pratt & Whitney R-2800 belched clouds of beautiful blue oil smoke my friend the photog disappeared from view! I’ll bet he is still cleaning his lens!

Dan

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I was with Dick James at the Mankato MN airshow and saw a dad lift up his kid so he could get a look in the cockpit. Somehow he put a scratch on the fucelage. It was the first airshow Donna-Mite was at since the new paint job.

Was enjoying so many of the stories from everyone and noting the similarities we've all shared, indpendent of geography or affiliation. Most made me smile knowingly until I saw Gary's photo. Hopefully there's a deep, dark place in hell for those souvenir hunters - especially the "data platers." Having lost these items to this barely human scourge before, it's sometimes easy to get a little jaded.

But there are funny stories out there about when the airplanes strike back. I'll supply just a few, but they are classics... like the photographer who insists on chasing the airplanes out onto the taxiway or ramp, no doubt because he "entitled" having spent several grand on camera equipment? We had one of those. He decided to set up his gear one year right behind a particularly tired engine of the B-17. He was wearing light colored clothing and when I last saw him trying to move his gear and body away from the blast area, he looked like a speckled trout. I can't imagine he ever got his clothing or the lenses clean after that liberal hosing.

Or the doofus who insisted on standing underneath the engine of the B-24 while we checked an oil screen.... stepped on our step ladder to get a better view and then was literally covered in oil from head to toe when he upset a large plastic drip pan we were balancing underneath with the collected residue of a day's work?

Or the bratty little yard ape who spent the last hour yanking on pulling on everything in the airplane and screaming and horsing around? It was truly beautiful to see him stick the entire cup of the relief tube into his mouth telling everyone who'd listen that "the pilots talk to one another thru this thing!" This payback was particularly special to those of us who'd actually had opportunity to use the "microphone" on a long flight between stops not but a day before...

Sometimes the "horror stories" have a little rainbow in the cloud now and then....

Bill seems to be away so I'll tell the story as I recall it....this kid rides up the flightline on his bike, stops near Bill's Spitfire, gets off the bike, and shoves it up against the side of his tail which is made of fabric-with predictable results (RIP!!) Bill then chased the kid down the flightline and gave him what for....

at least as I recall it...Bill's version may differ...

M

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Mark Morris

A few years back we were at a show with the Combat Air Museum C-47 "KILROY". A 10 year old kid was in the crowd and took a running leap for the back of the airplane and landed on the left hand elevator after turning 180 degrees in mid air. Fortunately he landed on a rib saving the fabric from total destruction. Jake Fendermen

"Those were the days".

You know, somebody did send me an email link to a porta potty getting blown across the ramp and a guy trying to climb out of while it was still moving. It was a C-130 I think, but not at an airshow. That showed up in my inbox a year or so ago. Has anyone else seen it?

I’ve been chuckling to Paul’s “two more crappers and you're an ace" comment all day long, and that reminded me of it.

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My reply went to a new topic, I'm no computer wiz. Mark, I don' t remember any incident about a kid with a bike. I'd guess it was one of the T-6 guys. The only damage we ever had to patch was the hole from the boy with the pen. I forgot to mention smoking as it is a danger. At Thunder there was some trouble with that and I pointed it out to one of the ladies in charge. Within minutes they had made an announcement about it on the PA . No damage done, no feelings hurt.

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Bill Greenwood
Spitfire N308WK