Warbird Information Exchange

Lady02Pilot and I had a similar experience at the Doolittle Raiders Reunion here at Stinson... This guy was sure that the "T-41" he flew in (I'm not sure of that even) was the ancestor the the L-2 I was flying - but that it was slightly different... I pointed out a 172 and said, "Did you're T-41 look like that plane over there? and he vehemently denied that. " Anyway, he proceeded over to the L-2 and did just about the same thing.
The worst part was when he started to get annoyed by the honest questions I was asking and got a bit on the angry side - as if I didn't know anything about the plane I'd brought to the event!

Ryan

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Aerial Photographer with Red Wing Aerial Photography currently based at KRBD and tailwheel CFI.
Websites: Texas Tailwheel Flight Training, DoolittleRaid.com and Lbirds.com.

The horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety is of the LORD. - Prov. 21:31 - Train, Practice, Trust.

Back in 2000 when the Collings bombers came to Valpo I overheard many people complain that the B-24 didn't show up at the same time as the B-17. The reason was they were short a pilot and had to fly one bomber in then shuttle a pilot back to pick up the other. All they had to do was wait about two hours then the B-24 showed up. They were also angry that a storm came through and pushed the arrival of the B-17 back to 5PM with the B-24 arriving around 8PM.

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"Keep 'em Flying!"

Same thing happened to me at Binghamton airshow. I was talking to one of the men with the HAG C-47. One guy was walking towards the door to get in and the HAG guy kindly asked for a dollar to go in. The guy rolled his eyes and gave a dirty look.

If they only knew how much it costs to operate these warbirds.

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Shop the Airplane Bunker At
www.warbirdbunker.com

I think it's a good idea for aircraft owners and operators to place a large sign next to the aircraft door outlining the huge costs of operating these rare birds. The big $$$ signs might wake a few of these tight-wads up to donate a few extra bucks. Of course there will always be a few that will b*tch about having to donate no matter how trivial the amount. These types of people are usually the one's living in million dollar homes and driving a brand new Mercedes every year.

John

At Geneseo I made sure to watch out for the warbirds in case some idiot descided to go break something on them. The most I saw was someone trying to stick there entire finger in the cannon barrel of Mr. Bill Greenwoods Spitfire! When he plainly had a sign out that said don't touch! Thankfully that was the worst that I saw those days. But still, it makes my blood boil.

-Nate

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Shop the Airplane Bunker At
www.warbirdbunker.com

There's a large number of people that can't be troubled to read signs that say "Do not touch", "Keep off", or "please don't let your little 'old enough to know better' rugrat climb out of the open radio room blister in our B-17" (ok, so i made that last sign up, though we could have used it this weekend ) what makes you think they'll read signs detailing the costs of ownership and operation?

The best approach is to just by polite and correct when explaining things to people. I can't begin to tell you how people's jaws dropped this past weekend when I told them how our B-25 burns just over a gallon of gas per minute per engine. Or how we have to figure in maintenance in our operating cost per hour, just like when the IRS lets you bill your mileage at work at $0.485 cents per hour. The four dollars they spent to tour the plane, or even the four hundred they may spend on a ride, start to look so much more palatable when you explain to them what involved.

Those who want to learn, and want to help, will. Those who want to go on willfully ignorant? Well, they can do that too. Ain't America grand?

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

Nathan,
I must have seen the same person in Loveland Colorado messing with Bill's Spitfire.

When you yell at them to read the sign, they ask if you are the owner.
When you say no, they stop touching and tell you to get bent.
Five sec later, they are touching the plane again.
My 5 year old has more sense than that.

They just can't read I guess. ...Someday the finger will get stuck, or worse Bill will catch them.

Talk about Blood Boil.

I have a least one person come up to my AD5 and ask me if it's a corsair at every airshow.

Every other airshow, or so, I have someone ask me how "I got it there".

At Jackson, MI, last weekend, I had some guy come up and point out the TBM parked next to me, which has George Bush painted on the side.

Him: " You see that airplane over there with Lt. George Bush painted on it?"
Me: Yes, it's a TBM Avenger.
Him: It's a shame he wasn't killed in it, then we wouldn't have to be dealing with his jackass son now.
Me: The same could be said of your father.

The crowd of about 15 people who heard every word of this exchange, roared with laughter.

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Eric

"I spent most of my money on alcohol, women and skyraiders....and the rest of it I just wasted."

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Gosh, if only there was some sort of medium which people could use to seek out information about events, both locally and nationally. And perhaps, just perhaps, event organizers could use the VERY SAME medium to reach out to those who are looking for information, creating a "web" of information that reached people on a national level, heck even World Wide! Perhaps computers could aide in this endevour?

(your rant has triggered one of my own. Same principle; the uninformed.)

Of all the airshows we've booked this year, few if any have actually told us about their show's web site. Anything listed here http://yankeeairmuseum.org/aircraft/schedule.shtml was usually found by my partner or I as we went digging to see if anyplace we were headed to had useful information on the web. Just like we did last year and the year before. I'm still surprised at how many places don't have anything at all.

Random tidbit of useless information: Between July 1st and July 6th, over 30,000 people visited yankeeairmuseum.org. That six day period was busier than any other two months this year combined. Total cost to reach those people: 'bout 40 bucks. Normally it's $15, but we went well over our monthly bandwidth bill. That works out to $0.0013 per visitor.

For next season I'm putting together a media kit that will go out with all of our contracts consisting of a CD with images other sites can use, and instructions for how to link back to us, information on our aircraft and the museum, how to use the images on the CD, etc. Maybe then people might actually take some notice that this whole "web" thing might help them promote their shows.[/quote]



I'd like to think that more people would use the web to inform / edjumicate themselves. However, I fear that there are a lot more out there that are too stupid or scared to use this tool. For example, my own parents bought a new computer largely to get connected to the web. My mother heard one too many news stories about getting your financial information swiped and put the kabosh on that.....My logic that you have to actually put your financial information on the PC before it can be stolen was apparently lost on her.

Eric,
Your Corsair comment is too funny. You see, my sister lives within spitting distance of the Jackson airport. She called me and was trying to describe the aircraft that she saw. She said there were a couple of Corsairs there. I was proud of her, I figured that my superior tutoring skills were being put to good use....until she said that she knew they were Corsairs because they were blue

Hope you had a good time and were treated well.

Way to go!

Why is it that people in the warbird community get so little respect from the reqular population? Heck, I used to get picked on in school becasue I liked airplanes.

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Shop the Airplane Bunker At
www.warbirdbunker.com

The comments here have given me the giggles as I have experienced so much of the same......how did you get it here...D'oH........did ya truck it in????

My favorite which has occurred several times after performing......"I really enjoyed seeing you fly that helicopter".......huuuuuuhhhhhhh Yeah that black and red helicopter.......no it's a twin engine airplane with the engines in odd places.......no no that helicopter you were flying........ok fine so you say

Of course then we have the gender bias. as I'm standing by the plane...."where's the pilot who brought this in?" "I'm the pilot" "No way you can be the pilot...where's your husband, is he the pilot?" I don't have a husband; I'm the pilot and the owner" "There's no way that could be" "Why?" "Because you're a girl...no way that plane belongs to you or you could fly it" <macho man stomps off angrily> Ok fine so you say

Stand your ground LadyO2Pilot! We have a lady T-28 pilot at Chino every year and had a Lady F-18 pilot a couple of years back.

Lady02pilot wrote:



You mean they let girls fly airplanes? With 2 engines no less? How ever do you manage?

But seriously, are you going to Midland again this year? Rick's bringing his Spad, I'm bringing mine and Eric Van Hoff assures me that there will be at least one more this year. I hope to spend a little more time on the planning of the Vietnam portion of the show.

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Eric

"I spent most of my money on alcohol, women and skyraiders....and the rest of it I just wasted."

I worked the gate at the Stinson Airsho in San Antonio, Texas with Ober one year and I had a family walk up and say that. Being a 501C3 show and asking for donations at the gate, we have to let them in, but I had a chance to tell him a few things about him to him

Lynn