Warbird Information Exchange

How about the punters who insist they know MUCH more than you do about the aircraft?
I got into it with some halfwit while *babysitting* a B25 many years ago. He was absolutely sure, to the point of betting his life on it, that it was in fact not a B25 at all, but an Abermarle. I came close to taking him up on his bet... I had to go inside the aircraft & fetch the pilots notes to shut him up.
At that point in my life I'd first heard of an Abermarle one week before.. when someone else asked me "Is this an Abermarle?"
Those are the only 2 times I've ever heard anyone mention an Abermarle in 47 years.. & they happened a week apart..

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Those who possess real knowledge are rare.

Those who can set that knowledge into motion in the physical world are rarer still.

The few who possess real knowledge and can set it into motion of their own hands are the rarest of all.

Not having the knowledge to ask super-detailed questions myself, I'll ask a general question.

Have you ever asked the questioners why they want that specific piece of information?

Cheers,

Brett

Thanks to JDK, ASTIXJR and DAN JOHNSON II,

The information and comments you provided are very helpful. To be sure, the couple of times this has happened in the last 3 years is the exception to rule. I have met many of the people on this site at various airshows and have spent hours involved in some very detailed conversation/question interactions. However, the times when this whole, component and serial number request came up it became quite contensious when I declined to provide the info.

Background is as follows. When I first got the Skyraider it had been sitting, flown very little in the couple of years prior to my purchase. When I went to the Red Wing MN airshow, the carb failed and it had to be overhauled. The aircraft ended up sitting in a hangar at Red Wing for a few weeks, while I had the carb overhauled. I also decided to overhaul every accessory on the aircraft shortly after that, rather than wait for one at a time failures or leaks, seeps, etc. The process that I decided to use to do this was to find a serviceable core or yellow tagged accessory item and then have it gone through or yellow tagged as necessary, and then put it on the aircraft and have the item from the aircraft overhauled and put "on the shelf" as a spare. When I say all accessory items, I mean all, it hasn't been cheap, but we haven't missed a show for mait in 2 years.

Anyway, this lead to the following. Guy comes up and asks me what failed when I was at Red Wing (2 years ago) and I told him. He asked what we did to fix the problem, I told him and he asked if the carb was removed and overhauled and the same one was replaced. I said yes on the carb, but explained the process detailed above about the rest of the accessory items (big mistake in this conversation). He then asked me the carb type and model #, which I provided. He then asked for the CARB SERIAL # and asked in a very condesending manner, if I "planned to put the real accessories" back on the aircraft in the future, and did I have the Serial # info for the items I had on the aircraft and the "correct" items I had on the shelf. As this point I aked him why he wanted this info and he told me he uses this info "to track the authenticity" of various aircraft. At this time I politely attempted to chew my arm off and get away from this idiot. (If it was you ,Mike, sorry for the idiot comment, but I didn't catch the guys name).

I won't bore you with the details of the second encounter, but a guy called the airport and left me several messages about coming by to get info about the airplanes. I called him back and he told me he wanted to come by and look the airplanes at the hangar. I said fine, he then asked if there was a time that would be convienient, that they would all be uncowled, I let him know that that almost never happens at the same time. He seemed annoyed but said he would come by "anyway". I travel for work, 4 days a week, but have a full time mechanic, so I set up a time that he could come to the hangar while I was gone. Guy shows up, tells Dave (my mechanic) that the airplanes are all susposed to be un cowled and that he will just look through the items in our parts room, while Dave uncowls the airplanes. Dave calls me, I talk to the guy, who says he wants to write down the "detailed info" about the components on the airplanes and there is no way to get to it with the airplanes cowled up. I decline, and he tells me that " the least I can do is let him write down the info from all of the yellow tag shelf stuff". I tell him this isn't going to work out and have Dave show him out. (Sorry if that was you, Mike, but I wasn't properly introduced to this guy either).

So, as you can see, this isn't about stupid questions at airshows. 99% of the people and their questions (good or bad) are fine. It's just the idiots who want info they have no business asking for or want to ramble on about making lists of questions that should be allowed that I have no use for.

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Eric

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

Geez-A-Loo...............That musta hurt

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Don't touch my junk!!

Eric what you described allmost sounds like somebody is trying to track down some stolen components. Although no longer active (Air Showing), I have responded to my share of strange questions & inquires concerning Warbirds, but I never heard of anything like this. If someone had enough knowledge about the different configurations that an aircraft could equipped, then curious about component model numbers I could understand, but part numbers & serial numbers, I never heard no crap like that. I don't believe I would provide that info no matter how bad this cat wanted to be an expert on authenticity. My luck the FAA would show up & tell me they got a tip I got unapproved parts installed for my s/n/model aircraft/engine.
Just my 2 cents.
Robbie

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Fly Fast Make Noise!

ED,

So it has happened just the twice in the last three years.

Life's a Bitch...

PeterA

Sounds to me like Day's a Revenuer Man shoot's Um all!

Steve

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"Any excuse is good enough if you're willing to use it!"

Eric,
Sorry about that. I definitely didn't catch what you were writing and apologize. I'm real glad to hear you know your airplane well. I actually had a customer call me one time and tell me explicitly that he was not allowed to know what went on his airplane, and that I should quit asking him what his mechanic recommended because he didn't care. He wanted me to just tell him that the part was right and nothing else. I am shuddering right now just thinking about that.
The stories make it clearer. Those guys would have been shown the door at about the same time by me as well. I can only speculate that they were looking for information about parts they had on their shelves, or playing FAA for whatever reason. Seems to me the only time you ever need a part serial number is for traceability in an installation or for an AD check. But those guys were there for reasons other than those, so why were they doing that? That is confusing. Does the FAA do investigations like that? In the two experiences I had, when somebody called 1-800-GET-EVEN, the FAA showed up and looked at log books extensively with only a cursory investigation of the airplane. The more I think about it, the more I think it was very weird and worth mentioning in a casual fashion to your FSDO.
However, I am definitely a person who likes to talk parts with some one who remembers them or has a IPM handy, but only when the proper occasion comes up and certainly not when it interferes with actual work or flight. I still have a lot to learn and this is my primary mechanism for acquiring knowledge about vintage airframes.

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REMEMBER THE SERGEANT PILOTS!

Forgotten Field wrote:



Certainly no need to apologize. I read your response post a couple of times and at first thought it was focused on a potential lack of knowledge about the aircraft on my part, but I realized that if I had provided all the detail in the first post it would have been easier to understand where I was coming from on this issue. I know you are in the parts biz (well, at least I think you are) and if you asked detailed questions about specific parts, it would make sense to me what your motivation might be. This serves a very important need in the warbird community and I benefit from that like everyone else.

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Eric

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

PS: Some of you guys need to lighten up...if you were in Eric's shoes you'd probably be just as annoyed.

-Pat

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Trust me, I know what I'm doing.

Ah, ... so not a general problem but rather one particular individual.

If he had a legitimate reason for requiring the nformation then you can advise him that a properly authorised search warrant, executed by the appropriate law enforcement authorities, will garner the information he requires.

You might even contact said law enforcement authorities on his behalf...

Cheers,

Brett

Alright people, keep it civil. I've edited some posts due to NOT SO THINLY VEILED comments that border on the personal attack level. Those will not be tolerated and will be deleted. And guess what, I decide what is unacceptable.

Lets lets all play nice and I'll leave this post in the hanger.

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Scott Rose
Editor-In-Chief/Webmaster
Warbirds Resource Group - Warbird Information Exchange - Warbird Registry

Be civil, be polite, be nice.... or be elsewhere.
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OK, in a nicer way.

Mike Furline wrote:



I doubt having any of us that own several of these aircraft stop going to airshows would be in anybodys interest, mine or anyone elses.



No need to make a list, I answer any (polite) question, about any topic, as long as I don't have to get logbooks out to do it (read serial # crap).

I don't think this response was very constructive, but it would be cool to be Knighted, however, I thought there was only one person who could do that. Guess you never know who might be behind a screen name.


And yes Scott, this is just a good natured joke. No need to send me back to "the hole:.

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Eric

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

Scott wrote "I decide"! Hey, that would make you The Decider, I thought someone else had already claimed that title!!!!!!!!!!

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Bill Greenwood
Spitfire N308WK

My feelings are hurt! Hey, I leave the Wix site for a few days of the real world and come back to find someone else has become the favorite target of attack, How soon they forget you!

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Bill Greenwood
Spitfire N308WK