I'm a bit hesitant...

[Mudge]

Have to give my IMHO,

Everyone complains. Plus the guy could have had a bad day. Do we really have to chew the guy out for that?

Sorry Mudge

Nathan(the forward)

What part of my post did you interpret as "chewing out"? If I'd have chewed him out, you'd have been witness to an ugly scene right there at the front of the dinner line. I merely pointed out, what I considered, inappropriate behavior from someone in his position.

Mudge the gnosher

[Nathan]

Have to give my IMHO,

Everyone complains. Plus the guy could have had a bad day. Do we really have to chew the guy out for that?

Sorry Mudge

Nathan(the forward)

What part of my post did you interpret as "chewing out"? If I'd have chewed him out, you'd have been witness to an ugly scene right there at the front of the dinner line. I merely pointed out, what I considered, inappropriate behavior from someone in his position.

Mudge the gnosher

I saw a couple walk out of a porty john at the same time! Now that was inappropriate!

[michaelharadon]

I saw a couple walk out of a porty john at the same time! Now that was inappropriate!

Not to them it wasn't.

[Mudge]

Have to give my IMHO,

Everyone complains. Plus the guy could have had a bad day. Do we really have to chew the guy out for that?

Sorry Mudge

Nathan(the forward)

What part of my post did you interpret as "chewing out"? If I'd have chewed him out, you'd have been witness to an ugly scene right there at the front of the dinner line. I merely pointed out, what I considered, inappropriate behavior from someone in his position.

Mudge the gnosher

I saw a couple walk out of a porty john at the same time! Now that was inappropriate!

Yes, that has a possibility of being inappropriate, however, you didn't answer my question.

Mudge the insistent

[Ken]

I don't often agree with Nathan, but I do in this instance. This thread has been a cyber-chew-out of a guy for some comments he made. I don't think that was your intent, but that has been the result. Bottom line, we don't know who it was or the reasons behind his comment(s).

Now Mudge, I've never known you to tell a tall tale, so I belive you heard what you heard, no problem there. Whether the guy is a flaming a-hole 24/7 or you simply caught him in an unfortunate moment, we will probably never know. But the bulk of the commentary here has been geared towards "guilty until proven innocent."

Temp here is currently 117F.

Ken the Equitable

[whistlingdeath77]

i think the real pilots who were in the pacific during ww2 getting shot at are the real men who are allowed to whine if they wanted too about the hot air

[Ryan Keough]

For what it's worth, I can see both sides of this story as I have been on both of them at one point or another in my life. I think, all things considered, Geneseo really does a great job to keep pilots and crews comfortable within reason. Keeping in mind that the show is held out in the middle of a hayfield without electrical power, so air conditioning isn't really possible, the ample crew tent makes keeping the sun away easy -- plus the grass, opposed to tarmac, reflects the heat instead of retaining it. Also, the lack of permanent toilets may be an inconvenience to some, but there is a dedicated pair of low-use porta potties inside the crew area for their use. The hospitality crew keeps drinks, snacks and lunch laid out in there all day long and there are plenty of golf carts, 4-wheelers, and other ground transportation staffed by happy volunteers that are willing and able to get crews out to and back from their plane... all they need to do is ask! Even the off-site accommodations are better than before... in the old days EVERY airshow pilot, crewmember and the like slept in the rather spartan college dormitories (again without air conditioning) while the more recent shows have most of the crews staying at the local Quality Inn up the street. And yeah, the chicken roast on Friday and steak roast on Saturday can be a bit long in the tooth in terms of a line, but it goes pretty fast and I can't recall ANY airshow crew dinner where I didn't have to do the same. Sure, the T-Birds and Blues might have their own "line" as required in their contract, but they really don't belong at Geneseo anyway. Compared to the old days of the show, I'd say today's pilot guests have it pretty good.

That said, there are surely circumstances that may have easily contributed to the pucker that the person in question was dishing out with his sour grapes. I know that all shows suffer from their share of hiccups and management issues as the day goes along. Perhaps this pilot had his scheduled slot scrubbed after they'd already started (this happened at least twice that day), or perhaps there were some technical hiccups with his/her airplane that chafed them enough to get an attitude. Maybe they didn't get their fuel because the truck broke down... or maybe they are still suffering from a late night at Club 41 and their lack of forethought to eat all day has made them irritable. There's a multitude of reasons why a person might have a bee in their bonnet and sometimes the cumulative effect can take a pilot who is normally honored to fly their choice mount and turn them into a first-class P.I.T.A. grump. You can't please everyone all the time and we are all only human after all.

To most of us... enthusiasts, pilots, owners, mechanics alike... we may stand back and call out "prima donna", but I know everyone has their breaking point. If you think about it, even the most potentially positive events can be ruined when you get jerked around enough. It's all a matter of frame-of-reference.

I know that I was somewhat cranky and sullen at the airshow, but that wasn't because I wasn't glad to be there... I was tickled to be there and enjoyed the time with friends and airplanes. The cranky and sullen came from what came before and in the days after the show... completely isolated from it. To a casual observer, I may have looked like an arrogant prick or an unfriendly dope... more than what I usually am (grin), but it was all the other stuff up there in my brain bucket... not the show at all!

I dunno, perhaps I was one of the curmudgeons that Mudge witnessed... thus explaining why he didn't come over and say hi! We WERE asking if you were planning to come Mr. Mudge... and I am really surprised we didn't spot you at all! Next year, we need to distribute radio tags to WIXers so we can find them!

Ryan the Curmudgeon in Training.

[Rauhbatz]

Hey Mudge...should have mentioned to the complainer to check his GPS....it should show Geneseo and not Augusta during Masters week....being in a grass field that resembles 1944 is a big part of why we go with our a/c and we recognize the great job the entiire Geneseo team does.

Besides, I always tuck a Cliff bar in to the flight suit to carry me over in situations like this...

[Mudge]

Ryan...interesting ppst. A bit more insight than a lot of us have.

Mudge the insightful

ps...I don't believe ANY of us have EVER thought of you as arrogant.

[Randy Haskin]

a pilot who is normally honored to fly their choice mount

I guess I'm missing the part where being the pilot of a warbird means that you have to treat the very fact that you have the opportunity to do such a thing with the highest reverence.

Exactly why is it that they're not allowed to bitch about certain aspects of it? Are they supposed to be so "honored" all the time to have such an opportunity that they must always act in an altruistic way?

I get the same thing from people who think that I have no valid reason to ever bitch about what I do at work because they think that being a military pilot would be the 'coolest job evar'. It's a job, people. I bitch about my job just as much as you bitch about yours. It's entirely unrealistic to think that I have to 'check myself' every time I have an impure thought simply because I should be thankful just to be in the position I'm in. Sorry, but that's not how it works. Things look one way from the outside, and may look entirely different from the inside.

I'm sure the people that are in EVERY position that looks pretty awesome from the outside feel the same way. The President thinks his job sucks at times, too...as does the CEO of your company. As does the rock star, the minister, the pro athlete, and the porrnn star. There isn't any job or position that has such high reverence that the individual who occupies that position loses the right to comment/criticize/complain about the requirements of that position.

With respect to the other point, I personally can't stand the "I'm special because I fly" people...those guys can get bent if they think that they are above waiting in line at a restaurant because they fly a particular type of airplane. But, on the same token, there's no reason why they should be chastised for complaining about what they've been doing.

[JDK]

Some interesting points, overall, and thanks to Mudge for bringing it to our attention - un-ascribed, you can take it as a lesson in the effect a bad moment can have.

Two things I'd take from this.

Firstly Bill's timely reminder that flying in a show is a concentrated and demanding task, whether it's also fun or not, and requires the pilot and crew to be in the right mind space - otherwise the consequences can be very bad to the detriment of lives as well as the show. They need certain stuff others might think of as 'pampering'*.

Secondly something that does not seem to have been made explicit, but is touched on latterly by Randy's post, and that's professionalism. Randy's quite right that we all bitch about our jobs at times, but what he didn't say, but does do, is know there are places that you keep the lid on - because you are representing your team or organisation to a wider, public group. A good let-off steam is fine in the crew room or in private, it's not in public, which is why Mudge's original post is pertinent.

Wrong place. So some of us wonder which organisation has a pilot who is that unprofessional, and if the boss of that organisation would be impressed at having that reflect on his or her effort.

Yes, I've got it wrong before - but I've been hit with sanctions for it too. And quite right. Maintains standards.

Randy makes no distinction between jobs, so taking that lead - I trained many retail shop staff over the years. The rule was "Don't lose it on the shop floor, because you could likely get canned. Do it in the staffroom, where anything goes and it's OK". If poorly paid shop staff can do it...

Regards,

(*The babes** and cocktails are not included in that though. No, really, not.

**Himbos for our female crews, and they're not included either. Bring your own Brad Pitt, girls. )

[IndyJen]

What James said, right there.

Excellent summation of How to Behave Like a Pro.