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Re: Oshkosh rumor time

Posted by Tim Savage on Thu Jun 19, 2003 12:23:47 PM

In reply top Re: Oshkosh rumor time posted by Ken on Thu Jun 19, 2003 11:09:47 AM

: Judging is a subjective endeavor. Human nature is always
: at play whenever humans engage in subjective endeavors. I
: have visited with several individuals and restoration sho
: ps and they are to the man surprised when someone other th
: an Kermit wins the big prize at Oshkosh. Kermit has done
: so much for the EAA and for warbirds in general. It appear
: s to me and others, all certainly more knowlegable than me
: , that he has a leg up in the judging, maybe because of wh
: at he has done for the industry as a whole. He has certain
: ly earned the respect of the warbird community and maybe i
: t is right that it is assumed that he will always bring th
: e best airplane every year. This is just my personal obse
: rvation and opinion and no sour grapes are involved. I ha
: ve no intimate knowledge of the judging at Oshkosh other t
: han looking at the results. I am just a fan.

There is a common misconception that the warbird judging at OSH is political. I was a judge for over 10 years, I stopped in 2000 because it is frankly a whole lot of work that takes most of each day.

I can saw without question that during the time that I was judging politics had nothing to do with how the awards were passed out, it has to do with the quality of the restoration. Kermit wins a lot of trophies, but he deserves to, he has the resources to inject into his restorations to make them top notch in every respect. Given that, however, Kermit has not won the top prize every time he has entered an airplane. Case and point the FM-2 from some years back. Kermit doesn't have a leg up in the judging because of politics because the judges a generally not connected to the leadership of WoA or the EAA, they are for the most part just regular guys who love airplanes and either have past restoration experience or have a knowledge of the authenticity side.

I would say that it is true that in a given year, if Kermit brings a fresh restoration to OSH, he has a pretty good chance of winning..but only because of the quality of the work, not because of who he is. Actually, it may be that Kermit's airplanes are looked at with a higher standard than other aircraft because of his past track record of winning awards...he may actually be subconsciously at a disadvantage in some judge's minds.

I think if you talked to most of the people who have won an award at OSH they will tell you that they feel the process is fair. Maybe you have been talking to people who have sour grapes because they haven't won an award. I have heard from a couple people over the years who felt they should have won an award in a given year...but the point remains, even though they may have spent a lot of money, there was an airplane that was better on the field.

As for people being surprised when someone else wins the major awards, I have to ask why? Kermit has won Grand Champion maybe three times in the last decade for the B-25, P-51C and P-51D, but I can't think of any more. During that same period, you had Butch Shroeder P-51D, Ed Shipley P-51D, Cavanaugh B-25, Borman P-63, Danny Summers TBM, Dick James T-6G,and Ken Wagnon's P-51D among others.

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