WIX Archives
What airport do you hang out at????
Posted by bdk on Sun Mar 10, 2002 03:21:02 AM
In reply top Them & Us posted by Mick on Sat Mar 09, 2002 02:08:39 PM
Mick,
I think that you may want to reassess your position on this. You seem to divorce the warbird owner from the enthusiast. I think that you'll find that every well known warbird collector, owner, and pilot, from Stephen Grey to Steve Hinton, started with model airplanes and reading books just the way you and I did. They are just as much, if not more of an enthusiast than you and I are. Some have devoted their fortune (and some, given their life- literally) to this hobby for the benefit of you and I.
Being first an enthusiast (since high school), then a museum volunteer (since 1982), and finally a tenant at Chino airport with my own aircraft (since 1986), I have seen all kinds of warbird owners. Some were very wealthy, many were not. I paid $7000 for my Luscombe in 1986. That probably sounds inexpensive, but for a recently graduated aerospace engineer back then (net income $333 per week), it was a large sum of money. In fact, I borrowed the entire amount with an unsecured (signature) loan from the local bank at 17% interest. This is where I started to build taildragger time. Five airplanes later, I am working (slowly) on a T-6 project, and have over a hundred hours of Stearman time. Maybe some day I'll have traded up to a Mustang project, hopefully before I die a bitter old man.
People are people, whether they own a warbird, a classic Ferrari, or a brand new BMW. Some are snobs and want you to be impressed by their material possessions, others want you to be impressed by their macho piloting skills. Some are only interested in their machines, and just want to be left alone. Others only have limited time for their hobbies and don't want to be bothered by a bunch of knuckleheads telling them how the paint on their plane is the wrong shade of blue (or how their website has an error on it or hasn't been updated in a timely enough fashion to suit others). Yet other owners hang around the airport for hours after a flight and offer every visitor a beer when they walk in the hangar.
When you become an owner, how will you treat the lookie-loos? I'm careful and tend to deter strangers out of concern for theft and the fact that my hangar is a mess (I'm embarassed). Sometimes it takes more effort to train a volunteer to do something than it would take to do it yourself. I have had volunteers tear things apart, and then vanish, leaving me to figure out where everything went and how to put it back together (with some of my tools missing or lost to boot...). Maybe I should let someone kiss my ass long enough to satisfy me that they have sufficient commitment to not leave me high and dry later and/or rip me off? Or do I just keep the hangar shut and hide my project from all the critics that ask me why I haven't finished my T-6 project yet?
It's my money. I'll decide what color to paint it, where to fly it, and who I'll let sit in it. Just like you do with your own car, motorcycle, tricycle, or whatever. Maybe if you befriend me, I'll even tell you what the original serial number was before I switched data plates!
The only money I've ever seen a warbird owner in the US make from their plane was either through appreciation or movie work. Warbird owners (in the US) don't generally make money going to airshows, since airshows usually only provide fuel (and maybe a motel room and a rental car for an overnight stay). Oshkosh generally pays nothing, for instance. That Merlin doesn't come cheap, insurance doesn't come cheap, the annual inspection doesn't come cheap, personal property taxes may need to be paid, and nobody pays for those things but the owner. Fuel is one of the minor expenses for owning and operating a warbird- so yes, YOU don't pay them enough.
One thing I have learned over the years is that you have to look at things from other people's point of view. I am personally insulted that you have made this generalization about warbird owners. I am in this hobby for my own personal gain, otherwise I would be doing something else with my time and money. Time I spend away from MY family, and money I spend on MY hobby rather than on MY family. Maybe that personal gain serves a greater public purpose (in my opinion), maybe not. If the result of that endeavor happens to suit you, so be it. I have everything to lose (my money, my life, my marriage) if I don't do everythin exactly right. If it doesn't suit you, "shut up and get back into your hole!"
Perhaps the more appropriate thing to do rather than whine about your "poor treatment" is to get your act together and become a warbird owner. Than you can treat people in the manner you feel they should be treated. With enough "Micks" out there, the warbird community is sure to be a better place! :-)
I have provided my e-mail address if you wish to discuss this further on a more personal level. I will not hide behind an alias.
Brandon
: The Average Warbird Owner:-
:
: If you are a warbird owner you can say what you like and y
: our opinions are Gospel and should be taken as such withou
: t question, you should also receive a regular rim-job as i
: s your right as a person who is considerably richer than t
: he average pleb. Warbird owners, and NO-ONE else, are the
: be-all and end-all when it comes to deciding historical ac
: curacy, or not. Warbird owners are happy to talk to the lo
: wly enthusiast if we can help them with free volunteer lab
: our, some warbird owners will recquire a regular blow-job
: though to keep them happy.
:
:
: The Average Enthusiast:-
:
: If you are an enthusiast without money you cannot say anyt
: hing and your opinion means absolutely nothing anyway, you
: should also receive a regular tongue-lashing from your be
: tters (warbird owners) when you get a bit too near the tru
: th. The average enthusiast knows absolutely nothing about
: what is historically accurate and what is not, so for your
: own sake just don't bother saying anything at all. What l
: ittle money we pay to warbird owners for the priviledge of
: viewing their aircraft is not appreciated, we just don't
: pay enough.
:
: Go ahead, slap me down and tell me I'm wrong.........I'm f
: inding it very tedious listening to the Average Warbird ow
: ner telling the Average Enthusiast to shut up and get back
: in their holes.......