----[Please read http://ercoupers.com/disclaimer.htm before following any advice in this forum.]----
Once upon a time I was based at a grass
strip that was bought from the owner by the park board to turn into soccer
fields. This was a small field with about a dozen guys flying experiments,
ultra lights and C150 and my Ercoupe. It was built in a flood plain where most
people could not get a permit now to build anything on. This was next to a
large existing park. We went to the park board with a plan and drawings showing
how they could have soccer fields and an airfield. This is a large park with
trails, golf course and all sorts of things that people could then fly in to
do. What we were told by the park board in these exact words was that “kids
and airplanes do not mix”. They told us that they did not want arms and
legs cut off by propellers and that was most certainly going to happen anytime
a kids gets anywhere near an airplane. After we picked ours jaws off the floor
we the suggested that we could keep the airport private and if need be we would
not fly when the kids were present. I go by this multimillion dollar complex
quit often in the six or seven years since this and have seen kids on it a half
dozen times. Usually it is empty except for the built in sprinklers running. We
also made it clear that, unlike the private soccer club that was going to be
using the field, we would be paying rent and therefore create some income for
the park. Then we were told that “we don’t need your money, we have
plenty of tax money to spend”. That money came from the last park levy I
voted for. It is the last park levy I and most pilots on the west side of town
will ever vote for. Call me an ass but If I live to be a hundred and move to
six different cities I will never ever vote for a park tax levy again. What was
really sad is that one of the park board members with some of the stupid
remarks had a pilot’s license. How do you convince a board of something
that has a member like that?
Kevin
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Thursday, March 17, 2005
8:16 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: [COUPERS-FLYIN] Re:
Digest list: Ercoupe Hangar Flying
----[Please read http://ercoupers.com/disclaimer.htm before following any advice in this forum.]---- Wow! What an interesting series of discussions and food for thought on why young people don't fly!
I was first exposed to airplanes at the tender age of 11 when I started washing them for two bucks a pop at Morgantown, WV's airport (now Hart Field). There is a key to this discussion in what I just wrote: I was 11 and I was allowed to hang around the airport and do pickup jobs that allowed me to get to know the surface of an airplane as intimately as possible for someone that age. Can you do that now?
Many medium to large airports today are shut off to young people who want to learn. Unless you come with cash in hand, you are not going to get close to something that makes your eyes sparkle and heart beat faster. We keep our airplanes tucked back in their hangars, out of touch and out of sight. Maybe we need to "advertise" more.
I've lamented this change for years..it's tragic that a kid can't get close.
Of course, it may be that things have changed a lot in other ways: many of us "old farts" came from the WW2 period, which had airplanes with propellers. Big, muscular machines that smelled like oil and gasoline. Think of the contrast offered by today's corporate aircraft..the kind we see most on the flight line. Sleek, horribly expensive, businesslike, inaccessible to all but the rich..and frankly, dull. When flight is common, what's the attraction? Not to put too fine a point on it, but our kind of airplanes are the attraction, Ercoupes or Cessnas or whatnot. What we have to do is find a way to make them accessible..and in this day of supersecurity, that's a real trick. Jeez, it sounds like I wrote an editorial. Sorry about that. But let's talk about this a lot more.
Jim
Jim Slade????
1 304 292 2466
1 304 685 9386 (Cell)
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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