Well good evening all...

What is he up to now you ask...pictures and posts bring back memories, good and not so good for many of us.

For me, most of my five decades plus of aviating have been on the good side of the slide rule.

I take for example Larry's "Patchz" post in the Payware Section here.  " Through the baggage cart".

Larry I hope you don't mind.   

I replied to that post that I wish I had a dime everytime I sat on one of those carts after a flight, smoked my pipe and watched the ground crew unload and put the old girl to bed.

Sometimes it was a turn around, load and unload, another crew or maybe my crew and I would climb back in.

I am wondering what happened to those day's when we could sit on the Flight Line and have a smoke, enjoy the accomplishment of a finished flight or mission.

I am wondering what happened to the day we could casually mention to the Chief Pilot or Operations Manager we were going to take our children or our neighbours children out to the aircraft for a walk around.  To let the children, their parents perhaps sit in the cockpit and answer all the questions they had.
Twenty minutes, a hour perhaps, who cared as long as the aircraft was not going anywhere or prepped for a flight.

What happened to the day when we could take someone along for a flight in the cockpit?

What happened to the day we could take the children up to the Control Tower, by gosh it was a learning experience for them and I never met one Air Traffic Controller who refused me.

Have we let Insurance Companies, Federal Government Agencies and Terrorists take that much control over us?  Yes we have! 
Is there an answer?
Sure there is, it is called Common Sense.

I think there is hope for us yet because here in Canada we can still go to a Bugsmasher Airfield and watch a father or mother with their children lay on the grass under the wing of an aircraft and watch the white puffy wuffies go by.  They can sit outside a hangar at a picnic table, in a lawn chair and feel comfortable about joining into conversation with aviators they may never have met before.

I have seen young lads come down to the docks where the float aircraft were docked.  The pilots, dock or gas boys did not chase them away. Of course not, we were all curious kids ourselves at one time or another.

The child who rides their bicycle to the airport and sits on the seat with the bike against the fence.  I have seen at some bugsmasher fields the child being invited into the club house by at least two members, given a pop, bag of chips and allowed to sit amongst the members.  Answer their questions and ask them questions, make them feel comfortable.  We might be looking at another potential aviator you know.   
Is there anything wrong with that, of course not as long as there is more than one adult club member present.

Recreational Flying and General Aviation should not be dieing in any country, if anything it should prosper and grow.

Just some thoughts I had when I saw that picture.   

Cheers...Happy Landings...Doug

The little airfield where I work is almost like what you describe. We don't get too many visitors, but we are always happy to answer questions and talk with people when they do drop by. That place is almost like a little piece of the past just holding on, but when you are there, you get the feeling that it will never be gone. I sincerely hope that it stays that way for ever.

Flying Trucker wrote on Aug 3^rd, 2010 at 9:37pm:

I don't know how long it can last but there are still a few airfields in this country where you can do that. This is one of those rare places.  http://www.popham-airfield.co.uk/