Sharing or showing off?

[hydroguy2]

Last week I was on tap to do a Show & Tell for the Montana Pilots Association, but the weather was changing and looked like the plane may get stuck for a few days away from home, so I canceled. I felt bad as several people came specifically to see Aurora.
Yesterday the weather looked good for a little more phase 1. I figured I would go to KHLN and call one of the guys who missed out last week. I parked at Vetter Aviation..... is it just me or have courtesy cars gotten nicer.

I called Karl K who is building a RV-7A(canoe stage). He said he was unable to come down as he was busy with students. Turns out he is an A&P instructor at U of M-Helena College of Technology.
I said, if I taxi to the west end can you sneak away? He said, come on down pull up between the T hangars and you can show it to my whole class.

They were in the middle of a big hangar clean up and re organization but managed to pry themselves away. Karl liked the motivational boost. The 20 or so students had a lot of Q & A. I think it gave them a treat from the normal school curriculum and gave them a positive experience of Experimental aviation. I noticed several snapping pics on their phones.


Anyway it's fun to show off....I mean share. Although I needed to clean some drool when I got back.

[Brantel]

Showing off definately....

Go ahead, you earned it!!

How fast? How high? How much? How long? You really built that? Did you fly it out of your driveway? How did you get it out of the house? Do you have your pilot's license? How many people will that carry? Do you need a flight plan to fly that? Does someone have to inspect that before you fly it? You know John Denver died in a homemade airplane, that thing is gonna kill you! How many horsepower does that voltswagon engine have?

[hydroguy2]

haha....luckily, these were A&P students so the questions were mostly technical in nature. It was fun.

[frankh]

While I hate the thought of anyome meeting their premature death..I often wish JD had used a different method!

[N8RV]

One comment I seem to hear a lot is, "Wow ... that looks as good as a factory plane."

I try to not be offended by that comment, as I know it was generally intended as a compliment. Those of us who have built planes -- or even walked the rows at Oshkosh for a few years -- know better.

*sigh*