Category: Philosophy

Builders:

Here is the best story I have about how the self-exciting ‘drama’ aspect of internet discussion groups work, It actually happened on the Corvaircraft discussion group ten years ago:

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A guy, who had met me in person a number of times, who is a fixture on the Corvaircraft list, gets on the list and says he just looked at his Conversion manual, and evidently I left out pages 113-114 and 115-116 when I mailed it to him. (At the time, I was still allowed on that list), but he doesn’t ask me, he sends the question out to the 750 people on the discussion group.

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Within minutes he gets a reply from another guy with one of my manuals, who says he just checked, and his manual is also missing these same pages.

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Third guy writes back, and notes that his manual is also missing the same pages. He adds a comment that ‘WW really should do better on printing’

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In the next hour, a total of eleven people write in to say they also have checked their manuals, and they also have missing pages 113-116. This starts an avalanche of comments. The first ones are about poor printing control, but within a few posts it turning into righteous indignation, a half dozen commenters piling on, including comments like “Someone could have been killed by things that WW left out, he certainly owes us all an explanation and an apology.”

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What actually happened? Every single one of these people had completely forgotten that page 113-114 was the liability statement, and 115-116 was the manual registration page, and each of them forgot that they had filled out these pages, personally cut them out of the manual, put them in an envelope and mailed them. That’s right, they went right to the keyboard to inflame and indict, with absolutely no memory of writing, cutting out and mailing the same pages themselves. This wasn’t an April fool’s joke, nor drunk people writing in after dinner, it was sober people in the middle of the day.

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I wrote a short reply back pointing out that I had each of their ‘missing pages’, in my filing cabinet, all filled out and mailed to me. None of the people wrote back about how I didn’t owe them an apology now. Keep in mind that this was eleven out of 750 people, but if any rational person saw what was going on, they didn’t speak up and interrupt the drama club. Most of the people on that list didn’t own a manual from me, and had I not been on that list, they would have thought I carelessly left pages out of books. For the last 5 years I have been banded from that list, mostly for not being ‘nice’ in my writings, no matter what anyone else said about my efforts.

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Where are “the eleven” today? They are still on the Corvaircraft discussion group. Have they learned anything about internet groups, or their own conclusion jumping? Maybe not, as one of the people who ‘demanded an apology’ for this weeks imagined insult to Dan Weseman, was one of the same eleven people.  Do I feel left out from Corvaircraft? Yes, I do, but I felt the same way when I became too old to be a Cub Scout anymore.

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The day after the ‘missing page mystery’, it may have seemed The merry-go-round of the endless drama club stuff of the internet might change, but the carb drama this week driven by people who can’t take the time to actually read before commenting shows nothing ever changes, it is still there, 10 years later, and it will always be there. Internet discussion groups provide a place for a certain type of person to feel at home. That’s fine, just make sure that if you are not that kind of person, you don’t wake up there ten years later, listening to the latest drama about who owes who ‘a public apology’ over an imaginary slight.

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Above, Dan Weseman and I stand in my front yard; This was the first run of the Panther’s engine. Last night Dan and I worked on an R&D project until 1 am at our little airport. On the internet, a half dozen people, egged on by a angry guy demanded ‘a public apology’  for Dan over an imaginary comment. This did provide some comedic relief for last night’s work, as we made comments like “You owe me a public apology for handing me that 7/16″ wrench” and “You owe me a public apology for your insincere public apology for my public apology” . On the serious side, we did speak at some length about the rewards of doing the type of work we do. It was about good people you get to work with, learning a tremendous amount of technical information, exercising well engineered creativity, and spending time closer to family while working near home. All stuff pretty far away from internet drama.

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-ww,

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Builders:

Two days ago, I wrote the story: Ma3-SPA carb orientation, essentially complaining about those seeking advice from the internet and their “local expert”.

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Just to demonstrate that almost no one on discussion groups actually reads what I write, The last 48 hours generates another predictable  little feces storm, just because people can’t read:

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In the story, I wrote:

“I will try to keep this short: If you want to know something about your Corvair, ask Myself or Dan Weseman  first, not after you go to the internet “

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A few words later in the same short story wrote:

” It works fine, and any internet joker who says it does not has no credibility.”

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Because internet discussion group regulars love drama and have low reading comprehension, about a dozen people missed the first part, only read the second, and somehow decided that my theoretical “internet joker” was Dan Weseman. 

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I am not sure how anyone reads the top paragraph and then thinks I was suggesting that people don’t take Dan’s advice, when that it just what I was telling them to do. But on the internet, The same story that you read, generated people from as far away as Australia, demanding that “I owe Dan Weseman a public apology.” That may be good drama, but it is damn poor reading comprehension skills. Evidently there were a number of other people who fail reading the story also. This proves my point that maybe you shouldn’t seek building advice from the net, because not all of the people out there are reading and understanding things at an acceptable level to offer advice on them.

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I am ‘banded for life’ from the Corvair discussion group where this drama took place, so I would have no idea this was going on, except I was down at Dan Weseman’s  shop this morning, coordinating orders and parts for builders in prep for colleges #36 and #37. Far from demanding a public apology, Dan and I laughed our butts off about this drama, and how it proved that people really don’t read or learn much in settings prone to drama. What no one paid attention to is that countless times I have pointed out that no one flies Corvairs harder than Dan in stories like this one: Understanding Flying Corvairs Pt. #2, Hardest working engine.  Dan has actually flown MA3’s in all the positions I mentioned in the story, in a great number of different planes, in addition to flying them in a number of Certified planes….and I don’t mean putt putting around, I mean looping spinning and rolling his uncle’s Tri-Pacer and many other planes. This is why my story suggested calling him.

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Above a 2009 photo in our front yard taken during a flight test series. Vince, above left, and Louis, far right, just after the first flight of their 601XL. Working with myself, Dan Weseman and Grace,  they planned and executed a flawless first flight. Dan and Grace flew the Cleanex as the chase plane. Dan’s flight experience in many different types of planes has been a priceless asset in the Corvair movement.

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Notice that I am never the first person in an exchange to use the particular person’s name when critiquing an action, not because I have manners, but because I want people reading it to learn from the action, rather than focusing on personalities and drama. In almost every case, I have called the person, written private email, or spoken with them in person about the same topic, and only then if they still want to make a public issue, will I use their name in a story.

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This particular internet drama was started and driven by a KR-2 builder named Paul Visk. Although he probably failed to mention this, Paul has attended several Corvair Colleges, including #34 where I ran his engine for him: Photos from Corvair College #34 at Zenith A/C . I very patiently volunteered my time to directly work with him at these events, including patiently correcting his mistakes caused by rushing and not reading directions. Since then, I have previously asked Paul to use some consideration before writing things into the net on groups where I can not respond. Paul nor anyone owes me anything, or has to agree with or even like me, just because I hold free colleges and made their building successful, but I do have a personal expectation that people who we have assisted at great length, would resist starting fires on discussion groups, and then fanning the flames with their indignation, implying at I was an impediment to their progress, rather than acknowledging that I was at least honest enough to directly say that putting 2″ of washers on a skinny cantilevered bolt to operate a throttle was stupid.

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Paul Visk isn’t an evil or a even a bad guy, he is just acting in a way that has been typical of a great number of people who spent years complaining that there were no affordable products in experimental aviation, and then when he found one, benefited from all the provider offered, still couldn’t resist complaining about things. When I started this 27 years ago, if someone had told me that a great number of builders would be this way, I would have dismissed it as pure negativity, because it isn’t the way I approach anything where people have been willing to teach me a skill. I am older, and I accept that I am not in the majority on this issue, and those who complain will find ready chorus of supports ‘demanding apologies.’ Note: If you want the best support, make sure your complaint is registered between 8pm and midnight, as it will have the most ‘6 beer’ fans, and these are the low reading comprehension guys who write the most indignant ‘high five’ responses.

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For anyone who thought the scene I wrote about at the bottom of the last story was ‘far fetched’, I suggest going an looking up accident histories on early aerocarbs with push to open throttles. Let it clearly be understood that I don’t consider that a design issue, I was strictly taught that anyone who pulls the power back on a single engine plane in the pattern from any position where they can not glide to the runway, is willfully doing something that will eventually catch and potentially kill them. A sonex is an inherently safe aircraft of stout construction, low landing speed, and it fuel tank is made of the toughest construction.  If you fly at a place where instructors or the tower tell people to fly low, giant patterns, it is your responsibility as PIC to move to an airport where sanity prevails. If you consistently have to add power on final to make the runway, your technique is poor and you will eventually run out of options one day. My whole point about stupid throttle linkages is that it has the potential to make that day the same as the day of the very first flight.

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-ww.

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Builders,

I was listening to the radio today, and heard that the writer Pat Conroy passed last week. He wrote a number of novels, but if you love aviation, one of these works stands out above all others: “The Great Santini.”

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The story is a very thinly veiled look at Conroy’s own father, and it doesn’t paint a very pleasant picture. It was made into an outstanding film in 1979, and it remains one of Robert Duval’s greatest performances. It is the story of a Marine fighter pilot father who’s personal traits make him an excellent pilot, but don’t serve him as a father. Because the work really isn’t fiction, and Conroy was writing from personal experience, the story isn’t ‘nice’, but it rings very true for many men who grew up in military families of the 1950 and 1960s.

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The central conflict of the film is how Lt. Col. Wilbur “Bull” Meecham  finds himself a warrior who no longer has a war, and how difficult he finds being a father and operating in typical suburban settings.  Nearly everyone who has spent enough time around military men has a person who meets that description, but Conroy’s skill as a writer and the son of such a man conspires to make a story that it is literally painful in parts to watch. If you have not seen it, it comes with my recommendation, but it isn’t uplifting, kind nor nice, it is just moving and real, which are attributes that make films worth your time, and something more than entertainment.

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My father spent 33 years on active duty, but has few of the characteristics  of “Bull” Meecham . However, I did have a front row seat to such a man.  My best friend in high school had a father who had flown 200 attack missions as a Marine in Korea, flying F-9Fs off straight deck carriers.  I spent a lot of time at their house and wanted to know something about his fathers experience, but he shared next to nothing, just a few looks at old black and white photos from 25 years earlier.

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He had been hard charging guy, came back to 1950s suburbia and married a wealthy and beautiful debutante. They had a nice house in a great town, a membership at the country club, and eventually three kids, but there were times where none of that mattered, and he would drift off to drink, gamble and keep other company. Eventually came divorce, and not long after he took his life. It was all a big tragic mystery to people at the time, but as I grew older, I came to understand that after some people fly into combat enough, the thought of sitting around the pool at the country club talking about other people just doesn’t seem very exciting, and some men will do anything to raise the stakes of their ‘wagers’  in some attempt to feel alive again. The beginning of understanding this came from watching “the Great Santini.”

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In the film, Robert Duval played ‘the Great Santini.’  Unlike many films, this story is very close to the book. Pat Conroy had an unusual background for a writer, he graduated from the Citadel in SC.  Part of his experiences there made their way into his book “The Lords of Discipline.”  Learn a little more about Conroy here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Conroy

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-ww.

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Builders,

While I do love the machinery of flight, it is the human element of it that captivates me  Below is an excerpt from an older story, with a few additions, take the quiz and see how you do; if any of them are not yet known to you, I encourage reading about them, each of the aviators here have a life story well worth reading.

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Experimental aviation is a very small corner of the world of flight, and homebuilts with 100-120hp engines don’t set many world records or make the cover of Aviation Week and Space Technology often. While the machinery we are building isn’t going to change the world, It will change your world.

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When you are aloft in a plane that you created with your own hands and mind, you will come to a moment of awareness where you realize that your homebuilt, and the experience of building and flying it is a much better portal to the timeless truths of flight than any commercial aircraft.  Lindbergh wrote: “Science, freedom, beauty, adventure: what more could you ask of life? Aviation combined all the elements I loved.”  Every aviator below felt this, and  your homebuilt is your route to feel the same elements in your life.

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What an actual Character looks like #1.

Character #2.

Character #3.

Character #4.

Character #5.

Character #6.

Character #7.

Character #8.

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Builders,

Yesterday I wrote the story Ken “Adonis” Pavlou advises aviators: “Life is short, Live Large”, today something in the same theme. I am glad that we have all kinds of people in aviation, but in my 27 years in flying, I have seen a constant trend to make general aviation, and experimental aviation in particular, look ‘squeaky clean’ and so inoffensive to anyone that it has had a lot of the character bleached out of it.

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I uphold that this effort is misguided, as it removes one of the greatest attractions of flight, the characters, and it also presents the false image that anyone who looks or acts in anyway other than “Disneyland Vanilla” must be doing it wrong or is dangerous.  If you doubt this effect, watch how people who should know better, assume that a guy with a John Edwards haircut in a polo shirt and khaki slacks standing next to an experimental plane with a $10K paint job is a competent pilot and his airplane is perfect. While many other pursuits are forgiving of people making false judgments based on appearance, aviation has penalties for mistaken assumptions like that.

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The only reason why the industry took this path is because the powers that be thought it was the path to money.  Note that if you are a rank and file homebuilder, you are not in homebuilding to make money, you are here to learn build and fly, and have a good time while doing so. I hold that part of how you succeed at these goals is learning to recognize competence and airworthiness by their function and their performance, not by appearance.

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As a home builder, you will create and fly your own plane, and you have the choice to accept or reject industry judgments.  Since there is no chance that industry will change it’s path, you will have to adjust yours without their support nor guidance.  When you shift from looking at aviation from a consumer-industry perspective, and start evaluating things on performance, you are on the path that holds far richer rewards.  Over the years you will hear endless industry hand wringing about how aviation participation is down, and they are at a loss to offer an explanation that feels right.  When I hear that stuff, I know that a large part of the decline is directly attributable to the fact that most individuals don’t have strong attachments to movements or endeavors which have had all the colorful character removed.

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Do you know this man? Would he look out of place at Disneyland or in the pages of a J-crew catalog? Yes, but should he look out of place in experimental aviation? I say no, because experimental aviation was supposed to be the natural gathering place of aviation’s most individualistic characters, not a Disneyland of conformity and appearance. Besides, the photo was taken in the campgrounds  at Oshkosh 2004. The man in the photo is a highly skilled pilot and instructor and mechanic with an IA,  an aviation historian of sorts, a married man and father…..and a colorful character, with many contributions to the Corvair movement.

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While I have seen countless aviation films, and have many favorites, two films in particular shaped my understanding of aviation, and how it has always been a home to colorful individuals and people of character. I saw the first film before I was a teenager, and the second when I was 20. The first is “The Blue Max” and  second is “The Right Stuff.”

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If you think back, both of these films are celebrations of the spirit of individuals, and how the character of these individuals, and not conformity for it’s own sake,  is an eternal driving force in the spirit of aviation, particularly the advancement of its boundaries. That may sound remote from the project in your garage, but it isn’t. The plane and engine you are building are tremendous advancements in your own personal role in aviation, and for this reason are far more important than any industry marketing program.

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Note on assumptions: Among people I am yet to meet in person, a common misperception is that I must be some type of party guy because I defend the idea that aviation was supposed to be fun, and I have events like the colleges where some builders drink beer after hours. A smaller group of people assume things based on my haircut or lack thereof.  Both of these are mistaken conclusions. At the last 35 Corvair Colleges, I may have had 5 or 6 beers total, and a typical year at Oshkosh means 2 or 3 beers at the homebuilders dinner or the night airshow.  In my 20’s I may have tithed 10% of my income to Anheuser-Busch, but those years are a very distant memory now, and among friends, I am always the assumed designated driver. It isn’t my business how others like to have fun, but I personally like the hours of my day as clear minded as possible.

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-ww.

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Builders,

When my father was 7 and 1/2 years old he was at the 1933 world’s fair in Chicago, and witnessed something he clearly remembers,  Balbo’s fleet of 24 flying boats, which had just flown 6,000 miles from Italy.

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One of the greatest planes of the inter-war years was the Italian S-55.  It started flying in 1924, and it’s looks and performance was something out of science fiction. The plane has a 75 foot wingspan, an 18,000 pound gross, and it had an astounding top speed of 170 mph. Small groups of them flew the south Atlantic before Lindbergh. The 1933 flight of 24 aircraft was a logistical triumph for Italian engineering and airmanship that no other country could match.

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The flight was lead by Italy’s dynamic Air Marshal Italo Balbo.  Although he was a fascist, and one of the people that made Mussolini’s rise to power possible, he was different on two points: he was outspoken against Italy’s alliance with Germany (He thought they should be with Britain)  and he was against Italy passing racist laws against Jews. He was killed in a friendly fire shoot down in Libya at the start of WWII. It is worth noting that he only started flying in 1927, when he led the flight to Chicago he had just 6 years experience. When he died he was just 44 years old.

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My young father and his 34 year old mother traveled from Passaic NJ, across a country that was barely stirring from the depths of depression, to the worlds fair. One afternoon when they were there, my grandmother took her son to meet an older  man in a modest Chicago hotel. They were there for only a few minutes, and my father had never seen the man before, nor would he ever see him again.  He was my fathers grandfather, The father of the 34 year old woman in front of him. He had walked out on his own family 30 years earlier. My Grandmother was not there to forgive him. She was there to show him the family he would never know.

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My grandmother, the only grandparent I ever had, was kind and thoughtful, but internally as tough as they come. When her father left, the family was destitute.  The children led by their mother, a seamstress, worked back from nothing.  After 17 years of relentless toil, my great grandmother decided to take her 40th birthday off (1920), and spend the day by herself in New York.  To celebrate, she brought one dollar bill in her pocket. She was hit by a drunk driver, and put in a coma. My grandmother spent the meager family savings caring for her for six weeks before she died.  Creditors took nearly everything, they slept on the store tables. Starting from nothing again, my Grandmother went on to build and run the largest children’s clothing store in the state.  In 1933, she took the trip to Chicago to look into the face of the man who had abandoned her and her mother.  Although my grandmother built a life long reputation as the personification of kindness to both family and stranger, and quietly and without recognition gave with great generosity to the countless needy children of her city, I don’t think she ever found it in her heart to forgive her father.

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For all the adversity of my grandmother’s life, she also knew great joys. In 1915 she was just 16 and met a Policeman who was walking a beat in her neighborhood; after he returned from WWI, they were married. Families objected because she was Jewish and he was Irish Catholic, but the rejection just bonded them together tighter. In 1923 They built a house at 118 Albion street. My father was born in 1925, his sister in 1929. My grandfather, who is the center of this story: A clarification and a century old story., lived until 1960. My grandmother lived in the same house until she passed in 1986.

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The life of Rita B. Wynne is central to understanding all of the living members of our family.  Both the joys and hardships of her life became how we understood persistence, tolerance, and thankfulness. Thirty years after her passing, my parents home in NJ has many physical remembrances of her life, mostly photos. However, when I think about how my life has been made directly possible by the human will of my grandmother and great grandmother refusing to surrender to despair, I don’t look at the photos. Every few years I look in my fathers desk. One of the drawers has a very old dollar bill, I have held it in my hands a number of times. It is the same one my great grandmother had in her pocket on a spring day in 1920. I can not find the words to express the humility I feel when I hold that piece of paper in my hand, for there is nothing I will do in my life that would register in comparison to what these two women did for their family.

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-ww.

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Builders:

About 10 years ago I wrote the statement below, It was the summation of what I had learned after 15 years, knowing both triumph and tragedy, relentlessly pursuing the sprit of aviation.

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“At any real level, flying is not a sport, a hobby, a pastime nor entertainment. It is An Endeavor, worthy of every hour of your life you invest; Those who dabble in it find only high cost, poor reward and serious risk. They are approaching it as consumers. Conversely, for those who devote their best efforts and their serious commitment, the rewards are without compare.”  -ww.

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I honestly thought that if I could distill what I had learned to three sentences, and the truth in them was very plain, that a great number of people would have a person course correction in aviation, and re-align their own personal efforts to focus on the timeless rewards which the most committed have always known. I was wrong about this. 

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What did I get wrong? While we have several hundred committed, traditional builders in the Corvair movement,  These people are a very small fraction of homebuilding, and the words above have had very little resonance outside the world of Corvairs.

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It comes as no surprise that people with consumer “buy and imported motor in a box” mentality, the people who thought Why “Made in America” matters to me. was gibberish, people who believe and repeat myths like Rotax 912s being more reliable than Lycomings, do not have the ability nor the desire to understand the three sentences. While I am willing to co-exist with these people in aviation, as they are now the large majority, I have never been concerned that the don’t ‘get’ traditional homebuilding values. I try to follow my own path that rarely puts me in proximity with those people; I don’t read magazines or websites devoted to consumer aviation, I don’t attend EAA meetings where the conversation is dominated by things people bought rather than things builders made, and I find other places to fly and better company to keep. Life is too short, and my remaining seasons in aviation too few, to waste time near such people or those catering to serve their mentality.

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Here is what does concern me: I was not correct when I thought that everyone attracted to traditional homebuilding values would automatically be driven to make aviation the exceptional, outstanding  part of their life. While we all have many parts of our life where we do enough to be ok at it, I believed that nearly everyone drawn to traditional home building’s Learn, build and Fly creed would understand the clear choice presented in statements like:  Thought for the Day: Mastery or?. If I am truthful, I have to say that people like the sound of the ideas, but we are immersed in a 24/7, all pervasive consumer society, and people have a hard time leaving that outside the airport fence, and making the choice that what they accomplish in aviation with be the outstanding part of their lives, not just another thing they did ‘OK’.

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A concrete example: In 2015 we had four people with Corvair powered planes destroy them in stupid, completely unnecessary accidents. They only good thing to be said was no one was killed. In spite of the fact I have written countless, direct stories like this: “Local Expert” convinces builder to use cast pistons about NEVER following the advice of a self appointed expert, a common thread in each of the four accidents was every one of them having a ‘local expert’ assure the builder that the exact part that was wrong, was fine.  Now follow this closely: These airplane owners had likely gone through their whole life, resisting learning any skill that they perceived one of their buddies to have, they didn’t read and learn for themselves outside aviation, and they drove through the airport fence with the same mentality. Everything I wrote made zero difference when it counted most.

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Think that is limited to four accidents? Look into my crystal ball: I get email and letters and calls every week from builders that all include ‘I have a friend who is an A&P/Race Car builder/Electronics expert’ helping me, and he read that stuff so I don’t have to.’ I have people who come to Corvair Colleges, and hold up a part, still sealed in the plastic, with the instructions inside, say “Just show me how to put this on.”  They didn’t drive to a college to learn anything, they only went there because they couldn’t find a ‘local expert’. While these people just seem a bit lazy to outside observers, I think of them as names on 2017, 2018 and 2020 accident reports.

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I will be the first to admit that there are many things in my life which I haven’t mastered: We have an overly complicated printer/copy/fax machine that has a stupid ‘menu’ you have to page through because it would have been too easy to just make it with a ‘print’ button. I have never read the manual, I am not going to, and I don’t care. It is a stupid appliance…..but I can tell the difference between a copier and an airplane, and I treat them with entirely different approaches. Everyone says they would do this, but in reality, they don’t, and I can say this because I get 3 emails a week asking how long motor mount bolts are, and I always point out that the answer is on page 198 of the manual and page 26 of the installation manual….and then 2 of the 3 will write back and say ‘can’t you just tell me?’

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How did I get this wrong? I did because all the people I choose to spend my private time in aviation with are people who are only interested in mastery of the segment of aviation in front of them. This created the illusion that this was the path that everyone would take.  The best example I have is Dan Weseman, who is always in pursuit of everything he can get out of and master in the branch of aviation he is working in. If you have not read it, look at this: Panther Roll out. to understand the depth of this.  This doesn’t just cover professionals, but people like Tim Hansen: 100 HP Corvair, Tim Hansen , Persistence Pays who set their own personal standards at mastery, and nothing short of it.  Because I was largely surrounded by friends who felt the same way, I missed just how many people can read a philosophy and they say, “Yeah, that’s great, but I’ve got a guy here who says it will be alright”.

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The most important part of this story: The odds don’t apply to you. It doesn’t matter if 25% of the people who arrive at their first college didn’t read the part of the prep notes that said I will not install parts for people who didn’t read the part instructions. It doesn’t matter that 20% of the builders have a ‘local expert’ advising them with brilliant phrases like “It will be alright”, and it doesn’t matter that many people will get nothing out of the hours they spend muddling through aviation. It doesn’t matter because you are an individual, you will set your own path and standards, and run your own program. The beauty of the system is that this is an arena where you are in control of your own destiny, and you can take all the credit for your progress achievements and triumphs,…..and in the quiet hours you can wonder why anyone else who had the same opportunity as you, refused to take it.

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Above, Dan Weseman and I stand in my front yard; This was the first run of the Panther’s engine. Although we have fully independent businesses, our products, teaching and philosophy mesh, and this directly works for both builder progress and learning. I have known Dan for almost 15 years, and for the past 10 we have lived at the same small grass airport. For each of us, homebuilding isn’t a hobby nor even a job, it is a calling. Over 25 years of work with homebuilders it has long been obvious to me that every new homebuilder needs trusted and experienced mentors, who painstakingly acquired the knowledge and experience the new builders are working to master.  A successful plane is built from a comprehensive plan, guided by mentors who know the skills from making the first part to flying it.  Dan and I have both have a very long track record of being this kind of guide to countless homebuilders.

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-ww.

Builders

Below is a story that I wrote on our  http://flycorvair.com/  website almost 8 years ago. It illustrates an important point about Emulating Success, even if you are yet to understand the exact logic and reason behind it. I have regrouped a lot of the older information on the main site to give better access, you can find the notes on it here: Reference posts and updates to FlyCorvair.com

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From our old site:

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“When I was 18 years old and getting started in drag racing in New Jersey, I was working at a speed shop called  “Speed World in Union.” Our home track was Englishtown, site of the NHRA Summer Nationals. Even the sportsman racing was  fiercely competitive. We were fortunate enough to have one of the East Coast NHRA Class champions, as the shop’s  sponsored racer. He lived a few blocks from the shop, had a day job with UPS, but he took drag racing very seriously, and made a lot of money at it.

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In drag racing’s single eliminations, defeating your competitor is referred to as “trailering” him. Frequently,  in 8 rounds of eliminations, our sponsored racer Bill would trailer everyone he came up against. Initially it seemed like magic or voodoo. Only in  time did I learn that it was meticulous preparation, checklists and concentration that were the key elements of his success.  As a starting point, I chose to emulate his success, even if I did not fully comprehend his methods. I figured that it was better to win with incomplete understanding than to lose with my own ‘style’ and still not understand why.  I copied all his style and techniques, down to wearing the same kind of sneakers. Before I understood what made his success tick, I made the conscious decision that I would clone his approach, because it worked. I still use this as a model of success when I approach any new task.

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The logic of this approach makes even more sense in experimental aviation. I try to teach builders to do installations exactly how we show, even if you are yet to understand why. If it has long worked for us, than reality dictates that if you clone it, and operate it the same way, then is has to long work for you just the same, even if you are yet to understand the logic or physics behind it.

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When I was 18, Bill seemed very old, wise and powerful. Kind of an Obi-Wan Kenobi of drag racing. Looking back now, I can guess he was about 30 years old, an age I couldn’t yet imagine. While all traces of my youth, or even age 30 are long gone, the lessons of meticulous preparation and emulating success that I learned decades ago at the drag strip still serve me today.” -ww.

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“You Can’t win at the drag strip, you only lose there” This was a NJ drag strip motto that was taught to me by Bill. When he said it, most people were unwilling to think about it and consider it. If you listened, he would explain that your goal in drag racing was to prepare the car perfectly, adjust it to the exact track conditions, get your brain in gear and focused, and go lay down a perfect run. How you win is by having the other guy neglect some prep aspect, and lose for you. Drag racing isn’t like any other motor sport; no driver can make up for a poorly prepped car, nor a moments inattention. Now stop and think about how close that is to successful homebuilding, where the world’s greatest pilot can’t do anything about a plane that wasn’t ready to take off, nor does it matter how much attention he pays on average, the only thing that determines success is how he deals with a few critical seconds.

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Here is a connection very few people make: Drag racings appeal is much the same a Dueling’s was: Two people start on a fair basis, it is over quickly, the matter is settled, and there is no talk of “do overs” or “the best of three.” The finality of the decision has great appeal for people who dislike ambiguity or spinning outcomes. A few years ago there was a fake TV show about racing where  it was 2 out of 3 with a lot of talk in between rounds. I want to assure people real drag racing is nothing like that.

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 The most famous duel in American history was Aaron Burr vs. Alexander Hamilton in 1804. If you want to understand something of the nature of people from New Jersey, Drag racing is the state sport, and The track at Englishtown is less than 40 miles from the spot in Weehawken where Burr killed Hamilton.

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I never cease to be amazed at how stupid the average media personality is. Not just on physics; CNN and Wolf Blitzer: “Flammable Helium”  But on history as well. When Dick Cheney accidently shot his hunting partner in 2006 nearly every media outlet ran a story essentially saying that this was unprecedented.  Evidently they all should have failed US history, because Burr was the sitting Vice President when he killed Hamilton.

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Aaron Burr was a very highly educated and principled man. Most of the original contemporary  letters on Hamilton paint him as a weasel. As Secretary of the Treasury Hamilton politically maneuvered to put  great power in the federal bank. He would have been completely at home running the dirtiest political campaign of today. To him, the ends always justified any means.

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Hamilton was born in the west indies, and was bastard child (something he like to hide) . Thus he was unqualified to be president, and would not have been considered to have the social status of “Gentleman.”   This last point was vital, because dueling code forbid a Gentleman from calling out a common man, because it was assumed that the wealthy could afford far better training with swords and pistols, and to use that against the unprepared was cowardly and illegal in most places. (Hamilton had always lead his life as a “Gentleman” and this was critical to his ego. )  Thus is Hamilton wanted to live, all he had to do was admit he was not a Gentleman. Through intermediates he tried for two weeks to negotiate a face saving settlement, but Burr would have none of it. They hated each other, but the final straw for Burr was Hamilton writing anonymous press stories saying that Burr had an incestuous interest in his own daughter.  A clever political scam, but he was a terrible shot and missed Burr, and the VP paid him back with a .56 caliber lead ball in the spleen.

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It sounds harsh, but I will say that when Hank Paulson, the former CEO of Goldman Sachs who became Secretary of the Treasury in 2006, made delusional statements about the economic collapse in 2008, I did give a moment to consider the wisdom of Aaron Burr’s “retirement program” for former Treasury Secretaries. We are obviously a much more civil society in America 200 years later, but maybe we have gained this at a loss of fair and swift justice.

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-ww.