Why We Fly 'Em - Explaining Our Passion

[Rocketeer]

How can you best summarize WHY we keep 50, 60, 70+ year-old airplanes flying?
We do it because we love to - because our lives are incomplete without it, and we suffer withdraw much like an addict.

I understand there is the heroism aspect of those who built, serviced, & flew these great machines in wartime - but how do you convey a passion for the machine itself?

How do we explain our passion in words to someone else - to justify our obsession - and to get them hooked as well?

There's a quote from the film "A Guy Named Joe" that comes to mind, however it isn't concise enough for an audience that has the attention span of a goldfish.

You may need an answer to this someday.

[Randy Wilson]

Having flown and worked around warbirds for over 35 years, I'd say it is the people we can touch with flying warbirds. By that I mean that the planes are the tools to tell the stories of the airmen, mechanics and factory workers who flew, fixed and built the planes, plus their friends, families and loved ones. The planes are important because of the thousands of stories they can tell. Sometimes while flying the planes to teach history, you may get an interesting lesson yourself. Here are two personal examples.

In the early 1990s I was flying the CAF FM-2 Wildcat as part of the Tora, Tora, Tora act at Kissimmee, FL. Once the ramp was opened to the public, a lady, looking more dressed for the office than an air show, came up and asked if I was flying the plane in the show. I said yes and she paused a moment and then said "That was very realistic." After a moment to ponder this I asked politely if by chance she had been at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. She said "Yes, I was seven years old and in the back yard of our home up on the hills overlooking Pearl Harbor and Ford Island. My Mom lost me for 10 minutes and I watched the first part of the attack." I teared up a bit and thanked her for sharing that with me. How else would I ever have met her or heard her story?

One more when I was flying the CAF SB2C Helldiver at a show and again, visiting with folks around the plane. A family of three kids, Mom and Dad and a Grandfather came up and asked it this was the plane Bush flew, not an uncommon question since our Helldiver has been the only one flying for many years. When I pointed to an Avenger as the Bush plane and started to tell them the Helldiver only had two crew, pointing to the pilot's cockpit and then the rear gunner's position, from behind me I heard "Yeh, that was my seat!" Turning around it was obviously the Mom's Dad speaking and she looked at him with wide eyes and said "Dad, you mean you flew in the war?"

I've had many other experiences that convince me that being able to see, hear, smell and touch these flying aircraft is a special education tool/experience. Of course meeting the actual veterans is another great part of it. So, that is my 2 cents, and I'm sure others have their own thoughts about why we Keep 'Em Flying. Fly safe, 'yal.

Randy

[ZRX61]

I don't fly em.. I fix em....


... I gotta do something to justify having all these darn tools

[bdk]

I would say that I was originally attracted to the mechanical aspects and performance of the aircraft (engineer and pilot, so no surprises there) and later became interested in the stories. When I was a kid many of the WW2 veterans were younger than I am now, there were a lot of them around, and most didn't talk much about the war.

In fact, I don't talk much about what I did 25 years ago either, though upon reflection those may have been some of the best years of my life too- though not in the military.

I had an A&P school instructor that had gotten a purple heart in WW2, Korea and Vietnam.