{"id":4022,"date":"2016-09-23T16:20:43","date_gmt":"2016-09-23T23:20:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.mechadigital.net\/?p=4022"},"modified":"2021-08-26T20:37:54","modified_gmt":"2021-08-26T20:37:54","slug":"164-them-what-can-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/164-them-what-can-do\/","title":{"rendered":"#164 “Them what can, do”"},"content":{"rendered":"

I recently received a message from a friend across the Atlantic.\u00a0 Earlier he had sought my help in defending himself from prosecutors who were after him for water-skiing his airplane.\u00a0 I did a bit of research and found that this guy was far more qualified than I was.\u00a0 In his message, he let me know that his trial for waterskiing in his airplane had gone forward.\u00a0 He had emerged successful and the judge hadn\u2019t even allowed the prosecution to finish their<\/h3>\n
\"140-waterski-cropped\"
While shooting a video for the Journal, I spotted an irrigation ditch and used it to wash the tires. (photo by Bert Garrison)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

accusations before dismissing all charges.\u00a0 I\u2019m somewhat relieved.\u00a0 Now if only all such matters could be settled with the same amount of level-headedness.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure they won\u2019t\u2026 because \u201cThem that can, do; them that can\u2019t do, teach; and them that can\u2019t do and can\u2019t teach, govern\u201d.<\/h3>\n

I consider myself a liberal, politically, on many issues.\u00a0 But there is one issue in particular where I tend to side with my more conservative friends.\u00a0 It\u2019s about the size and power of government.\u00a0 As an aviator I have some knowledge.\u00a0 If there had been an FAA when the Wright Brothers flew, they wouldn\u2019t have.\u00a0 Some fed would have told them that they needed a Field Approval, not to mention seatbelts, but he wouldn\u2019t have wanted to stick his own neck out to sign that form 337.\u00a0 When Lindbergh flew the Atlantic, the precursor of the FAA was only a year old.\u00a0 Otherwise, they probably would have stopped him at Roosevelt Field because an airplane from which you couldn\u2019t see forward surely couldn\u2019t be legal and WHY would you want to carry that much fuel?\u00a0 Hmmm, must be a terrorist.<\/h3>\n

John F. Kennedy and both of his brothers paraphrased George Bernard Shaw as saying, \u201cYou see things as they are and you say \u2018Why?\u2019 But I dream things that never were; and I say \u2018Why not?\u2019 \u201d<\/h3>\n

That special quality which causes some people to say \u201cWhy not\u201d or to simply wonder \u201cwhat if\u2026\u201d is one of the things that sets such people apart from the flock.\u00a0 But they are the ones who so often attract the negative attentions of the bureaucrat.<\/h3>\n

You know where I\u2019m going with this.\u00a0 Untold thousands of innovators and inventors would have been stopped had they been forced to deal with the regulations which now are regularly used to trip us up.<\/h3>\n
\"franklin-jimmy\"
An example of an aviator whose imagination enabled him to ask “why not” and whose flying skill made him capable of pulling it off. The late Jimmy Franklin.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/h3>\n

Geoffrey de Havilland\u2019s last name wouldn\u2019t be attached to as many great airplanes.\u00a0 Nor would Igor Sikorsky\u2019s or William Boeing\u2019s or Lloyd Stearman\u2019s.<\/h3>\n

The current flap over un-manned aerial vehicles, is partly a result of enforcement people crying, \u201cWait, no!\u00a0 We have to regulate that!\u00a0 What about our power???\u201d<\/h3>\n

We witnessed these \u201cWhuffos\u201d exercising their power when they succeeded for a while in grounding the greatest aviator who had ever flown, Bob Hoover.\u00a0 The guy who had fought to guarantee their right to wield that power and escaped from an enemy prison\u2026 by stealing an enemy airplane\u2026 was grounded because a couple of Whuffos in polyester pants said he was incompetent.<\/h3>\n
\"The
The “Pilot’s pilot”, Bob Hoover. This picture was taken back when the T28 was new.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Yep, I\u2019ll admit that I\u2019m pretty fond of that old wheeze, \u201cThem what knows, does; them what don\u2019t know, teaches; them what can\u2019t do and can\u2019t teach, govern.\u201d\u00a0 Does that sound as true to you as it does to me?<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I recently received a message from a friend across the Atlantic.\u00a0 Earlier he had sought my help in defending himself from prosecutors who were after him for water-skiing his airplane.\u00a0 I did a bit of research and found that this guy was far more qualified than I was.\u00a0 In his message, he let me know […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4024,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[35,38,67,165,174,193],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4022"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4022\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}