Dear Eddie and Sue:
I quite agree that there should be a term which defines the care
and love that goes into an endeavour like building an aircraft. ....and
perhaps OBAM is it. But it's foundation is built on ignorance. Ignorance of
the language in which it is couched - English.
One of its great qualities is the richness brought to it by
other languages - the Norse, the Celts, the Romans and so forth. The use of
the words comes from their ancestry. Thus most of our family connections are
basically Norse, and the bulk is handed down from the early conquerors -
Latin. To be ignorant of the source is to lose the meaning by misspelling it
or mispronouncing it - writing and speaking.
Sorry for the diatribe, but I take great pride in being an
amateur - a lover of the job. I am an amateur radio licensee, not some paid
flunky who pretends to call himself a "professional", but a true
professional - one who professes publicly to live to the highest personal
standards he/she can attain - without taking money for it. That's an
amateur.
A professional is not someone who gets paid for what he/she
does, but one who professes to do his/her best. Anyone who does not profess
publicly is a 'commercial' - thus there are very few professionals in sport.
They are either amateur or commercial, nothing more. One hears in the
advertising claptrap of 'professional tools', professional ballplayers,
professional this and professional that. Hawkers' hooey.
How many amateurs satellites have been orbitted? The 40th is up
there now - is that amateurish? You bet your bottom dollar it is!
So call it what you want, but be aware that ignoring the history
of language is destroying it. Let's not have any more "Honey I shrunk the
kids", deeeepo, leeesure, or newspaper rout. No more of the giant's labor,
vigor or odor. If it must change, make it take more than one stupid
generation to occur.
Evolution not revolution. I realise I'm putting Bill Gates and his Spelch
Ekker out of coin, but then that's only commercial.
I'm finished now.
Happy landings
Ferg
A064
----- Original Message -----
From: Eddie and Sue Lindsay <elindsay@zianet.com>
Subject: OBAM Defined
> Thought this might be of interest. - Ed Lindsay -
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Robert L. Nuckolls, III" <nuckolls@aeroelectric.com>
> Subject: Re: AeroElectric-List at Matronics
> >
> > OBAM is the seed of an idea that I thought I'd plant and see what
> > happens. For years, we've been pretty proud of "amateur built" or
> > "home built" as terms to describe our craft. Problem is, if you
use
> > these terms in conversation with the average person on t he street
> > you get a response that is less than positive.
> >
> > "You mean these airplanes are built in somebody's house?" or
> > "My gawd, I'd never set foot in an airplane built by an AMATEUR."
> >
> > Using the word "experimental" isn't any better. So how about
> > Owner Built and Maintained aircraft? When amateur built aviation
> > was in its infancy, each builder was pretty much on his own. Yeah,
> > there was Sport Aviation and yeah, an occasional mechanic
> > working in the certified world might drop by to help out . . .
> > but by-in-large, each completed airplane was a solitary effort.
> >
> > Today, with kit offerings joining with a huge and growing
> > infrastructure of builder communications on the 'Net, I'll suggest
> > that our efforts are head and shoulders taller than "amateur".
> > A builder may be working on his first and perhaps only construction
> > project but the support structure makes his endeavor anything
> > but amateurish.
> >
> > So how about it folks? This is a sort of pull yourself up by the
> > bootstraps effort. I am reminded of good advice handed down
> > by many who would mentor somebody up in the knowledge and
> > skills of their particular specialty. "Son, if you want to be a
> _________,"
> > then then the FIRST thing you have to do is look, talk, and act
like
> > you ARE a __________." In our case, we fill in the blanks with
> > the phrase, "builder of the world's finest single engine
airplanes."
> >
> >
> > Bob . . .
> > --------------------------------------------------
> > ( "Imagination is more important than knowledge. )
> > ( It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal )
> > ( education" Albert Einstein )
> > --------------------------------------------------
> > http://www.aeroelectric.com
> >
> >
> >
>
|