Kitplanes article posted

Kitplanes has posted the article (Use IE, Firefox doesn't seem to work with this)I wrote for the June issue that was, in a sense, a response to what I thought was a "cheap shot" by RV builder Dan Checkoway in the April issue. You may recall Dan used me as the straw man to set up his argument that people shouldn't be complaining about the price of fuel while planning to spend money on a nice panel.

What Dan didn't mention, for reasons he hasn't seen fit to share, was that I haven't complained about fuel and I've never much been a fan of the type of person who accomplishes something -- with lots of help from others -- and then insists that his is the only acceptable way to approach building. In effect, Dan sacrificed someone's good name -- mine -- so that he could make a quick $500 selling an article.

One of the reasons I pulled out of the RV community wasn't so much Dan -- Dan is Dan -- but the fact several others put their sense of decency aside so as not to upset Dan to the point that he'd take down his Web site. He does have a nice site (although Walter Tondu's is better), but, you know, friendship -- or what I thought was friendship -- should not be so easily sold. Color me shocked that the price of friendship is so low.

In any event, I reminded the Kitplanes audience that there are people in the world whose lives aren't controlled by their airplane project, who have room in the world for family, and see the benefits of real friendships. Nothing you haven't read here a thousand times before.