Why do I do this?

As an introductory newsletter article here on our new website I was asked to write about my Aviation career and my upcoming speaking event at Saudi Arabia’s General Aviation Show, Sand & Fun, on the other side of the world.
    As I board my flight to the KSA I'm asking myself what, indeed, makes me qualified to speak? What is it, even after all these years, and why is it, that when I get to an airport, I always feel uplifted? At age 71 anyone else would've retired, and, I suppose, just learned to golf. So what is it that gets me so fired up when I talk about general Aviation?
    As I look back on my career, the triumphs and the tragedies, the successes and the failures, I can only report that I was positively influenced by some incredible instructors and I picked up on their enthusiasm and dedication, but that still doesn’t describe this secret potion that keeps me going. 
    For me, aviation has always been a passion, or an elixir, if you will, that energizes and excites me even at this age. And it’s not just the flying; it’s all of it, the learning, the engineering, the turning of wrenches, the instructing enthusiastic newcomers and the sharing of this passion. In a word, it’s the aviation community that has been so kind, so uplifting, and so exciting.
    And what about all these old airplanes, the vintage airplanes and why are they so attractive and why am I so addicted to this? For The warbirds, I have a deep seated desire to pay tribute to our Veterans, and all our men & women in uniform. 
    My passion for honoring the airliners is a way to memorialize the unsung heroes of the airline industry- the employees. It wasn’t Wall Street that built the magnificent industry we all use and take for granted. It wasn’t management or the union, although they certainly played their part. It was the employees that are the real heroes here, and as long as I draw breath , I shall sing their praises, for it was their sense of humor, their esprit de corps, their ingenuity and indeed their sense of community that brought the innovations and successes that built the industry to what it is today.
    Is my hope that as you peruse these pages, that you also might sense and pick up on that sweet elixir, that secret potion. If you do taste that sweet elixir, and if you do develop this passion I should caution you that it will change your life and it will carry you for the rest of your days!
    Along the way people have thought that I'm crazy to do these impossible projects- crazy to continue teaching - crazy to be this involved at this stage of life. I must admit, there have indeed been times when I have questioned my sanity, and perhaps I am a bit crazy, or maybe I’m just PlaneCrazy...