their fellow aviators out there. We are a close knit, but hugely
extended family. I can fly to a strange FBO, and never having met a
pilot, ask him/her where to get a cheap meal or find some oil. I
remember one time I met a pilot that got stuck at my FBO. I was heading
up to practice some maneuvers, so I offered to drop him off at his
airport 80 miles away- nothing expected in return. I know lots of
pilots with stories like this. And far from being elitists, I think any

Yes, well said. I experienced this 2 weeks ago when my airplane
wouldn't start on a nice sunny day and had to be taken down for
maintenence. I was getting my things out of the plane and heading out
to the parking lot when a Dutch pilot in the lounge who had come all
the way from Europe to build hours for an ATP asked me if he wanted to
go fly with him. I was thrilled and it really made my day as he took me
on a long cross country to Harris Ranch and on the way back showed me
how to do an ILS approach at Modesto [this is in Northern CA]. I had no
idea about instrument approaches before this and it was really cool
when he asked me to look out front when we were at decision height at
Modesto. We were lined up perfectly for 28R! I got to fly free with a
stranger for 4hrs and also got my first taste of instrument flight, how
cool is that!