(dann mann) wrote in message ...
Thanks Ken for all that info. Glad Fred is up and walking. Probably his
wife and friends have kept him focused on getting better. I only met him
a few times but his TV show was kinda fun and he really put some effort
into showing aviation to kids.
Glad you survived your near fuel-out.
Take it easy

Capt. Fred is a really nice guy, but his show is mainly about blowing
his own horn. He did a show on me and my gyro. They taped (his wife
did) during the construction period over 9.5 months and then we went
out for about 1.5 hours of air-to-air shots. When the show came on,
about 90% of it is Fred yapping into the camera about insignificant
trivia about gyros, like old movies they were in and he doesn't pay
much attention to what the interviewee is saying in most of his shows.
He repeats the same questions over and over. I recall one show where
he was interviewing an antiquer from the condo hangars next door to
mine. Fred must have said something about how he and the other
antiquers "rent" hangars over there 4 times. The guy kept correcting
him until it looked like he was ready to swat Fred on the back of the
head. Then in closing, Fred asks him who people can contact to "rent"
a hangar where he's at.

The flight and construction footage on my gyro was almost nil. Fred
was caught up in inconsequential trivia and showcasing his knowledge
of it....which was often a little off-base. I'm not rapping Fred as a
person. He's a good man and I know he has some missionary work that
he doesn't talk about much in his background, but I felt the time I
spent for the show was kind of a waste of time. Almost all the
questions he posed could only be answered by me as "yes" or "correct,
Fred."

Most of the exposure of flying to kids was done by his wife, Anna,
through the Girl Scout programs she'd hold in their hangar. Fred
would be there helping out, but his wife ran the show. Unfortunately,
she was at the airport watching Fred on final through a set of
binoculars when he hit the fence and flipped. She's also an extremely
nice person, as is Fred and we all hope that Fred and Anna get back
into flying someday, but I could understand how an experience like
that might sour them on it. She is also a pilot and flew their
Ercoupe regularly.

Ken J. - SDCAUSA92117