Morgans wrote:
"Ron Wanttaja" wrote

Yes, but: Most of the other warbirds you saw have tailwheel steering.


Ron, you know better than that. Every type of warbird at OSH has taxied
past me. They all managed. Plus, the cost of brakes is part of being at
OSH. If you can not taxi safely cause it costs too much, stay home.


And all of it is neither here nor there. I used to drive a big truck,
and 18-wheeler as moving van. 18 wheels down through residential
neighborhoods. The number one rule was "If you don't know you're clear,
you don't move." Period. No guessing. No thinking. No hoping and no
wishing. Either you can see you're clear through mirrors or sticking
your head out the window, or you have your partner get out and sight for
you. If you don't have a partner, you set the parking brake and take a
walk around the truck.

The pilot knew the airplane had visibility issues, and he knew he would
be in crowded environment. It's his responsibility, plain and clear.
Oshkosh organizers are fully culpable for not requiring that he observe
the simplest safety rule. This isn't something that's limited to
aviation. Anytime you have large equipment moving in a crowded
environment, you will see extra precautions taken. Anytime a forklift
is moving something at the HomeDepot, they'll post two guards to keep
people back. It's my opinion that the Oshkosh organizers should be held
responsible for criminal negligence, and Uncle Tom should be whipped at
high noon for the crude and audacious remark that "this will not detract
from the success of the convention."

Not the fact that this was allowed to occur, but it was allowed to
happen in such a glaringly stupid fashion, without the first modicum of
the normal safeguards that you would see at any large convention is a
serious black eye on Warbirds, GA aircraft, the EAA, and especially
Oshkosh. Whether it is true or no, this just screams to the world that
we're all a bunch of reckless yahoos. Most of us aren't, but just try
to convince Joe Public of that when the biggest convention of GA
aircraft in the world doesn't practice safety measures that would be
strictly enforced at the county fair.

----
This is by far the hardest lesson about freedom. It goes against
instinct, and morality, to just sit back and watch people make
mistakes. We want to help them, which means control them and their
decisions, but in doing so we actually hurt them (and ourselves)."