Say it again Tower!

I've just finished watching two of the most interesting and underrated movies that have been produced by our magnificent Motion Picture industry and both deal with an all to familiar theme that in one way or another effected the way know life today in both the Aviation world and the Grid Iron pigskin game America loves the nation over. Although both movies are works of fiction they both tackle an intrusive element that made its way so mysteriously into each at the cheers for some and the folly and reluctant acceptance of others.

Rules.

In aviation there are two books produced by our so benevolent FAA known as the FAR/AIM collection, or some would suggest the "bible" of the air. Others would claim the large heavy paper back as a truly effective doorstop when nothing else will stop the breeze from slamming the door. Within these pages are the "rules" or guidelines to which any aviating will be conducted. In the film "The Great Waldo Pepper" the issue of these new rules becoming the new standards in the mid 1920's and the elimination of the art of barnstorming and business of flying circuses while following the man himself as he struggles to survive in a brave (albeit it, a little boring) world. As with any great struggle between an immovable object, our hero must succumb to the new generation of flying, sacrificing all that he loves about it, or be rail-roaded over, the FAA (then the CAA) stopping for no man.

The second film came from the hands of George Clooney, who seems to have found a knack for period based cinema with his film Leather Heads. Battling a failing venture, the professional football team of yore was unrealized till college popularity began to pack stadiums, but with popularity comes again the need for rules and regulation and again our hero in this film is forced to either conform to the rules of a world he doesn't know or want, or again be run over passed by it.

Professional football at the turn of the 1920's was not unlike GA in it's toddling years in this pilots eyes, in that there were no real rules. Just set of guidelines meant to suggest certain items of common sense be adhered to. The same number of players should be butting heads on the field in football. When the ducks are walking, it might be a good idea to stay on the ground. NOW though we have entire sets of rules, regulations, time clocks to be watched, procedures, different nomenclatures, and the games and the flying of today wouldn't be recognized by the forefathers who delivered to us these wonderful distractions. Professional football players are more o less taken from raw talent and manufactures into cash generating machines for owners, providing bigger, faster, louder games that mere tights and leather head gear would never be able to keep up with. Barnstormers and the flying circuses have faded into the past time giving way to scheduled airlines, air freight, and fast efficient travel.

So one must wonder, is the soul still there? In what has become our past time of grid iron does there still exist a love of the game, a soul at which we all rally around and connect with? Is the game still fundamentally the same in that anyone who's willing can have fun in some way? Does a set of wings still inspire the stirring emotions of freedom from the worlds woes? Do aviator's, not just pilots, still exist? Are there men and women alike who stop in mid conversation to stare overhead at the sounds of passing engines, radial, in-line or other? I believe that in both cases the answer is unarguably Yes.

Any given weekend in either of the two passions, green park impromptu games can and do spring up, and at any given airport within reasonable distance with a decent greasy spoon will find patronage soaring their way. Do the rules and regulations provide choking restrictions that would otherwise inhibit the favorites of many a player and pilot? Or do they simply provide for a degree of safety and universal organization that allows for fairness and control where there would otherwise be improve from one end of the nation to the next. Given, some of the more lovable goofball antics have disappeared from football, just as have flying down main streets in small towns to stirrup attention have vanished to the wayside. Arguably more fun on the football field, in flying though, scaring the hell out of the local populace tends to antagonize the community against the GA world.

So to say that I'm totally sold on he rules could merely be a half truth. It's always fun to see the unexpected pitched in between the goal posts, the occasional low level pass over an empty pasture but all in all, the ones that we have seem to suffice and do provide the structure by which we can all at the very least agree. Long live the backyard BBQ, the in zone at the clothes line understanding , the short field final approaches and long well trimmed grass runways.

KW