I hate to throw a bucket of cold water on a pastime which is among our favorites, the fly-in. But here goes. I have a nice Stinson 108-3, which I try to keep looking nice. Three times now I have had my rear "D" window scratched by pilots? peering in the window to check out the the interior and panel. How, you might ask? By those stupid *!&# pins that EAA'ers wear all over their hats, and the zippers on their jackets. One fly-in attendee put a nice scratch in the paint on the bottom of my aileron(metal on a Stinson 108-3) with his darn hat, I'm sure.
At one fly-in I decided to leave my door open so people could look inside without looking through the window. Not gonna do that again. A friend said that he saw a mother place her toddler inside on the seat so that he could play pilot and make airplane noises. My friend kept an eye on them so the toddler didn't try to start up and taxi off! When I was a young lad myself at a fly-in with my father, he noticed some guy place his toddler on top of the cowl of our Stinson 10A. Dad read the guy the riot act.
At Airventure I've witnessed more than one EAA'er lean in a cockpit to get a better look at a panel, putting his grimy hand on the seat. Now imagine 100 EAA'ers doing the same thing, with hands that have just eaten an ice cream cone, a hot dog, or just been in the grass while sitting. Don't these people think??
Am I being a little over critical here or being over protective of my pride 'n joy Stinson? I can understand the general public doing stupid things at fly-ins, but EAA'ers should know better. C'mon guys, wear your stupid pin hats to your local chapter meetings, but get a different hat to wear to fly-ins, or stay away from my airplane!! And when the sign on the prop says Look, But Please Do Not Touch! , that's what it means!
Dennis C.