Quote Originally Posted by 1600vw View Post
This could be the problem....
Let's just assume we engaged in a huge back-and-forth about validity of one person's opinion over another's, engaging in oneupmanship, eventually invoked Godwin's law, and absolutely failed to reach agreement on anything other than we disagree with each other on this one matter. It will save us both time and words.

I have no desire to go through that nutroll - as pilots and builders we have so much in common that it would be a harmful exercise - a point that I very poorly tried to bring across.

Here's an example of how non-aviation stuff can ruin an otherwise beautiful aviation relationship:

My CFI was great. I say that because in style of teaching and his ability to gauge a student's actual progress really meshed with mine. In fact, he was my second CFI, as I fired my first one - a young man who was a good CFI but very quiet and reserved, speaking very rarely and completely unflappable. This also made him unreadable and I had no idea what I was doing right or wrong most of the time.

So I interviewed another, and grinned at the first bit of sarcasm. My CFI was quick to give feedback both good and bad, laid out specific goals and was very honest on how well I met them. His goal was to train me to my check ride, yes, but it was clear he wanted me to be a good pilot overall, to look at the whole of flying, and put things into context. We got along famously, very professionally, even though we used a bit of "vernacular" to pepper our conversations. I can't say we became friends; the only reason we spent time together is because I was handing over a handful of cash for the privilege. However, it was never a chore (at least not for me), and we gained respect for each other.

One day I was talking to one of my pilot friends and mentioned my CFI with a glowing review of his abilities to teach a knucklehead like me how to fly and I got a very sour look.

"He's an atheist and a screaming liberal," the man said, "I can't see how you could stand to be in the same room with him, let alone share an airplane."

"Because he's a damned fine flight instructor," I replied, "that's how."

Well, I did pick up tangentially that my CFI was in fact an atheist and, by Alabama standards a "screaming liberal" during our time together, but we were pretty careful to keep our conversations to flying. When we went "off topic," it was in safe areas like our kids, the hilarity of marriage, and funny stories about work (Engineer stories for him, Army stories for me). I would characterize our relationship as professional.

Now, then, if we had talked politics or religion we'd of been at extreme odds, and it would have colored the reason we were together in a harmful way. Rather than working cooperatively towards a goal, an element of adversity would have been introduced.

I'm just trying to keep the same vibe here. Heck, you're a VW guy, and I'd love for you to go to my Nieuport thread and give your insight on my Diehl case over charging issue, and would accept your opinion with gratitude. More importantly, I'd like to keep the friendly Internet style relationship we have intact to where you'd want to.