Fly Me Friendly

I got the word from John that the Victorian chapter of the Aviation Historical Society of Australia was having a Christmas BBQ at Moorabbin airport (YMMB) today. So, I went down to hang out, meet new people and spread the word about our podcast.

It was definitely worth while as I definitely got to meet some interesting people, including Keith Meggs (founding member of the AHSA & current president) and Dr Carlo Kopp, a defence analyst who’s work I’ve been reading for a very long time. Dr Kopp is one of the founders of Air Power Australia, an independent defence think tank.

After a few hours chatting with a number of the people there, I headed off to the Australian National Aviation Museum to catch up with what might be new and on display. I’ve been a member for a while although I’d lapsed and not renewed my fees for a few years – ooops. I renewed recently as part of my DC3 excursion to Albury (yes, I need to write that adventure up – sorry – been busy :) and sorted out the back fees so I’m definitely current now :)

Going through their book pile, I found a number that included biographies, novels and historical narratives. After buying a stack of them, I noticed more in a pile waiting to be put out on display. Guess I’ll be going back again after payday to buy some more :)

The other task I have after I get paid is to join the AHSA as it would seem I may be able to help them with getting their print, audio & video archives online. While I’m certainly no historian, I do enjoy reading biographies & historical narratives and am definitely a big fan of capturing & preserving history online for people to access.

I’ll keep you posted on how all this progresses :)

A while ago a friend of mine sent me an SMS saying they’d finally found the cause of my problems:

“Aeroneurophycosis: in which the sufferer developes a sexual atraction to aircraft”

Yup – that sure summed it up. I used the word a few times with friends (who all agreed entirely that it certainly seemed an accurate diagnosis) and even let Steve Tupper over at Airspeed Online know it could be used as a “high brow” version of the phrase “Aviation Wood” he occasionally refers to.

Shame it’s not a real psychiatric term.

It was on Wikipedia for a while but then was deleted and now just shows up in their list of deleted articles with freaky titles.

Of course, that doesn’t mean we can’t use it :)

Searches are starting to find it appearing in Twitter feeds (not all of them mine or ones I have any say in :) and on blogs here and there. So, if you find the word amusing and believe it could describe the strange attraction you (or someone you know) may have for aircraft, why not start using it. Let’s see if we can’t give the word some support out here on the ‘net.

After all, it really does sound like a great, succicnt description of what so many fans of aviation are like around aircraft.