In article <20010822163835.09113.00004...@mb-mp.aol.com>,
justjef...@aol.comnojunk says...

I hear that from a lot of people. Here is something about Chuck: I showed up
wearing the colours of his arch enemy, Jim. Chuck met me face to face and showed
me his side of the Conn-job story man to man. Chuck invited me to come fly the
Hawk. We weren't able to do that, because of my schedule.

Chuck did that despite knowing that Jim would probably prevent me from writing
anything positive about his plane (which Jim has praised extravagantly himself.
Too extravagantly: one of Chuck's beefs with Jim is that Jim claimed to have
done acro in Chuck's demo Hawk, and Chuck says he and a bunch of people watched
the flight and no acro was done. I dunno if the S-man articulates it quite that
way but I think that bogus praise is not much more use than bogus insult).

Chuck also told me at some length about Hawks' excellent results in European
competition (a Spanish team, flying Hawks, did very well... I think I wrote the
details down but I don't remember them at present). He told me that Jim would
not let me write the story. I meant to beard Jim about this but we wound up in a
long discussion of many events from Jim's past that are not germane here.

Anyway, for every detractor I hear of (even Jim can't fill a hand with them,
counting on his fingers) there are many more satisfied Hawk drivers. Chuck has
numerous repeat customers, which is unlikely for someone who's a crook. People
can use their own judgment on this: which is more likely, that a guy who's a
crook has thrived in this small, gossipy business for years or that a guy who's
sold something like 1500 planes over the years (I don't think even Chuck knows
the exact number) has one or two crank customers?

As far as CGS having gone through some rough times, show me an UL/Lightplane
maker that hasn't. The Conn thing is an illustration of how decently Chuck tried
to deal with a rough-times problem, and at the same time an illustration of how
people can get completely at cross-purposes without any ill intentions.

Nobody in this business really makes money. Even the real crooks like OMAC and
Dennis Fetters would have done better to work their scams in penny stocks
instead. (And for that matter, I don't think that the OMAC principals, the
Mihaylos, and Fetters started out to be crooks. They just painted themselves
into a corner where crookedness looked like a smart move).

cheers

-=K=-

Rule #3: Faith can move mountains. Your aeroplane cannot.