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Editorial: Things we do for Love

By Tracy Crook. Originally published in the Rotary Aviation News Issue 3, 1998

You’ve no doubt been asked this question many times. “So, what do you do?” meaning of course, what’s your job. That was easy to answer back when I was an engineer working for the company now known as Lockheed Martin. Now I rather sheepishly reply that I run my own company, hoping that they were only asking to be polite and won’t pursue the issue. But inevitably some of them do and I am forced to explain that I design and produce products for converting Mazda rotary engines for use on experimental airplanes. “Really?”, some of them ask, “is there much money in that?”. It’s a pretty small niche market, I reply. You couldn’t make much of a living at it. “So you just do this part time then?”. Now feeling really lame, I tell them I put in about 60 to 80 hours a week. That’s usually the point at which they dismiss me as just another crackpot pursuing his improbable dream. Real World indeed.

You would think that the conversation would go much easier with fellow homebuilders but even then it sometimes takes an awkward turn. Take for instance the Longeze driver who advised me along the following lines. “You know Tracy, you ought to develop this EFI thing of yours for Lycoming engines. You’d sell a thousand of them in no time”.

The hell of it is, he could be right. There could be a fortune to be made but I somehow never got a proper grip on the connection between money and what I wanted. Some personal mental flaw does not allow me to get fired up about doing anything unless it is directly related to what I want. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that a job might allow me to earn the money to buy the airplane , house or whatever it is that I want at the moment. But no mater how hard I try, I don’t get the satisfaction of getting closer to my goal unless I am personally involved in building that thing. And I just don’t happen to want an EFI equipped Lycoming.

This brings to mind one of my favorite quotes. I am not certain of the context or the conversation that led up to it but I can just imagine Leonardo DaVinci talking with some would-be adviser. “Leo”, the adviser says, “You really need to develop this flying machine thing of yours. Think of the military uses to which such a machine could be put!. The King would pay you a fortune for it!”. So much for speculation on what prompted the quote, but Leonardo did say, “There is but one reason to explore this strange new machinery. For once you have tasted flight, you will walk the earth with eyes turned skyward. For there you have been and there you long to return.”

That Leonardo was my kind of guy.