On Fri, 02 Jan 2004 21:12:03 GMT EDR wrote:

I do some of my best thinking while flying along in the Champ at 500
feet AGL.
The latest realization to hit me was, "What am I going to leave behind
in the way of an aviation legacy?"

Photographs are one of the easiest most efficient ways to share our
flying experiences with other, so that is one of the obvious choices.

I have been contemplating purchasing a digital camera, but the ones
that have the features I want cost in excess of $1000, and I already
have a couple nice 35mm SLR's and assortment of lenses.

Have you checked out the Canon digital Rebel $1000 ?
Can use the EOS EF lenses, albeit a change in focal length.

There is no digital storage media today that will guarantee more than
15 years without degredation and ink jet printer ink fades relatively
quickly. Digital formatting, storage and retrieval standards are
constantly changing.

I have photographic prints and negatives from my father that date back
to the 1940's, from both his military and civilian flying days. Plus, I
have thousands of my own photos taken during the last 25 years of
Oshkosh, Sun N Fun, local flyins and travels.

The realization that struck me was this... film is the best medium I
have to preserve a representative photographic history of my aviation
life. It will endure long after I am gone and the means to present and
display it will be equally long lived.


I guess that's an age old question. It got me thinking though. Why do we
feel the need to "leave" something behind? Why not enjoy the journey
and instill in as many others the freedom and enjoyment that flying brings
to us homo sapiens. For all the people I know that have passed along, my
memories of them are what I enjoy best and regard most fondly.



R. Hubbell