Estate Service for Stunt Flyers

[proparc]

Some time back, Allen Brickhaus posted on the Stunthanger Forum, about how Jim Kosteckys family burned all of his planes and equipment after his death. I personally was deeply troubled by that and I still am.

As all of us are aware, we are an aging demographic. Consequently, we are all quite used to reading about the passing of one of ranks on a not so infrequent basis.

While Pampa is a S.I.G. established for the purpose of governing CLPA activity in the United States, I don't see why it can't establish some sort of an "arm" for administering something as fundamental as its members legacy, if that is what person or persons so chooses to do.

In the case of someone like the late Jim Kostecky, it wasn't just "some airplanes" that were destroyed; quite possibly, a part of our collective history went up in flames as well. I am quite sure that if the late George Aldrich's Nobler ended up in a trash heap, (which it didn't for goodness sake) that would have made us all a little bit poorer.

While we tend to argue about flap size and line lengths, maybe we should stop and take a look at the possibility of an "Estate Administering Service" for our members.

[Marvin Denny]

  Not a good idea.  Too much chance for some sort of litigation from disgruntaled family members who think something may be worth more than the estate handler is asking.  Wills and letters of desire have been challenged many times and are ALWAYS expensive to defend with lawyers involved.

  Bigiron

[Alan Hahn]

When a  really beloved club member passed away, his wife was determined to sell his stuff as fast as possible. I think we slowed her down a little so she could sell it at a more reasonable price. We were really worried that the vultures would descend and buy the stuff for almost nothing. Fred K. even researched e-bay to come up with what some of the stuff was actually selling for.

Now this wasn't the point of this post. What is was that it struck me that these model things I value aren't necessarily the highest most important items in my family's life---what a surprise!

My own belief if that if you have something which you really value, and that you want to go on after you move on, give it to someone who would really value it---before you kick the bucket! If this is a son or daughter or wife, so much the better, but I don't think you should assume that your family will necessarily value your "stuff" as much as they did you.

My 2 cents.