"It'll Do Until He Finds Honest Work..."
You don't have to be crazy to work here... but it helps. Kevin
O'Brien has that covered. One of the more colorful and
knowledgeable stringers that ANN has been fortunate enough to work
with, Kevin is joining ANN's Senior Staff and drawing a regular
paycheck (which, in the aviation world, is something of a news item
in and of itself...).
Kevin is taking two very different sets of responsibilities with
ANN. He will now be a scheduled contributor to ANN each week
specially in regards to investigative pieces, interviews and focus
pieces... making sure that we have the top issues, stories,
airplane ans personnel front and center in the news each day.
In addition to that, he's taking on the immense job of editing
and updating the databases for the next MONSTROUS Edition of Jim
Campbell's SportPlane Resource Guide (LOTS more
details coming up SOON on that)... the most comprehensive guide
ever offered to the sport flying public. As the Sport Pilot regs
finally become a reality and the aviation world takes on some new
tones and capabilities, it seemed to us that a massive and
comprehensive update to the 1100 page SportPlane Resource Guide was
a good idea. Over 800 aircraft were documented and/or reviewed in
the last guide. The next edition promises to be even more
comprehensive, and feature even more aircraft, and will be
particularly fine-tuned to the new reality of a post-Sport Pilot
aviation world.
Special
Note: For those of you with planes, products or services
that might need to be included in the next edition of the
SportPlane Resource Guide, we'll let you know
shortly how to make sure that your information is properly
represented. If you have comments or questions in the
meantime, click HERE, or please use the "FMI" Link
below...
These are two immensely important parts of ANN's future (but as
you'll shortly find out, just the tip of the iceberg... 2005 is
going to be a VERY active year for ANN). So... we really needed a
heavy hitter for these jobs... and Kevin is the right guy.
Kevin O'Brien (otherwise known for various sordid reasons as
"Hognose"), is a multi-talented individual who grew up in a
flying family. Medically disqualified from flying in the military,
he wound up jumping out of planes instead and qualified for Special
Forces by the simple expedient of dating the gal that ran the
opthalmology lab. Yeah, there was training and stuff, but the
hardest part was getting a guy for whom the big "E" was a blur,
certified at 20/20. It's typical of Hognose that his solution was
unconventional, contravened numerous regulations (he thought Tony
Kern's Darker Shades of Blue: the Rogue Pilot was a bio of him),
and was plenty of fun at the same time.
After leaving the Army in 1987, he stayed in the Reserves and
Guard while having a number of entertaining professions. He taught
school, wrote manuals and designed interfaces for a machine tool
company, learned network engineering, participated in a few
startups, made and lost a fortune. He sits on corporate boards and
still is hanging on in the Guard, which rewarded him with an
all-expenses-almost-paid trip to Afghanistan in 2002/2003. "One
weekend a month, my eye," he says... The deployment drove a stake
in the heart of his own network design company, so now he's trying
to decide what to do when he grows up. Until then, working with ANN
will just have to do...
Welcome aboard, Kevin!
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