♪♪
[LOGAN SHEPARD] You have to, first of all understand
that you know nothing.
You have to know how to do everything.
And you also have to learn
to embrace that
you can't do everything.
It really takes
a huge attention to detail.
You can't interpret it how you want.
It needs to be how it actually is.
♪♪
I follow the Museum of
Flight and we have a job listing.
And I looked at that
and it was like
the universe talked to me for a second.
Every day I come to work, it still...
It blows me away
what legends I work among.
You really can't necessarily
put a time frame on
some of the restoration.
Something simple
that may have taken a factory
a week to do now
may take a year or three years to do.
You talk about perfection,
we got a little bit step past that.
[AUSTIN BALLARD] 1966.
So I would watch planes
fly over all the time,
but they were off at a distance.
One day,
while I was out in the front yard, two
Grumman Bearcat came over
the top of our house 300 feet.
Just scared the bejesus out of me.
I ran in the house,
but I didn't get through the door before
I turned around to see where it went.
That's where it started.
It was just in my blood at that point,
and I couldn't shake it.
The other end of the building,
we have a de Havilland Comet.
♪♪
It's been under restoration
going on almost 20 years now.
Inside is beautiful.
You want to talk about the passion
of our volunteers, their commitment.
This was by volunteers.
These guys were so dedicated to
basically get this
derelict machine back to
condition is just blows my mind.
To see the job that they've done
is phenomenal.
That right there is proof positive.
All been redone.
This aircraft
looks like the day it did before
it's... almost its first flight.
We're really proud.
The volunteers
have really put in a lot of work
to get it back into this condition.
And I really miss those guys. A lot of them
are gone now, but
the legacy
they left behind
is what you're
what you're going
to chance to look at now.
And I wish you could see the pride
on their face once it got to this point.
And we're all able to kind of step back
and take a look at the work
that was accomplished.
♪♪
[LOGAN SHEPARD] You have to be excited
and you have to be willing to work
extremely hard, work
sometimes harder than you ever have.
You have to be able to go home
with a sore back
and sore feet or a headache or hands,
but know that what you're doing,
you're sacrificing for it,
but you're sacrificing for a future
that you're not going to get to see.
Well, I'm doing right now
its going to outlive all of us.
It's that dedication
that the future generations
can see
and learn and understand
the importance of our history
and what it actually was.
Not a fictitious illusion of it
or just a picture.
The actual history.
(mist spraying)
The amount of passion to be dedicated to
this career
is about the same passion as someone who
believes in superheroes.
It's like going to Disneyland
for your first time, but you do it
five days a week, 8 hours a day.
If you ever get used to it,
you should not be doing this career.
Aviation gives people hope,
and with hope you can have a dream.
And with a dream, you can do anything.
[AUSTIN BALLARD] I think every kid can understand
the new bicycle in the window.
You basically daydream about that thing.
You may never get it,
but that doesn't stop the passion,
the pride that you get from seeing
the outcome of a successful build.
And then to watch it
go on all through the world is
breathtaking.
Almost undescribable.
And just to be able to say
here to the next generation, next
to three
or four generations,
this is what it was like.
And I think we all share that same desire
to leave something behind
that other people
can try to identify.
That's what I want to do.
I want to do something for
future kids,
what aviation has done for me.
♪♪
Watch CityStream, Tuesday nights
at 7 on the Seattle Channel.
Or find us anytime online
at SeattleChannel.org.
♪♪