In a refreshing break from today’s cut and thrust of commercial aviation politics, Melbourne professional photographer and self-confessed casual planespotter Steven Pam is on a mission to find out what turns ordinary people into obsessive aviation enthusiasts.
“A lot of my ‘normal’ friends think it’s strange that I look up and point whenever an aeroplane flies past, but just about anyone who’s a regular at airshows is exactly the same,” Pam said. “It got me thinking… what turns ordinary people into avgeeks? Is it in our DNA, or it something about those first encounters with the magic of flight that is addictive, in certain circumstances?”
Pam plans to shoot an independent documentary at next year’s EAA Airventure event in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, featuring some of the characters he meets at the week-long festival of flight. Airventure attracts upwards of half a million people, some of whom have been going for forty years or more.
Pam is financing the project with crowd-funding platform Kickstarter, which recently opened to Australian-based projects. Rewards for backers range from pre-sales of the completed movie for $15, up to an executive producer credit at $5,000. Backers’ credit cards are only charged if the funding goal of $14,500 is met by December 23.
More information is available at www.airheadsdocumentary.com
