"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!

FMI: Comments About The Next Edition Of The SportPlane Resource Guide