Does anyone have a polite way of shutting up a know-it-all? This guy never fails to attend and he has an answer for everything and 99.999999999% is complete balder-dash. The thing is.....he believes his own garbage! I'm afraid that someone that doesn't know what he's all about will overhear some of his dribble and put it into practice. Have anyone of you good folks run accross someone like this in your club and how did you/club deal with them? My last resort will be to just leave the club, but I hope it doesn't come to that! Thanks

Having the ammunition (correct information) to throw doubt on the statements he makes is always a good retort.
I will have to be careful using the word ammunition for you guy's in the US .

Does this person fly alot? Nine times out of ten, the people that
bench fly are not very good. Do your homework on the subjects
that matter and respectfully disagree when this person lets his
battleship mouth overload his sailboat rear-end. Don't leave
the club! A person like this, will almost always hang himself with
his own BS. Just be patient and the problem will take care
of itself. As far as others taking bad information.......I don't
know that you can prevent it except to point out bad advice
as it becomes reality.

Best regards,
Andy

To answer your question.......no he doesn't fly alot. He doesn't own transport or his own plane/radio. The situation is rather delicate as he is of poor means financially and apparently grew up under less than desirable circumstances. I understand the reason why he spouts off at the mouth.......I'm just stymied as to how to go about silencing him without destroying him personally. The Brit offered a possible solution.......a bullet, hmmm, I think not. I'll save that for deer and bear at least they're edible!

lol, I think "The Brit" meant to use knowledge as ammuntion. If the guy dosn't own a plane then why is he a club member? What does he fly? Or is it just some guy that shows up, a non- member, and bothers everyone with a bunch of useless BS? If you know it's wrong then tell him. Maybe if it's done often enough he will put his tail between his legs and go away.

Sean

All clubs have one, the newguy may listen once but thats it. Newbee's are not as dumb as some would belive. Just ignore the guy and he will self destruct sooner or later.-Mike

I agree, just let him spout his crap. We've got one at our field. We pretty much band together and "keep an eye" on him. If we see him talking to new people we'll either walk over and steer him away from the new people, or talk to the new people after he's done BS'ing them and explain what's going on. If enough of you keep an eye out you can pretty much prevent him from "spoiling" new people.

Seems to me, now you have explained the circumstances, that this fella needs to be heared and be at the centre of attention. I think that publicly "shooting him down" will only exasperate the problem. How about making him the centre of attention by all clubbing your "old" equipment and presenting him with a flyable model and Tx, show him that you know his dilema and simpathise with his needs. Its a long shot and I ain't no therapist, but you never know til you try.

Reminder to Self Stop using "ammunition" and "shooting" in my statements

I understood the first statement about the ammunition, but if the second statement, concerning ammunition and guys in the U.S., wasn't wet with sarcasm, then I'm mistaken. Must have been a stab regarding recent hostilities involving the U.S. and a certain other country that should remain nameless. Anyway......back on subject........the know-it-all uses the club's trainer/radio combination. Our club has yearly dues of $20 which entitles any member and their family the use of the club's radio and plane. (Providing they are responsible for all repairs and consumables.) So this is how this unemployed 30-something-year-old can end up in the club at all! He's also the one that quickly approaches any curious onlooker and invades their personal space by standing too close and usually scares them off with his touchy-feely, know-it-all mentality.

there are people at school who i get annoyed at (obnoxious girls to be exact) and whenever i get made at them, every female will get mad at me [:@] So if i were you get some ear plugs

I usually listen for a bit, Then my favorite saying, Man.. They said
the wind will be coming up, I need more practice time... Or I have
to get back up, I'm have trouble doing XXXXXX and I want to work
on it..... Sometime the last one invites more advise... So I listen a
little longer.. Then I kindly say, I think I can pick that up better by
just doing it... And if they follow you while flying... Now let me
concentrate.... All stays in good standing... And they will pick up
the message sooner or later, and understand when enough is
enough.. At least it has worked for me... And the main thing is we
are still friends!!!

The high lighted above seems to be the best advice given, if you use it it'll make you all feel better. If a club won't help a fellow member, then who will they help. It also sounds like you think you have more right to be there than he does, could it be the fact that he doesn't have a job thats eating at you?

I'm always careful anymore of these "know-it-alls". We had a guy come to our field one time and he offered advice on corrections for any and all problems on engines, planes, radios or flying. You name it. I waited to see if he really could fly. He turned out to be one of the best pilots I've ever seen at our field. And he advise on everything it turned out was very sound. He had a big mouth, but really did know what he was talking about. He could really back it up! But alas. He moved out of State and we never again could take advantage of his knowledge.

Guys...Everybody has feelings and this guy wants to be liked, especially considering his circumstances. Give him a break, life is too short to let things upset you this much. There are people like this everywhere, just ignore his advice and maybe he will tone it down. Maybe he just needs a friend.

I've found that the so called "know it alls" are generally old club members....bascially, your average old fart. Knows all about engines,
flying, building, etc. etc. etc. These are the guys who are so tight that they could squeeze the **** out of a buffalo nickel. And with all the gist they spew out, the only plane they bring to the field is a beat up trainer that is a refugee from the scrap yard. I generally pay no heed. If I have a question, there are a number of guys in each of the clubs I belong to or, I ask the question here.

Dave...

Just politely ignore him (if you show any anger or annoyance, you've lost the effect). Then, just ask your question to someone else.

If he starts to venture an opinion without being asked, just politely say 'Thanks' and walk away. Sooner or later, one of the club regulars will shoot him down.

As someone said earlier, every club has one... don't let it spoil your flying fun or leave the club because of one guy. The rest of the guys in the club are probably great people. No reason to leave them (or the hobby) behind.

If you are polite and calm, and walk away, it will drive him nuts.

I hope that this helps.

Bob

The quoted statement says it all. This person has found something he likes that makes him feel good. This person has grown up in a difficult situation and probably does not even realize what he is doing because no one has either never been able to get the point across politely to him or even has taken the time to show him.

Now there is a lot that we do not know and trying to judge this one based on what information we all know up to this point is difficult at best. We really do not know what happened while he was growing up, we do not know why he is financially strapped and/or out of work.

I agree with Merlin on his statement:

He pays his dues, he is going through a bad time and if the members of the club can band a little bit together and follow Merlins advice, you might just be surprised.

Now on the other hand he may not know any better and once this is done then he will keep asking for and expecting help with everything. This is a risk, just like in everything else we do in our lives.

I have a thread in this forum that does this very thing and I have met allot of great people and have also seen the odd person take advantage of the fantastic generosity of that thread. The people that have given their time and effort in that thread understand this and do it openly full aware of the problems that can arise but they continue to give freely.

My point is this, most people in situations that this person appears to be in respond well if just given a reasonable chance. People are generally good natured and well meaning and we should not be so quick to judge.

Flame me if you wish but before you do go and read the Pay it Forward thread that is pinned at the top of the beginners forum or follow the link in my signature. One of the posts in this thread was made by a gentleman that can attest to everything I have suggested or said. He was one of the people that PIF helped and he now helps as best he can which is the true meaning of Pay it Forward (PIF).

All in all, the quote Kill him with kindness ]NOT TO BE TAKEN AS ACTUALLY DOING BODILY HARM works wonders.

Kindness has been extended on many occasions (rides to and from the field, dues paid on his behalf, inviting him to share meals with the family, giving him leads on jobs.....etc.) I'm not steamed because he doesn't have a job and I'm not even angry with him. As I asked in my original question.....how can I politely shut him up? I don't think charity is always the answer. I'm just looking for a gentle way to help him out. It's called intervention......and it works. I'm just looking for diplomatic words here. I"m not the judgemental, ****** you're making me out to be...lol. If I was, I would have told him to shut up and get a job/life and leave me alone! But being the sensitive lout that I am.....I didn't. So mellow out fellas.


Reason for edit: watch the language guys!

XSDEVOTEE

I was not going at you personally and I do apologize. You are also correct, I never really did answer your question. Now that we know those kinds of things have been done then it seems as though he does not wish to help himself. That's ashame.

Sometimes the best way is to ignore him when he does things like that. But that is hard for someone that is very polite, as you and I know

The other piece of advice I agree with is call him on something you know he is saying that is incorrect and proving him wrong in the process, the problem is you may have to do it publicily so he gets the message and that probably goes against your principles and may even fail if he is as hard headed as he sounds.

Something like, assume he is tellng someone how to execute a manuver and you know for a fact that the desciption he is giving will not work. Politely intervene saying something like I know you 2 are talking but may I offer another suggestion? and offer to take your plane up several mistakes high and execute the manuver exactly as he is describing it and have him watch your sticks so he can verify that you are in fact doing it his way. Now when the plane responds to the inputs but not the way it was supposed to based on his description, recover, tell the person he was describing this to that this is the way it should be done and do it the way you know is proper, again having both him and the person he was explaining it incorrectly watching the sticks. You may have to do it twice so they can see the sticks and the plane. This has worked for me but it does go against my principles of doing this sort of thing publicily.

Hopefully, he will get the message, but I kinda doubt it. As far as an exact way to intervene, that all depends on the exact situation so that is really hard to nail down, at least for me as I could do it well if I was right there.

And yes, I have reversed myself, but now I know that all of the suggestions about helping the guy out have done absolutely no good

bubba, Great advice...

ROFLMAO, our club know-it-all owns a 30ft scale replica of an aircraft carrier, and he's a 9!T.

No thats a BIG mouth


If that is true I would love to see that replica. Does it float??? Is there a pic??? Are the elevators functional???

It floats, even with him in it. I think he's the only one with pics, but he did take it to our splash-in a few years ago and some guys were trying to land on it. He thought he could bring it along whenever he wanted and just dump it in the loch so he was told in no uncertain terms to bring it back. He was touring the UK boat meets showing it off but I think the noveltys gone now.

Unless he's modded it the elevators ain't working, but he was working on some warbirds for flying off it.

That's pretty good

We had this guy that used to come to our field that was the same way. Always telling everyone how to fly and what they needed to do. One guy landed kind of hard but nothing was broken. Here he comes telling him "you need to use this mix and that mix..etc." A little while later "know it all" was trying to land his plane and broke the landing gear off. The guy he just flamed walked up and asked him exactly what mix he used to do that. He got the point...haven't seen him since.