I happen to really love flying Beechcraft, and I even own an old one, one of the first Barons made. And I flew into Wichita with the owner of a still-almost-new A36 once...he was a dealer for Beech, one of many sidelines, in another country. They rolled out the red carpet for him [prearranged meeting, which is why we went there]. They completely ignored me, the pilot who was flying the planes he had for personal use. Not that the pilot, just an employee, is usually treated like a king or anything, but they said something like, "Long flight for you [my employer], thanks for coming, let's get a light lunch then we'll get to work." One person said, you [me, the pilot] can go sit out front, meaning the lobby. An experienced guy, me, I'd brought a lunch in my flight bag so went out to the Bonanza and got it as they all left and there I was, no food around. It wasn't a huge deal, just sort of weird. We'd been all standing there, together, maybe a half dozen of us, and they all shook hands with the boss and actually moved between him and me and moved me back toward the door. Later, the "boss" came out and said he was embarrassed at how they were treating me but that he'd be done in a little while, etc., we could try to borrow a car and get me to a restaurant somewhere. I said I was ok, don't bother. I am a very laid back sort of person and don't get rattled by such things, and I might have an odd sense of humor, but I got to laughing about it. Really stupid. Flying back, lots of time to kill, he said, "Well, the deal went great, but I still can't fathom that they wouldn't even shake hands with you...." Like I said, no big deal, just stupid.
