Wolfgang and another person made themselves feel much better by explaining that it "probably" was created by a small plane that had been commissioned to commemorate my friend's memory. (Ebbie)

Memory, Ebbie, is a funny thing. We recall according to our prejudices or preconceived ideas and very rarely as it actually was. Mudcat allows the comparison of what you recall today with how it actually was some time ago.

What someone else, not me, had actually written was:
On the other hand - maybe Earl knew a sky-writer who had their own spectacular way of saying goodbye.
Or maybe it was Earl.
We can only form our own opinions from what Ebbie tells us.

In a later post I said I did like the sky-writer explanation.
I never gave this explanation by myself as you make sound it.
I not even gave any hint why I said I did like the explanation and whether I considered it probable. This connection was never on record here it has only been formed in your head. At that time I had not even thought about how probable that explanation might be, I applauded its creativity. Like I can say to a student: "Your explanation is wrong, but I like it."

No mention of 'probably' which you make look as if it is a quote.
No mention of 'commissioned', the explanation assumes that the skywriter did it just by himself.
Furcone (the poster) actually did give this particular explanation only as one of two.

You misunderstand the word 'explanation' when used by a scientist, Ebbie. All these explanations are tentative on basis of the facts as know at that moment. All these explanations are made in the sense of 'possible'. If more details become known, some explanations are ruled out and others may gain power.

When you tell us about something that happened in Mudcat, Ebbie, we can use the search function to check what you recall against how it was. When you tell us about something else we have only you memory.

Wolfgang