question Is this Covid or ???

[Mike Gearon]

Maybe I’m a sample here.... haven’t been near the site in months. A bit excited now because I hope to come home late October. I hope to pick up the Nynja I purchased from Vince headling for a year ago. Even purchased the Bose headphones I’d been avoiding. Arrived in Taiwan last week. Purchased an ultralight. Ready for post covid adventure...

[shajen]

I also think this is a brilliant site. Like many others, I don’t post much, but there is often questions others ask that I find interesting.

[eightyknots]

Maybe I’m a sample here.... haven’t been near the site in months. A bit excited now because I hope to come home late October. I hope to pick up the Nynja I purchased from Vince headling for a year ago. Even purchased the Bose headphones I’d been avoiding. Arrived in Taiwan last week. Purchased an ultralight. Ready for post covid adventure...

 

We are ready for your posts too!

[pmccarthy]

I don’t know about other people, but I like to get a bit of feedback from a post. We are stuck at home in isolation and looking for relationships however tenuous. A like is appreciated. A comment much more. Without them it is easy to become disheartened and then why bother.

[shajen]

Kynetons a nice little airport. Ive been a few times now to have lunch with my girlfriend. Love doing that type of thing. Hopefully in the next week or two?

[RFguy]

People are distracted from their discretionary pursuits right now. People are distracted by the change of routines.

 

In other interest forums and sites I am involved in (ham radio , robotics etc) I have seen similar declines in activity.

 

The Covid phenonomen has changed life for the moment. People are not flying as much, and reduced flying may directly affect forum interest. IE I have seen people l (in other interests/hobbies just move their time and interest temporarily onto something else, that they can do.

Also, business wise, many business people have the fight of their lives on.

 

I think this is a great site, and has an enormous repository of information in past topics, which I have now referenced extensively.

[eightyknots]

People are distracted from their discretionary pursuits right now. People are distracted by the change of routines.

 

In other interest forums and sites I am involved in (ham radio , robotics etc) I have seen similar declines in activity.

 

The Covid phenonomen has changed life for the moment. People are not flying as much, and reduced flying may directly affect forum interest. IE I have seen people l (in other interests/hobbies just move their time and interest temporarily onto something else, that they can do.

Also, business wise, many business people have the fight of their lives on.

 

I think this is a great site, and has an enormous repository of information in past topics, which I have now referenced extensively.

 

There is a h-u-g-e amount of useful information on this site!

 

(sometimes, it is a bit hard to find what is needed)

[skippydiesel]

I feel for those youngins who have the desire to fly commercially it's pretty much a dead end road for the foreseeable future?

 

Just think of the "down stream" impacts on flight training and aircraft hire - There will b a "glut" of highly trained pilots, all looking for a job. No room for the "up and coming" . Even the economy will be depressed so fewer aspiring private/recreational students. Not the time to be in flight training ! Me thinks CV-19 will continue to negatively impact all aspects of the aviation sector, for at least 5 years (from end) and may still be being felt for 10 years.

[eightyknots]

I don’t know about other people, but I like to get a bit of feedback from a post. We are stuck at home in isolation and looking for relationships however tenuous. A like is appreciated. A comment much more. Without them it is easy to become disheartened and then why bother.

 

I like it ...and I liked it. ?

[onetrack]

Eightyknots - Finding information on any website is better done using Google Search. Google's Search algorithms are the best around, they beat every websites own search engine, hands-down.

Just type into Google Search, "recreational flying: xxxxxxxxx", where "xxxxxxxxxx" is the subject you're searching for.

If you get no worthwhile results first up, change the search words around or alter them to other words that the post may have in it.

Google Search will pick up key phrases, part names, part numbers, common names for items, and regularly-used terms.

[FlyBoy1960]

Just think of the "down stream" impacts on flight training and aircraft hire - There will b a "glut" of highly trained pilots, all looking for a job. No room for the "up and coming" . Even the economy will be depressed so fewer aspiring private/recreational students. Not the time to be in flight training ! Me thinks CV-19 will continue to negatively impact all aspects of the aviation sector, for at least 5 years (from end) and may still be being felt for 10 years.

 

 

The flight training school at our airfield at Jacobs Well Flight Training – Gold Coast Sport Flying Club Inc is absolutely flat out, they now have three planes and about four instructors. I don't know if this is typical of the rest of Australia but these guys are knocking out huge hours.

[NT5224]

The harsh reality is that most of them are just not interested. The quota crowd hate to acknowledge this, but it's the reality. The more choice people have the greater the differences between the sexes.

 

Hmmm...Gonna grasp the nettle here. Its hard to generalise about who is and isnt interested in flying. These days the right seat (and left seat) of many Airlines have female aircrew. My wife also flies and I reckon we make a great team in the cockpit with complementary qualities...

 

Lots of female instructors around too. Im inclined to think increasing opportunity and encouragement has led to the growing proportion of female aviators. I for one would like to encourage many more to join our ranks. Im sure they make really good pilots and their presence in the community makes Fly-ins and other events more enjoyable when its not just us crusty old blokes...!

 

A whole different perspective.

 

Alan

[M61A1]

Hmmm...Gonna grasp the nettle here. Its hard to generalise about who is and isnt interested in flying. These days the right seat (and left seat) of many Airlines have female aircrew. My wife also flies and I reckon we make a great team in the cockpit with complementary qualities...

 

Lots of female instructors around too. Im inclined to think increasing opportunity and encouragement has led to the growing proportion of female aviators. I for one would like to encourage many more to join our ranks. Im sure they make really good pilots and their presence in the community makes Fly-ins and other events more enjoyable when its not just us crusty old blokes...!

 

A whole different perspective.

 

Alan

One can only generalise, of course there are always exceptions.

I'm happy for them to do it if that's what they want to do, but in the most egalitarian countries where there are no boundaries and all the choices, 80% of women still choose jobs that involve people and 80% of men still choose jobs working with things.

What I don't want is someone who really didn't want to be there but was pushed, or chosen to be there because of their genitalia.

Anyone younger makes a pleasant change at most fly-ins, it bothers me a lot that at most fly-ins that I'm amongst the younger ones and I'm in my 50s.

[eightyknots]

Eightyknots - Finding information on any website is better done using Google Search. Google's Search algorithms are the best around, they beat every websites own search engine, hands-down.

Just type into Google Search, "recreational flying: xxxxxxxxx", where "xxxxxxxxxx" is the subject you're searching for.

If you get no worthwhile results first up, change the search words around or alter them to other words that the post may have in it.

Google Search will pick up key phrases, part names, part numbers, common names for items, and regularly-used terms.

 

Thanks onetrack, I will definitely try that!

[NT5224]

One can only generalise, of course there are always exceptions.

I'm happy for them to do it if that's what they want to do, but in the most egalitarian countries where there are no boundaries and all the choices, 80% of women still choose jobs that involve people and 80% of men still choose jobs working with things.

What I don't want is someone who really didn't want to be there but was pushed, or chosen to be there because of their genitalia.

Anyone younger makes a pleasant change at most fly-ins, it bothers me a lot that at most fly-ins that I'm amongst the younger ones and I'm in my 50s.

Hey I totally agree.

 

But my point is that the 20% today has grown from 5% in the 70s, and the greater opportunity and support we can offer and the more we can adjust expectations that its Ok to be woman in aviation, the better.

 

Last night my wife and I attended the CASA safety seminar in Darwin. Of thirty pilots only three were female. The other two were younger women flying commercially and my wife had a chat with them. She also (typically) had a good banter with all the boys and enjoyed poking a bit of fun at them.?

 

Alan

[spacesailor]

I read somewhere that the Chinese were doing virus research in Canada but were told to go.

Now another story has come to light that all is Not as we were told !.

" The revelation that the Wuhan Institute was experimenting on bats from the area already known to be the source of

COVID-19 - and doing so with American money - has sparked further fears that the lab, " wuFlu.txt

" Doctor Li-Meng Yan, who published a study undermining the origin theory that coronavirus naturally occurred,

Told Fox News it did not come from nature.

“This is created in the lab,” she told Fox News. ". WuFlu2.txt.

spacesailor

wIfLU2.txt

WuFlu.txt

[cscotthendry]

I started on this site when I was building the Nynja kit plane. I found it very valuable for info about how aircraft work and about aviation regs etc. Since I finished and sold the Nynja, my interest in the site has waned a bit, but I still visit regularly. The guy who was the Skyranger dealer told me that interest in kit building had dropped so low that he effectively stopped the dealership. It was costing him a lot of money for advertising and insurance and the kits weren't selling.

I wonder if the drop in interest in building is related to increasing regulation of recreational aircraft and that in turn is related to a drop in interest in the forums.

BTW, I have noticed an increase in discussions about regulations in a lot of the threads I read, but that is just anecdotal evidence not backed by any statistical analysis.

[turboplanner]

I wonder if the drop in interest in building is related to increasing regulation of recreational aircraft and that in turn is related to a drop in interest in the forums.

BTW, I have noticed an increase in discussions about regulations in a lot of the threads I read, but that is just anecdotal evidence not backed by any statistical analysis.

From the time Recreational Aviation escaped the 300' ceiling and border fences thanks to exemptions allowed by CASA, there hasn't been the huge increase in regulations that some people claim, but mainly detail changes where liability has been moved from the Federal Government to the pilots, and where changes have been made to comply with ICAO procedures.

 

If you fly from a country strip where most of the day there is no one else and the circuit and you fly locally around your airport, I doubt you would really notice the changes.

 

Similarly in the automotive world in Victoria we had the Motor Car Act 1958 which was very simple and easy to understand, but since then supplementary Acts have been introduced for much the same reasons, so a licence test is harder and you have to do 120 hours training to get a licence. Car driving and ownership is not dropping because and while there might be some forums, people don't usually spend time debating the latest changes, and carmera fines have removed the friction between the drivers and police.

 

What has changed radically in RA in the last decade or so is the shift in RA aircraft specifications, into a GA type aircraft, resulting in a desire to do what GA aircraft do - travel long distances. Ramp checks and fines suddenly made people aware that they had more obligations than to learn to manipulate the controls of an aircraft and happily just fly out in the country where no one else came. Suddenly they've been faced with a massive number of regulations by comparison to what they previously had to deal with around the paddocks. Even this year I've noticed some posters were not aware of the other regulators besides CASA; Airservices Australia and ATSB. Faced by that and after a scare of two flying long trips where some have had fuel exhaustions and many have had forced landings or weather delays, it's not surprising that they have drifted off to other recreational pastimes.

 

Certainly this site is dominated by discussions related to GA type aircraft and GA type flying, but last time I saw some figures RAA were quoting 12,000 RA members, so an increase rather than a decrease.

 

Building is slow with many problems that have to be solved, but the Savannah threads seem to have succeeded over the years and produced a lot of results in the form of fininshed aircraft, with lots of photos of fly ins.

 

To the people doing the building, those forums will be their lifeblood, but the threads are always going to be small.

[Old Koreelah]

I read somewhere that the Chinese were doing virus research in Canada but were told to go.

Now another story has come to light that all is Not as we were told !.

" The revelation that the Wuhan Institute was experimenting on bats from the area already known to be the source of

COVID-19 - and doing so with American money - has sparked further fears that the lab, " wuFlu.txt

" Doctor Li-Meng Yan, who published a study undermining the origin theory that coronavirus naturally occurred,

Told Fox News it did not come from nature.

“This is created in the lab,” she told Fox News. ". WuFlu2.txt.

spacesailor

Spacey that story is like the conspiracy theories that are causing people to do stupid things during this pandemic.

 

Check your sources: “I read it somewhere” and Fox News are equally unreliable.

[kgwilson]

I read somewhere that the Chinese were doing virus research in Canada but were told to go.

Now another story has come to light that all is Not as we were told !.

" The revelation that the Wuhan Institute was experimenting on bats from the area already known to be the source of

COVID-19 - and doing so with American money - has sparked further fears that the lab, " wuFlu.txt

" Doctor Li-Meng Yan, who published a study undermining the origin theory that coronavirus naturally occurred,

Told Fox News it did not come from nature.

“This is created in the lab,” she told Fox News. ". WuFlu2.txt.

spacesailor

The Chinese scientists were indeed deported from Canada. The stories on social media that then evolved regarding the scientist and experiments on bats and the virus being engineered and then escaping from the Lab were picked up by Trump and his dorks who were all raving about the evidence they had but did not disclose. It transpired that the stories were all based on conspiracies that did not exist. There has not been one single shred of evidence produced to support these.

[spacesailor]

It was on NSN morning news. ( whatever that implies )

spacesailor

[kgwilson]

I used the Aircraft usergroups section to post a Blog on my build and found that reading other Blogs helped a lot when I had a problem. The comments and support I got over the 4 years of the build were invaluable. Building is not for everyone and many get keen and buy a kit & then wonder why they made the decision after looking at the daunting process ahead of them.

 

Small wonder that 50% of kits never get finished. In saying that there are now many kits produced that in effect are just assembly kits with most parts already made such as the wings, fuselage & empenage. Bolt it all together, do the wiring and engine install, panel and paint and you are there. I find it hard to understand how they even meet the 51% rule, other than the often quoted statement that "When 90 % complete you have just 90% left to go". As mentioned by Turbo most RA aircraft have now moved into the GA area of style and performance with many outperforming GA aircraft. If you have the funds and desire it is hard to go past those beautifully finished plastic fantastics. I could have done that but it was the desire to build my own aircraft that had been in my head for more than 20 years that led me to a kit that had to be built from scratch. It was more the supply of materials and plans and that suited me totally & I have immense pride in the result. There will probably always be people with similar ideas but they are relatively few and far between.

[NT5224]

But back to Ians question.

 

I recently looked at two popular aviation related pages on facebook. My wife is a member of 'Bushflyers Down Under' Group.

 

I gotta admit I found the content banal. Some nice pictures and posts, but these largely restricted to a few high profile members -and the rest adulating. No real discussion of substance. The platform does not allow it, nor apparently does the attention span of the contributors.

 

Most of the members appear to be wannabees, lauding how great it is to fly a tail dragger with fat tyres, and how they'll soon be getting their own -and what an amazing aircraft it will be. Seriously, I think a high proportion of users are not aircraft owners or even pilots, just social media 'influencees'.

 

Is there a message for Ian here? Do all popular sites draw memberships from non participant followers just interested in the topic?

 

I love this site and the thoughtful and interesting contributions made. I read it every day. But I wont be swiping my wifes phone to look at BFDU again for a spell.

 

Alan

Edited September 17, 2020 by NT5224