Welcome at Flying Clubs
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: southern England
Age: 66
Posts: 139
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Maybe it is what you are like? I have never experienced this and have always been made welcome. If I'm around when the CFI has a trial flight to do, he will often leave me with the customer while he goes off to fuel up and do the paperwork. Sure I'm an evangelist for flying but I'm friendly and welcoming. People need their excitement charging up and to be told that they are going to have a great time, meet a host of nice people and get a lot of help and support but there is a perception which I share that you don't drift into flying, you really have to want to do it and therefore you will, come Hell or high water. You won't be easily scared off.
(On my first club night at HMFC, The chairwoman came up to me, welcomed me in and offered to buy me a drink. They haven't got rid of me yet.!)
(On my first club night at HMFC, The chairwoman came up to me, welcomed me in and offered to buy me a drink. They haven't got rid of me yet.!)
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Wisbech
Age: 44
Posts: 74
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I've always been made very welcome at other airfields, some of the friendliest have been Cromer, Boston, Sibson, Fishburn, Sandy, Priory Farm, Skegness, Husbands Bosworth, Damyn's Hall and North Coates.
Visitors to our club at Chatteris are always made very welcome and are given at least one free cup of tea
Visitors to our club at Chatteris are always made very welcome and are given at least one free cup of tea
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 172
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
This attitude also applied to a motorcycle club that I used to belong to in the UK. As time went on I gradually made progress
up the ladder and did more stuff for the club so that after a few years I was almost treated like one of the founding members.
To cut the story short I went back 10 years after emigrating and a couple of the old guard were still there!! They didn't seem
to want to remember me even though I tried to get them talking by saying "do you remember etc". I also dropped it in the
conversation that I was only on a visit back to the UK - hoping in a way that that might help start them off but no indifference ruled.
After about 2 hours I just left quietly.
Have you also noted that even forums seem to have their own cliques and it takes a while for newbies to be talked to?
up the ladder and did more stuff for the club so that after a few years I was almost treated like one of the founding members.
To cut the story short I went back 10 years after emigrating and a couple of the old guard were still there!! They didn't seem
to want to remember me even though I tried to get them talking by saying "do you remember etc". I also dropped it in the
conversation that I was only on a visit back to the UK - hoping in a way that that might help start them off but no indifference ruled.
After about 2 hours I just left quietly.
Have you also noted that even forums seem to have their own cliques and it takes a while for newbies to be talked to?
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: GLASGOW
Posts: 1,289
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
[quoteHave you also noted that even forums seem to have their own cliques and it takes a while for newbies to be talked to? ][/quote]
How perceptive. Shirley not this one..........
How perceptive. Shirley not this one..........
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Tr_no 688
Posts: 235
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Its a real Shame, I've lost count of the number of places in Britain I've walked into...tried my best to engage and got that look that says... "are you nuts, I've never seen you before in my life, what are you doing talking to me"
I am British born and bred, but I have never got, what the big problem is with being nice to a newcomer
I am British born and bred, but I have never got, what the big problem is with being nice to a newcomer
Hi there
I echo a lot of the sentiments. Saying that, Irish clubs do tend to be very welcoming and our Fly-Ins tend to be very good fun, although you do tend to get the occasional snobbery. I have encountered the Classic versus Homebuilt attitude, the anyone but microlights attitude and the helis versus the rest attitude. As it happens, some of our flight schools have only a passing acquaintance with customer care, as is practised by even the most basic of shops.I also have to echo localflighteast's remark about arriving early and seeing people being ignored. More than once, I've seen money leave the premises as potential customers are ignored or fobbed off.
I'd have to use the old schoolteacher's line: could do better.
regards
TDD
I echo a lot of the sentiments. Saying that, Irish clubs do tend to be very welcoming and our Fly-Ins tend to be very good fun, although you do tend to get the occasional snobbery. I have encountered the Classic versus Homebuilt attitude, the anyone but microlights attitude and the helis versus the rest attitude. As it happens, some of our flight schools have only a passing acquaintance with customer care, as is practised by even the most basic of shops.I also have to echo localflighteast's remark about arriving early and seeing people being ignored. More than once, I've seen money leave the premises as potential customers are ignored or fobbed off.
I'd have to use the old schoolteacher's line: could do better.
regards
TDD
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: chicago
Posts: 359
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
many years ago in FLYING magazine, an article about this subject was written with a very experienced flying writer pretending to be a newbie...he went up on demo rides etc and he felt he was treated badly...the occasional nice place was always rewarded by the truth.
I think the writer's name was bach or was it collins can't recall for sure.
it made an impression on me and I always treated people quite well when I was instructing...taking them on a walk to the instructor bench and talking planes. Made them feel important and welcome to the world of the sky.
I think the writer's name was bach or was it collins can't recall for sure.
it made an impression on me and I always treated people quite well when I was instructing...taking them on a walk to the instructor bench and talking planes. Made them feel important and welcome to the world of the sky.
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: .
Age: 37
Posts: 649
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Like any other clubs, Flying Clubs can have a range of personalities, some positive and others not so. Some are welcoming and friendly whilst others can be a bit cliquey, elitist and snobby. Instructors at most places tend to be good and easy to get on with, it's other members that can be a bit strange at times. Some people just aren't that sociable, that's more or less it. And some are just plain selfish...
Smithy
Smithy
Do you fly a flex or fixed wing, helicopter, powered parachute or kite?
Are you simply an enthusiast who likes to hang out and maybe have a bacon butty?
Do you need some fuel (Jet A1 or Avgas) at a sensible price and don't want to be charged a landing fee for the privilege?
Are you just curious about what goes on at the airfield?
Would you like some VERY cheap aircraft hire? EV-97, C172, PA28.
If you can answer Yes to any of the above.........
A VERY WARM WELCOME TO BAGBY.
We're a bit soggy at the moment so best to ring first.
(Helicopters fine).
Are you simply an enthusiast who likes to hang out and maybe have a bacon butty?
Do you need some fuel (Jet A1 or Avgas) at a sensible price and don't want to be charged a landing fee for the privilege?
Are you just curious about what goes on at the airfield?
Would you like some VERY cheap aircraft hire? EV-97, C172, PA28.
If you can answer Yes to any of the above.........
A VERY WARM WELCOME TO BAGBY.
We're a bit soggy at the moment so best to ring first.
(Helicopters fine).
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Do I come here often?
Posts: 898
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I have the great fortune when flying rotary to be paid to go to a lot of small airfields.
The pleasure of seeing Sleap, Dunkeswell, Gamston, Wickenby, Shobdon, Compton Abbas, Kemble, Barton and many others on the day's flight brief compared to the pain of Heathrow, Gatwick Luton Manchester Intl' or the very worst Southampton makes it very worth while.
I meet great people, see different aircraft, and make plans to fly my own aircraft in when I get a chance.
There are the grot ones though. I once spent a day parked at a gliding club roughly near N51, 42.47 W002 07.83 where a thoroughly objectionable character spent a morning sniffing revoltingly and telling me how commercial aviation didn't care about GA and would see all of GA disappear, this after I'd paid the landing fee in cash. As I left I pointed out that he hadn't bothered to find out anything about me once he had started his tirade and that I am a BGA instructor as well as owning my own light aeroplane. We should have been going there once a week for the last four years which would have added up to around £ 10, 000 in landing fees to the gliding club, but because of him (and he was appallingly rude to my passengers as well) we go elsewhere and get treated as part of the furniture which is just how we like it.
SND
The pleasure of seeing Sleap, Dunkeswell, Gamston, Wickenby, Shobdon, Compton Abbas, Kemble, Barton and many others on the day's flight brief compared to the pain of Heathrow, Gatwick Luton Manchester Intl' or the very worst Southampton makes it very worth while.
I meet great people, see different aircraft, and make plans to fly my own aircraft in when I get a chance.
There are the grot ones though. I once spent a day parked at a gliding club roughly near N51, 42.47 W002 07.83 where a thoroughly objectionable character spent a morning sniffing revoltingly and telling me how commercial aviation didn't care about GA and would see all of GA disappear, this after I'd paid the landing fee in cash. As I left I pointed out that he hadn't bothered to find out anything about me once he had started his tirade and that I am a BGA instructor as well as owning my own light aeroplane. We should have been going there once a week for the last four years which would have added up to around £ 10, 000 in landing fees to the gliding club, but because of him (and he was appallingly rude to my passengers as well) we go elsewhere and get treated as part of the furniture which is just how we like it.
SND
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: England that central part of Britian between Ecosse and Occupied France
Posts: 131
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
well i guess it varies from day to day,up north ,Sherburn i found friendly,Neterthorpe almost hostile and i used to love the place,a chap flying a Pawnee at the local gliding club down south ,asked "What are you from?" in a very hostile manner and an other at the same place offered me a brew in the club house,my"mates" at the local microlight club were most unfriendly to a visitor from up north who came in and expressed a intrest, greeting his enthusiasum with "of course we are not flying is not the wind a clue"i did point out had he been from Orkeney it was a mere zepher ,light and vareable, but really a reflection of British society as a whole, flying clubs in France and Aus i find most welcoming as i do sailing clubs. the latter here been really annal, o well ilove you all ,there loss.but it does little to promote GA
Join Date: Oct 2013
Location: UK
Posts: 217
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
As already pointed out, you get the whole gamut of society and personality types at any type of club. I like to think our club is very welcoming but then we don't see many visitors. The ones we do get are smothered in niceness because we are so grateful to see them.
I've met some really obnoxious people in flying and I've met some great people but I can't for the life of me understand why people who obviously don't enjoy their flying or the people they meet when flying do it. What do they get out of it?
I have no interest at all in motor racing so I guess the thing to do is join a motor racing club, buy a racing car and then bitch and moan about racing cars and their drivers all day.
I've met some really obnoxious people in flying and I've met some great people but I can't for the life of me understand why people who obviously don't enjoy their flying or the people they meet when flying do it. What do they get out of it?
I have no interest at all in motor racing so I guess the thing to do is join a motor racing club, buy a racing car and then bitch and moan about racing cars and their drivers all day.
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: 7nm N of LARCK
Posts: 221
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Hi flarepilot,
I think you'll find it was Gordon Baxter (AKA Bax). The article was repeated in the More BAX Seat collection. Sadly nothing seems to have changed.
I think the writer's name was bach or was it collins can't recall for sure.
