Well now.....it does beg the question of asking what objective criteria is used to close a thread? Having backed out of the affray on the thread in question and found a perch on the catbird seat....I found it most interesting to watch the last few participants....all apparantly of the same nationality have at it. The thread seemed to be carrying on with some vigor and when I found it to be closed, I was kinda surprised. In time it would have grown to be one of the more lengthy threads in this forum.
I accept the notion that it was not primarily a helicopter oriented argument, but it was prompted by an incident involving a helicopter and the subsequent debate that raged was by helicopter pilots about issues that concern helicopter pilots.
I wonder, was it the fact that the issues involved evoked some emotion from parties on both sides of this issue and thus this thread seemed to bring out both the good and the bad in some of the posts, that this was the real reason the thread was terminated.
I found it most interesting to observe how the more gentlemanly of the contributors quickly took issue with the tone and wording of some of the more inflammatory posts and as a group moved to act as moderators and judges of impropiety.
One observation here, some of the issues raised lately have been sensitive to some and their responses seemed to come off being more emotional than designed to further their side of the issue. Is this what is the actual condern of the moderators....we can always rabble on about phase angles and blade twist or even sources of training but then this becomes a very boring place. And.....after over 35 years of flying helicopters.....I know helicopter pilots not to be a boring bunch of people. We don't have to agree....but we are all helicopter pilots no matter what sides of an issue we find ourselves.
As long as we are discussing issues that reflect the very international aspect of our industry.....and the intermixing we have in the kinds of people we work with on a daily basis....then these "non-helicopter" threads still have a relevance to helicopter pilots and thus in my view should remain in the Rotorheads forum and open until they die a natural death. The Moderator's axe falleth too quick here lately I think.
Today, in our crewroom, we had the following nationalities represented.....American, Canadian, Australian, Indonesian, South African, Saudi Arabian, Philippino, and Vietnamese. Do you think we have a homogenous, single point of view of any topic? We have our discussions, make our jokes, and fly together in a very professional manner......and there is no axe poised over our heads regarding the content of our discussions.
Why should Rotorheads be any different?