Whirlybird
8th Mar 2003, 11:15
Since Big Red L 's thread linking to early posts on this forum seems to have died (or I can't find it anyway), I thought maybe I'd start one, with people's memories of those early days...
Way back when, before we had a forum of our own, I think some of us used to inhabit Wannabes, or Biz Jets and GA, or a forum which no longer exists on gliding and ballooning and so on. I seem to remember it was Rightstuffer who first suggested we have a forum for PPLs. Is he still around? Anyway, Danny agreed to it, and Private Flying was born. There weren't that many of us then. Who do I remember from the early days? I was there, with my original name, R22 . There was LowNSlow, Girl Flyday, Genghis the Engineer, Beagler, BEagle .... Who have I missed out?
We grew rapidly, because people from other forums discovered the new one, even though it was hidden way down the list of forums. We also poached people from the Flyer email list, and those of us on both had great fun working out Flyer posters' PPRuNe names. I've got a feeling we acquired ShaggySheepDriver and Keef that way, but there must be others; who else?
What did we talk about? There was Hungry Pilot , who pretended to be an airline pilot, and was dead against this forum, and very rude about it. I remember the day, browsing Wannabes, when I discovered that Hungry Pilot was just a young wannabe; I exposed him, and hey presto, he disappeared. :) There was a thread that got taken over by me and LowNSlow , both of us bored at work on the same day. A trouble-stirring interloper on the new forum decided to give us a hard time: "Gawd, why don't you two just email each other?" I got upset, told my big tough friends in the chat room, and Private Flying was invaded by Flapsforty and Velvet , who joined me in flaming this guy. I asked if there were any other female helicopter pilots, and some woman complained at my even asking the question! :confused: But such incidents were rare. On the whole it was a nice friendly forum, and this was often commented upon by refugess from forums where this wasn't the case, especially Wannabes.
We tried to have a fly-in fairly early on. I recall waiting at Shobdon, talking on the phone to Rightstuffer and others; there was fog at Sherburn in Elmet, and we tried to find an alternative, eventually giving up. We tried again..and the weather caught us out again. But LowNSlow and I traded a trip in my R22 for a trip in his Cub, and I think a few others managed to meet, fly together etc...anyone remember any details?
So the forum grew... but that's enough of my memories. What do the rest of you recall?
Way back when, before we had a forum of our own, I think some of us used to inhabit Wannabes, or Biz Jets and GA, or a forum which no longer exists on gliding and ballooning and so on. I seem to remember it was Rightstuffer who first suggested we have a forum for PPLs. Is he still around? Anyway, Danny agreed to it, and Private Flying was born. There weren't that many of us then. Who do I remember from the early days? I was there, with my original name, R22 . There was LowNSlow, Girl Flyday, Genghis the Engineer, Beagler, BEagle .... Who have I missed out?
We grew rapidly, because people from other forums discovered the new one, even though it was hidden way down the list of forums. We also poached people from the Flyer email list, and those of us on both had great fun working out Flyer posters' PPRuNe names. I've got a feeling we acquired ShaggySheepDriver and Keef that way, but there must be others; who else?
What did we talk about? There was Hungry Pilot , who pretended to be an airline pilot, and was dead against this forum, and very rude about it. I remember the day, browsing Wannabes, when I discovered that Hungry Pilot was just a young wannabe; I exposed him, and hey presto, he disappeared. :) There was a thread that got taken over by me and LowNSlow , both of us bored at work on the same day. A trouble-stirring interloper on the new forum decided to give us a hard time: "Gawd, why don't you two just email each other?" I got upset, told my big tough friends in the chat room, and Private Flying was invaded by Flapsforty and Velvet , who joined me in flaming this guy. I asked if there were any other female helicopter pilots, and some woman complained at my even asking the question! :confused: But such incidents were rare. On the whole it was a nice friendly forum, and this was often commented upon by refugess from forums where this wasn't the case, especially Wannabes.
We tried to have a fly-in fairly early on. I recall waiting at Shobdon, talking on the phone to Rightstuffer and others; there was fog at Sherburn in Elmet, and we tried to find an alternative, eventually giving up. We tried again..and the weather caught us out again. But LowNSlow and I traded a trip in my R22 for a trip in his Cub, and I think a few others managed to meet, fly together etc...anyone remember any details?
So the forum grew... but that's enough of my memories. What do the rest of you recall?