Heff

Oh please

The LAA site is moribund because no-one has anything interesting to say. If it isn't about kit-building or how quickly the Permit is issued it is self-centred about Permit-type stuff. It is very much a closeted in-group

Whereas PPrune or Flyer are worth visiting daily the LAA site (and for that matter AOPA) are not worth visiting more than once a month until a thread like this happens and the LAA in-group closes ranks

except that it doesn't. There's been plenty of rude and offensive responses on there.
Now, the distance between my left and my right shoulder is sufficient such that I am able to cope but the quality of posts is definitely NOT guarenteed by the lack of anonymity.

Nobody of sound mind would treat any singular peice of advice found on any forum as sensible without further corroboration. Having a name attached to it makes not one bit of difference.

Or are afraid that if they publish their thoughts they might go straight to hell, cast there by the LAA forum Gods.

Which is a good point well made but not relevant here.

Luckily I post under my real name. Actually I don't, my wife threatened me with divorce if I changed my name, by deed poll, to pompey Portsmouth football club Paul

To all intents and purposes it's my real name

I thought they were called Portsmouth Nil?

Portsmouth play football, naaa.

Rod1

OK, my real name is John Smith and thus everything I write is 100% copper bottomed truth.

Some of the stuff written by the old hands in UK GA is dreadful patronising crap. I won't mention names - everybody knows who they are.

Quote:

Originally Posted by robin

The LAA site is moribund because no-one has anything interesting to say. If it isn't about kit-building or how quickly the Permit is issued it is self-centred about Permit-type stuff. It is very much a closeted in-group

Does it need to be interesting, when there are other forums available? I agree, its better to visit PPRuNe and Flyer daily rather than the LAA forum, because there's going to be a wider community interested in reading and writing about aviation. I prefer to only use the LAA forum if I need to ask a specific question about maintaining a PtF aircraft; which is like Robin described: very much a closeted in-group of people interested in light aircraft.

Quote:

Originally Posted by stickandrudderman

Nobody of sound mind would treat any singular peice of advice found on any forum as sensible without further corroboration. Having a name attached to it makes not one bit of difference.

Nobody of sound mind would trust any singular piece of advice full-stop. I tend to ask the same question to five different people, and get two or three different answers, then make a decision. However, crediting the post to a name rather than a username does lend some more formality and officialdom to the writer, which is what the LAA are really keen on.

Quote:

Originally Posted by stickandrudderman

Which is a good point well made but not relevant here.

The relevance is that you and I are both complaining that an aeronautical regulating body publishes our name in the public domain against our wishes. I don't like my name and address made available for every Tom, Dick and Harry who cares to look up my aircraft on G-INFO (although, admittedly G-INFO has proven to be a useful tool), and you don't like you cannot post anonymously on the LAA forum.

I'd go further than that. They are only interested in a small subset of light aircraft ie Permit only

Are flexwing microlights still banned from landing at Turweston?

G

IIRC they have limitations on movements generally

Stickandrudderman has taken a lot of flak unfairly in my opinion. He is one or the few still interested enough to question the PFA/LAA policy. The majority lost interest after the whole forum was deleted for the second time.

The first PFA forum was a useful place to visit and a search answered pretty well any technical light GA question. It was not just PFA and open to all to ask their techie questions. A lot of very experienced people contributed their knowledge to it. The problem was it was easily hacked because nobody at PFA either understood or cared enough to keep it secure. Instead of fixing the software, one day the whole of the forum content was arbitrarily removed. It was a knee jerk reaction by people that didn't understand anything about computers.

After it was deleted it came back as a members only forum. Some took the time to repopulate it with snippets of the useful stuff but the ability for non members to ask questions or answer them was lost.

Then it was deleted a second time, this time because no one at LAA tried to move the posts to a new forum format. Many took that as an indication of how much LAA valued their contributions and the majority with anything useful to say drifted away to Flyer and PPrune.

So the above is why the LAA forum is a dust ball nowadays. The anonymity and sensitivity to criticism issues are really small fry in comparison. They have just made sure no one bothers to try again.

Yes, same as Deddington.

Nah, Billy Brooks used to often land in a farmers field out the back.

G

Steve Neal,
thanks for that info, I had no idea there was so much history to this palava but now that I do everything makes a lot more sense.

Stickandrudderman

Next time you decide to stir up a hornets’ nest remind me to find a bunker to hide. Paul and co have effectively hounded me out.

Rod1

Rod1

Not sure what you mean by that last post. What has happened?

Rod1 has decided not to post on the LAA forum so he does not appear to break the rules.

Steve has given a lot of thebackground to the 'issues' with the LAA forum. It is a huge shame that the attitudes are so inflexible and dogmatic - but the PFA was always 'an old man's organisation' in the sense that committee positions and attitudes were orientated that way.

The change in name was supposed to demonstrate a more open, inclusive and wider approach - but PR is easy, changing the people will probably be the only way for the walk to match the talk.

But there is a cracking good memembers magazine - if the people involved saw the internet complementing that rather than competing maybe some of the walk would match the talk?

I see

I was disappointed that the change of name didn't lead to a change in ethos. The magazine is well produced, but has little relevance to me as I don't have a Permit aircraft and I'm not interested in building (or more truthfully, flying in anything I'd built!)

I have been a PFA/LAA member for some 36 years. I saddens me to see an organisation that seems be unwiling/unable trust its members and allow them to speak and yes, at times be critical.

Not met too many of the hierachy but their actions lead one to think they maybe a collection of paranoid control freaks. Likely the problem extends a wee bit further than just whether or not you can post on the LAA with a pseudonym.

Effective moderation does provide a measure of control over what appears on a forum. I am a viewer/contibutor to several aviation forums where all seems to work fairly well. Why will that not work on the LAA Forum? I can think of no reason.

They are keen to tell the world how wonderful their magine is: same can certainly not be said of their forum which is dry, dusty and very under utilised.

Planemike

I've met some of the top brass and they are by no means swivel-eyed control freaks.

What the LAA is, though, is a band of 'gentlemen amateurs' doing a great job on a shoestring. I mean amateur in the good sense of the word, by the way, putting in great effort for the love of the thing.

However, what is needed is a much more professional approach, but I'm not sure many of the membership would agree with me.