In the spirit of Christmas, I’d like to take a moment to offer a little thanks all the EuroGA contributors for making EuroGA what it is.
We have here a very knowledgeable forum here but also a very friendly one. People here happily share their (significant) knowledge and do so in a very friendly way. That’s very rare in online forums which are often confrontational and aggressive. We, the contributors to EuroGA, have managed to build a very unique community here, one that I’m proud to be a member of, and one that I’m thankful to my fellow members for making it happen.
In that Christmas spirit, I’d like to pick out a few members to say thanks to. In doing so, my hope is to just acknowledge their contribution to making our community what it is. It’s not to value their contribution any more than anyone else’s contribution. If I were to thank everyone who I think has contributed to our community then this post would be very long. I just wanted to get the ball rolling by picking a small subset and hopefully others can thank some others that they feel have also helped to build our community, and in doing so, cover some of the obvious gaps in my thanks. Those mentioned below are not necessarily those who I think deserve the most thanks, but rather intended to be a semi random sample spread across our community.
Firstly let me think @Peter for making our community in the first place. “Anyone” could have made it, but “nobody” did. Peter made the first step, put his hand into his pocket and set up the forum, worked his contacts to make it start and has given (and continues to give) uncountable hours in promoting and moderating the forum. It’s no accident that it’s such a friendly and well informed place. That was Peter’s design. Aside from the forum, Peter has been a good friend to me. Offering advice off forum when needed (particularly when I first started to fly internationally) and for the many wonderful trips that he has brough me on.
@Boscomantico – I’ve never had the pleasure of meeting Boscomantico in person, but his love for aviation is obvious and he’s always happy to share his knowledge. In particular he’s probably the most prolific writer of trip reports here. And this isn’t a case of quantity vs quality. The quality of his reports is always superb, well documented and filled with amazing photos. I ready every single one without fail. I’m always amazed at his ability to seamless jump between different types!
@Emir – I’ve been lucky enough to meet Emir (I think) four times now, at various flyins. Emir lives and breaths aviation, and is a very experienced pilot and is always happy to share his knowledge which he manages to do in a non-judgemental way. He’s equally nice in person as he is on the forum.
@LeSving – I’ve never been lucky enough to meet LeSving in person. However from his forum posts he clearly is very passionate about aviation, particularly VFR flight. That helps provide a balance to all the IFR pilots on our forum. He is always happy to share his knowledge of Norway. LeSving is never afraid to have a different viewpoint and doesn’t cower down if he’s a lone voice on a topic. Often that lone voice turns the viewpoint around and without him our forum would be a much less interesting and a less balanced place. Thank you for helping make EuroGA what it is!
@Aart – Aart has spent a career in aviation and has a deep understanding of aviation from many angles. Maybe this is why he has the good judgement to never to get involved in the more ‘controversial’ topics on the forum! He always has a friendly and encouraging word to say. I’ve been blessed to meet Aart twice, and a more friendly person you could not hope to meet. He’s a fun loving, humorous guy and it comes across in his contribution to our community.
@RobertL18C – I’ve never met Robert, and I know nothing about him other than his forum posts. But if Robert offers an opinion or some information on the forum (which he always does very politely) you ought to listen. I’ve yet to see any opinion or point that he’s posted, later been found to be incorrect! And if that weren’t enough, from a selfish point of view, he always reads my trip reports, and adds to them with some of his own knowledge of the location. Thank you!
@Capitaine – Again I’ve never met him in person, but I have had the pleasure of sharing the EuroGA Zoom Lounge together on a number of occasions. A very nice guy. What I’d really like to say thanks for is his UK trip reports. Most trip reports we see here are from further away from me. Capitaine does a great job of reporting on some trips that are close enough to me that I have a reasonable chance to follow up and do myself someday. Thank you very much!
@Airborne_Again – Again I’ve never had the pleasure to meet AA in person. But AA is clearly very knowledgeable about aviation and he has a great knowledge about our governing regulations. While AA isn’t afraid to get involved in difficult threads, he always does so with both great knowledge and in a very polite way, never aggressive nor confrontational. That’s a rare skill today and one which helps make our community what it is.
@what_next – Please indulge me in thanking what next for his contributions. WN left our community quite a number of years ago. While he was here his posts were very knowledgeable and he helped make EuroGA what it is today by his contributions in the early days when success was not necessarily guaranteed. It’s a loss to our forum that he is no longer a contributor today.
I could go on, but I don’t want to make this post too long. There are way more people that I should thank. Indeed as I write this I start to feel bad about more that I know I should thank, but this post isn’t meant to mention everyone that I should thank. Those mentioned above are just the names that floated into my consciousness as I wrote this, and in no particular order. What is certain is that if I had given some thought to it, some of the names would be changed and the order would have gotten some thought. So no offence should be taken by those not mentioned.
Hopefully some others will take this opportunity to build on my post and help us to use the Christmas season to reflect on the wonderful community that we all have helped to build, and thank a small number of people, that they believe deserve a mention, for their contribution to our community.
Colm
I would like to extend this list of thanks to all members who share detailed stories of their trips (@Antonio, @terbang and many more). We really feel like we took part in those trips and learned from all the issues encountered (and great places to aim for). The reports really encapsulate what we love about aviation, and are always a treat to read !
I would like to add my thanks to :
Peter
Terbang
Antonio
Dan
Patrick
Dublinpilot
IO390
Mooney Driver
Capitaine
Robbie
May the baby Jesus bless you with joy and fulfillment in your flying and your whole life.
Great post by Dublinpilot, but otherwise far too few people have posted in this thread…
I give my thanks to those who appreciate EuroGA and say so 
Thank you @Peter and @Dublinpilot, this is a truly collegiate forum with a range of characters and experiences. The signal to noise ratio is excellent, and if I occasionally post an element of FUD I know someone politely, but clearly, will mend my ways :)
Not sure when I joined, but I tend to check on the forum most days. I think I joined reasonably early on, as I was an asylum seeker from some of the sportier aviation forae in the UK and remember @Peter somehow getting in touch to advise he was founding EuroGA. The nicest thing is that it has contributors from all over the world.
I am hugely grateful to Peter and the team at Euroga. As I have said several times in the past, this is an unrivalled resource. When the weather is inclement, I do my daily ‘flying’ right here on the forum. Not a trip gets planned without recourse to the airport posts. I really appreciate all the wisdom and help available from the fantastically engaged community. And above all it is fun!
Thank you very much!
Peter wrote:
far too few people have posted in this thread…
Very true. My excuse has been for the past few weeks it has all been about family and year-end business chores.
Thank you @dublinpilot for bringing this up. I kind of introduced my own “thank you” version in the “2023 flying summary thread”https://www.euroga.org/forums/flying/15323-your-2023-flying-year-how-many-hours-and-aspirations-for-2024/post/358427#358427 .
As the Americans like to say, lest not forget we, not only as a GA community bus also as a European society, are standing on the shoulders of giants. So much of the good in who, what and how we are has to do with the Christian origins of Europe and He Whose birth we celebrate at Christmas. No matter what your faith is, the enduring and positive impact is undeniable. UNfortunately religion has also been used as an excuse or shelter for not-so-good deeds, but may the positive impact keep on building on our Christian past not only for the Glory of God, but also for the well-being of our often-troubled civilization.
Thank you all, but especially @dublinpilot for the thread, @jujupilote for reminding us what this fuzz is about, and @Peter for looking after the place and hosting the family: Merry Christmas!
@Antonio we should obviously also give thanks to the demands by Arab commentators on ancient greek and latin texts, both in Byzantium and Spain, for preserving the foundations of European civilisation, including that of the Church Fathers :)
Very good point @RobertL18C: quite a few non-Christian shoulders we are also standing on too.
Good thing you bring it up, since Christianity did not come to abolish prior cultures, but to build upon the good things in each one, (admittedly sometimes literally by building cathedrals inside former mosques ) . Missionaries have always been asked, to this day, to learn the local language and culture, taking up the good and minimizing the bad.
For example, in a kind of allegory of the meaning of Christmas (unlike, for example, Greek, Roman, Arab and even Jewish deities who were high above humble humans, God wanted to become one of us), all historical apparitions of our Lady have been in culturally embedded form, like, for example, Guadalupe in Mexico (if not familiar, this is the story )
There are many detailed studies online, but one of the more accessible and mundane explanations along this train of thought in English is in this Youtube video
