I run a pilot shop - arrived there via civil service, market research (BOAC ElAl), publishing, hotel management and restaurant ownership
Peter,
It is obvious that there is also a huge wealth of non-aviation experience represented by the contributors here.
Do you think there might be a place for non-aviation discussions - on an area of this board, or through creating another? I can imagine that some generic technical and business threads might thrive in such a trustworthy environment . . .
What do you (and others) think about the idea?
Europaboy
Reading through the thread I'd say that the premise postulated by Peter is not far of te mark. Especially as I'm also an IT specialist.
Perhaps I can reassure the non IT people on here by admitting that despite having worked professionaly in IT for many years I haven't got a clue what they're on about on the thread below. It must be because databases are my trade...
Do you think there might be a place for non-aviation discussions
I can imagine that some generic technical and business threads
Hangar Talk is OK for that, with non-aviation IT-related stuff going into the IT section.
What I think nobody here would want is a forum which gets out of control in terms of behaviour. As a mod here I am not going to criticise other online communities by name but it's obvious that the well-known ones are really struggling to keep a lid on what goes on there. I recall some monumental moments from elsewhere where somebody posted some racial-type joke and ... you can guess the rest 
So self-restraint will be needed.
Property Investor and Developer - residential mainly. Like many in the industry, finance is still the key to this and although the availability of finance seems to be increasing, I'm always open to doing joint ventures with investors. Anyone who has any good contacts for development finance, please drop me a line!
Sales man, running around flogging anything to anyone.... as long as it pays for my hobby, I don't really mind......
Small time property investor, trying to build a residential portfolio in order to use as a pension / income. I also have a full time job that I'm not allowed to talk about ;-)
Doctor, Surgery owner, AME. low time PPL (160 hours or so) Bit bored and looking for a new challenge!
I was self employed with an event-management / booking company and toured as a guitar player with several bands and backliner with more famous acts. Closed down the agency two years ago, now working on my masters degree in aeronautical engineering in Aachen. Started flying back in 95 at an age of 13 (soloed that year), got my glider licence 1999 (due to age restrictions), SEP and TMG 2000. Now flight instructor.
We're in the market for a decent Stampe SV4 ... so if you know one for sale in loving hands...
Cheers,
I’m a partner in a 100-person accounting and consulting business in London. With more than 30 years in the profession I still spend much of my time helping privately owned businesses with strategic challenges and tax planning, but more and more of my time helping clients who are involved (deliberately or otherwise) in significant litigation. It’s very intellectually stimulating work and can yield very pleasing results– the battle of course being to try to end the litigation successfully before the expensive and often meaningless bonanza for the lawyers in court. My experience in this field comes from having to sue a man (I use that word loosely) who bought my business in 2002 but later preferred not to pay. After twenty months of legal complexity and seventeen days in the High Court he had a change of heart forced upon him…and he provided me, albeit belatedly, with my flying fund.
I fly because I love it. I currently have only 132 hours in my book, an under-used IMC rating and am just in the throws of buying my first plane (backed by some helpful advice from Peter) to expand my horizons to continental Europe.
Don’t tell anyone, but I too have a background in IT, and a degree in such things from the old days when PDP-11s were the world’s best-selling computers. I used to write machine code. I miss those days.
