For those who feel their English is not good enough to contribute, Set your mind like this;
Hey! My English is always better than your Dutch, German, French! Or whatever is appropriate.
So what, if I make a mistake?
Or just post in your own language. This is “EuroGA” after all. The official language seems to be English, but I’m sure someone will be happy to translate if your post is not too long.
Also perhaps bear in mind that English is a “means of communication” as much as a “language” to be written or spoken “correctly”.
Peter wrote:
Obviously only a small % of these people post here.The Q is… why not?
Obviously this is a huge general issue in all of our society. But that doesn’t mean one should not ask the Q.
I believe these are some of the reasons.
Brainstorming:
Means of communicating (forae, mail lists) already exist in local languages from a national level down to local i.e. aeroclub members etc.
So people will tend to ask there first something.
Also there are aircraft (type) specific forae where pilots will turn to also for piloting discussions.
A “paneuropean” forum is where they will turn to if they don’t find the answer locally.
Pilots from countries like Spain, France, Italy I bet will mostly look in their local forae for discussions/questions.
English for some people IS a barrier.
Many pilots think they know most and they won’t look around in forae to gain knowledge or solve questions because they believe they don’t have any
GA in “northern Europe” is far more active than south. There aren’t THAT many pilots who will seek advice or share experiences in English language simply because they do not fly that much
Many questions can be solved by simply talking to friend pilots or one’s instructor. They were(are) not waiting for a paneuropean forum to solve their issues
So where does all of the above leave us to ?
It leads to most EuroGA posters being people who fly beyond the “ordinary” 1~2 hours VFR flight to another "national’ airfield.
These are the people who have taken the leap to step in to the IFR (flight rules), IMC flying, high(er) performance aircraft flying, high(er) performance aircraft ownership, long multiple country fly out’s etc.
These are the exception to the average GA flyer in Europe, a continent that has never supported the development of GA with few exceptions.
petakas wrote:
It leads to most EuroGA posters being people who fly beyond the “ordinary” 1~2 hours VFR flight to another "national’ airfield.
These are the people who have taken the leap to step in to the IFR (flight rules), IMC flying, high(er) performance aircraft flying, high(er) performance aircraft ownership, long multiple country fly out’s etc.
That may be very true, and hence my previous post. It’s not that people are impolite or anything. But the relative number of “IFR pilots” at this site is way out of proportions compared with the number of IFR pilots for the average European PPLs. And this leads to the irritating part, that those IFR people assumes that flying IFR is what every PPL see as the final goal or something, because that is how they see it themselves. It’s not only incredibly arrogant, it’s also plain wrong.
those IFR people assumes that flying IFR is what every PPL see as the final goal or something, because that is how they see it themselves. It’s not only incredibly arrogant, it’s also plain wrong
@LeSving, can you please point me to a post on EuroGA which implies the above?
LeSving wrote:
And this leads to the irritating part, that those IFR people assumes that flying IFR is what every PPL see as the final goal or something, because that is how they see it themselves. It’s not only incredibly arrogant, it’s also plain wrong.
I dont get the arrogant part. In what way? Ive havent seen anyone put someone down because they only fly an Ultralight.
My idea of flying is to use it here in Europe as a transportation tool. just as I did in the US. Although sometimes I feel it a losing battle. I was actually told that here in Europe the public transportation is so good why would I even consider using my own plane when you factor in the cost, inconvenience, and unreliability. To be quite frank thats like telling a motorist that he can only use his car on good days and only within 20 miles of his residence. If I was limited to that type of flying I would definitely give it up.
The reason Im on this site is because things here in Europe are different and I would like to learn and not make mistakes along the way. Since my objective is to visit many countries and experience Europe Im happy that pilots fly to many destinations and report back their experiences on this site. God knows it not easy to get the simplest information about an airport on this Continent. So a site like this does help.
This is a really good forum, and I should post more here. Its only out of habit I read Flyer and Pprune more than this. The topics here are much more intelligent and engaging, and the posters all seem to know their stuff. I find the Flyer forum is more like a very small group of core posters who all know each other and are just there to validate each others opinions. Pprune gets a broad mix of posters from novice to pro’s drifting into the Private flying thread with some clever analysis.
So keep up the good work here, I like the site interface which is clean and modern. Keeping a website going takes a little bit of effort. Bravo….
William
LeSving there are a few of us VMC bimblers on the site, hopefully more will join. I try and post when I go somewhere new, or if I fly a new interesting type. When the Super Cub provides me with cross country utility, I really enjoy it, but I also plan to sit out weather for days in remote French Aeroclubs if necessary, and enjoy this as well.
I do recognise that IR will improve utility if you maintain currency and invest in weather knowledge, so in that sense it is positive we have pilots wanting to get an IR or IR(R).
As always us VMC ers need to post more.
Peter wrote:
can you please point me to a post on EuroGA which implies the above?
They are all over the place, it’s not one post in particular. There is at least one good example in this thread, but I don’t want to take that as an example again. Maybe a cultural thing also ? I will just leave it at that.
GA in Europe is several things. They are quite different, but not necessarily with a clear cut line:
GA itself is really only Commercial GA and private transport, while the rest is best described as recreational aviation. EASA is really only involved with Commercial GA, club PPL and private transport.
What is really good about this site is that it has taken the online “social media” thing seriously in the right context and with an excellent “shape and form”. What is not so good is that it doesn’t attract homebuilders, it doesn’t attract microlight and so on. The main attraction is flying IFR in a privatly owned aircraft. One can repeat over and over again that everybody are free to start topics with VFR, homebuilding and microlight. Repeating it won’t help because there is nothing about this site inviting people do do it in the form of a special category. I mean, even my post about the most innovative homebuilt in decades, the SkiGull by B Rutan, drowned without a single comment.
IF there was a special category for homebuilding, it wouldn’t surprise me it would attract a whole bunch of homebuilders from the US also simply because of the excellent “shape and form” of this forum. There are no European forum for homebuilders. There is this EFLEVA, but they have no forums or any “social” activity. They seem more like a “secret society” oligarchy than anything else (not that I believe they are, but that is the impression they show).
They are all over the place, it’s not one post in particular. There is at least one good example in this thread, but I don’t want to take that as an example again. Maybe a cultural thing also ? I will just leave it at that.
It’s not really good to throw in such a statement and then “leave it at that”.
I would like to see a post which somehow denigrates VFR flyers or VFR flying, on EuroGA. I get a linear feed of all recent posts (so I can do my job with minimum time 
) and I do read nearly all of them (not necessarily the full length of some long ones) and I don’t recall seeing even one.
Of course there are posts saying that IFR improves your mission capability but that’s a blindindly obvious fact.
