The military has a long history of prima donnas: pilots. Esp combat jet jocks.
It takes some work and an average IQ to get a pilot’s license. And those that get CFI or CFII get the false impression they are actual teachers – in reality they are just pilots trying to accrue hours.
GA pilots are not jet jocks or aerospace engineers, but to hear some pontificate you’d think, they think they are both.
But I am generally with you that lots of information is lost in written communication and that this is at least one important factor for bad online behaviors.
Don’t you think at least some of the bad behaviour is that the “target” cannot hit you back? 
We have a lot of what is called road rage. This happens IMHO simply because the target cannot hit back. Only properly violent people will try something on when they are stuck at red traffic lights 
I have met a good number of people who are violent online but face to face they are usually at least OK to have a beer with (though I prefer to not have anything to do with somebody who is nasty online). Actually a lot of them are rather weird and have social interaction problems.
Some online sites have tried to solve the violence issue by insisting on full names. This results in people using made-up full names (John Smith, etc) unless this cannot be faked (e.g. sites which require a credit card payment) and then you get a site which is very bland because everybody knows anybody can join up and read all the past posts. I know one guy who joined one such site and indexed up the whole database (for his own use, he claimed) using some desktop indexing product
Hadfield’s book is good but I think it was written to look really smooth, and probably it applies to a line of work where you have to get on with a small team in a confined space, and then the choice of characters has to be very cleverly done. I don’t think many astronauts come from successful professional / business background because they would end up with a huge cut in income.
GA pilots are not jet jocks or aerospace engineers, but to hear some pontificate you’d think, they think they are both.
Due to the amount of money needed for participation in GA, here in Europe many GA pilots are successful professional people. We had a long thread on this here years ago… there was a predominance of computer programmers and other “technology” types. Actually I see the same on US aviation sites; it’s obvious most pilots there are high earners.
There are a few mil jet pilots who find their way into active GA, but not many.
Ex mil people sometimes cause a lot of “pompous behaviour” trouble in the management of some aeroclubs especially in certain countries where the military-civilian connection is an old tradition in the club scene.
Very good article – I tried to find a nice cartoon where an airline HR type was telling an innocent candidate: your tests had good results but your ego is not sufficiently developed, have you thought of a career in the merchant navy instead? Unfortunately Google wasn’t my friend this time.
I think all of us can think of times, where even the pleasant EuroGA atmosphere demonstrated some unhealthy herd mentality, and you find yourself going with the flow. Fortunately this forum allows you to post opinions, which hopefully help inform, even if by posting you then change your opinion on something as a result of other posted comments and opinions.
The ideal atmosphere is one which encourages sharing experience, good and bad, and in effect having healthy CRM type discussions.
The only other aviation forum I visit is the equally friendly supercub.org where a lot of the main contributors in the group tend to be located in Alaska. This group don’t appear to attract trolls and have a range of flying backgrounds.
USFlyer wrote:
GA pilots are not jet jocks or aerospace engineers, but to hear some pontificate you’d think, they think they are both.
I beg your pardon ? There are many GA pilots that are one or the other and sometimes both !
Geez, talk about "to hear some pontificate " …
Michael wrote:
There are many GA pilots that are one or the other and sometimes both !
Yes and no. Many aerospace engineers are also GA pilots and many (ex) military pilots are also GA pilots. But the total number of both aerospace engineers and military pilots is so small, that their percentage among GA pilots remains negligible. Example: I fly in a bizjet company with roundabout 30 pilots and I instruct in an FTO with about 30 instructors. Among those 60 pilots are two aerospace engineers (me included) and one ex-military pilot. 3 of 60 = 5% or almost nothing . The vast majority of private pilots and students (apart from those who train for the airlines) are “son” or “daughter” by profession. At least around here.
Peter wrote:
Another particular thing is that pilots like to interpret regulations in the strictest way.
Not any of the pilots I know! There is a – I think – small subsection of people who do this (and I’ve met the occasional one). Most of us are pretty practical about it. Most pilots I know understand that it’s not “safety first” either – if it were really safety first, we’d not fly GA at all and stick to the airlines.
USFlyer wrote:
GA pilots are not jet jocks or aerospace engineers, but to hear some pontificate you’d think, they think they are both.
I think that nail was hit straight to the point. For some that is.
Many GA pilots, your’s truly included, are failed Airline or military aspirants. Many of these never get over it and will become pretty obnoxious know alls. Quite a few of those end up as FI’s where they then can impress their students. Thankfully I never had a guy like that teaching me but I have come across them.
As for the initial post’s content :I’ve seen that happen yes. I remember one campaign in the mentioned forum which went WAY beyond any caution in terms of possible libel or other stuff and ended up with a full crate of eggs on the faces of the mods in the end. I am not surprised that that forum is mentioned, as it has become a very unfriendly place indeed.
Again, I think this forum here is an exception as we all talk on eye level. I don’t think anyone here thinks he is in any way superior to the other, we all have proven we can fly and we know what we are doing most of the time and we come here to discuss the thing we love to do and to get answers when we don’t know what we are doing. Clearly, as EuroGA gets bigger, we might attract a troll every now and then, but I think this community can deal with that.
Regarding the question on which pilots are asking for more regulation, you don’t meet them much face to face – except at things like CAA and ATC presentations which tend to self-select the “more regulation” types. Often they are FTO owners. But you see them a lot on some forums. It used to really p1ss me off to read postings from vintage UK CAA IR holders (who usually got their IR via the abbreviated pre-JAA “700hr route”) who slagged off the IMC Rating as being a " get out of jail free card ", etc, etc. I used to dive in to argue with this elitist stuff but now that I am here on EuroGA I no longer bother to look at the other sites much and I almost never post on them.
This applies:
This applies
Wonderful! (I know you don’t like one-liners but there’s absolutely nothing to add)
Yes, that one does apply the regular forum poster quite nicely
