I like the IFR content. I also enjoy the honesty on the forum. What I mean is that people will talk openly about how they do things, even if it might not 100% fall in line with how we are taught it ‘should’ be done. I find on other (majority VFR) forums (and I mean this with no offence intended towards VFR flyers) that it can all get a bit too serious and pedantic about simple things which shouldn’t get in the way of a nice flight on a nice day. The other thing for me is that 95% of my flying is IFR and I enjoy having a place to be able to discuss topics that sometimes merge between private and commercial flying that is applicable to IFR flights (things like min. take off RVR etc). It is nice to be able to ask questions and know that other people who likely have encountered the situation before will be reading.
The compromise from my point of view is as has been said before in this thread, I can feel a bit ‘left out’ for lack of a better phrase when the topics lean heavily towards ownership problems, as I am not an owner, and won’t be in the position to be one anytime soon. However, if I feel like the topic is interesting I will read through it anyway even if not relevant to me. If it is something I don’t understand/don’t need to understand/don’t find interesting then I will probably give it a miss.
To sum it up from my point of view – I love the topics on here, it is nice to have a place with so many knowledgeable people in one place. It is probably close to impossible to have a ‘perfect’ forum for everyone without setting up new forums and getting new members to a point were you have 100 forums each with <10 members just so it is ‘perfect’ for them.
To me, EuroGA is the best compromise between the various aspects of GA flying. There’s simply no place like that on the web.
I don’t post too often because I feel I lack the experiences or in-depth knowledge of some contributors – but hey, that makes reading the other posts all the more interesting 
.
I’m enormously impressed with the helpfulness on here – for instance, I already received a lot of replies on my new thread on dubious French autopilots 
. Many thanks to all involved!
On dubious French pilots
I think that is a little unfair…
@ JasonC: You don’t happen to work in the media ?
Flybymike is right in that when I did the original email to about 3000 people (all from my own email correspondence) there was probably a lot of IFR people there. However there were also many VFR people there, and I didn’t have an IR myself till 2006. All I removed from the mailing were known pilot forum trolls, troublemakers, rude/aggressive posters and such, and for the most part that was successful
It is an interesting line of speculation whether a (hypothetical) mostly-VFR forum would also be, shall we say, a “serious and constant challenge” for the moderators… I am not so sure… It may well be that IR holders write the most (you can travel more easily and further with an IR, etc, as we all know) and this is evident on the well behaved US forums, but I think the biggest factor in a well behaved forum in the long term (i.e. when the group that was originally invited becomes less significant) is having moderation to strict guidelines and not in support of advertising clicks which will always lead to a very loose moderation policy.
“Banter” is a more tricky one. We can and do have a bit of that here of course but I strongly feel that if a large % of the posts acquire a zero information content, most people who like to talk about “real” stuff will leave and the forum will collapse into drivel. And this is very visible elsewhere on the internet – in fact just about all over the internet.
I do think there are many people who read EuroGA and who feel they can’t contribute much, but they are wrong!
I think it’s a great forum here. Granted, some of the stuff gets a bit tecchie, but hey, I read most of it regardless. You never know when the info thus gleaned comes in handy. I really cannot see the need for a VFR-only forum. After all, if you do any touring, a lot of the issues are the same or broadly similar, regardless of VFR or IFR.
For avoidance of doubt – I wasn’t suggesting a VFR forum. That would be completely pointless. I was merely wondering why we don’t have more VFR related posts here.
It’s been an interesting discussion!
I’m reluctant to ask for VFR routing advice here because of the IFR content. Yes – I’d like to see a forum for VFR flying.
>I’m reluctant to ask for VFR routing advice here because of the IFR content. Yes – I’d like to see a forum for VFR flying.
While I totally understand your reasonings, that’s probably one area where there is a big difference between VFR and IFR, and IFR experience isn’t as relevant!
With IFR around Europe, (as I understand it) airspace really ceases to exist. Clearances are ATC’s problem and can be assumed. Obviously this isn’t the case with VFR, and much more thought needs to be put into the route!
@JJBeall, just start the question in the ‘Flying’ thread.
I’m a VFR pilot too. IR is outside my scope for the coming years but I want to expand my horizon. So, I like to have (more) information on VFR flying. The reason that I didn’t and do not ask here at the moment is because I’m a low time pilot (just got my PPL in august last year) and hence have no experience in long(er) distance flights yet. I’m about to start with longer flights upcoming weekend with my first flight into Germany (from EHLE to EDGS). My dream is to one day fly to destinations in South Europe, crossing the Alps, attending the Fly-Ins and that sort of flights, all VFR. I know it is possible, although a DA20 Katana is not a comfortable travelling machine. ;-)
So, to say again, just start the question and you will get answers!
About EuroGA: I love reading almost all content, even the more technical threads, but that is because I love electronics and have studied Electric Engineering. For me, no VFR forum needed. Keep up the good work, Peter!
