Where is everybody?

Well, I would suspect that they are hanging out on other boards. It is really hard to get a new forum going when there are several other more established forums offering the same things.

 

Hey Switches,
Ive been here now and again, only to find the board empty, so I went to another board, or two, where there were questions, and opinions, etc. But I haven't given up...

I think the thing that made this board go quiet,
was the end of free Premiun subscriptions....

There were alot of conversations starting to catch on, and then bang all of a sudden the day of premium subscriptions ended , so did the attention to the forum.

Not saying I pass on any blame, that's just how I saw it...

Skyraider.

 

Just to prove a point....
here it is 5:59pm EST and I'm all alone here, singularly, by myself,
with no one else anywhere in sight, again.

 

I'm here sometimes. Usually solo.
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Yeah...
and the camera,
is in the camera bag,
in the car,
at home,
45 minutes away,
.....even by jet helo-flight...

I was on a XC training flight @ 4500' last Oct, and had a fly by of a KC-130....
about 200' below us, and 1/2 mile to the south... on a parallel course.

How many times in your life, do ya think you're going to see that?
Well..... at least outside of a hot M.O.A.?

A pax, in the back seat of our 172, was given my camera, before boarding,
and she was appointed the "official photographer" for the flight.

CFI, and I both pointed out the plane to her.....

Developed the film later that night....... had photos of trees changing color, cloud formations, lakes and rivers.
Even got an over the shoulder view of the actual landing at our destination ....

But not one single overexposed, or underexposed, picture of the KC-130! (Ugh...) wimmen!

Camera, might as well have been as stated above:

..... in the camera bag! (sigh!)




.

 

Worse yet...back in '84.....
A once in a lifetime trip to Calif, to visit my then current girlfriends parents... we planned
to go to Disney land, frisco and then (for me) to see Universal studios. I was heavily into amateur theatre, locally...doing set design, lighting, and live Special Effects ( my favorite).
and wanted to get to see the stagings and behind the scenes there.
Well...

......

I got chosen from the audience, to become part of an attraction.
I was dressed in a fiberglas over steel frame "fly by wire" space suit, that weighed about 110 pounds.

Yeah... they swung me from the rafters on thin almost invisible wires, while I took direction
and did tumbles, feet kicks, arm swings etc., in front of a giant 60 foot high, by 60 foot wide
bluescreen as I was videotaped.
I could neither see or hear anything except the director, and the studio floor 30 ' below, so I didn't know what the rest of the audience was seeing.....

I had given my camera to the girlfriend, all set up, to take an entire fresh roll of photos.
"Yes" she said, "I took every shot that I could. Got some really nice ones of your spacewalk around Jupiter."

She then explained what the audience saw....
They did a scene from "2001, A Space Oddesy" where I was somewhere near Jupiter, and searching for ...... .. and the meaning of life? Obelisks?
the scene opened, where the doors of a space ship open and I come floating out. There was background music suitable to the scene, and a narrator, telling the story for the audience. the audience saw the action on some large monitors, while I dangled above, adding the slapstick comedy to the scene.

Now... if you don't know....Bluescreen is a process where separately taped elements can be brought together, and superimposed on one another in the camera, and it looks like it's actually happening. i.e. "Superman" flying, is done in this manner.

See:
http://www.seanet.com/~bradford/bluscrn.html

and a photoshop recreation (attached)

Well I couldn't wait to get those pics developed, when I got home. the day after, I went to the photo place, andwas told there was nothing in the entire roll. She had neglected to remove the lens cap..... (sigh!)
and the only photo's I got were the flip down type post cards from the novelty shop.

Want to talk about rage control???

I have to be the master! hahaha!

For the next few weeks, I questioned what I was doing with an imbecile, a nitwit, an air head, an idiot...........

(sigh twice!) It's a single lens reflex!
The view window gets its info thru the lens!! How did she see what she was shooting if the lens cap was on???? ......let alone focus... Grrrrrrrrr ! !

needless to say.... we haven't seen each other....for a couple of decades now....

hahahahaha!!! Yeah, I can laugh NOW.....
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WHAT???

R YOU NUTZ???

She turned out to be a "gold digger"
Didn't give a damnation bout me...
Only what I ........could give her....

One night we went out, and I left my wallet at home
[we lived together at the time, & I supported her and her daughter]

I said to her give me a twenty for the drinks...
She got annoyed, saying that it was "HER" money, and if we went out, I should pay...( huh?? )

That was my first clue....

And she wanted me to marry 'er ? ?

In a conversation on the subject, she asked
" What are you offering me"

I said "Offering you??" She thought she was entitled to a pre-nuptial.

HA!

Charlie

 

Hmmmmm......
(through my mind flows visions of Tom Cruise in Top Gun)
Looked as hard as I could.... Didn't see any "deck" @ 10,000 ft....
Oh well......

Yes Switcheroo, ..... I have been thinking about getting into something much less dangerous to life and limb......
Choices?

Bomb diffusal... in Iraq
Psych Advisor ( at a PMS clinic)
Control rod replacement technician (at Chernoble)


I'm Leaning towards Iraq..... Chernoble runs second....

 

I joined both this site and the AOPA forum in Nov of 06. I have 33 posts here and just under 200 at AOPA.

I posted the same CFI falling a sleep thread on both forums.

3 reply with 33 views here

53 reply's with 1560 views on AOPA.

it's gotten to the point I only check in here ever few days. I'm on AOPA ever few hours.

 

Rudy,
Do the math that you posted here, and you will see that you received a greater percentage of replies from here, than at the other site, even though there were a greater number of reads there.

10% here ...................... 33/10%=3.3

you would have needed 156 replies to equal 10% of 1560 views.....


So..... This proves, statistics can show.....

whatever you want them to show....

It just depends on what you want to see....

AOPA has been around the net, since 1996. (11 years or more)

We've just started a short time ago. (about 1 year+)

Aopa, has many paid advertisers, supporters, and charges $39.00/year for membership.

So far, we have one advertiser. Have you sent in your membership dues?
Oops! Thats right... we don't have them here.
Well not till just recently, and they have since been indefinitely suspended.

Aopa is a major nationwide business, with magazine subscriptions, people in Washington, and employs thousands of people.

Here is one man's effort to present an alternate site.

Thank You, Mr. Rob Lay.

Many people here also joined Aopa, some time ago.

If you think I'm biased, well, I joined Aopa in 2003.

I started here Nov 04, 2005, and have close to 400 posts here.


Maybe we're just the new kid on the block....???

 

While I tend to stay out of that sort of thing . . . . .

There has been some in fighting over on the AOPA forum. Some people have gotten upset what they though was over control over there. Have you though about reaching out to cowboy and some of the others to come over here.

Again I have no ideal what happened or who started what. Just an ideal.


Also just a FYI, I found this place with a google search, for aviator forums. So you have the search engine thing down.

 

I gave you some suggestions a while back, when flightinfo.com was self destructing. It's probably too late now, as the professional guys have gone to propilotworld.com and the student/private people have gone to clearandamillion.com.

flightinfo.com continues to stagger on, though. There will probably be another exodus from there at some point.

 

Hey Rob,

I got your eMail and plan to spend some more time here. I'm anxious to get back to flying. And now that my son is home from the Air Force, I've been around the airport (helping him try to find a job, which hasn't been easy!) a bit more, and just being there has really got my thinking more and more about getting in those last few (2.5?) hours.... the test.... the ability to pass the practical....

Oh yeah... and the solo!

Can you believe it? 37.5hrs.. Well over 100 landings (incl. all the night flights and landings to a complete stop), several long (short x-country) flights to 3 or more different airports, and I still haven't solo'd!

Three flights in 150's, and a bunch in 172's, 180's & Warriors. And once in an Archer...

Yes. I know... It'll take a LOT more than another 2.5hrs. Just another great thing to look forward to!

In fact, your eMail encouraged me to re-link to Kip's. So I've started taking the practice exams again.

Thank you for the nudge!!!