Sunday, October 14, 2007

Recreational Flying Forum

On the side bar you will see a link to an aviation forum called Recreational Flying Forum. This is a private forum run by a gentleman named Ian Baker. It has no formal association with the governing body of recreational flying, the RA-Aus.

I have not met Ian however I personally find this an excellent forum for all recreational pilots. I am a member of this site (JohnMcK) and I support this site from a personal perspective and a board member perspective. The site is well moderated and friendly. You just have a look at some of the other aviation forums to see the viscous nature and tone of some anonymous posters to see what can happen without good moderation.

There has been an issue earlier this year where the RA-Aus suddenly refused to accept Ian's advertisements in our magazine. This was before my election to the board, and I have not been able to fully find out why. But times have changed and this is no longer an issue.

Ian also runs an online shop where recreational aviators have access to a range of aviation goods at competitive prices. I personally haven't bought anything there yet so I can't comment on the service, but if Ian runs the shop as he runs the forum, I don't think there will be any issues.

Apart from club meetings and flyins, forums such as this are a great way for recreational aviators to communicate. However for the newer pilots, don't just read the one post on a topic. I have seen examples of wrong information being given, and advice given "as gospel" that later turns out to be given by a student pilot. However the big advantage of a forum such as this, is it generally doesn't take long for someone to post the correct information.