What Are You Doing To Promote Sport Flying?

[aviator3230]

Had a chat with Kevin Psutka of COPA a few weeks back. He didn't paint a pretty picture of where recreational flying is going; we are slipping further off  the government's radar as their funding to deal with a declining segment of aviation (us) is cut back. Numbers mean something to these people, and the more pilots there are the more clout we have with the Feds.

What are we doing to promote our sport? Are you mentoring young people? How can we promote our sport?

Some ideas:
-drop off old copies of the Recreational Flyer at flying schools and coffee shops at small airports
-get involved in organizing chapter events and fly-ins
-contribute to the magazine and website with comments and articles
-keep us up to date on coming events so the RAA has value to offer people through its web and print publications
-Take people flying
-let some neighbourhood kids, your own kids and grandkids in on your project

I could go on, but you get the idea...

Your comments and ideas are welcome!

[irishfield]

Where are all these spammers coming from George?

Promotion... not many a kid gets past my dock without being thrown in the right seat!

[aviator3230]

Where are all these spammers coming from George?

Promotion... not many a kid gets past my dock without being thrown in the right seat!

The problem is the spammers are using 'bots to generate bogus registrations in an effort to generate back links to their own sites (or something like) - it evidently improves their Google ratings. I haven't come across anything malicious, but they are a royal pain in the butt - spend maybe 20 minutes a day going through the list. That's why I ask people to email me first - bots can't do that. I have put what security measures I know on the site, but they've figured a way around them. I do have it set that I have to approve the membership before they can post, and I can and do intercept most of them. If there are any that I miss, let me know and I'll deep-six the offending "member".

I get some from Russia and Poland...