Great move by AOPA ( AOPA aquires APA)

AdamZ

AdamZ

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Display name:
Adam Zucker
What a brilliant move on AOPA's part! AOPA looks like it took over the APA or Acraft Partnership Association a website whos function was to put folks togethter to start flying clubs or partner in aircraft. This is something that IMHO that will actually serve to get people in the air.

http://ap.aopa.org/
 
I got an email from APA about this, and I thought it was brilliant too. I haven't read AOPA's press release on this yet, but I'm glad because APA's website is, well, not very user friendly.
 
The big problem with partnerships: You actually find out how much you're spending to fly. That's usually something you just DON'T want to know!!
 
Ken Ibold said:
The big problem with partnerships: You actually find out how much you're spending to fly. That's usually something you just DON'T want to know!!
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I'm perfectly happy knowing how much my flying costs... so long as I don't have to pay the bills!
 
And, a bonehead move by AOPA:

my email said:
Dear Kent,

Routinely, AOPA reviews the product and service offering to our membership to ensure we are focusing our efforts on those programs of the greatest benefit to the AOPA membership.

Occasionally, products and services are discontinued when they are found to require more resources than return in benefit to our members. Unfortunately, the AOPA Aircraft Partnership Program falls in this category.

We are sorry to inform you that the program will be discontinued as of January 6, 2014. After that date all profiles and data associated with your account will no longer be accessible (including photos, messages, notes, etc). We strongly suggest that you retrieve or delete any data in your profile and move all partnership communications offline or to personal email.

If you have questions please contact us at Memberassistance@aopa.org

We sincerely appreciate your support of AOPA and regret any inconvenience this may cause you.
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Of course, they had pretty much effectively killed it off anyway by taking the formerly-free service and charging $10/month for it... But now it's really dead.

And they killed off the Center to Advance the Pilot Community whose job it was to find ways to make flying more affordable and get more people into flying.

Fuller was terrible, and I'm afraid that while Mark Baker says things I like, his actions have proven to be exactly the opposite. :mad:
 
flyingcheesehead said:
And, a bonehead move by AOPA:



Of course, they had pretty much effectively killed it off anyway by taking the formerly-free service and charging $10/month for it... But now it's really dead.

And they killed off the Center to Advance the Pilot Community whose job it was to find ways to make flying more affordable and get more people into flying.

Fuller was terrible, and I'm afraid that while Mark Baker says things I like, his actions have proven to be exactly the opposite. :mad:
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Knowing what little I know about airplanes and websites. I wouldn't call this a boneheaded move.

Pilots are already a small demographic, pilots looking for a parternship in my hometown that I don't already know about who are AOPA members, who know about this service, who wish to spend $10 for access to a poorly designed website for a services that's likely to lead nowhere is going to be a very small demographic and a very small portion of their member base.

Considering they have a hard enough time keeping their main website running, I would have ditched it too.
 
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bartmc said:
Pilots are already a small demographic, pilots looking for a parternship in my hometown that I don't already know about who are AOPA members, who know about this service, who wish to spend $10 for access to a poorly designed website for a services that's likely to lead nowhere is going to be a very small demographic and a very small portion of their member base.
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Well, they shouldn't have charged for it at all, for one.

Secondly, there's plenty of people I don't know at my airport and at nearby airports - I've gotten some calls from people who are interested in partnering in the Mooney who found it just from seeing the flyer posted on the bulletin board in the FBO, and I think there's probably more local pilots who'd be able to find the web site than who actually go into the corner where that bulletin board is!

May be a different demographic that'd find the web site, but that just means exposure to more people. I'd say I only know a couple handfuls of people at my airport (it's unfortunately not the kind of airport where people go just to hang out), and I know next to nobody who's based at surrounding airports that are plenty close enough.

Right now, I have no idea where else to go to find more people. :dunno:
 
bartmc said:
Knowing what little I know about airplanes and websites. I wouldn't call this a boneheaded move.

Pilots are already a small demographic, pilots looking for a parternship in my hometown that I don't already know about who are AOPA members, who know about this service, who wish to spend $10 for access to a poorly designed website for a services that's likely to lead nowhere is going to be a very small demographic and a very small portion of their member base.

Considering they have a hard enough time keeping their main website running, I would have ditched it too.
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Yet it still works better and cheaper than healthcare.gov! ;)
 
The site never was user friendly. I'm thinking that Baker feels the need to gut AOPA to its core and then rebuild. Perhaps not such a bad thing. I do like their club support network.
 
AdamZ said:
I'm thinking that Baker feels the need to gut AOPA to its core and then rebuild.
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But, what's more core to building a membership base than matching up (potential) pilots with (potential) airplanes?

Seems pretty core to me. Sure, it's not a wine club, but still.
 
AdamZ said:
The site never was user friendly. I'm thinking that Baker feels the need to gut AOPA to its core and then rebuild. Perhaps not such a bad thing. I do like their club support network.
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Adam,

The flying club network was part of the Center to Advance the Pilot Community which was gutted in the recent AOPA re-org. Both still appear on AOPA's web site, but I'm not sure if there are any personnel left to keep them up to date.
 
flyingcheesehead said:
Well, they shouldn't have charged for it at all, for one.

Secondly, there's plenty of people I don't know at my airport and at nearby airports - I've gotten some calls from people who are interested in partnering in the Mooney who found it just from seeing the flyer posted on the bulletin board in the FBO, and I think there's probably more local pilots who'd be able to find the web site than who actually go into the corner where that bulletin board is!

May be a different demographic that'd find the web site, but that just means exposure to more people. I'd say I only know a couple handfuls of people at my airport (it's unfortunately not the kind of airport where people go just to hang out), and I know next to nobody who's based at surrounding airports that are plenty close enough.

Right now, I have no idea where else to go to find more people. :dunno:
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Craig's list?
 
timwinters said:
But, what's more core to building a membership base than matching up (potential) pilots with (potential) airplanes?

Seems pretty core to me. Sure, it's not a wine club, but still.
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Making money, not enough people would pay the $10.
 
timwinters said:
But, what's more core to building a membership base than matching up (potential) pilots with (potential) airplanes?

Seems pretty core to me. Sure, it's not a wine club, but still.
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I agree Tim but the site had a horrible UI. I mean it was just a nightmare to use and edit so if they would start from scratch that would be an improvement

flyingcheesehead said:
Adam,

The flying club network was part of the Center to Advance the Pilot Community which was gutted in the recent AOPA re-org. Both still appear on AOPA's web site, but I'm not sure if there are any personnel left to keep them up to date.
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I was not aware of that. They do have an active presence on FB and thats where I see them most.
 
The UI looked far different, to me, than the UI at the original autonomous website. I used the original site when looking to get into a partnership. I didn't find my plane through it, but found it through my EAA chapter.

Kent, although my Warrior is definitely not a Mooney I found new partners through putting up flyers at the local flight schools.
 
AOPA doing less for members?

I'm shocked.
 
flyingcheesehead said:
Adam,

The flying club network was part of the Center to Advance the Pilot Community which was gutted in the recent AOPA re-org. Both still appear on AOPA's web site, but I'm not sure if there are any personnel left to keep them up to date.
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The flying club initiative is still very much alive and being actively worked. The flying club network is growing and resources for flying clubs being developed. You can find out more under the Community and Events tab at AOPA.org.

Efforts to grow the pilot population, including the flight training initiative, are also still active.
 
Tricked me for a minute there..

I started reading and didn't notice this thread started a while ago.

So I am thinking to myself wow AOPA did something right, brilliant even?? Didn't take long for me to read the rest and see the end results of another AOPA bright idea. Sorry but no surprise for me.

* No personal offense meant to Tom or anybody else at AOPA but AOPA has been a big letdown to me the last many years. This from a 30 year pilot and probably a 20 year on and off member.
 
At least AOPA is trying stuff. If they try something that doesn't work, I'm okay with them dumping it.

AOPA might as well pull the plug on flyQWeb as well. That's their worthless online flight planner, which sadly replaced another planner that not only worked, but worked superbly.
 
NoHeat said:
At least AOPA is trying stuff. If they try something that doesn't work, I'm okay with them dumping it.

AOPA might as well pull the plug on flyQWeb as well. That's their worthless online flight planner, which sadly replaced another planner that not only worked, but worked superbly.
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Well you can now buy a two year subscription to fly q for your I pad.
 
TomHaines said:
The flying club initiative is still very much alive and being actively worked. The flying club network is growing and resources for flying clubs being developed. You can find out more under the Community and Events tab at AOPA.org.

Efforts to grow the pilot population, including the flight training initiative, are also still active.
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Our club was contacted very recently by AOPA, I gather that AOPA may do some kind of write up about us. They had some questions about how we are organized, what airplanes, etc.

In any case, I give them credit for reaching out.
 
Their mistake was trying to monetize this rather than making it a member benefit that would have been an incentive for more pilots to join the organization.
 
iflyatiger said:
Tricked me for a minute there..

I started reading and didn't notice this thread started a while ago.

So I am thinking to myself wow AOPA did something right, brilliant even?? Didn't take long for me to read the rest and see the end results of another AOPA bright idea. Sorry but no surprise for me.
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Same here. I was about to look into it.
 
LDJones said:
Their mistake was trying to monetize this rather than making it a member benefit that would have been an incentive for more pilots to join the organization.
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Here's some news: Most AOPA member benefits are revenue makers for AOPA.

Same with the optional coverages like the legal plan.

These organizations exist for the organizations.
 
AOPA ****ed me off on this. I was a member of APA and met folks that I flew with and I learned about the club I am in now from cold-calling folks in APA (the club has no web presence and is strictly word-of-mouth). Then AOPA takes it over and screws it up for everyone. Congratulations for forgetting WTF their mission is.
 
Here's some news: Most AOPA member benefits are revenue makers for AOPA. Same with the optional coverages like the legal plan.
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Actually, i think the legal plan is more a personal benefit to John Yodice, whose law firm appears to have a sole-source, no-bid contract to operate it. At least that was the case a year or so ago when I dropped my membership.
 
TomHaines said:
The flying club initiative is still very much alive and being actively worked. The flying club network is growing and resources for flying clubs being developed. You can find out more under the Community and Events tab at AOPA.org.

Efforts to grow the pilot population, including the flight training initiative, are also still active.
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Tom, that's great to hear - But why, then, was Adam Smith (among others) let go?
 
LDJones said:
Their mistake was trying to monetize this rather than making it a member benefit that would have been an incentive for more pilots to join the organization.
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This.

Also, it would seem that the problem wasn't in the idea, it was in the execution. There is no other resource of this type for pilots, and it could be a very useful resource for, y'know, "aircraft owners and pilots"...

Make it free and make it not suck and it'd be very successful and an excellent member benefit.
 
mikea said:
Here's some news: Most AOPA member benefits are revenue makers for AOPA.

Same with the optional coverages like the legal plan.

These organizations exist for the organizations.
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I've used their online safety resources and flight planner for years, neither of which are revenue-makers (other than occasional ads). This should have fallen into a similar category for them.
 
LDJones said:
I've used their online safety resources and flight planner for years, neither of which are revenue-makers (other than occasional ads). This should have fallen into a similar category for them.
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I was an AOPA member for 2 reasons, the flight planner and insurance. The flight planner is gone.

The old flight planner was awesome…. The new one is beyond horrid, I'll whip out the sectional and plotter before I deal with that nonsense. And no, it didn't work better than healthcare.gov when it was rolled out.
 
Any chance AOPA would be willing to spin it back off to some private party that wants to run it? When I first used it, it was pretty cool and had potential. Came back to it a year later and I could no longer use it - couldn't find anything relevant and seemed like a wasteland. Sad that it went downhill so fast, but perhaps the devs that came with the company left, and the new devs ended up butchering it.
 
masloki said:
Any chance AOPA would be willing to spin it back off to some private party that wants to run it? When I first used it, it was pretty cool and had potential. Came back to it a year later and I could no longer use it - couldn't find anything relevant and seemed like a wasteland. Sad that it went downhill so fast, but perhaps the devs that came with the company left, and the new devs ended up butchering it.
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You don't need anyone to hand it to you. Anyone can start a service like that. Sure, the database has value.
 
TomHaines said:
Adam was the head of the Center to Advance the Pilot Community, which, as you can read here, was a part of the organization that was eliminated during a recent restructuring:



http://www.aopa.org/News-and-Video/All-News/2013/October/18/AOPA-restructures-to-refocus-priorities.aspx
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Well, it kinda seems like the functions of that center still exist... It just looks really bad, that's all I'm saying. Kind of like buying up and then killing (whether via ineptitude, inattention, or both) a service that has great potential to get people into a situation where they can start or continue flying, such as the Aircraft Partnership site.
 
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