I'm proposing a new name for EAA

[Todd82]

The name was a little misleading anyway. How many airplanes were there during the Civil War?

EXACTLY! The name always made zero sense.

AOPA is for everybody...

Everybody willing to give them money.

 

[donjohnston]

The name Confederate AF never made sense to me - no balloon.
https://civilwartalk.com/threads/balloons-in-the-civil-war.71140/

Confederate: to bring states or groups of people into an alliance.

Sound fine to me.

 

[SkyDog58]

Confederate: to bring states or groups of people into an alliance.

Sound fine to me.

You want to have fun with words? Ask people what the Articles of Confederation were. The large number of people who will say it pertained to the confederacy/civil war/slavery is ridiculous.

 

[denverpilot]

Can you expand on this? I don't see the organization as broken. I do believe the internet has largely obsoleted EAA chapters for anything more than social activities, but that isn't a condemnation of the parent organization. I also realize that aviation demographics are void of young people, but I'm not sure EAA can do much about that...

Folks who’ve built their aircraft still say in most areas that they met other builders and experts through their local chapters, not as much via the Internet unless they built something very uncommon and only a handful of people have ever built one.

As far as young people go, everyone on the rental ramp this morning getting into about ten different aircraft were all 20 years younger than me, so if they’re out flying and not attending EAA Chapter meetings, I’m cool with that.

I was jealous of the kids with parachutes strapped on headed for the Decathlon Xtreme... But I had a good time giving a flight review in the Skylane...

 

[nauga]

Folks who’ve built their aircraft still say in most areas that they met other builders and experts through their local chapters, not as much via the Internet unless they built something very uncommon and only a handful of people have ever built one.

Not this builder. I got far more meaningful help and motivation from online builders (including @kyleb ) than any local chapter in any of the places I happened to be local during the building of a not-uncommon RV-4.

ETA: To give an example, it's a lot easier to find someone in an online community of several hundred dedicated builders of similar models who have had similar issues or asked/answered similar questions than in a local chapter of, say, 30 people who are building widely varying projects if they're building anything at all.


Nauga,
coast-to-coast builder

 

[denverpilot]

Not this builder. I got far more meaningful help and motivation from online builders (including @kyleb ) than any local chapter in any of the places I happened to be local during the building of a not-uncommon RV-4.

Nauga,
coast-to-coast builder

Makes sense that it’s going to be chapter-specific, and very dependent on what’s being built locally.

Talked to a guy the other day who did the “build in a pro level shop” thing, accelerated. Sounded nice. They had all the tools, your kit arrives and you get a location, and you pay rent until you GTFO. If you’re stumped on something there’s a few old salts around to describe the three ways you could do something.

Spendy if you didn’t keep a strict schedule and keep moving at a relatively fast pace, since you pay for the space per month — but he liked it. Said he had cheap/free local lodging to the place via a friend with a spare room and he went up there at least a week out of every month, occasionally the whole month (he was retired) and worked on it. 23 months.

If you lived close to a place like that it would be spiffy.

 

[Palmpilot]

Confederate: to bring states or groups of people into an alliance.

Sound fine to me.

The swastika was a symbol of good luck until the Nazis ruined it for everyone.

 

[paflyer]

Everything Aircraft Association. Covers, uh, “everything.”

 

[JOhnH]

Haha no kidding! But then Trump would have changed it back.

Be careful. You may get a warning from the MC for typing the name of a political figure.
Don't ask me how I know because I think that is against the rules.

 

[Palmpilot]

Be careful. You may get a warning from the MC for typing the name of a political figure.
Don't ask me how I know because I think that is against the rules.

Four months have gone by since he posted that, so he's probably safe.

 

[JOhnH]

Four months have gone by since he posted that, so he's probably safe.

Oh. I failed to notice that. But now that I pointed it out he may still be in jeopardy.

 

[Timbeck2]

The swastika was symbol of good luck until the Nazis ruined it for everyone.

Fo twoo

 

[mscard88]

Be careful. You may get a warning from the MC for typing the name of a political figure.
Don't ask me how I know because I think that is against the rules.

Four months have gone by since he posted that, so he's probably safe.

Think a joke I posted may have political, a joke I tell you, recently but they allowed me to take a break we'll say.

Yeah they cirrius about politics.

 

[Brad Smith]

EAA started out in a basement with just a few guys. They were building wood/tube and rag planes and having the time of their lives. It worked! Now, folks are building $250,000+ pressurized wonders that have kind of twisted the original intentions of the EAA IMHO. What once started off as a simple thing has grown to include every aircraft imaginable. I guess in order to grow they had to include everybody, even those that just foot the bill and never get their hands dirty.
I probably sound grumpy to some, but where does it all end? The cost certainly has kept most from building these days as even the simplest Van’s aircraft will set you back a princely sum. Heck, even a Pietenpol built of quality materials (if you can source them) is more than most are going to put out for a hobby.
The actual “experimenting” is but a small part of the EAA, but it is there. I think it is time for a name change as the name no longer reflects the original intention of the EAA.

 

[CJones]

EAA started out in a basement with just a few guys. They were building wood/tube and rag planes and having the time of their lives. It worked! Now, folks are building $250,000+ pressurized wonders that have kind of twisted the original intentions of the EAA IMHO. What once started off as a simple thing has grown to include every aircraft imaginable. I guess in order to grow they had to include everybody, even those that just foot the bill and never get their hands dirty.
I probably sound grumpy to some, but where does it all end? The cost certainly has kept most from building these days as even the simplest Van’s aircraft will set you back a princely sum. Heck, even a Pietenpol built of quality materials (if you can source them) is more than most are going to put out for a hobby.
The actual “experimenting” is but a small part of the EAA, but it is there. I think it is time for a name change as the name no longer reflects the original intention of the EAA.

I see the angle you're coming from, but I also disagree a bit with your statement.

While I think the majority of EAA members may never pop a rivet (much less buck one), there is still a lot of 'experimenting' going on in the EAA community. If you get in the weeds with the RV community (just as a single example, I'm sure it's happening in other areas that I'm not as familiar with), there are always people 'tinkering' with things - from adding extended fuel tanks, to finding ways to build multi-level redundancy avionics stacks, to improved fairings to squeeze a few more knots of speed, to 'aftermarket' tip-up canopy kits for slider canopy planes, to running larger auto engines, etc. etc. There may not be as much 'design it from the ground up' as there was back in the original days of EAA, there is still a lot of 'experimenting' going on in the community.

 

[Crashnburn]

Just a few observation balloons. Can't remember if they were union or confederate.

Both sides had them