Le Chaud Lapin wrote:
On May 12, 7:53 am, "F. Baum" wrote:
On May 11, 7:29 pm, Shirl wrote:
I have a real email but not my real name just because I dont want
anyone to know who I work for. I love flying light planes (Which is
why I participate on this list) but If one of my posts rubs someone
the wrong way I dont want it to reflect on my company.
The thing I dont get about this list is how everything turns
argumentitive after about a dozen posts on a thread. I dont get
individual emails (Big waste of time IMHO) and I know which threads to
read by how many posts there are. You dont see this in other groups (I
am on a car racing group for example where everyone is anonimous and
perfectly civil). After 31 years in the hobby/Biz, I think some of
this just has to do with aviation. I think it is the type of
personaliy that is attracted to flying.
My appoligies if I have posted anything to **** anybody off.

Hmm...this was precisely what I was thinking, but decided not to say
anything until I read your post.

I am a member of a few groups where a large percentage of the names
are real, but that cannot not be discerned from someone who is not
thoroughly fluent in, say, Serbo-Croatian. So it does not matter if
those individuals user their real name or something else, like, "the
hot bunny", which is my alias, though admittedly, it is easier for
some native English speakers to see what my name means than say
"Ferenczi". [Oddly, my real name is more anonymous than my alias.]

In any case, I think the most important point you have made is written
in your last paragraph. There is something about the character of
some pilots in this group that makes them noticeably different from
any other newsgroup that I have encountered. It is hard not to use
perjorative terms without saying what this difference is, but if I had
to choose two, I would say that _some_ pilots here are not "entirely
receptive to new ideas", and a few feel that "their status as a
licensed aviators gives them the right to be rude" toward those who
are not licensed.

In fairness, I saw a very small bit of this at my pilot school.

A few of us, the students, were sitting around in the lobby, talking
about experimental aircraft (Moller and possibility of flying cars),
and the licensed pilots were attacking us, not in a healthy way, but
in, "You have no idea what you are talking about." way. We were
discussing strength of materials, flight dynamics, and control theory,
and there were two people present who just happened to have experience
in strength of materials and control theory, at university level, but
the pilots did not know.

The owner of the flight school was present, watching from across the
room quietly until, two of the pilots started refuting vigorously
something that was clearly true. The owner interrupted in favor of
the students.

But it was not the details of the subject that mattered. It was the
sensitivity exhibited by the pilots. It was apparent that they simply
did not like the idea of someone who was not a pilot discussing the
dynamics of flight or control theory or anything that questioned dogma
in their presence. They found it offenssive. This is the only group in
USENET where I have encountered this type of sensitivity.

There are other groups, where the gap between what resident sages know
and what newbies know is much larger, say in sci.crypt and comp.dsp,
and the hostility is no where near what I have seen in this group.

Of course, this does not apply to all people in this group. I have
seen the opposite, where some pilots who say very little will pop in
from time to time to defend those who have not yet earned the right to
speak.

-Le Chaud Lapin-

You seem to be generalizing where specifics are indicated. There are
good and bad in all groups of people. Usenet by it's very definition
will have every personality type you can imagine present at any given
moment.
An argument can be made pro or con, but any attempt at categorizing a
group to a single personality trait can easily reflect on one's OWN
personal view rather than reflect the collective view of a group.
Pilots come in all shapes and forms just as any other group. On any
given day you will find helpful people and complete idiots present in
that same group.
The bottom line as far as I can determine is that one pilot will be a
saint, the next will be an asshole. Where it gets complicated is the
fact that on the same day, the saint can become the asshole and the
asshole the saint.
:-)

--
Dudley Henriques