Ham radio and general aviation (GA) have a lot of things in common. Among
them are:



They are both technology oriented.



The members of each can't understand why more people aren't interested in
it.



They both have a storied history, have kind of fallen on hard times, but
have lots and lots of new things going on, and are having problems getting
the kind of "traction" they used to.



Ham radio's national organization (the ARRL) is very analogous to the EAA.



Both are male dominated, but wives normally come along.



Both have a local network of local clubs.



And ham radio has a demographics problem that is a lot worse than GA, but GA
will probably be about the same as ham radio is now in ten years.



This past Saturday was "Field Day", ham radio's national "holiday", think of
it as Oshkosh, but distributed across the country with the participants in
radio contact with each other. On a national level, they do all the right
things: alert the national media, have draft press releases for local clubs
to use, have lots of information for the participants. For the first time,
I went to a Field Day event this Saturday. Of all the clubs in the Seattle
area, only one club was having an event local to me. I won't mention the
club, because I expect the situation I saw was repeated across the country.
The club is one of largest ones, and is even employer sponsored.



Before I went, I read their newsletter (on-line, a good start). I should
have noticed that even though they have lots of subcommittees, a lot of them
had "No report" at the last meeting; that could be considered a lack of
vitality. The newsletter listed a bunch of demos they hoped to have set up
on Field Day. I slept in, and was concerned that I might have missed some
stuff: I shouldn't have worried. They did have signs when I got close, but
they were generic club signs, not anything specific to "Field Day". If I
hadn't know that the club was sponsoring a Field Day event, I wouldn't have
paid any attention to the signs. There were quite a few vehicles, so I got
out and started looking for the "action". Lots of people in their RVs, and
lots of people in their tents. Where it looked like the radios were, no
one was sitting there. After walking around for a few minutes, I got mad
and left. It was probably the last Field Day event I'll ever go to.



Why am I posting this here? Because I think there are a lot of lessons that
can be applied to GA. If I had been someone wanting to get involved in GA
and went to a Fly-in that was done like this Field Day event, it would be
the last Fly-in I'd ever go to, and even worse, I'd figure that GA was a
bunch of geriatric curmudgeons and the last thing they needed was all these
airports taking up valuable real estate.



In no particular order:



Lack of subcommittee reports aren't an indication of club vitality, they ARE
club vitality. Subcommittee people, if they feel no one cares, will reflect
that in their work. One of the most important jobs of a club president is
to have the right subcomittees, and then to make them feel important.



There might have been other Field Day sites I could have gone to, but they
didn't advertise because "everyone knows" that they put on an event and
where. The event I went to wasn't even linked to off of the national
website, if I hadn't known of the club's website, I wouldn't have known
about it; in retrospect, that might have been for the better! I'm always
amazed how many fly-ins don't list themselves on sites such as
www.flyins.com.



Don't advertise "hoped for" events/demos unless there is a very high degree
of probability.



What the national organization(s) do is of marginal importance if the local
clubs don't take advantage of it and leverage it in the local media. The
best way to get coverage in the local media is to take them up for a
"sightseeing" flight a couple of weeks BEFORE the event, and take them out
to lunch after the flight.



Road signs and banners need to be relavant if you hope to draw
non-aviation/fringe aviation people. For someone coming to their first
fly-in, a sign that says "EAA Chapter xxx" doesn't mean squat. And don't
forget to add "Everyone Welcome!" (In my mind, the often used "Visitors
Welcome" doesn't work as well, people don't want to "visit" with strangers.



Fly-ins need to work hard to avoid being excuses to go camping with your
friends, like Field Day has become. I don't really know what this is, but I
know what it isn't. Walking around an area where everyone is inside their
tents and RVs makes me feel like either a thief or a voyeur.



And probably the best lesson I came away with:



Events that are trying to bring fresh blood in need "Greeters". Since there
are a lot of wives at Fly-ins trying really hard not to be bored, and since
women on average are more personable than men, this sounds like a heck of an
opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. Have the greeters wear badges
or vests that say "Greeter". Have a greeting table (clearly identified as
such) right at the entrance with a schedule of events (the time for the
meals, and special fly-overs, etc) and flyers from as much avaition related
stuff as you can (CAP, SAR, flight schools, airport restuarants, avaition
themed motels, other local fly-ins, regional fly-ins, closest aviation
museums, value of the airport to the local economy, etc.) If the fly-in is
large enough, have a map that shows the restrooms and kid's play area.
Don't forget things to prevent the flyers from blowing away. This is also a
great way to find out how people found out about the fly-in.

It's more fundamental than how "clubs" are organized or how they
set up for events. The problem is that society has grown far beyond
the basic technology behind Ham Radio. We have video cellphones,
ipods, laptop computers and satellite TV. Why should any kid be
interested in talking to someone on a radio with a lot of static
and actually have to study for and take a test just to get a license?
After all you don't need a license for a cellphone or computer...

Same with aviation. There are so many other cool things for people
to do that cost a lot less money and don't take near as much work
and effort... why bother when you can just go out and buy a jet-ski,
or a dirt bike. Powered flight is common place today, so is radio
communication. It doesn't elicit the magic and fascination that it
did in the 1960's.

On Wed, 27 Jun 2007 19:16:53 GMT, ktbr > wrote in
>:

>There are so many other cool things [than private aviation] for people
>to do that cost a lot less money and don't take near as much work
>and effort... why bother when you can just go out and buy a jet-ski,
>or a dirt bike.

Personally, I see that as a good thing. The person who approaches
aviation in the same thrill seeking spirit as the two examples you
cite, probably isn't a good candidate for becoming a prudent and
skilled airman. While there is no denying the visceral aspect of
aviation, it is, or should be, only a small part of the overall
motivation for becoming and maintaining required proficiency
airmanship demands.

>Powered flight is common place today, so is radio communication. It
>doesn't elicit the magic and fascination that it did in the 1960's.

To the general public, that is probably true, but to one who
appreciates and understands the physics of either of the examples you
cite, the magic will always be there.

The difference between them is, that cell phones and the Internet now
so dominate communications, that armature radio and short wave
broadcasting have little useful utility today, unlike personal
aviation. The ability to quickly travel to distant destinations
without enduring the airlines' abominably intrusive security policies,
uncontrollable delays, and risk of inhaling TB germs or
tricresylphosphate* renders personal aviation more attractive than
ever.


* http://marcosaba.tripod.com/gasnervino12.html

On Wed, 27 Jun 2007 18:30:38 GMT, "Ken Finney"
> wrote in >:

>
>Road signs and banners need to be relavant if you hope to draw
>non-aviation/fringe aviation people. For someone coming to their first
>fly-in, a sign that says "EAA Chapter xxx" doesn't mean squat. And don't
>forget to add "Everyone Welcome!"


I agree. Why is it that the PR firms can't seem to get this right?

Larry Dighera wrote:

>
>
> To the general public, that is probably true, but to one who
> appreciates and understands the physics of either of the examples you
> cite, the magic will always be there.

Well, my pointis that there are a lot less young people today that
are interested in the 'physics' of either technology. We hire
part time students alot and I know what they think.

>
> The difference between them is, that cell phones and the Internet now
> so dominate communications, that armature radio and short wave
> broadcasting have little useful utility today, unlike personal
> aviation. The ability to quickly travel to distant destinations
> without enduring the airlines' abominably intrusive security policies,
> uncontrollable delays, and risk of inhaling TB germs or
> tricresylphosphate* renders personal aviation more attractive than
> ever.

I hope you're right... that the abomination that is commercial
airline travel will eventually make some people so angry that
they will try general aviation. I submit, however, that these
people will most likely be business owners not really interested
in the 'physics' of it all... just want relief from the hassel.

I've held an Extra Class Ham Radio license since college (too
many years ago to admit) and hold a CFI rating so I've seen a
lot of this stuff up close.

On 2007-06-27, Larry Dighera > wrote:
> To the general public, that is probably true, but to one who
> appreciates and understands the physics of either of the examples you
> cite, the magic will always be there.

However, those people will be more drawn to things like software these
days - the barriers to entry are so much lower. You can get all the
tools you need, from the computer (a cast-off business machine) to the
software - from the operating system on up - for free, complete with
source code. If you want your program to communicate, you don't need a
license to open a TCP connection over the internet. For a young person
with limited funds, getting into radio has much higher barriers to
entry.

Personally, I find radio and electronics interesting, indeed, only last
night I laid out the PCB, etched it, and added the components for a 170
volt switch mode power supply for one of my projects. But radio? I find
writing some software to communicate over the internet very satisfying,
and I don't need to take exams to do it, and I don't risk being dragged
to court if I make a mistake (the amateur radio police over here delight
themselves in turning you in to the authorities). If I need one of my
electronics projects to communicate, well, a CP2200 IC and a
microcontroller will do the job and I still don't need a license, nor
worry about if I'm doing something that might upset the ham radio
police.

--
Yes, the Reply-To email address is valid.
Oolite-Linux: an Elite tribute: http://oolite-linux.berlios.de

Ken Finney wrote:

>
> This past Saturday was "Field Day", ham radio's national "holiday", think of
> it as Oshkosh, but distributed across the country with the participants in
> radio contact with each other. On a national level, they do all the right
> things: alert the national media, have draft press releases for local clubs
> to use, have lots of information for the participants. For the first time,
> I went to a Field Day event this Saturday.




As a nonpracticing ham I saw all of those things. I got a letter from
the local ham group about field day last week. I got my ticket in 1987,
quickly progressed to extra class, all while in college. Setup a shack
while I lived at home and quickly got about 190 countries. Got married
and really haven't done anything since. I have a two meter radio right
here at the computer desk but only use it to listen to the aircraft
band. If you're fascinated by radio ham radio can be fun but for
everybody else it has exactly zero relavance to peoples lives.

"Newps" > wrote in message
. ..
>
>
> Ken Finney wrote:
>
>>
>> This past Saturday was "Field Day", ham radio's national "holiday", think
>> of it as Oshkosh, but distributed across the country with the
>> participants in radio contact with each other. On a national level, they
>> do all the right things: alert the national media, have draft press
>> releases for local clubs to use, have lots of information for the
>> participants. For the first time, I went to a Field Day event this
>> Saturday.
>
>
>
>
> As a nonpracticing ham I saw all of those things. I got a letter from the
> local ham group about field day last week. I got my ticket in 1987,
> quickly progressed to extra class, all while in college. Setup a shack
> while I lived at home and quickly got about 190 countries. Got married
> and really haven't done anything since. I have a two meter radio right
> here at the computer desk but only use it to listen to the aircraft band.
> If you're fascinated by radio ham radio can be fun but for everybody else
> it has exactly zero relavance to peoples lives.

I expect many would say "If you're fascinated by aviation, it can be fun.
But for everybody else, it has exactly zero relevance to people's lives."
And both would claim they are relavant, and offer supporting documentation.

Let's make this even more basic: When I was a kid (back in the
Jurassic age) one of our local GA landing strips offered a day for the
general public to go up in the air. This meant that Mom, Pop and the
little darlin's had an opportunity to (a) fly in an airplane - just
once over the airstrip - and land, (b) get their picture taken with
the plane and pilot, and if my memory serves me, (c) get a
commemorative T-shirt (kids only). The purpose was, of course, to
help the curious understand what's so great about getting off the
ground, and to plant seeds in the fertile brains of the children.

Over the years, many airstrips have become old men's clubs, completely
unwelcoming to the outsider. The support that the older pilots tried
to build up evaporated, and those that are trying to build or rebuild
community ties with fly-ins seem to lack the knack for publicity and
for being good hosts.

We had a local fly-in recently. The host EEA group stated that they
wanted the public to come up and observe. Why, we never found out.
However, the local public never saw an article explaining what a fly-
in is, or what to expect, or that they were welcome. If someone
ventured up there, they saw groups of pilots and their families and
friends gathered in tight knots around their planes. More than one
curious attendee was hesitant to approach the clique. There was no
central place to get information or to talk to a greeter. The main
tent was parked in an out-of-the-way corner of the strip as to make it
a private club. I doubt the event did anything to garner more
interest in GA, although I'm sure the participants came away in the
warm glow of their own superiority.

This isn't the way to build the ranks. A close read of Ken Finney's
post at the top of this thread gives several excellent pointers on how
to make friends and influence people. The trick now is to get off our
collective butts and do it. With GA numbers dwindling and the general
public not seeing what's so bad about losing a local airport to a
strip mall, crunch time is at hand.

AJ

On Wed, 27 Jun 2007 18:30:38 GMT, "Ken Finney"
> wrote:


>Events that are trying to bring fresh blood in need "Greeters". Since there

I'd invite you to our EAA Chapter 1093 pancake breakfast tomorrow
morning at 3BS but it'd be one whale of a commute at this late a date.

Having been laid up for some time I haven't been involved in this one,
but any one who wants to come to 3BS (Midland MI) is welcome.

You will find greeters, demonstrations, home made donuts, quite a few
home built's on display (I think we've had 4 completions in this
spring and a couple more almost done)...did I mention the home made
donuts?

We've gained more than a dozen new pilots in their 20's and younger in
the past couple of years. Most of these come from Young Eagles and our
Aviation camps. We also have an aviation scholarship awarded yearly.
In addition there have been a few parents get interested as well.

>are a lot of wives at Fly-ins trying really hard not to be bored, and since
>women on average are more personable than men, this sounds like a heck of an
>opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. Have the greeters wear badges
>or vests that say "Greeter". Have a greeting table (clearly identified as
>such) right at the entrance with a schedule of events (the time for the
>meals, and special fly-overs, etc) and flyers from as much avaition related
>stuff as you can (CAP, SAR, flight schools, airport restuarants, avaition
>themed motels, other local fly-ins, regional fly-ins, closest aviation
>museums, value of the airport to the local economy, etc.) If the fly-in is
>large enough, have a map that shows the restrooms and kid's play area.
>Don't forget things to prevent the flyers from blowing away. This is also a
>great way to find out how people found out about the fly-in.
>
>
>