SSA Dick Johnson sailplane reviews: available to all

As most of you'll know by now, these useful reviews have been
recently restricted to SAA members only. However, I've found a way round:
the site is archived by the Internet Archive

http://web.archive.org

and is easily accessed from there. Just use this URL:

http://web.archive.org/web/200410161...es/Johnson.asp

Currently this accesses all available reviews because there don't appear
to have been any published after 6th April, 1999.

The Internaet Archive is worth bookmarking. You can find almost anything
in it if you know the URL of the vanished site or page.

--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org |

Yeah they seemed to take that away from public consumption
when they redid their site -probably didn't even cross
their minds!!

Great that you have found away around it

They seem to kill everything off - look what they've
done to www.glidingmagazine.com - a shadow of what
it once was.

Support the Soaring Association of Canada - the only
national association that I know of that actually allows
you to have a downloadable copy of their national magazine
every few months. That's a one man outfit - Tony Burton-
and look what he's doing! (The SSA and Soaring magazine
could learn a few lessons)
Incidentally I know Tony is always on the lookout
for good articles - might be great to give him some
support.

I was astonished that I was reading that a few of you believe that SSA
took away stuff from the website, and were upset that they made it a
"members only" access. I don't have anything to do with the SSA
website, but I create websites for other organizations, and the web
pages are part of the services that a member organization offers. Why
should there be access to everyone in the world to all that hard work?
Isn't the web site member only access page a good service? Obviously
it is, because otherwise no one would want to look at it. Does this
mean that you believe that the SSA website should NOT be a service to
the membership, but to everyone? Well, I did notice that the stuff
that is open to the public is fascinating, and encouraging to get new
members and new enthusiasts to soaring. I don't think someone that is
new to soaring would care one way or another who's contest ID belongs
to whom, or Dick Johnson's scientific treatises.......
And if you are interested in those things, you should be a member of
SSA anyway. I honestly believe that people should be part of the
solution, not just complain because they have nothing better to do. I
charge a lot of money to my customers to create web pages for them....I
don't do it for free, and I am sure that the SSA has the same issue as
the companies I work for...the website has to be paid for....and in
this case I imagine membership fees do that paying...

My comments apply to the gliding magazine web page as well. If you
think it is a "shadow" of it's former self, then why not apply yourself
to participate, send information or articles. Send an e-mail with
possible solutions, instead of flames only. Who care's what a flame
message to a webmaster has to say, unless there is something
constructive. P.S. I know John Brain who edits the
glidingmagazine.com webpage..and he is ALSO a one-man show...give the
guy a break...give him a lead into the direction you want the website
to go!

Nick Olson wrote:
Yeah they seemed to take that away from public consumption
when they redid their site -probably didn't even cross
their minds!!

Great that you have found away around it

They seem to kill everything off - look what they've
done to www.glidingmagazine.com - a shadow of what
it once was.

..

Nick Olson wrote:
Yeah they seemed to take that away from public consumption
when they redid their site -probably didn't even cross
their minds!!

Great that you have found away around it

They seem to kill everything off - look what they've
done to www.glidingmagazine.com - a shadow of what
it once was.


Nick,

Couldn't find you with the SSA Member locater - are you a member?

Because the 'members' who pay for it want it open.


Actually I would think the person who puts the time
and effort into producing these reports, Dick Johnson,
is the person to have the say in how they are distributed.

T o d d P a t t i s t wrote:
"MickiMinner" wrote:


I was astonished that I was reading that a few of you believe that SSA
took away stuff from the website, and were upset that they made it a
"members only" access. ... Why
should there be access to everyone in the world to all that hard work?


Because the "members" who pay for it want it open. Because
the "members" care more about the future of soaring as a
sport than they do about maintaining exclusivity and
preventing freeloaders from getting information they didn't
pay for. Because the "members" would rather that other
national soaring organizations open their websites up so
that SSA members can access all the other websites without
having to join every other soaring organization in the
world.

Now I'm curious - this member doesn't want it open, but nobody in the
SSA has actually asked me about it. Do you know what percentage of SSA
members want it open, closed, or don't care? Are SSA directors inundated
with contacts form members crying out for open access that the directors
are ignoring?

What other soaring organization web sites should I be interested in
accessing? I haven't gone looking for other web sites - am I missing
something? What web sites do you suggest?
--
Change "netto" to "net" to email me directly

Eric Greenwell
Washington State
USA

Martin Gregorie wrote:
As most of you'll know by now, these useful reviews have been
recently restricted to SAA members only. However, I've found a way round:
the site is archived by the Internet Archive

http://web.archive.org

and is easily accessed from there. Just use this URL:

http://web.archive.org/web/200410161...es/Johnson.asp

Currently this accesses all available reviews because there don't appear
to have been any published after 6th April, 1999.

There are 10 more recent than this date on the SSA site.

--
Change "netto" to "net" to email me directly

Eric Greenwell
Washington State
USA

Eric:

I am one SSA member who would like it open. I think the SSA
and the soaring community at large have more to gain than we
do from keeping it closed and, as a dues paying SSA member,
I am happier that way as long as Richard Johnson concurs.

I can't tell you how often I have gotten help and
information from pilots all over the world, including you,
when I was up against a problem I had not run into before.
And I try to reciprocate as well when I can. That has meant
sending FAA data for tundra tire approval to a glider pilot
in NZ and a copy of an old J5-A manual to some guys in the UK.

Now what I really want is a copy of the BGA modification to
the Schweizer tow hitch which makes it less likely to jam
but that's in a technical section closed to non BGA
members.... and most of us Americans don't even know about it.

Pete
Anchorage




Eric Greenwell wrote:

Now I'm curious - this member doesn't want it open, but nobody in the
SSA has actually asked me about it. Do you know what percentage of SSA
members want it open, closed, or don't care? Are SSA directors inundated
with contacts form members crying out for open access that the directors
are ignoring?

What other soaring organization web sites should I be interested in
accessing? I haven't gone looking for other web sites - am I missing
something? What web sites do you suggest?

--

Peter D. Brown
http://home.gci.net/~pdb/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/akmtnsoaring/

No sections of the BGA web site are closed. The mod to schweitzer hooks
involves putting a small reller bearing in the release lever and is mod no
BGA/T/1/85. Unfortunately onfo in the web site only goes back to about
2000. I'm sure an e mail to the BGA will get you a copy of the mod. The
BGA beleive in promoting gliding.

Basil Fairston

Now what I really want is a copy of the BGA modification to the Schweizer
tow hitch which makes it less likely to jam but that's in a technical
section closed to non BGA members.... and most of us Americans don't
even know about it.

Pete
Anchorage




Eric Greenwell wrote:

Now I'm curious - this member doesn't want it open, but nobody in the SSA
has actually asked me about it. Do you know what percentage of SSA
members want it open, closed, or don't care? Are SSA directors inundated
with contacts form members crying out for open access that the directors
are ignoring?

What other soaring organization web sites should I be interested in
accessing? I haven't gone looking for other web sites - am I missing
something? What web sites do you suggest?

--

Peter D. Brown
http://home.gci.net/~pdb/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/akmtnsoaring/

"Pete Brown" wrote in message
...
Eric:

I am one SSA member who would like it open.

...and I am another.

Vaughn