HBA would be a better place if...

[bmcj]

Some here post “tongue in cheek”. The fun part is that not everyone gets it.


BJC

That’s why I try to make sure I add a laughy face emoticon to most of my tongue in cheek posts.

 

[Toobuilder]

...Even if it's not politics, allowing threads about amphibious airliners made out of bamboo and organic hemp fabric powered by forty people pedaling with oxygen supplied by onboard algae tanks just dumbs down the whole forum so a serious new homebuilder who wants to talk about airfoils or wing rib construction just says, "what a bunch of whackos," and goes elsewhere.

This. There was a time when I found this forum to be logic and engineering based - among the best aviation forum on the web. I used to actively steer my co workers (almost exclusively engineers and flight test professionals) to this site, but now I only mention it in passing, usually with the disclaimer that there are some "fanciful" ideas out there. I'm now almost embarassed at some of the juvenile content found here.

Not sure how to "fix" it.... But HBA would be better if...

 

[Saville]

I'd say this: An obscure or flaky or not-at-all-related-to-HBA thread is a LOT less irksome if it has an accurate descriptive title. I can pretty much tell right away if I want to open and spend time on a thread about a neutron rocket. But threads titled like:"Have you seen this?" are IMO, inconsiderate/ rude.

That's my number one pet peeve for all forums...titles that don't tell you what the first post is about. Even if the title is relevant to homebuilt aircraft, it's annoying because I'm not interested in reading about every single aspect of homebuilt aircraft.
Similar titles are

I have a question
I have a problem
What does everyone think of this?

 

[Pilot-34]

Other aviation forums have at times tried adding a subforum for off topic stuff where political discussion is allowed. They've found, multiple times, that the bickering there gets out of control and the bad feelings spill over into the on topic areas.

Even if it's not politics, allowing threads about amphibious airliners made out of bamboo and organic hemp fabric powered by forty people pedaling with oxygen supplied by onboard algae tanks just dumbs down the whole forum so a serious new homebuilder who wants to talk about airfoils or wing rib construction just says, "what a bunch of whackos," and goes elsewhere.

but isn’t the problem but on the average homebuilding is about the wackos?
People tend to home build either at a cheapness or because they want a different set of compromises that have been made before.
almost by definition if you want to do something that hasn’t been done before you’re welcome.
Recently there was a thread illustrated how widely separated we can be on those points . A poster pointing out that the seawind it’s not designed to be the safest aircraft. It seemed difficult for him to accept that many here consider that to be a good aircraft because it does what it was optimized for even at the cost of some safety.
I suspect that the general population would think that we’re all wackos for choosing to build aircraft that are not as safe as they possibly could be.

 

[Pilot-34]

I’d like to make a confession here I’ve said it before but I’d like to be absolutely clear that I do not think I will ever build an airplane.
I am the king of the procrastinators they just haven’t got around to electing me yet. In a rare bit of honesty with myself I realized I probably would never finish any airplane that I started.
So why am I here? Well I’m not dead yet so this helps fuel my dreams.
Currently my best case scenario is purchasing either a completed home built or a very nearly completed home built.
So not only do I enjoy the camaraderie and interesting stories here but I’m hoping it will give me some insight into what to look at in-home built aircraft.
And possibly maybe even the inside track on purchasing one.
I would miss this place dearly if I was banned because I’m not actively building.
I did help put a carburetor on a c-182 Last week so for a short period I may have a smelled like I qualified to be here.

 

[Doran Jaffas]

but isn’t the problem but on the average homebuilding is about the wackos?
People tend to home build either at a cheapness or because they want a different set of compromises that have been made before.
almost by definition if you want to do something that hasn’t been done before you’re welcome.
Recently there was a thread illustrated how widely separated we can be on those points . A poster pointing out that the seawind it’s not designed to be the safest aircraft. It seemed difficult for him to accept that many here consider that to be a good aircraft because it does what it was optimized for even at the cost of some safety.
I suspect that the general population would think that we’re all wackos for choosing to build aircraft that are not as safe as they possibly could be.

All aircraft are design compromises in performance and safety. Certified factory builds lean on the side of safety while homebuilts tend to but not always lean toward performance. John or Jane Q public might be surprised to learn how much " homebuilders" contribute to the design of what eventually become certified factory builds.
Patient education repeated over and over again will help the public and build some good will.

 

[Dennis DeFrange]

Mom used to give me 50 cents to be good . Now that she's gone , I'm good for nuthin . And they have never made a safe airplane but there's less planes up there than cars down here . Probably why they are seen by some as safe . Wouldn't blame ya for banning me , I'm a SA . No sencus needed .

 

[Doran Jaffas]

Everything is dangerous if you don't understand it and even then there is an element of danger in everything we do even walking or sleeping. Yet we'. To say that airplanes are dangerous as a blanket statement showing that probably through no fault of your own you do not understand them at all.

 

[Dana]

I’d like to make a confession here I’ve said it before but I’d like to be absolutely clear that I do not think I will ever build an airplane....
Currently my best case scenario is purchasing either a completed home built or a very nearly completed home built.

I haven't built a plane either, unless you count a paramotor. But I've owned 5 homebuilts if you include ultralights, and either restored, fixed, and/or improved all of them. I don't know that I'll ever actually build an airplane; I'd like to but I have far too many other projects and priorities. Maybe when I retire...

 

[bmcj]

There was a time when I found this forum to be logic and engineering based - among the best aviation forum on the web. I used to actively steer my co workers (almost exclusively engineers and flight test professionals) to this site, but now I only mention it in passing, usually with the disclaimer that there are some "fanciful" ideas out there. I'm now almost embarassed at some of the juvenile content found here.

Not sure how to "fix" it.... But HBA would be better if...

THIS ⬆⬆⬆

 

[Geraldc]

Some here post “tongue in cheek”. The fun part is that not everyone gets it.


BJC

One of the first posts I put on a forum got this reply,"what planet are you on?" Now this is translated here to be a bit derogatory.
I politely asked him what do you mean by that and he replied your time is day ahead. One of the drawbacks of being at the other side of the internatiomal dateline.

 

[Saville]

This. There was a time when I found this forum to be logic and engineering based - among the best aviation forum on the web. I used to actively steer my co workers (almost exclusively engineers and flight test professionals) to this site, but now I only mention it in passing, usually with the disclaimer that there are some "fanciful" ideas out there. I'm now almost embarassed at some of the juvenile content found here.

Not sure how to "fix" it.... But HBA would be better if...

I don't mind fanciful ideas. I have always considered the ability to entertain fanciful, even the absurd, for a while, to be absolutely necessary to creativity. Fanciful ideas may not lead to a flying article in the short term - or ever. But things can be learned, parts of fanciful designs could be useful.

One has to think outside the box and - this is especially true - against "Conventional Wisdom" in order to cultivate creativity. But the fanciful idea maker has to also recognize that the fanciful idea is just that. One cannot think themselves a Noble Warrior just because they flaunt conventional wisdom. You take the idea out for a while and play with it, learn what you can, take what is good. Sometimes it leads to something great. Most of the time it's a dead end.

But the moment I see a fanciful thinker put "GAME OVER!!!!" in their subject lines I know we aren't talking to a creative person or even a serious one. We're talking to an evangelist.

I've always said (and physicists scoff but that's ok):

"The person who figures out how to travel faster than the speed of light most likely will NOT be the one who says "It can't be done."

 

[jedi]

Bring back Raptor!And where has choppergirl gone?

I miss Choppergirl and a few others also. RIP all exHBAers. I was nearly one of you once and thought I was unfairly judged but likely I was simply misunderstood.

I hope to someday try again to get the idea across.

 

[don january]

I miss Choppergirl and a few others also. RIP all exHBAers. I was nearly one of you once and thought I was unfairly judged but likely I was simply misunderstood.

I hope to someday try again to get the idea across.

If your missing chopper girl go to the Media section on the site and you'll find many pictures posted by that girl. That was one area that made this a better site. Media section that is

 

[Rhino]

If your missing chopper girl go to the Media section on the site and you'll find many pictures posted by that girl. That was one area that made this a better site. Media section that is

Either I never knew we had a media section or I forgot about it. Probably the latter.

So what's with her dead (or near dead) cat picture from 4/29/19? There aren't any comments to explain it.

 

[don january]

Either I never knew we had a media section or I forgot about it. Probably the latter.

So what's with her dead (or near dead) cat picture from 4/29/19? There aren't any comments to explain it.

Good question . Fits right in with aircraft building and Kits wouldn't you say.

 

[Rhino]

That brings up another suggestion. With the amount of media/albums, it would be very nice if you could display more per page. For instance, when browsing albums, it only shows 12 album thumbnails per page. That means you have to load 36 pages to see all the albums. Similarly, for all media it only shows 24 thumbnails per page, meaning you'd have to load 186 separate pages in order to see all of it. It's like the software assumes everyone still has a 56k dial up connection, and can't load anything other than small pages. Maybe I really wouldn't want to load all of them at once, but it would be incredibly convenient if there was an option to load more than 24 thumbnails per page.

 

[jedi]

............

"The person who figures out how to travel faster than the speed of light most likely will NOT be the one who says "It can't be done."

If you want to go faster than the speed of light slow the speed of light.

Light travels at approximately 300,000 kilometers per second in a vacuum, which has a refractive index of 1.0, but it slows down to 225,000 kilometers per second in water (refractive index of 1.3) and 200,000 kilometers per second in glass (refractive index of 1.5).

 

[Geraldc]

Light travels at approximately 300,000 kilometers per second in a vacuum, which has a refractive index of 1.0, but it slows down to 225,000 kilometers per second in water (refractive index of 1.3) and 200,000 kilometers per second in glass (refractive index of 1.5).

So now I have to rethink E=MC2. How can a constant C be a variable ?

 

[Rhino]

The media must have gotten hold of it. Everything's variable to them.