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Jennifer, you have stated this eloquently and in the most basic of terms. It's a great and challenging question for us all.

My friend John and I flew at sunset this past Wednesday, I did some IFR recurrency that ended with a sunset arrival at home. It was stunning and breathtaking in beauty. We sat silently on final soaking it in.

Afterwards, we discussed flying and this very subject. Why has it lost the magic and charm it once had?

Certainly costs more, but so does everything.

I think these posts hit it on the head, and the Bonanza pilot stated it best. At lease we still know how to have fun with our airplanes. Sounds like the fly-in now has a theme or motto of its own making.

One thing Clinton has is all of us and this spirit. Years ago I used to attend a skydiving event every summer about the same time we now hold Clinton. It was magic. The brother and sisterhood felt there was something you could almost put a finger on, but not quite.

Over the years, the event grew and changed dramatically. A series of fatalities occurred, and oddly enough - some serious injuries involving - golf carts. It moved locations and this year it was not held for the first time since 1990.

Clinton has this very charm and this exact mix of fun and atmosphere and special grass roots, back to basics flying that much of the general aviation population has gotten away from. Katie said it, as have others. Oshkosh is not what it used to be.

Friends, we have an obligation to one another and to our love of flight - Clinton is very special, very magic. Jennifer offers a challenge:

"How do we make sure that bright, burning spirit always remains vibrant and never suffers the fate of being extinguished by its own success?"

I'd ask us all to ponder that one. It's a very good question...

...and it is up to each of us, not to Royson or to Lori, to answer.

AOPA... bottom line in my opinion, the services, resources, lobbying power, etc... you get for the PRICE, is hands down, something you can find nowhere else. They did not "cave" to the user fees, they did not stop until the legislation they decided to back after much fighting DID NOT introduce user fees, so there is still no foot in the door from that perspective. They also know that the battle would probably be in vain if they give a little somewhere, and where they did is along the same lines as our current funding system, fuel taxes. They still fight for our GA rights and safety is always top tier. (See their recent win against backgroud checks in NY for student pilots). If there is money management and corruption problems that later cause mis-appropriation of the funds, the AOPA certainly isn't to blame for that.

I agree that AOPA Pilot magazine is very similiar to many car magazines in showing what we love to see as far as technology and new/shiny stuff. But they also include a good dose of safe flying tips and articles as well and interesting legal tidbits, etc. I think their Flight Training publication is perhaps one of the most valuable, while it does tend to repeat to a degree and stay somewhat elementary at times, it beats into us the fundamentals of safety and profeciency, which is something any pilot can benefit from. And what plane do many of their articles mention and/or focus on? The 150 and similiar practical light trainers. So far they have kept the higher end TAA stuff an entirely seperate section. The annual plane giveaway a waste of user money? Much of the plane is as much advertisement for the avionics and restoration companies as anything, I've a feeling not as much AOPA money gets thrown into that as some might think.

The EAA's famous Oshkosh airshow is where much of the latest high dollar, big company equipment gets it's debut. Does this make the EAA not true to it's cause? No.

While I would love to see this club grace it's pages, I'm sure they are innundated with literally thousands and thousands of similiar requests from just about everyone in aviation. I still consider my AOPA membership a invaluable resource at an extremely reasonable price. I still have to find a single way AOPA has ever "betrayed" us as 150 flyers, even if we aren't always their top focus.

My $.02

p.s. I think THIS CLUB is what embodies the roots of what we all are as pilots and what we want out of it. Our membership base of 747 pilots to mechanics, to just about everything non-aviation related as well. And for now, that's what I'll put a majority of my "why we do it" stock in, not any of the magazine companies.

I agree Avery. I can see them be a much better "partner" to this club.

It seems it all comes down to money. The airlines can't make it, so they're looking for an easy kill to put on the alter. That'd be us. The airspace system has always been there for them, as well as ATC, which as is well known, was originally begun by the individual airlines (until the demonstrated their inability to keep two airliners from running into one another).

Are we in this thing together as a group, as GA? Do we put ourselves in with the G550? Should we? AOPA seems to believe that we should based on the belief that if the people in that high tier are aligned with our wants and wishes that our chances for success in this increasingly divisive world are bettered. They could be right.

Does that mean I care for hearing about TBM850s and the latest Premier upgrade in the magazine? Nope, and I fly the brother of the former (it is neat, but I'd likely never be in one if not for the job). That's me, however, there may be an element that expects to see some free (as in beer) advertising that grace their covers. Ya think?

That seems to be the reality of dancing with the callous ellite to further our own cause, and it does seem to be the way things get done. I can hear Phil Collins...." Too many men, too many people, making too many problems..."

This community, shrinking as it, has paralleled the rest of society. It is growing more and more anonymous. When I was a kid driving down the country roads of Oklahoma with my dad, everyone waved a knowing hand of friendship at you as you passed by. It was the thing to do. Suspicion and hate have replaced that.

Doom and gloom!

That brings us to our group. I know the better part of the names of our participating group because of the vibrant personalities affixed to each post. I came to Clinton this year because I wanted to replace names and posts with the faces and voices of each of you. It is the close kinship shared that we so enjoy and hold dear that has been lost elsewhere. We happen to hold the 150 and 152 in high respect, but we know what is the heart, the mind, the bond. It is the intimacy of our diversity. Our fraternity.

Without that, we are lost.

Right on Nathan. You said it as well as anyone. It's the bond of friendship, caring, and fraternity that exists here, that is so wanting anywhere else.

And oh yeah - we are a bunch of airplane fanatics.

What a crew we have here.

Robbie,
Bill Winter, longtime editor of American Modeler (and no relation that I know of), once admitted that "advertising affects magazine content the way rails affect trains." Those gatekeepers to the magazines may shut us out, but they can't forbid one thing:

A BOOK!

Maybe the way to go is to follow the route of Mike Arman -- Arman for the techie side, Putt-Putt for the fun side!

Ready, pilots? a one, a two ...

BOOK! BOOK! BOOK!

Ed - that was well-said. You were right on target.