Mentone Aero Club - September 2020

HoosierGyro

Newbie
Joined
Nov 4, 2019
Messages
17
Location
Fort Wayne, IN
Hello from the Mentone Aero Club, PRA Chapter 81!
We meet every 2nd Saturday at 11AM at Mentone Airport C92, in Mentone, Indiana. People usually start showing up around 10

At our September meeting we decided to share our newsletter with the community, so I will try to post it various places about a week after our meetings. Members of the club will get it emailed to them one week before the meeting

Also, I had to really nuke the image quality to get a small enough file size to fit here. I'll have to find a better hosting solution for the future. In the meantime the members' copies have much better resolution images

Come on out and join us at our next meeting on October 10
 

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I host several commercial and my own personal website. You can post the full size newsletters there and then you share links as appropriate.

Bobby Ward
 
We have a website for the museum: http://www.arch-rotor-museum.org/
Getting it all spruced up has been on the to-do list for a while now, but now I think it's moved up a few slots in priority
I'll post links when we get that sorted
Good, to many of the PRA Websites are broken or discontinued. Facebook (IMO) is ok for chatter but a website is the only way to post, properly share, and present archive info. Let me know if I can help. In the meantime I'm willing to post and share info for you.

Bobby
 
Good, to many of the PRA Websites are broken or discontinued. Facebook (IMO) is ok for chatter but a website is the only way to post, properly share, and present archive info. Let me know if I can help. In the meantime I'm willing to post and share info for you.

Bobby
Bobby, how did I miss this?
If you know HTML5 and CCS PRA 'I' could sure use your help creating the new PRA website.
 
John:

I gave up on hard coding websites years ago. Went to WordPress and use a theme called "Divi" for everything.

Converted a hard coded site a year ago and result was pretty straight forward and way easier to maintain.

Here is the last one I did, see if this would work. Https://www.hillcountryturners.org

Objective was to get away from hard coding, I think there may be 2 or 3 lines of CSS total. Easy to add info and no maintenance other than keeping track of periodic backups made to google drive. Think this sort of site would be great for any PRA chapter, for many reasons.

Like I said earlier, Facebook is ok for day to day pics and chit chat, but for real archive and in depth info on stuff, it sucks!
 
John:

I gave up on hard coding websites years ago. Went to WordPress and use a theme called "Divi" for everything.

Converted a hard coded site a year ago and result was pretty straight forward and way easier to maintain.

Here is the last one I did, see if this would work. Https://www.hillcountryturners.org

Objective was to get away from hard coding, I think there may be 2 or 3 lines of CSS total. Easy to add info and no maintenance other than keeping track of periodic backups made to google drive. Think this sort of site would be great for any PRA chapter, for many reasons.

Like I said earlier, Facebook is ok for day to day pics and chit chat, but for real archive and in depth info on stuff, it sucks!
Thanks bobby, I looked at WordPress it does create sites quickly but it more for blogs?? There are CSS themes that will do the same but need them modified. However, most of my pages are created dynamically from database entries that the user themselves fills out. No labor for PRA at all and no web administrator needed to add anything. Then the pages create themselves by adding the controls to enter or display the data to the page.
The code behind is written and is automated and rocks... only need to create artistic pages for them to display. I've found a template that is almost what I want it to look like but I need to change colors etc. I'll hack this too but putting it off in the hopes someone with experience will step forward.

What we are creating is a storefront for all things personal rotorcraft items from all over the world = products for all manufacturers, dealers, vendors products and components, A&P's, all CFI's & DARS with scheduling calendars, Chapter lists with sigh up pages, and start a chapter pages, group insurance test pages, our magazines, video, and document library, photo gallery, event calendar with signup registration pages, news, and classified ads will be back.
 
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Wordpress is a Content Mgmt System and works great for Websites can't speak to blogs because I haven't used that feature.
 
Thanks, Bobby. PRA paid over 10K for a custom Content Mgmt System but it sucks as it is so labor-intensive.
It requires me to write the text and post the pictures by hand.
What I'm writing is a database content management system that will continue long after I'm dead and gone with my ghost using artificial intelligence creating the web-pages with the users writing the text and uploading the pictures to a file. Then the page will display it with only a Web administrator reviewing the text and photos for pornography etc. Once it is accepted it will display.
 
go with Wordpress or similar. 21st C.
 
go with Wordpress or similar. 21st C.
Steve what I'm creating is the 22nd Century technology! I've put so much work into this that I will sell it to help make the world a better place. It will replace WordPress as it is so much less labor for administrators.
 
This is not my first rodeo. staring in the mid 70's Business Software International automated most of corporate America with an accounting system with artificial intelligence. I never lost a sale when IBM demoed against me. Theirs was written by programmers with no knowledge of accounting. Mine had all of my audits and cost accounting reports that I did manually for clients.
The problem is web programing requires it being run on a server then it sends back a page. This is so much different than writing a program that runs on your local machine, in a PC, mini, or mainframe computer. And not all of their functions work. You have to try them and see then try the next until you get one to work. That's takes the most time trial and error until you find one that works with your other pages.
Then in just the last few years, they keep changing the way you format pages so they will display on any size screen from cell phone to 6-foot monitors.
This is the last thing I have to add to the site.
 
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Small and medium sized companies and orgs like PRA do not have the time nor the resources for such bespoke websites.

Easy off the shelf solutions exist, for small and mid sized orgs, who have more than enough to do without being programmers themselves. Millions of small and mid sized companies use easy options from the likes of Wordpress etc etc etc.

Nowadays a business can't exist without a web presence - no business would survive without one.

Keep it simple - the wheel has already been invented. Small business use off the shelf easy to use web template solutions from the big suppliers - millions of them around the World do this. Why push water uphill - how on earth did PRA spend $10K - you are a tiny organisation. Surely something suitable on the likes of Wix or Wordpress or others.

Today visitors to the PRA website see only an under maintenance page.

Plan B - Merge with the EAA and become the Gyro Wing of EAA and enjoy the benefits of being that professional organisation, it would be great to be a part of this website - they could add on a page for the "Gyro Wing" in a comparative nano-second.


Almost 2021.
 

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Agree with Steve, have seen to many applications over the years (37years working in IT) that are way to complex and "custom". Keep it simple and off the shelf. Then anyone can pick up and carryon. My biggest frustration this past year has been looking for Gyro information and ending up on dead or broken webpages/sites. This Forum may be the only viable option! You just have to ignore alot of the noise.
 
Not sure you understand with the new Amazon-like for all things rotorcraft/ storefront the VOLUME of posts. If I do that I will never get to fly! I will be stuck creating each new store for each vendor that wants to join us posing everything myself. This is selfish of me. It will give me back 90% the time I spend on running PRA. CFI's for example has a different suite of pages displaying different things than manufactures, DAR's have different things displayed etc. My pages know what files to read and what to display and I don't have to post anything.

Your right about that it's taken over 4 years to create this and the BOD, members, and myself have a valid complaint about how long it has taken.
I will if anyone can explain how I can add the code behind so there is no web administrator needed. I've watched many youtube tutorials and there no one demoing using code behind to build the pages from the database.
Also, there are over 1200 pages including a complete accounting system I sold back in the 70 through the '90s until I retired. It even prints a report of what IRS form you file and what line to put each amount in. If CFI's do not have an accounting system PRA will become their automated system that will write an invoice and the logbook entry once they learn how to write the invoice so the text is about the same as the logbook entry.

It would take me another 6 months to rewrite all of those pages. I just need a template that will display on any size device. As four years ago when I started this project that was not a requirement of PRA. It only displays correctly on desktop screens.
 
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I just need a template that will display on any size device. As four years ago when I started this project that was not a requirement of PRA. It only displays correctly on desktop screens.

Wordpress with Divi theme allows you to set screen size for desktop, tablet and smartphones. Not sure about other Themes but would expect they do as well.

When I converted the wood turners web site the hardest part was copying all of the pdf and image files to my Godaddy account. Copied and pasted text to new pages and linked in everything I needed.
 
Thank you so much, Bobby.
PS: Steve
Yes, you are going to see PRA site off-line, off, and on. As I'm in the home stretch and have to do live testing on the existing site. Because it runs on my local bug-free. But not always on Godaddy or other servers. I suspect most is because they have more security than I have on my local machine.
This is hours and hours of testing live so have to keep people out or if they use the old pages it will blow up my newly added data the old pages know nothing about and will not know if it is a bug or a user ran an old page that changed the data with missing data fields. Then I have to restore the database and remove the new pages back to where it was without all the junk I've added to test it LIVE on their server.
 
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The BOD has a deadline at the end of this year. I'm going to be flying next year as it appears I can get my medical back!
If I cannot get it running by then. We will go with WordPress and have to hire at least one employee to run probably two or more will be needed if the world vendors join. This will waste much of the money I need to buy PRA a two-place trainer and donate it for free sending it to all the chapters following the sun allowing training for one month in all states with a chapter at $80 to $125 an hour including an instructor. With advertising this low price it may be cheaper to get your gyro license then get a FW rating add-on. Trying to reverse the reality that may be cheaper to get your FW license now and then get the gyro add-on.
I need the money to make the world a better place not pay an employee to copy text and upload pictures forever that requires the user to send them. Just let the user have control of their own pages and write the text and upload their picture on their time and labor.
 
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PS:
This is part of the group insurance testing program. It will be available when it's at your chapter when our two-place is there and all the instructors form around the adjacent states are there to train new pilots and test old pilots for our program. This is how the testing will be distributed at the fly-ins and our new chapter training program for the public. With this benefit, I suspect many new chapters will be created and is the best way to grow PRA membership at the same time we grow our rotorcraft ranks.
 
There are over 1200 pages. Most administration pages. But it takes at least 30 minutes to test the page in an add, see, change and delete modes.and check the data manually to assure it correct. That's 30 min's if I find no bugs!!!

30 min's / 1200 pages are 600 hours of testing alone. Even though I work 20 hours days that is still 30 days of testing. But I cannot work on it full time have to run PRA, 9 college projects, help PRA 31 members build their rides, create the group insurance program, market fly-in, webcast, batch email news and so much more.
 
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