What is the intended mission of the PRA Web Site? Where are the files that were once there?

curtisscholl

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Joined
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Location
Saline, MI
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Building Gyrobee
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Hello All:

I have been waiting for the new PRA Web site. I see the new format and I like it. That said

What is the mission of the PRA Web Site?
I see it is a Member related site, to promote the membership, to allow members to join, reup and that kind of stuff.
I see it is a Gyro Training related site, to promote the education of Gyro Pilots and to encourage the Fixed Wing or Gyro Student to learn more about flying Gyros.

Where are all the files that were in the old PRA site, the part of the PRA Site that was MEMBERS ONLY?
There was a lot of information there and I miss that part of the PRA.ORG web site.

Will it ever come back to the PRA site?
Will the files be placed on another site?
IS the site really there, but hidden away with a special \~membersonly URL?

Thanks

Curtis Scholl
 
Hello All:

I have been waiting for the new PRA Web site. I see the new format and I like it. That said

What is the mission of the PRA Web Site?
I see it is a Member related site, to promote the membership, to allow members to join, reup and that kind of stuff.
I see it is a Gyro Training related site, to promote the education of Gyro Pilots and to encourage the Fixed Wing or Gyro Student to learn more about flying Gyros.

Where are all the files that were in the old PRA site, the part of the PRA Site that was MEMBERS ONLY?
There was a lot of information there and I miss that part of the PRA.ORG web site.

Will it ever come back to the PRA site?
Will the files be placed on another site?
IS the site really there, but hidden away with a special \~membersonly URL?

Thanks

Curtis Scholl
I have the same question and I believed more people have the same question. Axess to the old magazine with the information on how to DIY. Where are they? Why did John remove them?
 
I'll answer from my perspective as a former member of PRA and the one trying to bring the website back to life. I've created the new website from scratch and have been trying to get it to be what it should be, a resource for the rotorcraft community.

I have been trying to get the website back up, and have not been able to obtain any cooperation from John gaining access to the organization intellectual property (archives) that he has locked away on a server. Without that access creating a members only area on a website is a total waste of time.

My goal is to get a fully relevant website up as soon as possible that serves the needs of what PRA should expect. Without continued downtime and outages everytime you turn around and something that can easily be maintained with minimum expense to the organization.

I had given up on PRA due to the continued inability to field a reliable meaningful web presence. I'm hoping that will change after years of the same old stuff and I'm trying to help make that change. Six days of part time effort and a website is back, please give me and PRA a chance to get back to the where we should have been!

My response is not official, not sanctioned or reviewed by PRA, my view and response to these posts.

Bobby
 
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I'll answer from my perspective as a former member of PRA and the one trying to bring the website back to life. I've created the new website from scratch and have been trying to get it to be what it should be, a resource for the rotorcraft community.

I have been trying to get the website back up, and have not been able to obtain any cooperation from John gaining access to the organization intellectual property (archives) that he has locked away on a server. Without that access creating a members only area on a website is a total waste of time.

My goal is to get a fully relevant website up as soon as possible that serves the needs of what PRA should expect. Without continued downtime and outages everytime you turn around and something that can easily be maintained with minimum expense to the organization.

I had given up on PRA due to the continued inability to field a reliable meaningful web presence. I'm hoping that will change after years of the same old stuff and I'm trying to help make that change. Six days of part time effort and a website is back, please give me and PRA a chance to get back to the here we should have been!

My response is not official, not sanctioned or reviewed by PRA, my view and response to these posts.

Bobby

I hate to hear John fall from grace at least in my mind. I do not understand why and what takes a website like PRA longer than a couple of months. And why now he is trying to hold on to IP that doesn’t belong to him. A gyroplane that was donated to PRA sitting in his hanger. Running a website on a server in his home. I did that in 1995. This isn’t 1995. What in the world is going on in his head.
 
The intended mission of PRA website should be to provide informational resources to everyone in a central location about light rotorcraft. Help students connect with instructors. Help them find books, manuals, ground school, manufacturers, insurance. Help them understand 51% build rules, sport pilot rules. Help them become members easily via self service from the website, to share in getting better insurance rates even if it comes with further and specific training or get PSF magazine.
 
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The mission of PRA hasn't changed and my objective is to get the website up and running providing the information that you've listed.
Very well.

Thank you all for your responses.
SV.Grainne.... More power to you. May your work progress as you envision it.

On another note, I see you live near Kerville...

I was in San Antonio up until 1994. I made a road trip circle through the hill country on an irregular basis. Texas 16, Bandera, Kerrville, Fredericksburg, then 290 over to Austin, down to New Braunfels and around to Bulverde and Boerne...

Beautiful countryside...

God bless

Curtis Scholl
 
I'm curious if PRA is planning to integrate / cross-link with Gyropedia.
Why would PRA do that? Gyropedia is a for profit private business. PRA is a club not in the business of making money for private businesses. What would this crosslink look like in your mind and what function and problem would it solve? Gyropedia is something that flight schools and instructors can adopt perhaps by paying the fees required and making their students adopt it. All that takes extra $$ to the training and depends on individual flight schools.
A lot of what Gyropedia does like weather limits, training records and a lot more does not work in the US market because 70% of the people coming to gyroplanes are existing private and commercial pilots from airplanes or helicopters. They don't needs their training records in a software app. There already is the most popular app in the world for logbook and flight navigation including weather called Foreflight and Gyropedia has no chance competing with it at this point. Its targeted only towards brand new people to gyroplanes and that is where it makes sense if adopted. However, that is not how the US market is setup because a lot of new gyroplane pilots may be private or even existing commercial pilots in other categories and fly other things besides gyroplanes and already have training records, logbooks, weather, regulations, airspace etc. figured out.. Weather is weather, regulations are regulations, airspace is airspace, logbook is logbook. All those things apply across the board to different categories. This aspect has not been considered thoroughly in Gyropedia and their training system's record keeping part. I use the books but it would be a hard sell for me to switch to Gyropedia as it simply doesn't fit the US market well and it tries to be too many things at the same time. It doesn't need to do that.
 
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Why would PRA do that? Gyropedia is a for profit private business. PRA is a club not in the business of making money for private businesses. What would this crosslink look like in your mind and what function and problem would it solve? Gyropedia is something that flight schools and instructors can adopt perhaps by paying the fees required and making their students adopt it. All that takes extra $$ to the training and depends on individual flight schools.
A lot of what Gyropedia does like weather limits, training records and a lot more does not work in the US market because 70% of the people coming to gyroplanes are existing private and commercial pilots from airplanes or helicopters. They don't needs their training records in a software app. There already is the most popular app in the world for logbook and flight navigation including weather called Foreflight and Gyropedia has no chance competing with it at this point. Its targeted only towards brand new people to gyroplanes and that is where it makes sense if adopted. However, that is not how the US market is setup because a lot of new gyroplane pilots may be private or even existing commercial pilots in other categories and fly other things besides gyroplanes and already have training records, logbooks, weather, regulations, airspace etc. figured out.. Weather is weather, regulations are regulations, airspace is airspace, logbook is logbook. All those things apply across the board to different categories. This aspect has not been considered thoroughly in Gyropedia and their training system's record keeping part. I use the books but it would be a hard sell for me to switch to Gyropedia as it simply doesn't fit the US market well and it tries to be too many things at the same time. It doesn't need to do that.
Thanks, Abid. That makes sense.
 
Is the PRA still going? I paid my membership but have had not a word from them. Do i need to get my money back from paypal?
 
Twisted,
Yes, the PRA is indeed still going.
We have a VERY small group of volunteers, and everyone is running hectic trying to get ready for the convention which is just 2 weeks away.
I will be sure to get your message forwarded to those handling the memberships and we will get back to you ASAP.
Thank you for your membership, and for your patience during this busy time for us!
Denis
 
Aware of the outage. Not sure what caused it. Will be working with Hosting Company to resolve.
 
I hate to hear John fall from grace at least in my mind. I do not understand why and what takes a website like PRA longer than a couple of months. And why now he is trying to hold on to IP that doesn’t belong to him. A gyroplane that was donated to PRA sitting in his hanger. Running a website on a server in his home. I did that in 1995. This isn’t 1995. What in the world is going on in his head.
As someone who has been involved in software development for decades, I can explain that while it is easy to put up a simple site such as a forum, creating a site with restricted member-only information, maintaining member identifying information in a secure manner, etc., is much more complicated. Also, keep in mind that the folks creating the PRA site are VOLUNTEERS.

The PRA do not have full-time paid technical staff like the EAA or the AOPA, and sadly the PRA's target audience is much smaller than either of the aforementioned organizations (of which my wife and I are members). In other words, give him a chance. If you have the technical skills to help on that front, contact him and volunteer to help. I did. If you don't have the technical skills, perhaps you could help with writing content or with visual design of the site that the tech people can then implement.

I would think that someone whose business is directly involved in rotorcraft, while certainly being busy with business (as I hope you are), would be open to volunteering some time to help a non-profit organization which exists to promote the activity that gives you business.

There are no gyroplane dealers or clubs less than three hours away from where I live as far as I can tell. I'd like to see something happen much closer, especially since there are many small airports and even a couple of smaller towered airports near me. There's an EAA chapter with an airport (with a paved runway) about an hour away, as an example.

Interest in gyroplanes is increasing. We have an opportunity to help that happen if we can build up sites like this one and organizations like the PRA.

(Also, there is a disturbing dearth of gyroplane DPEs. We need more DPEs or people are going to need to obtain some other certificate first and then do gyros as an add-on. Some of us have little to no interest in fixed-wing aircraft and helicopter training is prohibitively expensive and almost as hard to find as gyro training.)
 
As someone who has been involved in software development for decades, I can explain that while it is easy to put up a simple site such as a forum, creating a site with restricted member-only information, maintaining member identifying information in a secure manner, etc., is much more complicated. Also, keep in mind that the folks creating the PRA site are VOLUNTEERS.

The PRA do not have full-time paid technical staff like the EAA or the AOPA, and sadly the PRA's target audience is much smaller than either of the aforementioned organizations (of which my wife and I are members). In other words, give him a chance. If you have the technical skills to help on that front, contact him and volunteer to help. I did. If you don't have the technical skills, perhaps you could help with writing content or with visual design of the site that the tech people can then implement.

I would think that someone whose business is directly involved in rotorcraft, while certainly being busy with business (as I hope you are), would be open to volunteering some time to help a non-profit organization which exists to promote the activity that gives you business.

There are no gyroplane dealers or clubs less than three hours away from where I live as far as I can tell. I'd like to see something happen much closer, especially since there are many small airports and even a couple of smaller towered airports near me. There's an EAA chapter with an airport (with a paved runway) about an hour away, as an example.

Interest in gyroplanes is increasing. We have an opportunity to help that happen if we can build up sites like this one and organizations like the PRA.

(Also, there is a disturbing dearth of gyroplane DPEs. We need more DPEs or people are going to need to obtain some other certificate first and then do gyros as an add-on. Some of us have little to no interest in fixed-wing aircraft and helicopter training is prohibitively expensive and almost as hard to find as gyro training.)

I know a little bit about tech. One of my degrees is in Computer Science and I used to at one point be a J2EE developer with emphasis on middleware and cryptography and PKI. Later I was a security analyst for application security for the 8th largest database set in the world.
Trust me I understand the challenges very well. PRA had a membership of 1500 which dwindled down to 250 and has come back up now to around 350. Simply because people did not have any way to renew membership properly for a few years. The damage done is quite extensive. The volunteering is happening. When someone cannot do something, they should approach the board and suggest hiring a professional to do it. That is what happens now. But a simple website with secure members only area is not that expensive to get and does not take years and years. That is utter rubbish. Chance was 3 years. Is 3 years enough to put up a working website? Hell yes. If you would like to lend a hand to PRA in technical area, should talk to Bobby.

I am less concerned about dearth of DPEs and more concerned about dearth of good instructors. DPEs are needed when instructors produce enough student pilots who are competent. It is the second step, not the first. The first step is to get some good professional instructors, near metro areas. That is not happening because well Chickens beget Chickens, and we have a dearth of Chickens to start with.
 
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