The International Cessna^® 170 Association

I was surfing the net looking for unrelated info on Hawkers and found an interesting "coalition" .
Are you familiar with Airliners.Net? While searching for data on a business jet I found the first site listed below. WITHIN that site is a "click on this" link for the viewer to send a scathing letter to Congress urging them to reform ATC and it's funding sources! What a slap! --getting attention offering exciting info on business jets, then using the opportunity to seque into a slam on that industry!

The letter is a shallow slap at that! It urges congress to bring ATC into the modern era by requiring airplanes to use modern technologies like GPS... (DOH!)... and then implies that the failure to use such systems is causing "delays for airline passengers like me."

Then, in the plea to install user fees, it goes on: " I strongly encourage you to reform the outdated funding formula as well. It’s bad enough that I am delayed when I travel by air, but to have to subsidize those traveling in corporate jets is just not fair. Please reform the funding formula so those traveling on corporate jets pay their fair share."

It's anger mgmt day for me when I see a site that gets its funding from aviation enthusiasts, then seque's those enthusiasts into accomplices in a user-fee promotion scheme.


This site offers info on airplanes: http://www.airliners.net/info/stats.main?id=332

This link within the site sends a form-letter from the visitor to congress:
http://capwiz.com/airlines/issues/alert ... ZQodzSRMDg

Most sites that want you to write, also want you to join their organization and personalize the text of your letter. Not this one though, just sign and send what we tell you!

George,

If AOPA and EAA don't know about this, they should, so they can alert Congress as to where these appeals are coming from and their lack of merit. Would you be willing to drop a line to both organizations about it?

Best Regards,

John

Well, I woudn't want you guys to think you're anything but FIRST on my list of things to do, but my original post above is a cut-and-paste of the personal email I sent directly to Phil Boyer.

In other actions on this matter, I also complained to AvWeb, whom I had obtained the original link to Airliners.net . The following exchange resulted:


George,

Airliners.net uses the Ads By Google service, which allows the site to have
advertising revenue without having to actually sell ad space and place ads
throughout the site. Ads By Google works automatically -- it randomly
delivers ads from its database that are related to the site topic, in
Airliners.net's case this is aviation and airlines. So Airliners.net has no
control over what ads are randomly generated on their site. This is the
danger of using Ads By Google. By no means am I indemnifying Airliners.net
-- they made their bed by taking the easy route (i.e. Ads By Google) and
they have to sleep in it.

I can, however, assure you that you'll never see these kinds of ads on
AVweb. We have our own ad salespeople and place the ads ourselves on the
site and in the e-magazine, and we have the option to refuse advertising
from whomever we wish. I'm not involved in the advertising side, so I can't
give any specific cases if we ever refused to run an ad, but I know for sure
we'd squash any ad that promoted aviation user fees. We have a Mooney 231
for editorial staff use and our chairman flies on a bizjet, so user fees are
a concern to all of us here at AVweb and our parent company, Belvoir Media
Group.

Thanks for reading AVweb.

Best regards,
Chad Trautvetter
Editor In Chief
AVweb

To which I responded:

Chad,
Thank you for your timely response. I am the Discussion Forums moderator at the Int'l Cessna 170 Assn (TIC170A), and this is a current topic. I'll post your response (if you don't mind.) I've sent comment to AOPA as well. NBAA and EAA should also be notified, IMHO.
Best regards
George Horn
Part/MX TIC170A
Forums moderator
AOPA/ASN volunteer (BMQ)

And from Phil Boyer, AOPA pres.:

Thanks and the AVWEB reference to how this got there is correct. This
is a czampaign (sic) the airlines started sometime ago, and has been very
ineffective, Most passengers or the general public could care less
about the FAA FINANCING bill -- they just want ontime airline service
and their luggage on the same plane.

We are aware of this and prepared to counter with our own campaign of
much biggwer magnitude if the airline SMART SKIES situation gets greater
coverage.

--Phil

Unfortunately, an un-informed airlining public will simply "click" on such links and forward the ltr. (In the latest "variation-on-the-theme" on the ailiners (dot) net site, a simple "submit" button is offered to anyone who wishes to "vote" on "faster airline travel"... which takes them to the form-letter for automatic submission to congress. In other words, anyone simply "voting" for faster airline service...will in actuality be sending a letter to congress asking for User Fees funding of FAA.)

Actually, a site admin does have some control over what ads appear in his Google AdSense ads. On BCP I have "blocked" several advertisers from appearing in my little ads column in the Google preferences. It's easy. Maybe somebody should tell the guy how to do it.

tripslip38 wrote:Actually, a site admin does have some control over what ads appear in his Google AdSense ads. On BCP I have "blocked" several advertisers from appearing in my little ads column in the Google preferences. It's easy. Maybe somebody should tell the guy how to do it.

Sounds like YOU should be the one! (But I suspect they want it that way. We should do everything we can to have nothing to do with anyone who advertises with them and LET THEM KNOW WHY!)

tripslip38 wrote:Actually, a site admin does have some control over what ads appear in his Google AdSense ads. On BCP I have "blocked" several advertisers from appearing in my little ads column in the Google preferences. It's easy. Maybe somebody should tell the guy how to do it.

I think what tripslip38 meant to say was that the site admin has some control over what ads DO NOT appear in his Google AdSense ads. This decision is often made after the ads have appeared, and assuming the site webmaster has seen it and recognised the danger.

This is precisely why I've been reluctant to recommend this revenue source for the cessna170.org website.

Dale

You got it, Dale.
I had to see them appear once and then put them on a blacklist.

Looks like somebody noticed and wrote something...was it you George?

http://www.airliners.net/discussions/si ... ain/60635/

It wasn't me. I did write my senators and my congressman to give them a heads-up on such form-letters, and on this particular one.