Thanks for the words of appreciation. Like you and Jeff, I agree we could have the most amazing community of pilots, and this is the idea behind the site. For the jerks not respecting the rules, I keep praying for their safe, as I do believe what we do here, we pay here.

Again, if you have any suggestions for improvement, let me know!
Alex

I think it is a great idea. However, Jeff Goins comments regarding the reluctance of other pilots to openly share information about flying sites is a serious matter and very complicated. We, the PPG community should openly discuss why this is so as a first order of events. I started hang gliding in the early ’70s and I know very well the work; political,physical, financial, and emotional, that goes into maintaining a flying site. So it is a serious issue. That dosen’t mean we can’t move forward but I warn you that it may be a discouraging endeavor. I have a site 1 mile from my house. I have been using this site since 1973. It is beautiful and has many great features. The property belongs to the State of North Carolina. I have done occasional instruction there for many years and have soloed many students there. There has never been any problem until about a year ago when the current political and economic situation made certain authorities nervous asd I was called to question. It turned out that the issue was not liability but fear of negative publicity that had them worried. I worked for months on an appeal to reason and it worked so far although no “official policy” was decided upon for now. I no longer teach anything but kiting there and only after business hours and on weekends. I never solo a new student ther any more. I keep a very low profile myself. And I try very hard to obey the FAR’s part 103 so as not to draw attention from the public or authorities. I actually fly within the city limits and nearby are a heliport, two airports, two maximum security prisons, two big box stores, a hospital, a huge mental hospital, the county jail, and many more govt. agencies. And I am not selfish or posessive about the site. I take guests there often and carefully instruct them on “the rules”. But I am not about to give out info to the PPG community openly and invite losing my site. The problem is that a lot of so called “pilots” in PPG don’t respect the FAR’s even in the spirit of the law let alone the letter of the law. Many act like dirt bikers that have no respect for property rights or the environment and do nothing to help the image of PPG in the eyes of the public. I have seen this myself especially among guys that had good flying skills but no social common sense. I am not saying it is rampant but it is there in a big way. So there lies the problem with openly sharing flying sites. It only takes one hot dog to “buzz” one of those prisons, downtown, or business to destroy years of hard work that has earned the respect of the local authorities. The local population still thinks I am “crazy” for flying “those things” but they don’t feel threatened or annoyed by my flying. As a matter of fact they enjoy watching me and most local citizens thik almost anything they see flying in tha area; any “ultralight” is me. To conclude, I think we should become true aviators that are knowledgeable in the broad sense of aviation. Much more like Jeff Goin and less like a bunch of Huns bent on sacking Rome using air power.
As you know it is very easy to make certain people mad who then complain and get a site shut down. And it is not just PPG but general aviation too. My club airport (NC 27) is constantly working to keep the neighbors happy as possible regarding our flying which is mostly GA aircraft.
So don’t give up. Keep at it and let’s work on ideas as a community to improve on the situation. We need it and PPG needs to be, and I am not joking, the leader in aviation growth in a rapidly changing world.

Best regards,
Ernest
Legion Air Inc
828-437-3704
Legion Air Inc

Regarding the IE8, as you will see in the form, there is a disclaimer mentioned the issue between IE8 and Google Maps. What I do is to enable the Compatibility mode before enter the coordinates.

Hope it helps,
Alex

How do I update the map? (I used IE 8 when I placed it – sorry)
Paul