Bones-
My usual Wednesday evening family commitments prevented me being
active again this week. I frantically tried to connect at about
22.35 just as Fred and John Hill were signing off. By the time I
had everything up and running they had gone! As consolation I flew
a DH89a Dragon Rapide from EGBW to ECTC. It was very lonely... <g>
I would fully support your suggestions for a gentle rebirth of JHB.
Nothing too drastic, though, please! We have, I fear, no option but
to accept that PCI will never be anything more spectacular than they
are now. Given that their servers continue to be available and that
(maybe) one day we have a more useful version of the 'Communicator'
(that works both in FS9 and in FSX), then JHB could easily change in
ways which exploit the resources available without adding to your
personal workload. New blood is always good as long as we all
fogies don't get up-staged by too many shoot 'em up 'youngsters'
<g>. I agree that the conventional VA aspects of JHB are probably
now all but defunct. I can't remember the last time a flew a formal
'assignment' and I doubt that you receive many Pilot Hours reports
these days. The idea of encouraging and recruiting new pilots and
offering informal training is good, many of us have greatly
benefited over the years from your personal patience and willingness
to share your knowledge. Long may it continue!
We have a small community which is friendly, supportive and helpful.
We don't just fly together, we share personal life experiences and
specialist aviation knowledge and we are all happy to pool our
(varied) knowledge of pc systems and hardware. I will always want
to be identified with JHB, long may we survive.
Go for it ...
Cheers
MikeB
-----Original Message-----
From: jhb-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:jhb-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of bones
Sent: Thursday, May 10, 2007 3:52 PM
To: jhb@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [jhb] Re: PCI Breaking News
I do wonder how much they sell. Their prices are good but
it's a tough market. OTOH there are probably many members now
that join for the bargains and never touch the online system
- it's only a minor part of PCI's operation these days. Which
brings me to another point...
The response last night was fairly dismal with less than a
handful of pilots online. This either means you are all too
busy to fly or the sessions are not as interesting as they
once were. Either way the result is the same in that PCI
becomes a lower priority than it once was and users are
drifting away from the sessions.
In some ways this is inevitable as the learning curve is
mastered and the challenge diminishes. In the early days
everything was new and the idea of flying in a "live"
environment was somewhat daunting. As experience grew and
familiarity kicked in we became comfortable with the system -
but the challenge (and spark of interest) slows down.
We can restore the challenge in several ways but this may not
be the answer.
We could move abroad or find more tricky airports to fly into
but it doesn't change the basics of the system and may not be
enough to fire up enthusiasm again. I would be interested to
hear any ideas or suggestions that might give existing pilots
enough of a push to join in again.
I say existing pilots because the second option is to replace
the declining numbers with new faces. We haven't seen a lot
of newcomers to PCI so I don't think the system itself will
ever generate a lot of interest - something I had hoped it
would. If PCI can't attract more interest then the other
option is to draw people into this world by opening up JHB
recruitment.
JHB has been, to some extent, a closed system in recent
years. With my withdrawal from most forums the JHB name has
had less coverage than it used to and this has had an impact
on new members. It's not just enough to have a web page - you
have to make the VA known in FS circles to attract further
curiosity. Almost all of you came from the UKScenery forum
when this was still an FS driven list but when Magrathea shut
its doors this list also changed - it ceased to be in the
forefront of FS development.
If I am to attract new pilots then my target would be those
pilots who have never been online before but who are too
daunted by VATSIM to take that big step. PCI is ideal
training ground for newcomers and this should be seen as a
strength rather than a weakness. If I were to do this the JHB
web pages would need an overhaul in that I would consider
stripping out the old Pilot Assignment pages and making the
VA a totally online operation. This is nothing new really as
the current pilot base has migrated in this direction anyway.
After revamping the next step would be to entice newcomers to
the fold. It's not an easy task but I have a few ideas up my
sleeve. Now, should we attract new pilots there would be some
guidance needed. We all know what it was like when we first
plugged in - we had no idea how the system worked and we were
terrified of using the radio for fear of making a pig's ear
of ourselves.
Newcomers need respect rather than impatience and a lot of
help from the rest of us. The second channel on PCI is ideal
for this as we can use this to explain matters or generally
calm a newcomer down - we end up with one formal channel and
one informal channel and this works well.
Before I set this in motion could I ask if everyone is happy
with the idea?
First step is a JHB web site rewrite, second stage is to make
it an online service only. Third is to get some new blood in.
Fourth is your co-operation in helping the newcomers.
If we can swell the ranks of the users in PCI then it can
only be a more rewarding experience for all of us.
bones
