No longer anonymous

Being in the computer industry, I'm keenly aware of how nothing published on line is private, and how easy it is to find out information about any person by searching the web. From the beginning I have purposely not included the names of other pilots, instructors, or my club. I would not want anything I say to adversely reflect on anyone's skills, practices, or decisions. Let's say I wrote about what a particular instructor said to do, and later an accident or incident occurred that involved those instructions or that instructor... I would not want my opinions to get anyone in trouble. So I've tried to be careful.

I'm sure anyone who really wanted to could put two and two together and figure out who I am and what club I belong to. And then looking at my club's web site, figure out instructors' and even pilots' identities. So maybe trying to be anonymous is not all that effective anyway, but I figured I had to try.

This month my blog and my name were mentioned in AOPA's Flight Training magazine in a follow-up review of blogs. (I had asked the author to consider including my blog in the follow-up article he was planning.) That's a good thing! I hope anyone reading FT and thinking about soaring will read my blog and find it helpful. As the article pointed out, there are very few blogs about soaring... I only know of about 4 or 5, and some of them are not very active.

So now I'm not anonymous anymore. My name is Roger Worden, and I live in Orange, California. I fly with the Orange County Soaring Association, based in Hemet, CA. My blog contains my personal thoughts and opinions, is not on behalf of OCSA, and does not necessarily reflect their views. I've updated my blog profile to make this clear.

I still do not want anything I say to reflect on any club instructors, so I've removed their initials from all previous postings. I believe this is important. I know some of my fellow club members read my blog, so I will continue to be careful what I say about any members and their skills or actions. (I still use pilots' first initials occasionally just to help keep the postings clear.)

I hope everyone who reads my blog finds it useful and interesting. I hope student pilots will read the sections that relate to their current stages of training and find them helpful: to learn what's coming soon, to help explain the why of their training, and to know that others have the same questions that they do. Remember, though... I'm not an instructor. Please discuss any detailed questions with your CFI.

Feel free to add comments or ask questions about any posting, current or ancient. That's the only way I know anyone is reading this stuff, since the blog does not provide any "hit" statistics. And thanks for reading!