Submitted content policy
First and foremost, BackcountryPilot.org is an aviation website. All topics submitted are subject to evaluation, moderation, or removal at the discretion of moderators. Administrators and moderators reserve the right to move, edit, or delete user-contributed forum posts and images.
To maintain a focused community, only backcountry/off-airport flying and closely related topics are allowed in the discussion forum. No politics or off-topic threads are allowed, and will be moderated swiftly. Forum user signatures with political messages or links will be reset. Subjects that are closely related to backcountry flying like: firearms and hunting, bushcraft and survival, products and technology related to aircraft and piloting, photography and videography, etc are well within the charter of this website and remain welcome conversation.
While airline/military/heavy metal/war history/aerospace are interesting aviation topics, please leave them to other forums. The scope of this site is general aviation backcountry flying only.
If you're wondering about your proposed topic, PM an admin.
In some cases, when products like books or electronics are mentioned, links to affiliates may be added to posts for revenue generation, e.g. Amazon.com, et al.
Mininum flight experience
Backcountrypilot.org is for pilots. Prospective and retired pilots are welcome, but discussion is required to be of a nature related to piloting, maintaining, or building manned aircraft. If you wish to join the discussion, it is expected that you have at least a student pilot certificate and are actively taking instruction, or are a certificated A&P mechanic.
Posting new forum topics
If you are going to post a new topic, try to follow these guidelines:
- Do a Forum Search (grey button below Me/Get Started button) first to make sure you're not posting something that's been posted before. If your question has already been answered in a previous thread, do your best to find it before posting. Sometimes it's better to join a conversation already underway, but not always. If your question warrants a new thread, go for it. Google can be a very powerful tool for searching this website by just adding "site:backcountrypilot.org" after your search (in Google.)
- Choose the appropriate category/forum. Does it pertain to piloting, aircraft, a physical place, or this website? Make sure you're within the appropriate forum before you click the New Topic button. This helps future users browsing by category.
- Name your topic descriptively. For instance, instead of something ambiguous like "Garmin," use something like "Any opinions on the Garmin GTN650?" It makes searching for existing threads much easier.
- If posting a news article from another website, always cite the source and include a link to the website.
- Make some effort to make your posts readable. Use paragraphs, spellcheck, and avoid using all-capital letters, which indicate yelling.
- If you notice a mistake or typo, just edit your existing post by clicking the edit button (pencil icon) at the bottom of your post.
- Duplicate topics in different subforums are not allowed.
Posting about accidents
While accident discussion is a very important part of aviation safety awareness and learning, it must be handled with care and regarded with respect for those who've suffered loss. There are a few typical scenarios that determine to what extent it is appropriate to discuss accidents; here are the guidelines:
- If the accident/incident is one of our own members, please exercise the respect and discretion you'd like bestowed upon yourself in a difficult situation. Rushing to report that someone has had an accident generally is frowned upon, and forum threads to this effect may be heavily moderated. Digging for information that you're not entitled to is poor form.
- If the news stations/websites are already reporting the accident, the cat's out of the bag and discretion is no longer possible. Discuss freely but do not contribute to misinformation or wild speculation.
- Speculation and heresay do not help, and may cause the FAA to exact unnecessary investigation.
- Condemnation or villification of a pilot, alive or deceased, is extremely frowned upon. The families and loved ones of deceased pilots often turn to this community looking for answers, and they should only see positive and supportive commentary, despite circumstances.
- Accident discussion should be a learning experience but also remain as respectful as possible.