Here you go. The Challenge

I Posted this up on a social media site that I run on FB called Big Tire Pilots - Stol Pilots - Backcountry Pilots. That not to take anything away for this awesome site Z has created for all of us. That page now has 10,000 plus members and counting. This page and the other Flying site (.org) needs to be in on this contest as well.

It's simple. Heavier out!

He or she that flies the most trips over the next few weeks (sept 15 deadline) will get/win some really cool prizes. If you don't have a plane load up our car! It's all about picking up what others have left behind. We as a community have a huge voice and influence!

Rules: post up a picture of you flying out the garbage you pick up and tag #heavierout and #flyingcowboys simple. The more you haul, the more you tag and post the better chance you have to win!

Like I said, the prizes are really cool but shouldn't be the incentive but I can promise you, they are worth your time and effort. Not to mention having someone come in behind you and think, "wow this place is really clean and beautiful.

Get fired up and go pick up what others have left behind.

I look forward to seeing what everyone picks up and posts up with the tags!

Good luck and thank you!

AKT

aktahoe1 wrote:Here you go. The Challenge

Posted this up on a social media site that I run on FB called Big Tire Pilots - Stol Pilots - Backcountry Pilots. It now has 10,000 plus members and counting. This page and the other Flying site needs to be in on this as well.

It's simple. Heavier out!

He or she that flies the most trips over the next few weeks (sept 15) will some really cool prizes. If you don't have a plane load up our car! It's about picking up what others have left behind. We as a community have a huge voice!

Rules: post up a picture of you flying out the garbage you pick up and tag #heavierout and #flyingciwboys simple.

Like I said the prizes shouldn't be the incentive but I can promise you they are really cool!

Get fired up and go pick up what others have left behind.

I look forward to seeing what everyone picks up and posts up with the tags!

Good luck and thank you!

AKT

Good on ya bud, excellent idea.

aktahoe1 wrote:I Posted this up on a social media site that I run on FB called Big Tire Pilots - Stol Pilots - Backcountry Pilots. That not to take anything away for this awesome site Z has created for all of us.

Not to detract from your campaign for advocacy, but I disagree with the Facebook thing not taking away from BCP. I've grown steadily more wary of Facebook for privacy reasons, to the point that I have essentially gone dark with my own profile. Their handling of our personal data (retention policies, selling of data) has proven to be atrocious.

So, while it's fun to have an active feed and involve grandma and everyone else on FB, I do believe it sucks away some of the contributions here that could live on in posterity. The archival value of information and knowledge in a forum is far superior to the ephemeral, algorithmic social feed of sites like Facebook and Instagram. It's why Googled questions often return backcountrypilot.org or supercub.org or shortwingpipers.org or vansairforce.net results first.

And to boot, you don't own anything. You have no creation that you can walk away with, reshape, improve. Facebook owns it all. One could argue that they're so huge that the chances of losing dominion over it are very low, but you never know. I'd imagine there are people around who like me even less than Zuckerberg, though.

Maybe two different use cases, and everyone has different reasons for participating. Good luck with the hashtag campaign. I'm genuinely curious (for my own marketing research) how many here search their social media services by hashtag to get aggregated results back?

Worthy challenge AKT! I would guess most around here make common practice of cleaning up after themselves and others, but this is a great way to make it a little more fun.

I don't disagree with you at all Z and as you know do love this site. The FB is a place that's now, quick access and actually has a lot of very good (once you sift through all the BS but this site has it too) details and information. Not to mention some very good folks participating.

The hashtags are a simple place to compile all the same data in order to go back and see who's actually posted what and come up with a winner for the given purpose. That's all. Instagram is really the only good place to search a given hashtag for photos of something.

One user said good idea but we need to do this every day. Agreed but people simply do not do that. Sad.

The backcountry etiquette thread on here has multiple pages of folks discussing how they should or how they interpret how one should fly in the backcountry. Cool but like many threads on here and on any of the social media platforms it all turns into either an argument or a penis measuring contest from many keyboard pilots with their given opinion. Nothing more. It's really all the same anymore.

What I personally like about this site is the archived stories and such as you mention. Aside from that, all of these social sites are really the same like I just mentioned. Some are just more glorified than others. It's just the world we live in now unfortunately.

Back to hashtags, when we did our campaign for charity for our Heli Ski operation last year we raised a ton of money by folks doing good deeds. If not for the hashtags we would have never been able to follow it and keep track. Hashtags have a purpose for certain.

I would sure like to see folks participate for the cause rather than express their ideas or opinions on how it should always be done. We have some really cool prizes to give away.

Best to you Z!

AKT

Cool idea AKT. I certainly won’t win but will participate to encourage others. How does one use hashtags? Seriously, I don’t know.

I still don’t have a plane but I’m constantly hauling stuff home from the river in my boat. Last week was a 55gal drum. Next week I plan to recover the rusted corps of a car we found. My kids love snorkeling for “treasures” in the river.

Great idea, Ill try to get to the beach. Smoke has really limited flying here.

I agree with Zzz on the FB thing I deleted my profile a while ago and do not miss it, I was just really uncomfortable with the big data aspect. I don't think we have begun to understand what we have been giving away and how it has influenced society/politics.

What I do miss is seeing nice airplane pictures and staying in touch with people whom I have met over the years. And I need to sell a couple of dirtbikes.

Quanitifying how much garbage we haul out is about as good a tactic of airstrip and land usage advocacy as one could ever pull off. Great idea...didn't mean to hijack with my anti-FB tirade.

Zzz wrote:Quanitifying how much garbage we haul out is about as good a tactic of airstrip and land usage advocacy as one could ever pull off. Great idea...didn't mean to hijack with my anti-FB tirade.

FWIW, I have come to the same conclusion about FB. The hell of it is with cross correlation, relation trees established by user comments, facial recognition from the gazillion posted images, etc. combined with the huge volume of personal records posted online by everyone from the FAA's pilot registry to our local county treasurer, FB & other social media have plenty of data to create close to the same doppelgänger profiles even if you, I, or anyone else who choses to avoid actively giving up personal information for free.

IOW, we're already in the gill net.

Nothing like staying on topic[emoji1][emoji1]

As Quinner knows, I support this plan. Here's a video of one I did earlier this year...

Zzz wrote:

aktahoe1 wrote:I Posted this up on a social media site that I run on FB called Big Tire Pilots - Stol Pilots - Backcountry Pilots. That not to take anything away for this awesome site Z has created for all of us.

Not to detract from your campaign for advocacy, but I disagree with the Facebook thing not taking away from BCP. I've grown steadily more wary of Facebook for privacy reasons, to the point that I have essentially gone dark with my own profile. Their handling of our personal data (retention policies, selling of data) has proven to be atrocious.

So, while it's fun to have an active feed and involve grandma and everyone else on FB, I do believe it sucks away some of the contributions here that could live on in posterity. The archival value of information and knowledge in a forum is far superior to the ephemeral, algorithmic social feed of sites like Facebook and Instagram. It's why Googled questions often return backcountrypilot.org or supercub.org or shortwingpipers.org or vansairforce.net results first.

And to boot, you don't own anything. You have no creation that you can walk away with, reshape, improve. Facebook owns it all. One could argue that they're so huge that the chances of losing dominion over it are very low, but you never know. I'd imagine there are people around who like me even less than Zuckerberg, though.

Maybe two different use cases, and everyone has different reasons for participating. Good luck with the hashtag campaign. I'm genuinely curious (for my own marketing research) how many here search their social media services by hashtag to get aggregated results back?

Im with Zane on this.

However....

Very cool challenge, I look forward to following. Unfortunately I will not be able to participate.

Kurt

It's a great idea!

I recently pack-rafted the Middle Fork, and while every river camp was spotlessly clean, I can't say the same for Thomas Creek and Bernard. Piles of toilet paper, garbage, camp fire scars. It's amazing to me that boaters will put on for eight days and leave nothing behind, but pilots seem to be able to pollute a camping area with nothing more than a one-day visit. I don't think I've ever flown into a wilderness airstrip without finding garbage in the fire pits.

Good on AKT for trying to do something to improve our image.

Someone left this behind at the Chicken Strip... I can’t imagine someone bringing this in with an airplane and leaving it... but I hauled it out.

robw56 wrote:Someone left this behind at the Chicken Strip... I can’t imagine someone bringing this in with an airplane and leaving it... but I hauled it out.

Hahaha...that was my card/drink/cooking table for the past ten years!

I don’t do FB or the other social media stuff but I like what you’re trying to encourage, so here’s my contribution for today Kevin. #heavierout #flyingcowboys

Yes
Pilots don’t seem to know the rules about fire pits/ rings in the wilderness because they don’t get a briefing before they go in like the rafters. Yes, it’s posted on the signs.

We fly in to our areas in the early spring and do a micro trash clean up including covering evidence of fire rings. Happy to do it. Good reason to get out of the plane and enjoy why we fly in there.

The haul from day two. Made possible courtesy of F.A. Dodge removable cross bar, quite handy for the occasion. #heavierOut #flyingcowboys

A note on recycling tires. After doing a little online research I was of the understanding that tires could be recycled locally (closest to me in Snohomish County) at Les Schwab tire centers for a dollar a piece. This is not true, they flatly refused to take them. The local S.C. transfer station will take up to 5 tires from an individual for a standard $17 charge but they apparently don’t have any place to set them aside for recycling so they just go into a landfill. Either place is better than seeing these old tires sitting on the bottom of the river, but it would be nice to recycle them given the choice.

Since I know there are quite a few B.C.P. members that are locals, if you know of a place where they actually recycle these things then please post and share.