Hightower is taillights per AvWeb today. He claims it's too much of a hardship on his family to move them to Oshkosh.

Maybe they are finally hearing from those of us who have been very disappointed by the turn that organization has made in the last few years without a Poberezny at the helm.

I hope so. I sat with some employees at OSH in 2011 during Airventure, and the "people-friendly" attitude that the Pobereznys had toward their employees was gone. These were guys who had worked there for almost a dozen years.

The "we're better than you are" attitude that I found this year, as the higher echelon staff (not the volunteers) drove too fast through the aircraft camping areas in the donated Fords, irked me to no end. More than once, I was tempted to shout "slow down, A-hole!", but then that would have put me as low as they were. It was as if they had no idea that EAA wouldn't exist were it not for its members.

Cary

Just by what I have read on aviation boards I think there were a lot more unhappy folks than the EAA realized. Now with the changing of the guard it will be interesting to see if they get back those that left bcause of the direction of the organazation. I hope Mac Maclellen is next, he has never had a clue about "Sport Aviation". The magazine turned into crap.

Yep,

I dropped my membership after 28 years, my Pitts, Skybolt and Maule....all made many trips to Oshkosh. It just wasn't Oshkosh any more. I will concede however that it had been drifting away from me for many years....not just since Hightower's rein.

And yes the magazine was crap. One could not even hold that big floppy rag in one hand and read it. Who ever designed it ....never sat down and read it. I told Hightower that at a flight instructor renewal class in Jan. 2012. He acknowledged the misfit....but it never changed.

Maybe I will go back if things improve. Maybe not.

Bob

I dropped my EAA and Warbirds membership as well. Near as I could tell, the entire reason for EAA's existence was to raise money for EAA. As a former exhibitor at air shows, I used to enjoy the experience. We would get some freebies, ranging from lunch to a motel room, sometimes return fuel. Last air show, I had to even buy my own water. So I was at a loss just how EAA was supporting us, near as I could tell, not at all.

AOPA is quickly following suit. I finally had to call them and ask them to stop stuffing my mailbox with dead trees. They will, if you ask them on the phone. It was getting absurd, I received a solicitation nearly every week from them. EAA was worse, now that I dropped the memberships, they have accelerated their landfill quota, rather than alter the organization.

I dropped them in the early 90's, for the same reasons. When Sport Aviation started running ads it was a sign of things to come.

Personally I thought the AOPA was taking over the EAA, and my reading of the EAA mag seems to reflect this. Lots of Bizjet ads and hardly any homebuilder stuff.

I know many people think that there is strength in numbers, but really, are there more than 400,000 to 500,000 thousand Active Pilots out there? If there were even one million out of 30?,000,000 Americans, that's such a tiny sampling of the population we will never have any real clout.

Treasure what you have now, ladies and gentlemen, because the golden age of General Aviation is gone, and what's left is a bunch of grizzled old men, myself included, flying 65y old airplanes Saturday and Sunday.

Terry