Infamous? Notorious?

I appear to have acquired a little bit of a web presence as it were. ­ It isn’t uinheard of for people to see or hear me and ask “are you LocalFlightEast?” or “Are you the one with the blog?” or “have I seen your videos on Youtube”

Sometimes it is funny, sometimes flattering, occasionally a little bothersome that my accent and online persona render me instantly recognisable. There’s a world of difference in spotting someone is having radio issues and “Ha ha I just heard LFE fluff a radio call!”

Anyways, this is all of my own making ­I guess. I’m not afraid really of having given up my anonymity. It honestly would not take a genius to figure out from my various online activities: my real name, where I work and what I do for a living.

Anonymity on the web does funny things to people. I’m still coming to terms with the fact that probably some of the really nice, really helpful, really supportive people at the local flying club I’ve joined are possibly some of the same assholes who make one of the forums I read (and occasionally post on, not under LFE’s tag) one of the most toxic places I have ever seen from a student pilots perspective.

And that makes me all kind of sad, because I’m genuinely of the opinion the General Aviation is in trouble and that we need to pull together to fix it.

Rant aside. It is sometimes hard for me to track the audience of this blog. I know I have a few regulars who comment. I know that family back in the UK read and I know I get trawled by Russian porn bots. Other than that, well who knows?

Notoriety can have its up sides too though. Completely out of the blue, after posting this confession of how I’d moved over to the dark side (no cookies though!) where I mentioned the Bad Elf GPS I had purchased, I got an email from the cofounder of the company! Telling me that he read  my blog, enjoyed it and hoped that my purchase was working out well for me.

That was just a teensy bit flattering.

Actually it was a lot flattering.

And for exceptional customer service in the form of email flattery, Brett, you have won yourself a free review of the Bad Elf Pro, here on this very blog.

Just as soon as I’ve written it!

As great as this international attention maybe (ok maybe not so great in terms of Russian porn),I still thing the sweetest thing was getting down to the flying school yesterday only to find that the owner had seen my name on the flight sheet and had placed my three milk crates that I use for my preflight , easily accessible just inside the hanger door so that I didn’t have to go hunting for them.

Now that’s service!