PlasticPilot.net

Exactly one year ago, I was in Cannes, working on my G1000 familiarization and preparing for my instrument rating renewal. In the evening, I connected my laptop to the hotel’s WiFi network, and posted my very first post on a blog which is the ancestor of this one. The good old plasticflying.blogspot.com (now a piece of history) merged later on in this one, together with others.

Since then, I published 333 posts, including this one. From the 6th of December 2007, I’m even publishing one post a day. This blog is complemented by my online shop, where you can order tee-shirts and mousepads. The most popular feature of this blog are the Photo Galleries. As they are appreciated, I decided months ago to make them available to anyone: if you’ve a blog or website, you can put my Photo Widget on it, to show a random picture selected from my galleries.

All the video posts have also been quite successful - the 16 movies I uploaded on YouTube have been seen more than 16′000 times. The Courchevel ones (summer and winter) are well ahead. Sadly, the most popular posts are in the “Air Accidents” category, the most popular ever being about the British Airways Boeing 777 accident in Heathrow.

When PlasticPilot.net got mentionned in the WallStreet Journal Online, I’ve been quoted as “wanting to animate the aviation community”. I got in touch with several other pilots / bloggers / fans via comments or e-mail, and some interesting discussions took place.

Thank you Sylvia, Pat, Jess, Mark, Cliff, Peter, Jason, Aviatrix, Julien, Axel, Don, Doug, Karoliina, Darren, Yaroslav, Matthew, Fab, Gary, Woody, Tonet, Fred, and Paul. I always enjoy discussions about aviation, so don’t hesitate to jump in, or to ask your own question.

In the “special thanks” category, I must also include the excellent blogging pilots, a proven source of useful information, which also drove many of you to my blog.

I strongly believe that the best way to further develop light aviation is to encourage pilots to communicate about it, fly together to fly more, and stimulate the whole community. This is why I will continue this blog, and I hope you will enjoy it as much as I do enjoy writing here.

You can expect more about modern aviation, airlines, accident, airports, flying tips, safety, photos, videos in the future, and I do expect that you’ll be even more numerous to share you views in comments. If you have some suggestions, wishes, requests, proposals, feel free to contact me, and continue growing this community together.

My wish for this birthday ? Continue to grow up this blog’s readership, spread the word, and share the passion. If you want to help, you can use the green “Share This” link below each post to submit it to your favorite social network. Any incoming link is also appreciated, and you can cite my content if you like it, as long as you mention your source.

It’s now time for me to celebrate this anniversary in a more private way, to also thank my wife for her patience regarding all the time I invest in this passion.