Any CFO members here?

BigBadLou

BigBadLou

Final Approach
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Lou
Howdy, PoA-ers.
Any of you members of the Cardinal Flyers Online club?
Considering joining CFO so I am naturally wondering about the club's current state and vitality.
What say you?

(I would prefer feedback from CFO members only, no need to get this thread locked due to off-topic political rants, thank you)
 
I've been a member since 2003, when I started Cardinal shopping. CFO is still active, the email digest (which they use instead of an online forum) is active, issuing every few days (10 issues so far this month) and plans are underway for 2017 events (Winter Haven, Oshkosh, and annual convention). The website is still updated, but not that frequently (only four "What's New" entries last year). I still consider it a good investment if you are a current or prospective Cardinal owner.
 
Thank you for your reply, Scott.
You already answered my future follow-up question about existence of forums so we got that one out of the way. :)
Did y'all have 0 events in 2016? I did not find any on the page when I looked last time. (hence my original question about the current state of the club)
 
Yellowbird said:
I've been a member since 2003, when I started Cardinal shopping. CFO is still active, the email digest (which they use instead of an online forum) is active, issuing every few days (10 issues so far this month) and plans are underway for 2017 events (Winter Haven, Oshkosh, and annual convention). The website is still updated, but not that frequently (only four "What's New" entries last year). I still consider it a good investment if you are a current or prospective Cardinal owner.
Click to expand...

I don't know what I would add to this.
 
BigBadLou said:
Thank you for your reply, Scott.
You already answered my future follow-up question about existence of forums so we got that one out of the way. :)
Did y'all have 0 events in 2016? I did not find any on the page when I looked last time. (hence my original question about the current state of the club)
Click to expand...

They meet up at the major events (Oshkosh, and Sun and Fun). They also had a training seminar that was specific to flying Cardinals put on by one of the members a year last year. "Guy Maher's Safety Clinic."

I think of CFO mostly as a repository for lots of Cardinal specific information that you can access on demand rather than a social club.
 
BigBadLou said:
...Did y'all have 0 events in 2016? I did not find any on the page when I looked last time. ...
Click to expand...

They did have get-togethers at Sun 'n Fun and Oshkosh, as well as the annual convention in Toronto. As PPC mentioned, they also had a Cardinal clinic conducted by Guy Maher in Salt Lake City in October. There used to be regional flyins from time to time (Lancaster, PA was a popular one) but I haven't seen them on the calendar lately.
 
I remain a member, but mostly due to inertia from when I was looking at C177's in the past.

I wish they would abandon the email digest thing and move to forum software. The threads in their digest emails get difficult to follow.

I attended one of Guy Maher's clinics years ago when it was in Statesville, NC. I found it very informative and would definitely attend again if I ever owned an aircraft. I would also seek out Guy as both a buyer's and seller's rep for the airframes he is known to be an expert in.
 
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It gets harder find past information with every new CFO digest due to the primitive search function. The web site mostly dates back many years.

It is a useful place to get a question answered by posting to the mailing list.
 
Somehow I missed this before... but yes I'm on CFO and have been since 2003 when I started flying a friend's Cardinal... and then in 2010 I bought one myself, which I still own. Great resource, never more so than at my first annual when my A&P found an unserviceably corroded wing spar carrythrough. It was through CFO that I found a contact with a part from salvage that he sold me for under $1 AMU. I think my bird would have otherwise wound up in a salvage yard.

I can't recommend them too highly!
 
Agree with the points above, the email digest is a bit of an old approach and can be hard to keep up with in comparison to a forum format but a great source of information, and the website isn't updated too often.

The information on the site and the digest list there is invaluable. Over a number of years of owning Cardinals there are issues that I would not have known about, and solutions that I would never have found (or more likely would have spent a lot of money chasing). For that, it's well worth the $34 a year (apologies if that figure is out of date).

Highly recommended.
 
I have joined because I'm looking for a Cardinal , seems like a Good deal for the info you get ... I have learned a lot . Some of the members are associated with Cessnas2Osh , group arrival , looks like a Fun Bunch ...just Gotta find me one !
 
I enjoy reading the digest and the website saved me from buying a bad plane by showing the mechanic I was working with that the spar was out of spec despite his expert knowledge. When I bought my Cardinal I used the pre-buy checklist they publish. I also use their checklist for my annuals.

I think the reason the information on the site is "old" is because the last Cardinal was built 38 years ago.
 
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