They're up to a hat...

denverpilot

denverpilot

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DenverPilot
AOPA is whipping out the big guns. They offered me a hat.

What's more interesting is: See any items listed where they're playing Offense instead of Defense? I don't.

And their claims that they and they alone were the only folks fighting those battles is precious.

Conspicuously missing: ADS-B mandate, rising costs of parts and the overbearing regulatory environment for them, medical reform... Stuff that matters.

At least they didn't try to ride the coat tails of a ticked off Senator and claim they got us PBOR.

So far it's been a flashlight, and a hat. Wonder what the next offer will be?

A free annual renewal of Foreflight Pro might sway me. I never said I couldn't be bought. Ha.

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Don't you get a new cap every year anyway? I know I gave away a bunch of them.
 
You couldn't pay me to wear an AOPA hat.

Well...you probably could..but it'd be expensive..like $10 a day.
 
But everyone would respect you if you had an awesome hat like this.
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With that wide brim to keep the sun out of your eyes, you wouldn't even need to wear sunglasses anymore. It also doubles as a cheater hood, allowing you to peek through the weaving and get your simulated instrument time without a safety pilot.
 

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Pilots are easy,go by osh or sun n fun. You can acquire a bunch of free hats. Aopa,Avemco,are two of the biggest ,that give away free hats. The EAA still sells their logo hats.
 
ollopa said:
But everyone would respect you if you had an awesome hat like this.
attachment.php


With that wide brim to keep the sun out of your eyes, you wouldn't even need to wear sunglasses anymore. It also doubles as a cheater hood, allowing you to peek through the weaving and get your simulated instrument time without a safety pilot.
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I Could just imagine some guy wearing that on vacation somewhere. :rofl:
 
I've been expired for over a year. They've almost given up on me, but not yet! A recent e-mail was titled 'Maybe Nat Will Convince You!':

Wait- this is not what you think. This is not another AOPA e-mail giving you the laundry list of membership benefits or offering free gifts or discounted rates. I am forwarding you an email from AOPA member and pilot, Nat Ostroff. Our Member Service Representatives received this unsolicited note of praise from him as they were working on responding to the many member questions we receive each day via e-mail.

When Member Services shared this with me, I felt it was the best way to share what The AOPA Pilot Protection Services, including the valuable AOPA Legal Services Plan* and Medical Certificate Assistance has to offer. If you want to join Nat and thousands of other PPS participants, please take a moment to read Nat's email below and enroll in AOPA Pilot Protection Services for as little as $39!You owe it to yourself as a pilot to ensure your certificate remains protected!
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I've never gotten a hat. Not sure what they're going to do when they find out the credit card I have on file is no longer working. Account renumbered for the third time in a little over a year for "potential fraud" even though I have not experienced any. Credit card companies must be getting extremely cautious but that's another subject.
 
I got a couple of hats early on but haven't for years. I'm on automatic renewal although I'll have to rethink that this year as the credit card got replaced.

I have mixed emotions. I like being in the running for the sweepstakes plane (although the C-150 this year doesn't excite me. I suppose I could sell it for something I'm interested in.).

Knowing what I do know about Washington DC and lobbying, I'm pretty sure we don't have any idea how effective they are or are not. We point to all the things they haven't accomplished and get wound up about them being ineffective, and yet, we really don't know what they have accomplished.

The wine club really turned me off.

I don't use the fight planner any more although that was enough value in the early days for me. Now I just use WingX.

And I have plenty of hats.

Well, I don't have to decide until November anyway.

John
 
Everskyward said:
I've never gotten a hat. Not sure what they're going to do when they find out the credit card I have on file is no longer working. Account renumbered for the third time in a little over a year for "potential fraud" even though I have not experienced any. Credit card companies must be getting extremely cautious but that's another subject.
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If they are setup with a "Card Updater" system and your card brand supports it -- they'll just charge your new card number.
 
I'm surprised they can even offer hats with that jet of theirs to support.
 
ollopa said:
But everyone would respect you if you had an awesome hat like this.
attachment.php


With that wide brim to keep the sun out of your eyes, you wouldn't even need to wear sunglasses anymore.
Click to expand...

NO SUNGLASSES?? Are you mad?!?
How will people know that we are pilots if we don't wear our aviator sunglasses?!? :dunno:
HERESY!! He's a witch! Burn him!!!!!!!!! :lol:
 
Henning said:
Don't you get a new cap every year anyway? I know I gave away a bunch of them.
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Nope, never got one, ever. Though I have been a member for only a few years. I think AOPA is shifting their business model, just like millions of other companies, from customer support to customer milking. (yes, we are the cash cows, they are not here for us anymore, we are now here for them - get used to it)
 
I know I am one of the few that thinks AOPA is the only voice we have for GA in Washington. They are far from perfect, but they are much better than nothing in most cases. I don't recall ever getting a hat from them, but I do read the magazine and enjoy it. I waste $50 on a lot more trivial items during the year than supporting AOPA and I will continue to support them, even without the hat. :D
 
jesse said:
If they are setup with a "Card Updater" system and your card brand supports it -- they'll just charge your new card number.
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Doesn't that make changing your CC number moot? It was the CC company who initiated the change, not me.
 
I'm sold!
Have to have that hat. The kids are running out of reasons to make fun of me. That hat will keep them in stitches for years.
 
ollopa said:
But everyone would respect you if you had an awesome hat like this.
attachment.php


With that wide brim to keep the sun out of your eyes, you wouldn't even need to wear sunglasses anymore. It also doubles as a cheater hood, allowing you to peek through the weaving and get your simulated instrument time without a safety pilot.
Click to expand...

I was recently contacted by an AP reporter who was rounding up quotes about how the GA community was responding to Harrison Ford's incident. He said he found me from a comment I made on the AOPA website. I wrote him back and told him he had the wrong guy. I haven't been a member since like 2012.

You know, this hat would look pretty spiffy with the POA logo on it...:yesnod:
 
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my recently received notice said something like

"It's come to our attention that the raggedy, greasy, sweat stained AOPA hat you have been wearing for years is portraying our organization in a negative light. Please accept this new hat and return your old one in the post-paid box we have provided (marked HAZMAT). Upon receipt of the old hat, we will credit your account for 2 years of membership for free.

Regards,
AOPA Marketing Director"
 
I've got several of the AOPA caps. I kinda like them. Over the years they've sent me flashlights, caps, flight bags, pens, pins, stickers. The thing that irked me with their credit card was that I kept it in my flight bag for emergencies. Granted, I seldom used it, but it really ruffled my feathers when I opened the mail one day to find a note they were cancelling my card because they weren't making any $ off of me.

It's not like I started collecting caps or anything, but it's unreal how many I have. Nationwide, Shelter, Kia, AOPA, Hornady, MiwayUSA, Blackhawk, Caddyshack, etc. Most of them I have at least 2 or 3 in different colors or styles. You'd think I'd cull them and toss all but one. But I keep thinking the day will come when I won't be able to find the one cap I usually wear and will need another. Probably the same reason the rest of you degenerates have a few pieces of mismatched silverware in your drawers too.
 
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Hank S said:
Ever since I went on auto renewal, I don't get anything . . . :dunno: Guess they figure they've already got my money.
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Same here. I haven't made up my mind on whether I'm dropping them in November when my membership renews. I only have non-owned insurance through them, and I can get that anywhere for the same price. I don't know if I can justify the cost just for a magazine and a raffle ticket. I don't see that they are doing anything for small GA in Washington, anything that the NBAA et. al. aren't already doing to protect the jet-fuel GA guys. I'd almost rather support EAA if I thought they helped at all with certified aircraft interests.
 
When I first started training, I joined and got a free flight bag that I use to this day. It's actually quite nice. Then the next year, they were offering a much cheaper flight bag in a strange form factor. Got that too. Then after that, it was all hats. Bummer.
 
Everskyward said:
I've never gotten a hat. Not sure what they're going to do when they find out the credit card I have on file is no longer working. Account renumbered for the third time in a little over a year for "potential fraud" even though I have not experienced any. Credit card companies must be getting extremely cautious but that's another subject.
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Credit card companies are getting completely owned by the hackers. They know making card transactions more inconvenient would cost them more money than just eating the existing losses.

It kinda reminds me of the stuff I've been reading about the internal cultural problems at NASA during Shuttle. Lots of smart people convincing themselves through mountains of paperwork that it's all going to be fine... And no one ever fired a projectile at something that was hit by large debris four times and everyone saw it happen.

And piles of engineers who knew there was no structure behind it and it couldn't withstand any significant impact, if you'd just have shown them one in their driveway on a Saturday, not told them what it was, and asked them if you could hit it with a sledgehammer and not have it break.

That's pretty much the state of the credit card processing back end. Not the stuff at the merchants, that stuff is hammered pretty tight by PCI. None of the card companies meets PCI internally*. They claim they don't need to, it's their risk and their money they'll lose.

* Unless any of them have stepped up to the plate to eat their own dog food, in the last few years, which I doubt.
 
Just got my free hat offer today. But they're only giving 29 away to pilots in my state. But the hat model is HOT!
 
Gerhardt said:
Just got my free hat offer today. But they're only giving 29 away to pilots in my state. But the hat model is HOT!
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Me, too! However, apparently my state is reverting back to the Indian tribe for which it was named. My e-mail says:

17 pilots in Kansa will get this cap!

Be one of the next 17 Kansa pilots to join the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, and get this exclusive Pilot’s Cap as a special gift – plus hundreds of dollars’ worth of additional benefits!
 
Wow, I'm even buying insurance through them and all I got was some snazzy address labels.
 
I didn't know they made hats that small.

Nauga,
and his vague ambiguity
 
I'm thinking I probably won't renew after this year. Seemed like a good idea when I was a student... but most of the reason I joined were for the forums and those don't have a ton of discussion anymore.
 
No need to join EAA/AOPA/NBAA. They're all scams to get you to pay for their flying. Just write your Congressman. :mad2:
 
Got a post card this weekend from AOPA and I've been upped from a hat to a Mini Maglite now!!
 
Got a 10 year pin several years ago, don't remember getting anything of interest for many years.
 
I thought my letter was personalized since it had my name on it. Surely, I was the only one that could save general aviation with my financial support. Now I see Nathan has the same personalized letter. I'm starting to think they sent these letter to several people and not just me.
 
Changed insurance to aopa ,no hat. At sun n fun they give you a hat ,for having them quote your ins. Go figure.
 
Henning said:
Don't you get a new cap every year anyway? I know I gave away a bunch of them.
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I've been a member for about 15 years. I have two hats (one of which I got at AOPA HQ about a decade ago).

gkainz said:
my recently received notice said something like

"It's come to our attention that the raggedy, greasy, sweat stained AOPA hat you have been wearing for years is portraying our organization in a negative light. Please accept this new hat and return your old one in the post-paid box we have provided (marked HAZMAT). Upon receipt of the old hat, we will credit your account for 2 years of membership for free.

Regards,
AOPA Marketing Director"
Click to expand...

I think my original AOPA ball cap qualifies under that category. :D
 
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