DFW Lite Flyers Club 393

Archive for the ‘Website News’ Category

I did another periodic website cleanup today. Fixing links, deleting spam users from India, updating plugins, and just random stuff. The website is holding pretty steady and doing about what it’s always done over the past several months.

Below is the site usage stats. The important figures are that the website has been visited 509 times over the past 30 days, with 1,630 different pages viewed, or an average of 3.2 pages per visitor. The normal website visitor only stays on the site for less than 3 minutes. This isn’t the best number, and points out that we need more engaging content to keep people on our site. Then again, the point of the site is merely informational, and nothing is being sold. So for what it’s worth, you can see how well the site is doing below.

Site Usage

Top Pages

1. DFW Lite Flyers Club 393: Home – 410 Views
2. DFW Lite Flyers Club 393: Our Aircraft – 124 Views
3. DFW Lite Flyers Club 393: Classifieds – 74 Views
4. DFW Lite Flyers Club 393: Club photos – 70 Views
5. DFW Lite Flyers Club 393: Club News – 64 Views

Sorry for the long delay of not updating the website. Since I don’t live in TX anymore, I’m not actively involved with the club and tend to forget whats going on down there. Anyway, I’ve updated the Club Officers page, the broken email link ability to contact Jeff Mountain, eliminated email email links to other officers (for now), created a Light Sport Aircraft page, created a Sport Pilot Page, Create a Sport Pilot Rule page, deleted the duplicate member aircraft photo page, updated the Sport Pilot Instructors listing page (prices went UP), and made various back-end and cosmetic improvements. Any requests for other changes or updates?

As pointed out, you’ll notice that instructor costs have gone up in the past year. Robert in Ft. Worth charges $10 more per hour for dual instruction (now up to $130) and Four Winds Aviation at T31 in McKinney charges $15 more per hour for dual (now up to $180). The guys out a Denton still haven’t published their rates, and last I heard through the grape vine, they aren’t doing much of anything, so it may not be worth it to go their way (sorry guys ).  The guys out in Dallas with the fancy Sport Cruiser are $110 for the plane and $45 for the instructor, which puts them right in the middle. Though they surely have the most expensive aircraft and highest overhead.

As a matter of Comparison, up here in Connecticut I rent a 1940′s J-3 Cub for $90 per hour and $40 for an instructor ($130 dual).

To update anyone who is interested on my status — I’m actually studying for my CFIS (sport pilot instructor) FAA written test, as well as the FOI (fundamentals of instruction) exam. I plan to purchase a Champ when I’m finished (in the $15-20k range) and give instruction at about the same rate as the Cub goes for around here.  I might even purchase a 2 place quicksilver or other 2-place ultralight type Light Sport and give instruction under an LODA if I can figure out the rules.  So far it seems like the FAA still can’t decide if they want to support ultralights or let them die out like has been happening for the past 6 years. Right now I don’t own anything that flies. I have my ragwing sport parasol still under construction in the basement, and still selling plans for the Cloudster Ultralight through my hobby business, Simplex Aero, LLC .

As a matter of information, our website is getting more traffic. Monthly visits are up quite a bit, and are actually at an all time high. I would encourage members and non-members alike to post questions, ideas, or anything aviation related. Remember the idea here is to make this an information hub for the light sport community in the DFW area.

Below are some  stats on how well we’re doing, and whats driving the web traffic here.

Site Usage

Top Pages

1. DFW Lite Flyers Club 393: Home – 415 Views
2. Cedar Mills fly-out April 16th – 77 Views
3. DFW Lite Flyers Club 393: Our Aircraft – 76 Views
4. DFW Lite Flyers Club 393: Classifieds – 64 Views
5. DFW Lite Flyers Club 393: Place Ad – 55 Views

Even in the “off” season with the weather, people are still searching the internet and hitting our site. Infact, within the past 30 days the following Stats have been gathered:

559 visits within the past 30 days
The average person views 2.77 pages per visit.
The average visit is 2.07 minutes long.
Most important, there are 45.26% New Visitors each month.

As the now retired VP but still current Web Master, I encourage everyone to add content to the website. We need stories about flying experiences and anything else ultralight or sport pilot related.

Thanks folks!

It’s been a slight challenge for this webmaster to make is possible to join the club completely online and to make it also possible to renew current members. This method provides us with the ability to use Paypal to accept payments from new and current members. After trying multiple options I have concluded on one way which I believe will work well for us for quite some time until something better is found.

If you’re debating about joining the club, now is the perfect time to act!

Whether you own a plane, want to own a plane, or simply dream of fun flying, this club is for you. Membership dues are $25 per individual or $35 per family per year. Additionally, our Bylaws stipulate that EAA membership is Required.   However, if you haven’t been a member of the EAA within the last 3 years then we can provide you with a complimentary 6-month EAA membership for FREE! (note: annual membership dues for our club will still be required). Existing club members have a duty to keep their EAA membership current.

Currently there are THREE ways to join or renew membership with our club:

1) Fill out the online application under the “Club Info” sub-menu (recommended), with the option to Pay now and join now (using Paypal). You will be prompted as to your method of payment as you are not required to use PayPal.

2) Fill out the attached form and bring it with your membership fee to our next club meeting.

3) Fill out the attached form and mail it with your membership fee to:
Jeff Mountain
103 Daisey Lane
Justin, TX 76247

Of course the best way is to simply use PayPal. Join our club, take advantage of a free 6-month EAA membership, and have fun being apart of a well knit group of flying enthusiasts.

The Classifieds ad section on dfwliteflyers.org is taking off and doing well. It has helped to sell a few items already with more being listed daily. Though it doesn’t compare with barnstormers.com, it certainly is an easy place to list your item for local folks to see. Plus we don’t charge anything, not even when you ad up to 8 photos. Take the chance to see what you need to unload to clear out that hanger and put it up on our site! I’m sure you’ll be pleased with the results.

http://dfwliteflyers.org/hangertalk/classifieds/

I “believe” that the obvious issue with the site not initially loading has been solved. I also believe that the speed issue has been solved. Currently I’m going back and forth on a certain type of theme to find what works best.

Any bugs on the site that people are seeing that need to be worked out? I’d like to move the website to a point here shortly where it no longer requires much attention and runs pretty much on its own.

Feel free to comment and note anything you would like to see different.

The website has improved dramatically in relation to download speeds and page views. More people are coming to the site on a regular basis. We do however,  need to improve the “discussion/blog” platform to help generate more traffic and keep people coming back on a regular basis.

One thing that is still a problem is the initial site loading. I’m aware that the site isn’t loading correctly all the time and that at times some of you are seeing a white page with only highlighted text links, rather than the normal site them. I’m working on a solution, and hope to have something fixed pretty soon. Until then, simply click on one of the page links and you’ll be taken to the correct page shown in the right format.

Still working out the bugs!