"Flight related" is a fairly broad term... But here are some examples of On-Topic issues that are obviously appropriate:
- Where are people planning to fly on a given day
- Weather forecasts, and their impact on flying plans
- Car-pooling arrangements
- Discussions about a given flying site's characteristics
- Reports of how a flying day turned out
- Photos/videos from a flying day
- Tracklogs and descriptions of cross-country flights
- Accidents/incident reports from pilots who ran into trouble at one of our area sites
- Notification of accidents/incidents involving area pilots/friends which occurred at other sites
- Site advice for new pilots
- Cool new wings/gear that pilots crave
- Fly-Ins
- Routine/on-going site-maintenance
- Introductions by new pilots ("Hi, I'm new around here!")
If an On-Topic flight-related post is solely of interest to hang-glider or paraglider pilots, then we suggest that you include "PG" or "HG" somewhere in the post's subject line. But please note: A topic about flying at a given site is rarely HG-only or PG-only : You never know who is going to show up, on which type of wing, and with/without a 4WD-capable vehicle, on any given day. So don't make the mistake of limiting your potential audience due to unfortunate wording in the subject of your post.
Here are some examples of Off-Topic issues that must be discussed elsewhere:
- Regional elections for the USHPA Board-Of-Directors
- Club elections for the CHGPA Board-Of-Directors
- CHGPA club-related business/events
- Discussions related to changing some practice/behavior/preference within the pilot community
- HG vs PG debates ("My sport is better/safer/more-fun/easier" Big-sigh)
- Sales of gear, wings, etc.
- How the CHGPA forums are designed
- Commercial advertisements
- Site preservation and acquisition efforts
- Site protocol concerns
However: The focus of this particular forum is on Flying : The How, The Where, The Who, The When, The Means, The Outcome, The Fun! (and also, The Not-So-Fun/Scary/TIWTIWGD*).
EVERYTHING else is Off-Topic.
Depending on the nature of a given Off-Topic issue, it might be acceptable to create a brief, single-post topic that directs readers to a discussion being held in another forum. For example, few will complain about a post in the Flying Topics area about the annual CHGPA holiday party. But any planning and subsequent discussion should occur in its own topic, elsewhere. And the title for such a topic should be prefixed with "OT:", to signify that it is "Off-Topic" for the Flight-Related Topics forum.
We realize that there are flying-related interests beyond the hang-gliding and paragliding arena that are likely to be of interest to many pilots. Posts about the 'jet-man', world-record sailplane attempts, SpaceX, that sort of thing, come to mind. But such posts should also make use of the "OT:" convention on the Subject line.
All members of the CHGPA BOD have moderation capabilities for the Flight-Related Topics forum, chief of which is the ability to move an Off-Topic post elsewhere.
* TIWTIWGD : "There I was, thought I was gonna die"