Who created Aussie Pilots and Why?

AussiePilots.org was founded by myself, Andrew Luecke, a Private Pilot who is aspiring to one day become an instructor. Whilst I only currently have 150 hours of aeronauical experience, I felt that creating my own aviation website would be a good way to accelerate my aviation knowledge, and learn the tricks of the trade. It also provides a way for me to explain to others what it is like learning to fly.

I, like others, felt that there weren't many good Australian Aviation sites available at the time previously, and more were needed. Even worse, basic aviation resources such as aviation quizzes for australians cost money (and in many cases these days, are designed to heavily inconveniance users so prevent piracy). There was also little information about the various flying clubs, and their planes on the internet, other then their own websites. When I jump into a plane, I'd like to know what to expect, and have an easy way to acquire loading charts and such before hiring it. I hope that Aussie Pilots continue's to offer resources which are unable to be found elsewhere.

Was AussiePilot's always AussiePilots?

Nope.. It actually started off as PA-28 (Piper Cherokee's were the first light aircraft I ever flew), and then became Pilot's Down Under. However, I discovered a large amount of my hits at the time were due to people searching for Down Under Pilot's (an aviation webstore), and I didn't want to rely on someone elses success. In the future, the domain name will probably be changed one last time, as I am still unhappy with the domain name (it is too generic still). When this happens though, you will simply need to rebookmark the website.

Why not merge with Downwind.com.au?

I actually did strongly consider dropping this website ages ago and redirecting to them. However, after careful consideration, I decided not to for a few reasons:

1. Whilst I believe that a single site would do a lot better then multiple sites, having multiple sites increases competition, and therefore, in the long term, both may evolve quicker, and approach things in different ways.
2. I would lose control over which features can be added. Quizzes and such may never be added to downwind.com.au, and I believe they will play a huge part in the future of this website.
3. My impression of Downwind is that its more about social networking, which is great (I have checked out a lot of their content myself). Aussiepilot's however is evolving in a different manner, to cover resources.
4. I would like to see how Aussie Pilot's evolves, because I think the end result will be two websites which have different benefits.