State-Of-The-AirPigz-Nation: 3 Year Anniversary Address
Friday, December 9, 2011 at 06:51AM 
Me at age 11 (1972) in the only active Boeing 247 vintage airliner in the world
On December 9, 2008 AirPigz took its first breath, so today makes three years of trying to make the most unique (and the most bacon centric :) aviation website on the planet. It's been a really challenging road, but it's also been very satisfying. For today, I figured a little state-of-the-nation address was in order so we could all have an idea of where this project is headed going forward. I started AirPigz when I was literally on the edge of bankruptcy (house was in foreclosure) and the future looked very bleak for both me and the entire USA. Things haven't changed all that much for me in last three years (or the USA), but we're hanging in there! We did get the foreclosure stopped, and barely avoided bankruptcy, but wow has it ever been a difficult time.
Before I get to the plan for the future, here's a little history on me an aviation.
I was born in San Francisco in 1961 to parents that both worked for United Airlines. My dad was flying their airplanes and my mom worked in the office. My dad was in a near perfect situation of having the opportunity to fly big and beautiful aircraft while also making plenty of money to continue to pursue his wide ranging aviation interests. That meant that right from the start I was being exposed to sailplanes, skydiving, air racing, airshows, fly-ins, homebuilt aircraft, commercial airliners, military aircraft and on and on.
It's from this incredible aviation exposure as a kid that AirPigz is built on. That, and the fact that as I grew up, I continued to soak up aviation knowledge everywhere I could. Since the internet wasn't around, I learned a lot from aviation books, but honestly, the two biggest publications in my life thru the amazing avgeek decade of the 1970's were EAA's Sport Aviation and the weekly Aviation Week and Space Technology. These two magazines did more to develop my knowledge of aviation than any others... and interestingly, at complete opposite ends of the spectrum.
Me at age 13 learning to fly in a brand new Bellanca Citabria 7KCAB
In addition to all this aviation knowledge exposure, I also had incredibly flying opportunities. Someday I'll do a complete history, but the quick version goes something like this: my dad taught me how to fly when I was 13 in a brand new Citabria. I soloed a Schweizer 2-33 glider on my 14th birthday. I soloed the Citabria 3 days after my 16th birthday (bad weather kept me from hitting the right day.) By age 18 I was having the time of my life in a 1941 clipped wing Cub. At 20 we had the best Breezy homebuilt in the world and had at least 3 lifetimes worth of adventure with it. I was also flying a 1957 Cessna 182 jump plane on a regular basis and a weight-shift 15hp Quicksilver ultralight... and all this while living on a small country airport in Indiana. I was unbelievably blessed with opportunities in the wide world of aviation. However, I had turned down my acceptance at Purdue (engineering) to live the airport bum life instead.
By the time the 1990's rolled around tho, the lack of a good money producing career, no longer living on the airport, and shifting priorities brought most of my flying to a standstill. I'm pretty sure there are a lot of you out there can relate to life getting in the way of your flying desires. And no doubt, deciding against a college education certainly put me in a tough spot.
In the late 90's I had a huge shift in priorities when I became a Christian. I had always believed in God, but there wasn't any desire to follow Christ until I was about 36 years old. This new and incredible journey led me to be the founder and operator of a non-profit Christian rock music festival that lasted for 10 long, difficult, and amazing years. But the economic meltdown of 2008 took the festival down, and also my ceramic tile installing career... it pretty much wiped everything out for me. It was during this time of complete exhaustion that I decided to start AirPigz and lean on my deep knowledge of aviation to try to build a new career.
And now, three years down range, life is still a remarkable and frustrating challenge. AirPigz hasn't made any real income to speak of. I've been blessed with some donations along the way, but the journey to building up strong web traffic has made this all a lot harder than I expected. However, after nearly three years of very spotty construction related work for my primary income, I've recently had the opportunity to see my ceramic tile work began again. I've also seen AirPigz have some significant traffic growth in the last year which makes me think that revenue from advertising isn't far away. I'm also hoping that my new AirPigz Photo Studio (which is temporarily not available) will be a path to revenue to support the work I do here. So hopefully I'll see the financial resources increase enough to keep this pig alive and maybe even eventually find a way to get myself back into the pilot's seat of something fun to fly before too long. And yes, for those of you that know about Project VP, it's still on the list for completion when time and money allow.
Running a website like this is a lot more difficult than most people realize. And while my primary objective is to be an advocate for aviation, there is definitely a need for this work to generate some supporting revenue. As AirPigz moves into the future, I'm gonna be looking for advertisers, photo art buyers, and people who can afford to simply donate once in a while. If you like what I do here, I hope you'll consider doing what you can to support the effort. I'm confident that no one does more with such small resources as me... your support goes a long way here!
And lastly, I'm a one-man operation, but I've planned all along to have high-quality contributors to help broaden the perspective. If you're sharp at communicating a passion for flying and you're looking for an outlet for that passion, please consider checking in with me. AirPigz has the potential to be one of the best aviation websites in the world, but it's gonna take some increased financial resources along with some passionate people to make that a reality, but I'm ready for the challenge! Maybe you are too.
The bottom line is that the future for AirPigz is looking pretty bright - thanx for coming along for the ride! Now if only I could have this much optimism for the USA...
Reader Comments (3)
Congratulations on your anniversary! You do an awesome job keeping us informed about the interesting things in aviation, new and old. It's the first website I check every morning and I'm never disappointed. Keep up the great work!!
Holger- Thanx for the nice words!
It was my my brother Holger (on the west coast) who showed me, Peter(on the east coast) your website. And I also, check it daily and enjoy it very much.
What was the Christian rock music festival you founded? I've been to Creation Festival in Pennsylvania several times. I have been the drummer for my son's Christian punk rock band YiELD for a decade or so.
Kepp up the good work and I'll pray that things keep getting better for you.