I think the hardest part is getting money to the people who are real, not scammers, or “charities” whose executives drive 100k cars. This is why I almost never give money to charities. I would happily give money directly to somebody who can use it. But that’s hard; you have to take it on trust, from some intermediary.
Ukraine has food etc. They are a well organised, modern and functioning country, with a lot of really smart people. What they need is weapons, and specifically long range artillery (155mm) and modern ammo. This is not going to come from charity donations. They are finally getting this – from the US mostly, while much of Europe is “debating” the ethics 
Like CV19, these debates have the potential for becoming very nationalist… always a slippery slope on mainland Europe
Peter wrote:
They are a well organised, modern and functioning country,
Peter, I have grown up next to the border and been in UA many times (I must admit only few times in the capital), and my personal experience tells me that this statement is far from the truth.
Note that I am not saying anything here about Ukranian people, their fight agains the inviders, and so on. (before someone will call me Putin-friend)
In my opinion if someone wants to help just come to places like this:
Probably all extra hands are going to be appreciated.
Sure; the USSR was always pretty dysfunctional, much worse than say CZ where I come from, and Ukraine has started dragging itself out of that only in recent years (whereas Russia probably never will, especially not now after so comprehensively demonstrating their “appropriate cultural classification”) but what I meant was that the really necessary stuff is not going to come from charitable donations.
Everything will come in handy. Still, hard to know where to make donations. People have become very suspicious of charities, and rightly so.
I read several telegram feeds from there every day. Horrible stuff. The civilians were finally extracted from that bunker yesterday, but the Russians could not resist taking a shot at a car with soldiers accompanying them. Just for a laugh.
Peter wrote:
The PR for GA is always good, but to be brutally honest (and I know you posted that link before) you would achieve 10x to 100x more by spending the cost of the flight on getting the stuff shipped conventionally.It is like that TBM fly-out from the US to Timbuctu (Mali, Africa), some years ago, to bring a load of medicines. It was a great trip for them all but again at least 100x less cost effective than just shipping it.
Stuff like this can never be assessed on a rational level, the effects purely go on to the emotional. As indeed the whole war does. There is no rational reason for it, it was a purely emotional decision as well as targeted at the emotions of people. Flights like this, including one done by someone from this bord to deliver medicines appeal to emotions and show “they are doing something” while often more rational efforts go unnoticed. Where as “shipping” is concerned, that may well be a problem in a war zone however.
As for the PR for GA, that is one bit where GA is notoriously inept about. Maybe because the usual GA crowd are of a more rational kind than those who hold grudges against GA and fight it. Most anti GA campaigns are run on a totally emotional level, stirring fears, envy, smear and hatred against GA and it’s proponents, while we are trying to counter that with rational arguments. Well, after close to 40 years in GA I have to say that trying to counter anti GA sentiment with rational arguments is not working, never has, never will, when dealing with religious anti GA people or even the general public. Rational arguments will occasionally work within the own industry, not always, but sometimes, eg with CAA’s or EASA (see GA roadmap). It won’t work at all with airport bords or anti noise leagues and similar folks and it will be torn to bits in the general population by “commentators” and others in newspapers and so on.
I recall a very frustrating event many years ago, where local aeroclubs, AOPA and others prepared a very good and rational presentation about the usefulness of GA to be held before the bord of one of Switzerland’s larger airports, who was (and is) looking to ban GA. They held a very passionate and rationally totally sound presentation for over an hour before the bord, after which the airport director stood up, thanked politely and answered the whole effort with one sentence: “GA has no place on this airport. Thank you gentlemen, have a nice evening”. and walked out, followed by the bord.
Hence such charities will do a lot for GA with the general public, often more than carefully planned and executed rational campaigns. Be it charitable trips, be it RTW flights, be it large organisations like the “Angel flights” in the US, which btw I find a very good thing, do a lot more for general perception than years of lobbying and attempts to convince opponents of the usefullness of GA. Even opponents have a hard time badmouthing this, negative comments go mostly unheard. To try to rationalize arguments against militant GA opponents is about as rational as trying to convince a lion to become vegan.
Ever since that, it has been clear to me that unless you are capable of emotionally conducted campaigns, you might as well leave them. If you can do those using rational arguments rather than ballant lies like most opponents do, so much the better, but it has to appeal to the emotional side. That is how 99% of advertizing and PR works, that is also how people like Putin or Trump keep their followership happy. If they loose the emotional side, they are toast.
Looking at this war, why do you think that a large part or Russians is totally convinced Putin is right? Rational discussion? Those folks have long gone against Putin, a large part of them is in prison or otherwise silenced. Rational? Nope. The same goes for Putin’s constant nuke threats. They are aimed purely at the emotional level to scare the living daylights out of everyone which, as we can see, works just fine for him. And looking at the Ukrainian leadership, they are absolutely masterful in rising emotions in their favour. In the end it may well be that this war will be won or lost on that level as well, in fact I regard this as very likely.
So maybe GA should try to do more of those things and throw the rationale out of the window if it makes GA look good. Maybe it is a sign of how much GA has suffered from anti GA propaganda if we keep trying to rationalize it. People who do that often suffer from hidden guilt feelings they are trying to suppress by convincing themselves that it is a good thing we are doing. Hell… if we need convincing then who wonders that the Anti crowd has become stronger and stronger.
Mooney_Driver wrote:
Most anti GA campaigns are run on a totally emotional level, stirring fears, envy, smear and hatred against GA and it’s proponents, while we are trying to counter that with rational arguments. Well, after close to 40 years in GA I have to say that trying to counter anti GA sentiment with rational arguments is not working, never has, never will, when dealing with religious anti GA people or even the general public.
I must share this message (translated) that my club got last week. (It is actually on topic as the war is mentioned.) It shows very well what Mooney_Driver is talking about. The person in question complains regularly. We have been to their house and our aircraft are barely audible so obviously this is about something else than noise.
Hi,
I would like to file a complaint about the noise levels during the Walpurgis weekend. Gliders were pulled up both on Saturday and Sunday on an assembly line without us residents being given any opportunity for silence. Despite repeated dialogue with you, the “hanging” in the air over XXX continues even though you have said that people should leave and not stay in the airspace around the airport unnecessarily. There is a winch in YYY, the least we can ask is that this activity ceases here as long as there is no winch. YYY is only 90 km away, there are good buses if you have to glide.
It feels terribly decadent in these times of war and climate change to devote oneself to this hobby. Every day I explain to my children that we must be in solidarity with Ukraine and drive as little as possible, etc., because donating money is not enough, it is typical middle class who do not want to look after their own house and happily continue to fill Putin’s pockets with their other hand. Then therefore I find it hard to see how one can be so ignorant of the situation and just continue as if this problem does not exist.It is not only you who think so of course but it is a typical symptom in this age of wealth and self-fulfillment above all.
Greetings ZZZ in XXX
Translated from Swedish with www.deepl.com, which is amazingly good. I have not changed anything except anonymising names and places. Even incorrect Swedish grammar has been reasonably translated into incorrect English grammar!
Note: Our airport can’t use winch launching of gliders as the runway is too short.
Peter wrote:
They are finally getting this – from the US mostly, while much of Europe is “debating” the ethics
It’s a list here.
Seems to me they are getting 155mm from all over Europe. There are lots going on behind the scenes also, and lots of it is not known before well after it has been delivered. That’s the Norwegian policy at least. A bit odd they want all this artillery, or perhaps not? hmm.
It’s because Russia’s method is just to shell places from afar – something approaching max artillery range. They have almost zero capability to mount any sort of conventional advance with infantry and/or armour, so they just shell places until there is absolutely nothing left and then walk in at their leisure.
To counter this strategy, Ukraine needs the ability to similarly shell Russian military positions from afar.
Staying at the practical level, I think getting all types of weapons and ammunition from all around the world must be a logistics nightmare.
if we need convincing then who wonders that the Anti crowd has become stronger and stronger.
We could do a EuroGA delivery fly-out to Poland.
However, since – post CV19, and with so many old regulars having sold up and bought boats, etc – it is nearly impossible to organise even one to La Rochelle despite initial interest, I would not rate the chances.
Then therefore I find it hard to see how one can be so ignorant of the situation and just continue as if this problem does not exist.It is not only you who think so of course but it is a typical symptom in this age of wealth and self-fulfillment above all.
This is a non left wing POV but I would remind the writer that robbing the rich has never made much (or more likely any) difference to the poor It does remain a hugely fashionable champagne socialist position though.
I will always remember, when Nigel Lawson dropped the top rate of income tax to 40% (1980s; a legendary and very successful move) my then company’s accountant telling me with a completely straight face that he thinks this is immoral (while counting his roughly trebled takehome pay under the table)
It’s because Russia’s method is just to shell places from afar
Russia has always understood only one thing: muscle. That’s why they shell mostly civilians, especially low hanging fruit (high rise blocks, requiring a gunner IQ of at least 20) with the mentality of a school boy shooting cats with a catapult.
Ukraine needs the ability to similarly shell Russian military positions from afar.
Ukraine finally got it, with the 155mm hardware, mostly from the US. This out-reaches the Russian stuff by at least 5km, which is critical. The situation there has thus improved quite significantly, although the media has not yet picked up on it. Russia obviously does not publish anything resembling the truth (about this or anything else ever, for that matter) and Ukraine is publishing only their victories which currently stand at
where the most notable number is the +400 at the top, which is roughly a doubling from previous numbers so there is some “really big stuff” happening. Probably Russia is also chucking soldiers at the Ukrainian defences because tomorrow is 9th May. However Ukraine is also notably avoiding publishing successes due to Western supplied hardware (for obvious political/provocation reasons) so e.g. nearly all tank hit videos are either Stugna-P (impressive enough) or mines. Successes due to the US 155mm, especially the GPS/INS $100k Excalibur shells (which are bound to make a dramatic difference but only in the last day or two), Javelin or Starstreak are not in the videos. Lots of Turkish drone videos, because Turkey is not so provocative (Russia won’t touch Turkey).
I think getting all types of weapons and ammunition from all around the world must be a logistics nightmare.
I am sure, yes, except 155mm NATO which is compatible with the artillery.
A lot of stuff “given” to Ukraine (much of which is “given but not actually shipped” due to delaying tactics in certain countries) is old junk from the 1970s which will just waste more Ukrainian soldiers. The really decisive stuff is few and far between, with US being #1 by a huge margin. History of war is history of technology, and history repeats itself…
@Peter, I once (over 20 years ago) had reason to meet with the designer of the M198 155-mm howitzer at Rock Island Arsenal. I’ve forgotten his name but a colleague at the time called him the ‘Corn Fox’ because he was a smart guy located in the corn fields of the Midwest. I don’t know if he was involved in development of the newer UK (Vickers VSEL) designed M777, which is apparently what’s been sent to the Ukraine, but I would imagine so in some capacity. It was in development for the US Army at about the time I met him.
The same colleague was BTW enamored with the 122-mm Russian D-30, which is in current use on both sides. He had a few of them in his custody at the time. I notice that the US has given the Ukrainians more of those too and suspect my then-contact was responsible for the US having collected and saved them.
