Bill Stack's Blogs

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I'm Back

I've been overwhelmed with work the last few years, mostly because of my seven-year leadership of my community association (which I participated in founding) and the resulting demand on my time and energies. I used to make their newsletter every month and participate in many meetings in the community and at government such as City Council, Police, and Engineering Departments. Now that I've turned that over to a successor, I have a remarkable amount of time to devote to my business and flight simming.

With my newly found "free" time, I've written another book, Glass Simming: The Garmin 1000, and I've made and uploaded some checklists, reference sheets, and a how-to article to flight-sim sites.

Internet Security

Staying ahead of internet scammers and spammers is not possible, so the best we can do is keep up with them and respond to their latest offenses.

As a result of spammers that harvested our e-mail addresses years ago when the internet was a simpler and more friendly place, our e-mail boxes got jammed with literally thousands of spams every day. We had to change our e-mail addresses, stop using the old ones, and restrict dissemination of our addresses.

And because of bots that automatically fill and send internet e-mail forms, we had to revise our forms and restrict their uses. Those bots would fill our inboxes with rubbish about everything imaginable, all in the formats from our e-mail forms.

Consequently, we are not as accessible as we would like to be, but we can still be contacted. Please use our contact form to send information or ask questions.

One Book for All? No Way!

A lot of flight simmers, including some book reviewers who should know better, think I should write one book that covers everything about flight simming, and they criticize me for offering books that don't cover everything.

I'm sorry, and I don't mean to demean anybody, but these people don't know what they're talking about!

My six flight-sim books total more than 1,000 pages and are filled with knowledge, but they don't cover everything there is to know about flight simming. They focus on how to simulate flight realistically. There's probably as much knowledge about making scenery and aircraft and panels than there is in all six of my books, not to mention everything about how the computer game operates and on and on.

A simple scan of topics in the flight-sim forums will show anybody that there are many facets to flight simming with a deep wealth of knowledge. Surf the flight-sim websites and peruse the flight-sim magazines for more variety of information. One magazine editor told me that he had never published the same topic twice in 10+ years of his magazine.

If anybody were to attempt to write one book covering every bit of knowledge about flight simming, we would need a hydraulic machine to lift it!

Besides, people learn in morsels, not all at once. Did any of these people learn everything about life in one class? Did they get their diplomas and degrees by taking one class that covered everything? Of course not!

For novices to seek one book about flight simming is forgivable. They simply don't how involved this hobby is. But for product reviewers writing for respectable magazines to criticize my books because they are not "definitive" is utter nonsense.

So let's push back the aircraft a little bit, take a deep breath, and get a reality check. When it comes to flight-sim knowledge, one book will never cover it all. Expecting such an impossible thing doesn't make me or my books wrong. It just exposes people who don't know what they're talking about. People who need more knowledge.

News Item: Internet Scams Cost Consumers Millions

This isn't an actual headline but one that reflects stories frequently reported by the news media.

Let's have some facts: First off, more than 75 percent of internet scams involve online auctions in which unscrupulous traders cheat their trusting customers. Another common source of these scams is e-mail "phishing" in which gullible consumers are unscrupulously lured into providing their private financial data. Neither of these common scams is committed by legitimate online businesses such as mine.

Now let's talk about who's really victimized by legitimate online businesses. The truth is that online businesses are the major victims. They lose to unscrupulous "customers" who use stolen credit cards to purchase products illegally. When the owners of the stolen credit cards receive their monthly statements, they complain to their credit-card companies, which in turn back charge the victimized business.

Another loss often reported by internet victims is purchased products that never arrive. Our experience reveals quite a lot about these losses. The amount and frequency of inaccurate information we receive from customers is shocking. We get wrong addresses, wrong credit-card numbers, and even misspelled personal names, all resulting from carelessness and an unwillingness to recheck information before submitting orders. In one month recently, more than half the orders we received contained inaccurate information that delayed orders or incurred additional charges by shippers. We verify as much information as we can, but we have no choice but to rely on most of the information provided by customers. But whenever parcels disappear or take weeks instead of days to arrive, it's always the merchant's fault. The damages these merchants unfairly suffer to their business reputations is also shocking.

Let's have a frank discussion of personal responsibility. Anybody who can't be bothered to recheck data when placing intgernet orders is asking for problems. Everyone makes mistakes, even customers on the Internet. Rechecking data takes a few seconds. Sending incorrect data costs days or weeks of delivery time.

So when you buy online from legitimate businesses like mine, do your part and be sure the information you provide is accurate and contact the merchant if you have any problems.

Can't Do an ILS

"I have tried to do a ILS and localizer approaches," a flight simmer tells us in an e-mail. "I chase the VOR1 needle. I do that every time and its a habit that I have tried to break time and time again . . ."

We frequently get such e-mails from flight simmers trying to start at the advanced level without knowing the basics. I suspect that this simmer is either approaching the runway too fast to adjust heading and pitch smoothly, or more likely, he's trying to learn instrument procedures in a jet (too fast and too heavy for beginners). I realize that starting at the beginning and building one skill on another the way real-world pilots do is too much trouble for some simmers. But the frustration exhibited in this e-mail is the typical result of such impetuousness.

Opportunism or Enterprise?

An anonymous writer recently sent a snide and insulting e-mail attacking my books and me personally:

"What do you call a business consultant/writer/opportunist?" he asks rhetorically. "Bill Stack!" is his answer. Then he launched a personal attack against me, snickering at my master's degree, flight training, and so forth.

Whenever you do anything publicly, like writing books and operating web businesses, you can expect criticism and attacks. I've learned to heed legitimate critiques meant to be helpful and ignore personal attacks that are meant only to make the attackers feel better.

This attacker, who is offended by my writing books and selling them for money on the Internet, is apparently one of those naive people who thinks everything on the Internet should be free of charge without considering that many costs must be borne to make the Internet available to users such as him. Does he think I spend all that time writing books for my health? I don't. It's part of how I earn my living. Does he think my tech editors and proofreaders edit and proofread my books for free? They don't. It's part of how they earn their livings. Does he think the printing company prints my books for free? No way. Does he think DHL and FedEx ship my books to customers free of charge? It doesn't happen. Does he think my internet service provider provides my internet connection and web hosting free of charge? They charge a lot of money for it. You see, this person who thinks I should pay all that money out of my own pocket then give him the fruits of my labors is a greedy taker one who gives nothing to society but criticism and sarcasm.

Then he faults my writing books in the first place, opining that people learn by doing. "You can interpret my dismay," he writes. He's partly correct and grossly wrong. People do learn by doing. But how do they know what to do so they can learn by doing it? They learn it from books and instructors. My books are self-helpers, because readers rely totally on the books without benefit of instructors present. Book stores and library shelves are filled with self-help books. The genre is very popular.

Here's a bit of wisdom for small thinkers such as this attacker. Like all authors, I write my books for people who want the knowledge they gain from reading them. My readers express great appreciation for my books. I don't write books for illiterates who think they can learn enough about anything without books. And I have no regard for anybody who sits at a computer and anonymously attacks people who do and accomplish things.

Internet Integrity: Everyone isn't a crook

I won't deny that thieves lurk on the Internet and that some people get ripped off by those thieves. But I vehemently deny being among them.

I'm an honest, legitimate businessman using the Internet to earn my living. I've been a management consultant to government agencies and private corporations since 1987. Flight simming is my hobby, and I legitimately supplement my income by writing and selling books and articles. I'm also a community association president, a voting precinct chairman, and a neighborhood watch captain. Simply stated, I'm an upstanding citizen and businessman who believes that true success in life comes from being honest and giving to the community but not from cheating people.

Yet the number of accusations I get from people over the Internet is distressing. Granted those people don't know me personally, but that doesn't make me dishonest. People accuse me of ripping them off for charging money for my books, as though the entire world should be free to them and people like me should find some other way to earn their livings. They accuse me of ripping them off if their parcels don't arrive on time, even though we process and ship orders immediately and have shipping receipts and tracking numbers to prove it. They don't hesitate to post accusations on Internet forums and newsgroups or to call their credit card companies before giving us a fair opportunity to check out their problem and determine what happened.

One guy generated a flurry of accusing forum posts after saying he had not received the books he had ordered from us. He never mentioned that he lived on a remote South Pacific island. He said he had tried unsuccessfully to contact us, but we never received any contacts from him. Fortunately a friend alerted me to his accusatory posts, thus giving me an opportunity to respond. I stated for the record in that forum that we had legitimately shipped his order timely and we had shipping receipts to prove it. I also revealed that he was in a remote location that takes time for postal services to reach. Alas, he said he had received the parcel that day. Good. I'm glad. But his approach to problem solving tarnished my fine reputation for no good reason at all.

Another customer left me several nasty voice-mail messages one day insisting that he never received his parcel and threatening to report me to authorities. A simple check of his tracking number, which we had provided to him through a routine e-mail confirmation, revealed that the receptionist at his office had signed for it more than a week prior. That was the last I heard from him. Not even an apology.

Customers who don't want to take a couple of seconds to verify their data before sending their online orders create problems for themselves, too. We verify every address, phone number and credit-card number to the extent possible. When the data don't match or we can't verify them, we must contact the customer for clarification. It takes time and delays their orders.

For customers who are skittish about the Internet, we offer telephone, fax, and mail ordering options. But don't you think people should write legibly on their faxes and speak clearly into the phones? Contacting them for verification delays their orders. In some cases, we have no alternative but to wait days or weeks for their followup e-mails or phone calls. In the meantime, they think we ripped them off.

Conversely, we have been ripped off by Internet thieves a number of times. Now we're more careful. If the credit-card numbers don't work or if the verifications don't match, we contact the customers for clarification or we don't ship the orders. In several instances, we never heard from the "customer" again, which we interpret as very suspicious. One customer told us by phone that he had left "his" credit card at home and would call us back with the number. That was the last we heard from him.

While I do understand why some people are skittish about the Internet, there's no reason to distrust me or TopSkills or to accuse us of wrongdoing. It's unbecoming, it unjustifiably harms us, and it does nothing to help anybody.

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Where to Start: The Logical Order of Flight Simming

A common question from flight simmers is "Which of your books should I start with?"

The answer is simple: Start where you left off. If you're a new flight simmer with little if any knowledge, then start with my Flight-Sim Maneuvers and learn how to fly the aircraft first. If you already know how to fly but not how to navigate, then start with my Flight-Sim Navigation. And so forth and so on.

A major and common mistake is to start with the heavy jets because you want to be a big, tough guy even though you don't know how to fly, how to navigate, or how to fly even a small aircraft on instruments. Just read the newsgroups for examples of such simmers. The questions they ask betray novices attempting the advanced challenges without requisite fundamental knowledge. It's a great way to fail, frustrate yourself, develop a bad attitude about flight simming, and diminish your self-esteem.

Here's the logical order of my books. Click on the links for details.

Ridiculous Things Book Reviewers Have Written

Part of being an author is accepting criticism from book reviewers. I fully recognize and appreciate the service that product reviewers provide to producers and consumers alike. But some product reviewers make inappropriate, incorrect, and sometimes ridiculous statements that don't help consumers and harm producers needlessly. So here are my defenses to inappropriate and insupportable criticisms from reviewers of my books.

"The books are written for newbies."

Of course they are! All books are written for people who don't yet have that information. No sane writer would write a book for people who already knew the information, and no sane publisher would market a book to an audience that didn't need it. Flight simmers who already know all the facts, techniques, and skills explained in my books do not need to buy them, do they? To criticize a book on this basis is absurd.

"The book doesn't explain anything I didn't already know."

This is a version of the previous silly remark but from a different reviewer. My books explain literally tens of thousands of facts about aviation and flight simming. They are not meant for people who already know all those tens of thousands of facts. People who already knows those tens of thousands of facts are not targeted readers for my books. I question the judgment of anybody who would buy a book that explains tens of thousands of facts they already knew, wouldn't you? Give me a break!

"Graphics are not in color."

Two considerations: First, color graphics add tremendously to the cost of producing books, but they would not add commensurate value to my books in my opinion. Second, my books are technical manuals for intellectual people who seek knowledge. Accordingly, the graphics in my books are designed to convey knowledge quickly and accurately to people with the mental capacity to acquire and process it. I do not write and publish parlor-table books full of colorful pictures for gawking at, and my graphics are not intended to bedazzle the feeble minded.

""The book is littered with grammatical errors." and "The book reads like it was written by someone who speaks English as a second language."

This snide remark offended, annoyed, and then infuriated me in that order. Being born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, I speak English as a first language. Moreover, I have a bachelor's degree in English. More than that, I teach business writing courses to professionals in the work place. I have received innumerable accolades from readers who appreciate my clear, straightforward writing style. So after reading this reviewer's opinion, I personally reread the entire book from cover to cover, and I paid two other professionals (one a pilot, the other an English professor at a local college) to proofread the book. Among the three of us, we found a total of five minor typographical errors out of 45,000 words.

The reviewer who proffered this demeaning, self-serving remark was from another English-speaking country where idioms and phraseologies differ somewhat from ours. We might find some of his constructions unusual, too. That doesn't mean that either of us speaks English as a second language. I don't understand why reviewers can't review a product fairly without making snide remarks that do nothing to help consumers but do a lot to harm writers and merchants.

"This and that are not covered in the book."

In 99.99 percent of the cases, all the facts the reviewers thought should have been in the book were explained in my other books. For example, a reviewer criticized my Flight-Sim Navigation for not explaining instrument approach systems. Well, those are explained in my Instrument Flying for Flight-Sim Pilots where they logically belong. Although reading IFR charts is a form of navigation, it is a specific form related to IFR flight, not navigation in general. Besides, pilots and flight simmers need to know basic navigation methods before attempting instrument flight and navigation. It's just common sense to learn one skill before another in logical order.

"The books don't contain charts."

My books aren't supposed to contain charts. They're instructional manuals. Moreover, none of our advertising materials say the books contain charts. If reviewers want charts, they should buy books that say they contain charts.

"The book doesn't explain how to use Microsoft Flight Simulator"

My books apply to all flight-sim games, not any in particular, and I say that on my web site. I modeled my Jet Simming on the jets in Microsoft Flight Simulator because it is the most popular flight-sim program by a large margin. Other simmers need to adapt my explanations to their specific simulators. That's reasonable. No writer can write a single book that explains how to fly every available aircraft, and expecting such a book is naive and unrealistic.

"The book isn't definitive about flight simming."

There is no such thing! No book could explain everything about flight simming and still be of a practical size and price. That's why I divide my books into logical topics such as navigation, instrument flying and jet simming. When those reviewers went to high school or college, did they take one course about everything or did they take numerous courses about specific subjects? My guess is that the latter applies, so I really don't understand why they think everything about flight simming should be in one book. Maybe reviewers who make such criticisms are too naive to know how much copious knowledge they're talking about.

My Final Comments on Book Reviews

I appreciate all the good things reviewers have written about my books, which are too numerous to detail here. In summary, they like the content, logical organization, and clear writing style. It's only a few unprofessional people who lack a clear understanding of their missions, duties, and impacts as product reviewers.

— Bill Stack

International Shipping Rates Are Worthwhile

Those of our international customers who balk at our international shipping rates need to consider all the facts.

First, shipping charges are set by the shippers, not by us.

Second, shipping charges are set by weight, not by value of the contents. If you put a $1 bill in one envelope and a $100 bill in another envelope, the postage would be the same. Conversely, if you put 10 pounds of rocks in one box and 10 pounds of gold in another box, the shipping rates would be the same. So if you put a $10 book in one box and a $75 computer program in another box, the postage would be more for the book and less for the higher priced CD because the book weighs more than the CD.

Third, alternatives should be considered. One is the risk of losing the product because cheap "parcel-post" shipping methods were selected to save money. It's best to pay a little extra for reliable shipping methods with tracking services. Another alternative is not benefitting the product at all just because you think the shipping rate is too high. That makes no sense.

No Offense!

No offense is meant by any of these blogs. I'm just explaining and clarifying some facts and dispelling some common misunderstandings. If offense were intended, it would be obvious!

— Bill Stack