I completely agree with John Benario’s comments about the foul language in the LZ. It gets pretty tiresome. I also will not bring family members to the LZ. I can and do swear with the best of you all but I do try to be aware of who the unintended audience might be. I think that you all and I can mange our mouths well enough to let our LZ be family friendly.

I think we need to ask ourselves what type of people take up HG or PG as a hobby and hang out in the LZ. They’re the kind willing to push their boundaries to the limits, the kind that get super stoked after a flight, the kind that enjoy a cold beer after a day of flying, and sometimes the kind that will scream at you at the top of their lungs, because you didn’t land where they wanted you to land. It’s an emotionally-charged place. If we tried to make the LZ a quiet and proper place, we’d have to kick a third of our membership to the curb. Even the quiet ones have had their moments.

It’s probably fair to say that most of us do our best to watch our language if we see young kids around (which doesn’t happen very often at the LZ), but since most of the time we’re surrounded by adults, we might let a word slip here and there, because that’s part of our ‘normal’ in this environment. Maybe I’m wrong, but if I were to guess, other LZs with our size of membership probably experience the same occasional emotional turmoil and drama.

I don’t like censorship. If I don’t like the way someone handles a conversation, I don’t engage them, because I can already guess how it might go for me. All I can do is urge people to think before they speak or yell and try to figure out how to get the message across without placing the other person in impenetrable defense mode.