On-line magazines, discussion groups, products and services aimed specifically at the aviation community are easily found on the Internet. An AOPA survey in the U.S. indicates that nearly seven out of ten members own a home computer and more than two thirds of these owners are capable of connecting to the Internet. While these figures are for American GA pilots, the percentages generally follow here in Canada. There are many facets to the Internet. The two elements of primary interest are electronic mail connections and the World Wide Web.
Email opens up tremendous opportunities to save in long-distance communication costs.
For a small fraction of the cost of postage, messages can be sent around the globe virtually instantaneously. Unfortunately, operator assistance is not available and mailing lists are hard to come by, but with time you will accumulate enough addresses to significantly lower your long-distance telephone bills. You do not require a computer to be posted to the Web. Many Internet service providers will post brochures and information on their Web server for about the same cost as a full service connection. The only significant expense is in the development and maintenance of the information you put out there.