r/flying rules, stats, and what to post

r/flying is a community for discussion among pilots, students, instructors and aviation professionals. The rules say it is meant for things like pilot training, regulations, procedures, techniques, aircraft ownership and maintenance, and piloting as a career. It is a working room, not a fan room. Aviation enthusiast content is redirected to r/aviation, flight simulation goes to r/flightsim, and passenger travel questions go to r/travel. The people posting here fly, teach flying, maintain aircraft, or are working toward a pilot career, so they expect posts that speak to that experience.

The rule that decides most marketing outcomes is “Self Promotion”, which bans self-promotion of social media accounts, blogs, or free tools you made outside the officially designated self-promotion post on Saturday. Then there is “No commercial posts”, which says do not post a link to your business website or app, do not solicit customers or students, and run anything involving an exchange of goods or services for money by the mods first. “Post something that you would like to discuss!” requires a relevant top-level comment if you post only a photo, video, or link, and a direct question in the title can satisfy it. “No memes, deliberately low quality, or AI posts.” gets anything that looks AI-generated removed at a glance. “Cite sources when appropriate” requires messaging the mods before an academic survey and bans commercial surveys outright. “Keep it relevant to pilots” sends enthusiast content to r/aviation and flight sim content to r/flightsim. Finally, “The moderators have the final say in disputes” notes that self-promotional posts from frequent contributors may be allowed at the mod team's discretion, which is the only softening in the whole rulebook.

A good post here is a genuine discussion starter about pilot training, regulations, procedures, techniques, aircraft ownership and maintenance, or piloting as a career. If you post a link, photo, or video, add a relevant top-level comment to start the conversation, or ask a direct question in the title that does the same job. If you have built a free tool or resource for pilots, the only door is the officially designated self-promotion post on Saturday, so save it for then. If you want to run an academic survey, message the mods first, and know that commercial surveys are not allowed at all. If your post involves exchanging goods or services for money and is not clearly covered by the rules, run it by the mods before posting. Participate as a person with real aviation knowledge, not as a brand, and check your ego at the door as the rules ask.

The fastest removals come from “No commercial posts”, so never link your business website or app, never solicit customers or students, and never post donation requests. Do not promote your social media, blog, or free tools outside the Saturday self-promotion post, because “Self Promotion” bans that. Do not post a photo, video, or link without adding a relevant top-level comment, since “Post something that you would like to discuss!” requires it. Do not post anything that looks AI-generated, because “No memes, deliberately low quality, or AI posts.” says it will be removed. Do not run a survey without messaging the mods first, and never run a commercial survey at all, per “Cite sources when appropriate”. Do not post enthusiast content or flight sim content, because “Keep it relevant to pilots” sends those to r/aviation and r/flightsim. And do not skip the FAQ, because rule 1 says repetitive questions like how do I become a pilot have been answered many times.

The Saturday-only self-promotion window is the strictest version of that pattern I have seen written into a rule, so if you build anything for pilots, plan your whole month around one thread. I also like that the mods spell out where off-topic content belongs, like r/aviation and r/flightsim, because it tells you exactly where to go instead. And the rule that a photo or link needs a discussion comment is a good reminder that this room wants conversation, not content.