349:. Ahunt was a pilot for 31 years and is still an aviation journalist. He laughs, “So I have good access to refs. I have tens of thousands of arcraft photos which I’m slowly uploading to illustrate articles." SidewinderX admits that his background influenced him to join the project, as he is an aerospace engineer. He sees working on Knowledge (XXG) articles as a way to keep up with his field. With the added advantage of helping out others of course! Bzuk’s first contributions were entirely self-serving as an article on VC winner Andrew Mynarski needed some work, but since then, he has dabbled in a number of other interest areas including automobiles, films and current events. He's a librarian (35+ years), writer (10 books on aviation and counting), filmmaker (13 films as screenwriter, technical consultant and director, mostly aviation documentaries), historian (of sorts) and is actively involved in the aviation industry as an executive director of an industry trade association (at least till August 2010).
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editor with an interest can jump in and start expanding or creating the 1000s of articles that are stubs or nonexistent. I also think it would be great to get some non-technical editors to read through some of our more technical articles and help us make them more accessible to all readers. Bzuk adds that the
Aviation WikiProject does need to encourage and support newcomers who can help to expand the small group of dedicated editors, since the task of chronicling the story of aviation is extremely vast.
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result in articles that are of lower quality. He thinks that instead of these articles being the project’s greatest achievements, what are really important are the level of coverage they currently have and the great working relationships they have on the project. Mjroots, SidewinderX and Bzuk, on the other hand, all have stories to tell. Mjroots was responsible for the major expansion and promotion to GA status of
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article promoted to FA. He admits that it’s rewarding to have accomplished that although he feels that they could have got 5 articles to high B-class level, which, he says, ultimately seems more useful for the community. Bzuk has actively contributed to most, if not all, of the FA and GA projects. He
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When asked how a new editor can help the project they all chime in with ideas. Ahunt points out that, because the project is so large, an editor can help by working in any areas where they have knowledge or interest and especially that they have references for. SidewinderX furthers this saying, “Any
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Aviation and air travel are a large project scope and the interviewees all deal with the vandalism level this brings in different ways. Mjroots is an
Administrator so has access to tools and options such as warnings, protection and banning. Overall, he feels that the level of vandalism is not overly
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attempts to resolve, but not always successfully. SidewinderX and Ahunt both agreed saying that there are many subjects, such as aircraft that still don’t have articles. In five years they’ve gone a long way, but there’s still a long way to go. Bzuk made a completely different point saying: I noted
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much better than
Chinese plane ABC. It helps to be able to step back, fix the vandalism and hope the vandals get bored and move on. Bzuk backs up Mjroot’s point: “The aviation topic does not attract the great unwashed but most of the vandalism is concentrated on the high risk subjects such as POV
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With the end of the interview in sight I ask the guys if there is anything they want to say before their "ten minutes of fame" are over. As before they all want to get in first. Ahunt and
SidewinderX both agree that the project needs more interested editors with a fresh point of view on subjects.
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The new rules on BLPs haven’t really affected the project in any way, with Ahunt not working on them and
SidewinderX not actually knowing what they mean. Bzuk feels that they’re not much of a concern: ”This issue is not so much a concern in a topic area dominated by “nuts and bolts” I mean, the
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When onto the subject of
Featured and Good articles/lists and whether they have been the project's best achievments, all have been involved in the promotion of at least one, apart from Ahunt who says that, in some cases, he has seen the relentless pursuit of these under their rigid rule sets,
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in its latest reincarnation show the opposite with one editor dominating rather than working as part of a team. He feels strongly that the greatest achievements in the project are the coming together of experts in the field from all over the globe and yet being able to blend that diverse group
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high. Ahunt’s method is simple but effective: long watch lists he says, laughing. SidewinderX agrees; “Long watch lists and a sense of humor”, he nods. “Also,” he adds, “A lot of vandalism seems to be of the patriotic type for instance, Indian plane XYZ is
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joining in the middle of 2006. When asked what the biggest problem has faced the project since they joined, they shout out different answers; Mjroots said that, one area of disagreement is what constitutes a notable aircraft accident, something which
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Bzuk makes a similar point, saying that contributors who have an interest in a particularly specialized subject area can be a means of introducing the newbie to the benefits and rich rewards of working with a group of like-minded souls.
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that the group of aviation articles that I read had widely divergent writing styles and reference notes. Although that is the inevitable result of a "too many cooks" syndrome, it appears to be getting better.
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Off the coast of Pusan, South Korea: An F/A-18 Hornet assigned to Strike
Fighter Squadron One Five One (VFA-151) breaks the sound barrier in the skies over the Pacific Ocean.
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says that if there is an agreement to work in a collaborative manner there is a great reward. He also notes that the efforts devoted to
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Mjroots was inspired to join the project mainly due to his interest in civil aviation and aircraft accidents. He is also an occasional
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The interviewees' goals for the project all vary greatly. Mjroots’ is to create more aircrash articles and finish off
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does tend to crop up, and one ever watchful editor in the US has been relentless in a pruning of the "vanity press".
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Nice job. Good selection on the pictures; I especially like the sound barrier one. Also, quite a "full" interview.
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Steve Hinton flies "Glacier Girl," a P-38 Lightning dug out from 268 feet of ice in eastern
Greenland in 1992.
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I've changed the title to "Chocks away with WikiProject
Aviation". Oh, and Mono, is "full" good? Thanks,
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Submit your project's news and announcements for next week's WikiProject Report at the
Signpost's
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articles), as well as some of the high profile articles that recently lowered in quality, like
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A B-2 Spirit soars after a refueling mission over the Pacific Ocean on Tuesday, May 30, 2006.
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in flight. Image taken during an air show at Langley Air Force Base, in Virginia (USA).
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to uncover the hidden workings of this project which covers over 42,500 articles.
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1786 description of the historic Montgolfier Brothers' 1783 balloon flight.
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where users can request a motto that they "live by" on Knowledge (XXG)
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Casting off is what boats and ships do, airplanes take off.
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List of accidents and incidents involving the Douglas DC-3
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Supermarine Spitfire XVI at Duxford, September 2006.
636:If your comment has not appeared here, you can try
458:. Until then, feel free to burn some rubber in the
318:joined the project in late 2007/early 2008, with
408:Island or in rewriting history in attacking the
391:together into a cohesive "band of brothers."
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364:RAN Squirrel Helicopter at the Melbourne GP.
821:Knowledge (XXG) Signpost archives 2010-08
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18:Knowledge (XXG):Knowledge (XXG) Signpost
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454:Next week, the Report will wave the
68:Chocks away for WikiProject Aviation
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443:articles here...". He laughs. “But
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234:First successful flight of the
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506:President of the United States
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750:18:07, 13 August 2010 (UTC)
723:17:53, 13 August 2010 (UTC)
695:02:08, 10 August 2010 (UTC)
669:00:36, 10 August 2010 (UTC)
258:This week we hung out with
214:Belarusian State University
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185:is looking for new members
194:project has opened up a
383:CFM International CFM56
324:joining in April 2005,
629:. To follow comments,
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532:"WikiProject report" →
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182:WikiProject Disability
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625:from this article's
524:"WikiProject report"
260:WikiProject Aviation
591:Features and admins
616:Discuss this story
596:Arbitration report
586:WikiProject report
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406:Gardner/Nikumaroro
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208:Cornell University
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65:WikiProject report
42:← Back to Contents
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640:purging the cache
601:Technology report
47:View Latest Issue
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763:Want the latest
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274:. We chatted to
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191:Motto of the Day
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171:WikiProject news
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510:Mount Rushmore
508:, flying over
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553:9 August 2010
547:In this issue
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502:Air Force One
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802:Suggestions
770:each month?
718:(Review me)
623:transcluded
576:Admin stats
571:In the news
339:WP:AIRCRASH
327:SidewinderX
284:SidewinderX
429:Jet engine
244:Kitty Hawk
196:Motto Shop
79:Share this
74:Contribute
22:2010-08-09
796:Subscribe
627:talk page
421:Combustor
238:, by the
151:Rock drum
815:Category
791:Newsroom
786:Archives
765:Signpost
522:Previous
433:Turbofan
388:Concorde
272:a Portal
121:LinkedIn
101:Facebook
20: |
460:archive
397:soooooo
315:Mjroots
276:Mjroots
111:Twitter
710:Ba-dum
131:Reddit
91:E-mail
781:About
683:levse
321:Ahunt
280:Ahunt
266:, 52
16:<
776:Home
705:drum
702:Rock
689:Talk
530:Next
431:and
423:and
333:Bzuk
288:Bzuk
286:and
211:and
205:are
188:The
141:Digg
743:ono
663:ono
445:COI
347:SLF
268:FAs
264:GAs
149:By
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692:•
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520:←
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297:A
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