User talk:David FLXD

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Welcome!

Hello, David FLXD, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are some pages that you might find helpful:

I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your messages on discussion pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically insert your username and the date. If you need help, check out Wikipedia:Questions, ask me on my talk page, or ask your question on this page and then place {{helpme}} before the question. Again, welcome!

I have reversed the recent edits to the article on gliding. I know these were well intentioned but they did not add much. Sorry to deliver a 'brickbat' with the welcome, but I keep close control on the article to ensure that it explains gliding as clearly and concisely as possible.

The Discussion pages are for debate and so may contain all sorts of contentious ideas. The convention is that these are not edited so that everyone can see what was said. Additional comments are added to the foot of each section so that it can be read in chronological order. You notice that the article itself does not mention even the possibility of a glider colliding with an airliner (though it has happened). JMcC (talk) 09:58, 22 February 2008 (UTC)

OK, here is chapter & verse. "or bubbles" - I don't think bubbles actually helps describe thermals. They are quite long lasting upwards flows rather than large scale Perrier.

"The climb is as steep as it looks". This seems unnecessary (and a bit chatty for an encyclopaedia). I could annotate every picture with phrases like "the sea is a blue as it looks" or "the 747 is as big as it looks". The only comment worth making would be if it was different from the way it looked. The steepness of the rise is described in the text already.

"high-tensile steel wire". I could not see why the wire had to be described any further. Surely the reader would assume that the strength was sufficient for the purpose. Could I have written the opposite "low-tensile steel wire"? If not, "high tensile" is superfluous.

"this is important in cross-country competitions when flying into the wind since it allows better 'penetration'." Ballast is advantageous on many occasions, not just when flying into wind. I did not want to get into a discussion of the circumstances when ballast was most useful. It takes comp pilots years to work that one out.

I have reinstated "average" speed in case anyone thought it might be a momentary speed during the flight.

I hope that this helps to explain my thinking. We are a fairly pernickety lot I'm afraid. JMcC (talk) 16:16, 22 February 2008 (UTC)

OK if people think we use fencing wire, I will re-instate high-tensile. JMcC (talk) 18:17, 22 February 2008 (UTC)