Editor's Update

Hello everyone!

This should be a short article.  Much like the way Chad used to have the "Director's Updates" I thought it might be good for me to occasionally talk to the readers and authors to keep you up to date, recognize some noteworthy authors and articles, as well as make some requests of the community.

Excellent work!

First of all, congratulations!  I have seen a dramatic improvement in the article submissions.  Overall I have had a very positive response from the authors when I have requested they edit their work so that they meet the guidelines established for articles.  In addition to that I have noticed that I've had fewer submissions that didn't meet guidelines.  The reasons for not publishing are starting to be more for editorial corrections, or subtle alterations to improve already good content.

You might ask, "Where would I find these guidelines?"  I would answer, HERE!  

Bumpy Road.

It hasn't been a perfectly smooth transition and I appreciate your patience.  I am still learning all of the features of the Articles section, both the parts the readers and authors have access to, as well as the tools I need to use as moderator/editor.  I need to apologize to the people whose articles I deleted.  While clearing the backlog of articles, the ones that did not get published sat stacked up in the cue of other articles waiting to be reviewed.  It was difficult to filter through the new from the old.  I made notations on most of them, and if I didn't hear back from the authors, I deleted them.  It turns out there's a tool to allow me to post them back to your "drafts" folder.  I went through the deleted articles and sent the ones that only needed editing, back to you.

Recently I received some heated words from a community member that was angry with some of the changes.  Several of you had been granted automatic approval for your articles.  This meant that there was no review process.  You wrote, and you self published.  Many articles that did not meet the site's guidelines to slide through.  When this was removed, a few people were unhappy.  Again, I'd like to thank those of you who are working with me on this.  My goal is twofold.  I want to maintain the high quality of material that Flite Test has worked hard to deliver to the audience.  I also want to make having your article published something to be proud of.  The readers deserve it, and you deserve it.  When you finally present your article to the readers, they are getting a representation of the very best work you have to offer.

A request to the community.

Another point that was made is the number of similar topics being published at the same time.  It was suggested that Flite Test might be publishing only multirotor articles at the exclusion of all other subjects.  This is not the case.  The Flite Test crew is as diverse as the rest of us in their tastes in aircraft.  Josh Bixler is a fan of large balsa aircraft.  Eric does have a leaning towards multirotors.  Peter has a long history of experimenting with fixed wing tilt rotor designs.  Alex was brought on board after the crew destroyed his Ultra Micro electric foam plane.  Austin, according to his wife, doesn't like anything yet.  (Listen to the Wives edition of the After Hours podcast linked below.)  I personally love FPV, no matter what the platform it happens to be on.

So, that brings me to my request.  I want to hear from you.  What subjects would you like to see the authors write about?  I'd like to occasionally put out a quick editorial article asking community members for specific topics for the authors to write about.  There might be some very skilled authors that are looking for a topic, that they didn't know readers were interested in learning about.

You can contact me directly at flyingmonkey@flitetest.com or submit a comment to the thread I started.  Here's the link.  Articles Request Thread

Articles and Authors deserving attention.

*EDIT*  Any article that has made it to the readers is one that the authors put a lot of effort into getting past me.  That doesn't mean everyone is going to be perfect.  I am grading on a scale for each author, and expect a better article from them each time they submit one.  Let them (and me) know what you did and didn't like.  Use the review feature (the stars) and be honest.  Don't give a five star rating to an article that was poorly written, just because you liked the topic.  Likewise don't give a poor rating to a well written article, just because you didn't like the topic.  I can see who gave what ratings.  If I see the same person giving bad ratings to all of the articles, your account will be shut down.

Flight Club is the pen name for an author writing on behalf of students at Cascade High School in Turner Oregon.  David Medlock is representing the club by sharing their stories here in the articles section.  His most recent submission impressed me with the amount of improvement from the initial draft to the final product.  Check out his submission here.  Flight Club Fliest the Estrados.

Etegration's first article was an excellent review of the Immersion RC Xugong quadcopter.  It was a throrough and well thought out piece.  Find it here.  Building: Immersion RC Xugongs

evp tackled a topic that is often asked about, and that's how to modify, scale and reformat Flite Test plans.  You can read his tutorial on that here.  How to Modify, Scale, and Reformat FT Plans

dharkless continues to impress with yet another installment on his One Sheet No Waste series of articles with an interesting delta design.  Follow the link here.  Simple Fold Speed Delta

Not as short as I intended.

I didn't mean to get so long winded.  I guess there was more to share than I thought.  Hopefully you enjoyed this update.  If you'd like to see more, please comment below.  If you don't want to see more, well, when you see the title saying that it's an Editor's Update, don't read it. 

Thanks to all of the readers for your continued feedback that allows us to know which way to steer the ship.  There's always room for improvement, and the content here is for you.  So if there's something you'd like to see added, removed, or changed, let us know.  We don't know, unless you speak up.

I'd like to express a personal thank you to all of the authors who have been so patient with the changes I've been making.  Also thank you for the great submissions that are constantly arriving in the "Pending" folder.  I am far from an expert on anything in this hobby, and I learn something new with every article I review.  I think that this section is finally starting to live up to the original reason it was created.  The community has so much to share, and the Flite Test guys just can't cover it all.  One of the special things about the Flite Test crew is that they not only allow, but encourage each and every member to take advantage of the audience they've generated.  They want all of us to be able to get as much publicity as we can, as long as what we're promoting is good for the community.  

It's been fun writing, this, I'll see you at the next Editors Update.