Talk:Helicopter Pilotage

No substitute for the real thing[edit]

As anyone who has learned to fly rotorcraft will attest, this Wikipedia article is no substitute for instruction by a qualified teacher and lots of practice in real aircraft. Quicksilver 18:36, 4 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I completely agree. Many people have asked me if helicopters are harder to fly than fixed wing aircraft. I try to be respectful and just say it generally takes longer to learn to fly helicopters. This is a vast oversimplification, but I have not been able to come up with a simple, one sentence answer that accurately captures the nature of the beast. Madhu 02:48, 8 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Here's your simple answer... "YES!" I've flown both for some time. The helicopter requires you to learn new motor skills, think visually while ignoring 'seat-of-pants' input, concentrate continuously, and operate with both hands attached to the controls all the time. Harder? Yes. Benet Allen 19:28, 25 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I originally started this article, and I agree that it is nowhere near sufficient to teach someone how to fly a helicopter. I will add a disclaimer to that end.--Mbaur181 15:59, 2 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I've made some additions and a few style changes, and added some links. Benet Allen 19:24, 25 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Disclaimer issue[edit]

An issue was raised when I copied the disclaimer for this article to the Hawker Siddeley Harrier article, section on pilotage. User:Clawed seems to be strongly against the disclaimer, User:Benet Allen weakly against. Myself weakly support (after listening to other arguements). Please see Wikipedia:No disclaimer templates. Opinions? --ChrisJMoor 00:58, 30 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The disclaimer is not needed and should be removed. Mexcellent 07:49, 4 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Our legal advisors have strongly recommended that we do not add "in-article" disclaimers in addition to the "Disclaimers" link in the yellow box at the bottom of each page. It's fine to emphasize appropriately within the text that the subject is/can be dangerous, but having a separate disclaimer on this page and not on every other potentially dangerous page (from snake charming to crackpipe) actually opens us to more liability, not less. Thanks for your concern! — Catherine\^talk 23:29, 5 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Good points, although disclaimers seemed to be a good idea to me at the time. This whole discuss and consensus thing really works:D. Case closed.--ChrisJMoor 02:18, 6 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Move?[edit]

Ought pilotage to be capitalized? I don't think it's a proper noun, but I'm unfamiliar with the field. See Wikipedia:Naming conventions (capitalization). NickelShoe 18:03, 8 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]