Amateur-built and experimental aircraft - Australian Transport Safety ...

on a PC and Apple-F for Mac) in the web browser. Some free websites recycle
information from other web pages; a borrow (or steal) and incorporate process. An
internet search engine may appear to return many useful web page groups, but when
closely examined, it returns much of the same material, often slightly reformatted.
In many cases, web pages and their content are poorly indexed, and many false
positive website hits or documents are returned using ‘OR’ Boolean logic. Even
among competent users of the English language, the same concept or issue can be
referred to in a myriad of ways. Although search engines in general are improving,
it will be a number of years before ABE builders and owners can take better
advantage of lexicographical variation.
It is worth noting that the internet in general is not the same as electronic data
repositories, such as ProQuest. Electronic data repositories, such as those used in
libraries, are generally well indexed, and a complete document may be found, and
where necessary printed or viewed online. Broken Uniform Resource Locator
(URL) links on the internet will return a ‘page not found 404 error’.
Chat forums and blogs are an interesting case in point. A chat forum is a special
type of user group in cyberspace where questions can be posed and answered by
people from across the world. Blogs tend to be more like diaries constructed by one,
or a limited number of people. One research challenge in using the internet is to
assess how credible a source is and whether the information is valid and current. It
is customary for users of chat forums to use aliases; for aviation-related forums
people use aviation terms or pilot ranks, such as ‘Captain Smith’ or ‘Wing
Commander VCA’. It may be necessary to read through a significant portion of
what is written to assess the quality and validity of information. Some forums
provide the ability to see all posts by user, so that this assessment process is more
efficient. This relies upon the user keeping the same name, and refraining from
making comments under multiple aliases. It is customary on a range of ABE chat
forums for the user to provide some sort of indication of experience. For example,
the signature block may contain something like ‘Captain Crunch, RV-10,
empennage complete, working on window frame, IFR rated.’ This provides some
indication of the experience of the person. A further challenge for people who host
internet user groups is to moderate the comments, enforce rules of etiquette, and
correct and remove comments.
In short, there are significant challenges associated with accessing and evaluating
user group data. Computer literacy may influence perceptions of ABE user groups,
but ultimately these groups represent opinions that must be evaluated to see if they
are correct or useful. This requires good research skills.
Other aircraft builders as a resource
Figure 68 records how helpful other aircraft builders were as a build resource. This
shows that about 66 per cent of respondents found other aircraft builders were a
very helpful resource or the most helpful resource. In some circumstances, aircraft
were built with another person, with one respondent saying ‘my aircraft is 50/50
partnership in construction and ownership.’ In this instance, the builders see another
person as a resource to check plans, fabricate materials, and operate the aircraft.
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