From: geoff@peck.com (Geoff Peck)
Subject: New rec.aviation groups online
Followup-To: rec.aviation.misc
Organization: Geoffrey G. Peck, Consultant, San Jose CA
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1992 17:42:29 GMT

On about October 1st, the new rec.aviation groups went on-line.  Most sites
throughout Usenet which receive the old rec.aviation should now be
receiving the new rec.aviation groups.  If your site is >not< yet receiving
these groups, please contact your news system administrator.

The attached message was sent out to the new rec.aviation groups on October
1st; for those of you who are not yet receiving the new groups, the groups
are listed and described below.

						Geoff

Welcome to the new rec.aviation!  The following groups have been created
and replace the existing omnibus group rec.aviation:

    announce (MOD)    military      piloting        soaring
    answers  (MOD)    misc          products        stories (MOD)
    homebuilt         owning        simulators      student
    ifr 

Brief charter descriptions for each of these groups are provided below.

Here are a few simple guidelines which may assist readers and posters in
figuring out what to do with these new groups:

    (1)  Cross-posting.  If you have an article which clearly crosses the
         boundaries of several groups, you should post a **single** copy of
	 the article to **all* of the groups.  Don't post separate copies
	 to each group.  Most modern newsreaders will display the article
	 exactly once to the reader -- in the first group in which it is
	 encountered and read.

	 If you feel that the replies should be directed to a subset of the
	 groups to which you are submitting your post, be sure to include a
	 line of the form "Followup-to: groupname" in the header of your
	 message.  See the header of this message for an example.

	 If you are replying to a cross-posted article and your reply is
	 germane to only a subset of the original groups, please ensure
	 that you check the Newsgroups: line to remove unnecessary groups.
	 If the reply is germane to all the groups in which the article was
	 originally posted, try to ensure that all the groups are listed in
	 the Newsgroups: line.  Some newsreaders cause a reply to go only
	 to the group which is currently being read.

	 Use cross-posting sparingly.  If an article "90% belongs" in one
	 group and "10% belongs" in another, post it only to the first
	 group.
    
    (2)  Reading the new groups.  You will probably enjoy rec.aviation more
	 if you order the groups so that those which you are most
	 interested in come first in your .newsrc (or other control) file.
	 You can either do this at the time you add the groups to your
	 .newsrc file or you can do it later using a standard text editor.
	 I would suggest that you may wish to put rec.aviation.announce
	 first in your list, since it is expected to be low volume and it
	 will contain some announcements of import to all readers of
	 rec.aviation.

    (3)  Posting to the new groups.  When you're writing an article, look
	 at the above list of group names and/or the list of charters given
	 below.  Make a good guess at the group(s) to which you article is
	 most relevant.  If you're using the follow-up mechanism and you
	 are drifting from the original subject, you may wish to change the
	 group(s) to which the article is going.  In that case, I would
	 suggest that you also modify the subject line and remove the
	 References: line from your follow-up.

	 If you really don't know where your article belongs, use this
	 simple two-step algorithm:

	 (a) Is it primarily about flying light aircraft or relevant
	     primarily to those who do so?  Yes -> rec.aviation.piloting.
	 (b) Otherwise -> rec.aviation.misc.

    (4)  The moderated newsgroups.  To post to rec.aviation.announce or
	 rec.aviation.stories, you may either use your standard posting
	 mechanism or you may send mail to aviation-announce@peck.com or
	 aviation-stories@peck.com, respectively.  When you post an article
	 to these groups directly, the posting is converted into an e-mail
	 message to those addresses.  I will try to "turn around" articles
	 within a day or two and post them to the net.  Follow-ups will be
	 directed to the appropriate unmoderated group.

	 Rec.aviation.answers is slightly different -- it contains a series
	 of regular postings on topics of interest to the rec.aviation
	 community.  If you are interested in editing and maintaining a
	 posting on a selected topic, please get in touch with me by E-mail
	 at aviation-answers-request@peck.com.  The success of this group
	 will depend on contributions from the rec.aviation community, so if
	 you wish to become the "local expert" on a topic of broad interest,
	 please get in touch.

	 There are also addresses for administrative requests to the
	 moderator of each of the moderated groups; these addresses are:

	    aviation-announce-request@peck.com
	    aviation-answers-request@peck.com
	    aviation-stories-request@peck.com

Herewith is the list of groups and short charters, with only slight changes
from the listing given in the CFV, listed alphabetically:

rec.aviation.announce (MODERATED)
    Dissemination of events of interest to the rec.aviation community,
    including fly-outs, airshows, museum events, safety seminars,
    conventions, races, rec.aviation administrative issues etc.  The group
    will be moderated to minimize volume.

rec.aviation.answers (MODERATED)
    Periodic postings of information related to aviation; a "super-
    frequently-asked- questions" organized by subject.  Postings will be
    repeated on a time-cycle basis.  Multiple editors will volunteer for
    different subject areas.

rec.aviation.homebuilt
    Selecting, designing, building, and restoring aircraft.  Included in
    this group are a number of different kinds of aircraft:
    builder-designed, plans-built, kit-built, antique and historic, and
    warbirds.

rec.aviation.ifr
    Articles related to flight under Instrument Flight Rules.  Regulatory
    questions, communications, procedures, charts, training methods,
    maintaining proficiency, recurrent training, instruments and
    equipment, questions, and experiences.

rec.aviation.military
    Postings related to military aircraft, both historical, present, and
    rumored; military aircraft technology; military aircraft actions and
    incidents.  Not intended to compete with sci.military, this group
    simply provides a legitimate home for the many military postings which
    already exist on rec.aviation.

rec.aviation.misc
    In case there are things which didn't get "caught" by the other groups,
    rec.aviation.misc provides a home for these other topics.  An example
    would be posts on commercial airliners, which, for the moment, do not
    have their own home.

rec.aviation.owning
    Information on owning airplanes:  selection, purchasing, maintenance,
    insurance, operating costs, operating hints and tips, avionics, parts
    sources and availability, costs, etc.

rec.aviation.soaring
    Soaring and hang-gliding: equipment, maintenance, instruments, safety,
    training, soaring sites, current events, FAI badge rules and class
    definitions, meteorology, history, homebuilts, vintage sailplanes, the
    science and technology of motorless flight, etc.

rec.aviation.piloting
    Information pertinent to pilots of general aviation aircraft which
    would not fall into one of the other non-misc rec.aviation groups.
    Topics include, but are not limited to flying skills, interesting sights,
    destinations, flight characteristics of aircraft, unusual situations,
    handling emergencies, working with air traffic control, international
    flights, customs and immigration, experiences with ground support
    facilities, etc.

rec.aviation.products
    Questions, descriptions, and reviews of products useful to pilots,
    such as headsets, intercoms, handhelds, flight bags, flashlights,
    computers, timers, mail-order firms, etc.  In general, ".products" is
    for things which a renter might buy; things which are primarily of
    interest to aircraft owners should be posted to rec.aviation.owning.

rec.aviation.simulators
    Flight simulation, particularly discussions of computer-based
    simulators ranging from PC's to workstations.

rec.aviation.stories (MODERATED)
    A home for one of the greatest strengths of rec.aviation -- longer
    postings of stories and experiences, including descriptions of
    cross-country trips, "I learned about flying from that", airshow
    reports, and so on.  The moderator will reject shorter articles and
    subjects which aren't appropriate to the group, and will ensure that
    articles meet minimum readability standards (i.e., line lengths).
    Follow-ups will be directed to other groups.  It is expected that this
    group will typically contain only one or two articles a week.
    Articles for anonymous posting will be accepted.

rec.aviation.student
    It's been said that every good pilot is a student pilot -- for life.
    This group is dedicated to learning experiences and questions,
    particularly (but not exclusively) by and for those who haven't yet
    attained the private pilot certificate.  Written exams, solo flights,
    learning to land, maneuvers, flight tests, instructors and
    instructional techniques, etc.

Enjoy!

						Geoff

Xref: sparky rec.aviation:16623 rec.aviation.student:85