Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Subsafe

["Captain Nemo" <vulcania@hawaii.rr.com>]

Doug,

You work for the FAA, right?  How would you feel about a group (comprised
mainly of non-certificated mechanics and non-pilots) writing, editing, and
publishing a book entitled "How to build your own airplane", based on
excerpts from a rambling archive of largely unqualified chatroom comments?

In general, would you support or condemn the idea of such a book?  Say it
should be distributed globally?  Feel secure that it had the potential to do
more good than harm to the uninitiated seeking to learn?

In your professional opinion, and based on your experience: in the past,
would such a book be welcomed or condemned by the FAA, and the Commercial /
General Aviation communities? What level of credibility would such a book
have amongst experienced pilots and A&P's?

As a CFI, I would've had to condemn such a book.  And that's pretty much how
I feel about your proposed PSUBS manual at this time.  It's something better
left to those with the qualifications to write and edit it, or not published
at all.

Pat





----- Original Message -----
From: <SeaLordOne@aol.com>
To: <personal_submersibles@psubs.org>
Sent: Monday, July 01, 2002 10:40 AM
Subject: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Subsafe


> Teammates,
>
> For those who are interested, I will continue my riff on my vision for
Psubs.  I indicated I had three goals vis-a-vis Psubs: give what I can, get
what I can, and build the community.  To me it is goal #3 that makes Psubs a
little different.  We (I?) have a broad definition of "the community" and we
spend resources to build it.
>
> I can imagine an "ideal" community where everyone who is a member is
someone who has successfully built a Psub.  Unfortunately (in my view), that
would be a relatively small community.  My vision of Psubs is that it
includes anyone interested in Psubs.  The folks who have actually done it
are of course the most valued members of the community, but they represent
only a small sub-set of the community.  To me Psubbers include the Subbers,
the web-meisters, the scuba divers, the marine biologists, the librarians,
the inventors, the military types, the poets and the dreamers.  If you are
interested, you are a Psubber.  I doubt that more than 10% of Psubbers (what
I would call Psubbers) will ever actually build their boat.  But to me they
are still Psubbers.  They may not be Subbers, but they can be Psubbers.
That is my vision.
>
> Here is my analogy.  Thomas Edison was a great American inventor.  When
asked which was his most important invention, he said it was the laboratory.
It was an invention that gave birth to other inventions, and invention
factory, if you will.  Not only are we helping a hand full of Psubbers
fulfill their dream, we are building a readily available (world-wide)
toolkit for all future Psubbers.  That is why, unlike some others, I support
the idea of Psubs publications.  The backyard submarine builders of the last
50 years left behind a legacy of wonderful boats, but very little literature
targeted specifically to allowing others to follow in their footsteps.  I
have lots of books ABOUT submarines, and some good books of specifications
and formulas, but not a single book that tells me how to go about designing,
constructing, operating and maintaining a small submarine.  Have I missed
that literature?  I suspect it may exist in letters and conversations among
the Subbers, but I s!
> ur!
> e can't seem to find it in the general domain.  Where is "How to build
your own submarine"?
>
> If the group wants to write, I will help write.  Some have suggested that
the good stuff is already out there, and that we simply need to list and
organize all of those references.  Others have suggested that we should
bring the good stuff from all of those references together in one place.  I
could do that too.  If you ask me, I would take a mixed approach.  It seems
to me that there are certain areas of Psubbing that are pretty well covered
elsewhere.  The formulas and specifications for design, for example.  There
are other areas where I can find very little, such as the safe and efficient
maintenance and operation of a small submarine once you have built it.  In
those areas we would probably have to rely on the expertise of our most
valuable resource, the Subbers, to generate new material.
>
> My vision is that we would re-orient the current literature around a step
by step process.  Not that building a submarine is a step by step process,
but that the best way to present the process is to organize it that way.
There are plenty of books, like Busby, that are organized by topic.  This
would be organized by process.  First, you decide what you want (and can
afford) in a boat.  They you design the boat.  Then you build the boat,
including purchasing and/or fabricating all of the components.  Then you
test the boat.  Then you operate the boat.  Then you maintain the boat.
Then, over time, you modify the boat.  Each of these steps is divided into
sub-steps, which are again divided into sub-sub steps.  You reference some
information, you re-package some information, you generate some information,
following this procedural outline.  Because a submarine is a work of art as
well as a work of science, these are not hard and fast steps so much as
guidelines to help move yo!
> u !
> through the process.  Just my thoughts.
>
> In conclusion, I see Psubs as very inclusive.  You don't have to be a
Subber to participate.  But by the same token, just because you are not a
Subber, does not mean that you do not have to help out.  You do not have to
be a Subber to add your area of expertise to the Psubs enterprise, whether
your expertise is web development, mechanical drawing, database design,
graphic arts, boat construction, scuba diving, or even literature (I am
amazed that as exciting as Psubbing is, people who have done it share their
designs more than their personal stories).  When people ask me "how can I
thank you for getting us the Busby Books?", my reply is this "Don't thank
me...imitate
> me".  Find something useful that YOU can do for the community, and do it.
If you can't think of anything, ask the group.  I can think of a dozen
useful volunteer tasks that folks could be doing to build the Psubs
community.  And I suspect the group could come up with an even longer list.
The Subbers are doing more than their share when the share their precious
experience, based on personal experience.  The least the rest of us can do
is pull our own weight.
>
> Oh, sorry, time to get off of my soapbox, before I am knocked off.
>
> Doug Farrow
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