Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Air-tractor sledge/archive1

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The following is an archived discussion of a featured article nomination. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the article's talk page or in Wikipedia talk:Featured article candidates. No further edits should be made to this page.

The article was promoted by SandyGeorgia 11:51, 1 June 2011 [1].

Air-tractor sledge[edit]

Air-tractor sledge (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)

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Nominator(s): Apterygial talk 05:53, 27 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

A warm-up (so to speak) for some other Antarctic exploration articles I’m planning to write this year. The air-tractor sledge was originally a plane, but lost its wings after a crash during a test flight in Australia pre-expedition. Adapted into a tractor used to haul sledges, it broke down in the cold, and was abandoned on the ice in 1913. My thanks to Malleus Fatuorum for his copyedit and Brianboulton for his peer review. Apterygial talk 05:53, 27 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Source review - spotchecks not done

  • Is there a date for ADB?
  • Missing bibliographic information for Burke 1957
  • No citations to Fisher & Fisher. Nikkimaria (talk) 15:11, 27 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]
  • Mawson's entry in the ADB was print published in 1986, so I've added that. The second two points were solved by fixing the same thing; I'd copied the citation format for a Burke ref but forgotten to change the author. It's now Fisher & Fisher. Apterygial talk 22:24, 27 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Images - File:Mawson's_plane.jpg: when/where was this first published? Also, per the licensing description, "please specify in the image description the research you have carried out to find who the author was." Nikkimaria (talk) 18:04, 27 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I've uploaded File:Mawson's plane 2.jpg to Wikipedia as a replacement. Apterygial talk 01:13, 29 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Support: It is a pleasure to welcome an Antarctic article to the FAC page, particularly one not written by me. And (note for Ealdgyth) no dogs were hurt or eaten during the course of this article. I peer-reviewed it earlier this month, and found little wrong, though I recommended a copyedit which has since taken place. If the sources and the images check out, which they seem to, I am very pleased to support its promotion. Brianboulton (talk) 19:05, 29 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks Brian. Dog lovers will be pleased to know I'm currently working on an article that expands on note 5. Apterygial talk 00:15, 30 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]


Comments. As always, feel free to revert my copyediting. Please check the edit summaries. - Dank (push to talk)

  • I've changed the other uses of "aeroplane" to simply "plane". Apterygial talk 12:01, 5 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]
  • Looks like I missed quite a few! Thanks for clearing that up. Apterygial talk 23:49, 5 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]
  • "£955 4s 8d": You could link this to £sd, or the information could go in a note. Some Brits under 40 have no idea what this means.
  • I linked the pound symbol to the article; I figured it would be repetitive to repeat the link. Hope this is enough. Apterygial talk 12:01, 5 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]
  • Thanks Dank. Apterygial talk 12:01, 5 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]
    • You bet. I just realized my "edits" were just one edit, and that one was a judgment call ... so either you're doing great, or we're confused on the same plane. I'll finish up later today. - Dank (push to talk) 13:39, 5 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I finished up, and tweaked my support to reflect that.
  • Danke Dank. Note my reversion of your change of "man-hauling the sledges" to "hauling the sledges by hand"; Manhauling is linked above in the article, the phrase is the most common to describe sledges hauled by hand, and seems to be used widely in Wikipedia's other Antarctic articles. Thanks, Apterygial talk 02:28, 6 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]
  • Comment - absolutely fascinating article. One thing that caught my attention was the mention of the flight by Hubert Wilkins and Carl Ben Eielson as the first in the Antarctic. I had only previously been aware of the more famous flights made by Richard Evelyn Byrd, and I was wondering how close they were in time to that flight. Turns out that there was only ten weeks in it. The really famous flight was the one over the South Pole in November 1929. I know it may be straying too far off topic for this article, but I wondered if it was worth squeezing in a mention of Byrd and his South Pole flight in this article in that paragraph? Carcharoth (talk) 02:51, 27 May 2011 (UTC) (Two asides: Template:Polar exploration is impressive, and is anyone planning to work on the Byrd articles? No need to reply here, just drop a note on my talk page.)[reply]
  • Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it. I don't have the book that would be best used to cite Byrd's flight at the moment, but I can add it tomorrow. Apterygial talk 01:08, 29 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

images all look OK to me. With one exception, they're all clearly PD and the exception is PD in the US (published before 1923), though might not be so in its country of origin. HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 21:06, 29 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

General comments:

  • British Antarctic Expedition expedition to Antarctica, a bit of redundant redundancy there, don't you think?
    • Yes indeed. "expedition to Antarctica" removed. Apterygial talk 23:52, 29 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]
  • I believe "part of a man-hauled sledging expedition, the first to reach the area of the South Magnetic Pole" is what they call a comma splice
    • To be a comma splice, they have to be two independent clauses. Here the second part relies on the first for its structure (e.g., it was the first man-hauled sledging expedition to reach the area of the South Magnetic Pole). I believe "part of a man-hauled sledging expedition, this was the first to reach the area of the South Magnetic Pole" would have been a comma splice. Apterygial talk 23:52, 29 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]
      • If you say so! I don't really understand it, and I'm sure someone could waste hours of their life trying to teach me and still not succeed! ;) HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 01:58, 30 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]
  • I've no problem with red links, but what makes Hugh Evelyn Watkins notable?
    • See WP:RED; unless Watkins is notable, he shouldn't be linked. If he is notable, he should be linked. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 22:43, 29 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]
      • Indeed, I thought I'd ask to make sure that someone has come the conclusion that he's notable. HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 23:00, 29 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]
        • Correct :) SandyGeorgia (Talk) 23:01, 29 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]
          • I certainly think an article could be created for him. The research I did reading Flight led me to believe he was a fairly prolific pilot at the time, which would mean he was one of the pioneers of aviation in Britain. I'll see if I can create an article for him when I find more sourcing. Apterygial talk 23:52, 29 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Support. An interesting article and a good read. The above is only minor quibbles, so support. HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 21:06, 29 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. Apterygial talk 23:52, 29 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]
No problem. HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 01:58, 30 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

My apologies, I must be dense, but I can't decipher the meaning of the lead at all. He planned to take this plane, but another plane crashed, so he took yet another plane (which?) What did the crash of one have to do with which one he took? What is a sledging party and what is sheathing? SandyGeorgia (Talk) 20:58, 30 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Not dense, so the article should obviously be clearer; hopefully these edits to the lead should help. There was only one plane which he planned to take, but it crashed, so he modified it (the same plane) and took it to Antarctica. Sheathing are the metal plates on the fuselage which protect the inside of the plane; I've changed it to "metal sheathing from the fuselage". I don't know what else to say about a sledging party except that it's a party that sledges (uses a sledge to travel). Apterygial talk 00:09, 31 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]
The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this page.
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