Well, I did use the search function for this question on Air Warriors, but nothing came up (but that probably makes sense as this is a Naval Aviation site). I understand it is for Naval Aviation, but I mean a helicopter is a helicopter, if you get a technical question on one, I don't really see a reason not to ask it. And you people here all seem to know a lot about aircraft and how they fly and operate, etc...so I also figured you wouldn't really mind discussing them.
As for my question about the size of the helm on a carrier, that I literally was just wondering about, as I wasn't sure HOW the ship was steered by the wheel. I think I had mentioned that I thought using a wheel to turn the ship was slow, and maybe some of you were thinking, "WTF!?! How is it slow??" The reason I had initially thought that was because I wasn't sure if the wheel steered the ship like a car, where you turn it and the ship starts turning immediately, or if it was like the helms on older ships, where you had to really turn them a lot of rotations to get the ship to turn. I figured since this was a Navy forum, that someone would know. It just peaked my curiousity is all.
Maybe it might've seemed like a common sense question to someone like Patmack, but it wasn't to me; it might seem common sense for a battle tank to be steered by a wheel too, but they are steered by a motorcycle-style grip.
I won't deny I have asked some stupid questions before (at the times I didn't realize how silly they were), or that I bombarded with a lot of questions that probably could've been answered with the search function at the time when I first came to this site, and I am sorry for being such an annoyance that way. I actually hadn't noticed the search function until someone mentioned it to me in a private message, so I mean don't think I purely ignored it. But now I just try to ask questions that I think are more technical and reasonable to answer.
And believe it or not, I have learned quite a bit from the questions asked around here, by myself and lots of people. Huge threads seem to get generated over some questions, so you get a lot of information from them, and I learned a lot from the answers given to my helm question and to my question on why the engines of an F-18 were so close (I wasn't aware of that stuff about the adverse yaw and all that). Don't think your answers just go unnoticed or go to waste.
Personally, provided the answer isn't 2 seconds away from using google (which I know to always check now) or the Air Warrior's search function (also check that first), I think asking technical questions about what aircraft can or cannot do, or why they are the way they are are fine, as it helps people learn, just as long as one doesn't bombard the forum with such questions.
I think though you could save a lot of people from asking the questions that have already been asked multiple times by adding a couple of stickies that direct people on such questions. Remember, most of the newbies that come here don't know that their very questions have been asked 9 million times before, and then they ask, and everyone is like, "Oh no, not again...." you see my point.
Also, a lot of newbies may not realize how rude some of their questions may sound when they ask them, like how I had asked earlier on about how to transition aircraft if one got an aircraft they think (theoretically) they wouldn't like. I hadn't meant it to be offensive to anyone, but I think I know how it is reasoned (i.e. you haven't even flown yet, how do you know what you will like, and if you just say you want this over that, you insult the other pilots by acting like their aircraft is lousy) but I was just some dumb newbie, and as told, I "didn't know what I was talking about," so I am a lot more open-minded now; to aviation, I still am a newbie, but to Air Warriors I'm not anymore, so I try not to sound like the idiot I came off as originally.
I also have read some of my previous posts, and realized how stupid many of them sounded originally, and ignorant, so I try not to type so fast or talk as much anymore.
But if I get a technical question on an aircraft, and the Air Warriors search function and google both fail me, I ask it. This IS a site full of pilots.
