A Few Qualifications

* I tend to get a lot of the same questions repeatedly, so over time I've gradually accumulated an (admittedly somewhat windy) set of useful comments and answers to simplify matters for all concerned:

WHO I AM: I'm a freelance writer who is not running a business. I am also strictly an amateur and, in general, have no real professional standing or qualifications in any of the subjects I write about. Please consider your inquiries accordingly.
LIMITATIONS: In general, if I have written a document on a subject, it represents about as much as I know about the subject. When I learn more, I update the document accordingly. I also do not have archives of photographs or other illustrations beyond those I have posted to the site. As the old snappy pop tune put it: "What you see is what you get."
ASSISTANCE: I am very happy to answer questions relative to or provide clarification for the documents on my site. Please do not send me homework, troubleshooting problems, codes to decipher (or "inspect"), and so on so I can solve them for you. I have more things to do than time to do them. You will find a great deal of information on this site that will help you solve such problems, and if you need some help on that information I can assist.
OVERSIZED EMAIL: All messages over 100 KB in size are automatically blocked and deleted, in order to prevent people from doing things like, say ... sending me high-resolution pictures of pieces of scrap metal and clogging my mailer. (Yes, believe it or not, I have had people do this to me, though I can't say I understand why.) 100 KB is a plenty big limit, it's about equivalent to 40 pages of printed text. If you want to send me something bigger, please discuss it with me first.
DANGEROUS EMAIL: All executable attachments to messages are automatically discarded on the rationale that they could very well be things like viruses, trojan horses, hard disk bombs, and other malevolent software. I think everyone can agree this a reasonable precaution.
ANONYMOUS EMAIL: I don't answer it. That includes email using some sort of handle instead of a name. After all, if nobody sent me the message ... there's nobody to answer.
SCHEDULES FOR FUTURE WORK: I sometimes get emails from people wanting to know why I haven't written up a particular famous aircraft, or the like. The answer is simple: "Writeups require work and I haven't got to the one you're after yet." The following question is to ask when I will get around to it. The answer is: "Hopefully someday, but I don't have a date." I have found it unwise to give any promises for when I will get anything done and as a matter of policy I do not do so.
SOURCES: If you're curious about the sources for the documents on this site, they're listed at the end of each document (for all but a very few documents). For multiple-chapter documents, the list of sources is at the end of the last chapter; you can use the "Index" link to get the table of contents and then scroll down to the last link. If you're after copies of sources, I'm not in a legal position to provide them. If you are after further sources, those listed are all I know about.
PAGE COLORS & FONTS: I made a conscious decision when I established this site that I would emphasize content and take a minimalist attitude toward cosmetics. In particular, the pages on this site do not specify colors or fonts. This means that in the absence of any other measures, users will generally get black and white pages and Times Roman fonts. However, it is easy to set colors and fonts in a web browser to your own satisfaction. Under MS Internet Explorer, just go to the menu entry for "Tools / Internet Options / Appearance / [Colors] [Fonts]".
ILLUSTRATIONS: All illustrations on this site credited to me with "GVG / PD" are public domain and free for all use. If they are not labelled "GVG / PD", they are not public domain. Most of the non-public domain pictures are credited; if you want authorization or high-resolution copies, you will need to contact the credited source. Some of the illustrations are not credited -- I'm taking my chances on them, and having no rights to them myself I cannot provide any rights to anyone else. I am trying to gradually phase out all non-credited illustrations.
PERMISSIONS: Since the site is public domain, feel free to make any use of the documents and to link to it, no need to ask any permissions.
EXCHANGING LINKS: I do maintain a list of links. No obligation is implied or even contemplated that any site I link to link back to this site, and I do not request links from other sites. I used to have a policy of simply providing a link to anyone who requested it, but the rising tide of "link exchange spam" rendered this policy impractical and I no longer accept link exchange requests. I realize that many website owners involved in informal link exchanges don't see what they are doing as spamming, but they are contributing to a flow that's very hard to tell from spam on the receiving end. (Link exchanges are a waste of effort anyway).
ADVERTISING: This site is supported by Google Adsense ads. Since I have no real control over ad content, I can provide no guarantees or assurances for the claims and performance of the advertisers.
RELIGION: Atlhough this site may refer to religions in a descriptive fashion and mention their doctrines, the site neither endorses nor criticizes religion. I have no interest in religious disputes and by policy refuse to get involved in such disputes.
BLOCKING: I block out "hotlinking" -- if you want to use the public-domain illustrations on this site, feel free to download and repost them, or if you prefer hotlink the entire page.
WEBSITE HOSTING: I have had people ask me to host their materials on this site, but I'm not actually in the website hosting business. There are many service providers who will give you a small website for free, and if you want more capability they can provide it to you at very modest prices.

Finally:

If you have requests for:

Industry, military, government, or academic contacts for any topic.
Contacts or leads for aircraft-related organizations.
Contacts or leads on any organizations, for that matter.

Histories or whereabouts of specific aircrew or other personnel.
Histories or whereabouts of specific military units.
Histories or whereabouts of individual aircraft.
Aircraft (or other) blueprints and schematics.
Aircraft (or other) manuals or detailed engineering specs.
Identification or description of aircraft piece parts or the like.

Purchase or sale of aircraft of any sort.
Purchase or sale of aircraft (or other) parts and services.
Purchase or sale of anything, for that matter.

Where anything on this list might be found.

-- I can give the answers right away: don't have them / don't know / no clue / and so on. Honestly, I don't know these things -- I'm not lying, I really don't, and I have no particular idea of where to find out about them. I could of course look such things up on a search engine, but it would be more effective and sensible to try a search engine yourself. If you still absolutely insist on sending me such queries anyway -- please people, it's not productive. It's not. Trust me.