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The last time we discussed the new Drones.SE was about 2 years ago.

Lately it seems there are more discussions in the community about certain questions being asked here. Some want them migrated there, some want to keep them here.

I looked back and I can't find a clear cut answer, including the ones I gave at the time.

Do we need a clearer policy?
What that should be?
Where does the Aviation.SE want to draw the line between "on-topic" and "needs to be migrated"?

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    $\begingroup$ Thank you for opening this discussion Federico. I will, when I find the time to reflect on it, contribute with an answer $\endgroup$
    – DeltaLima Mod
    Commented Sep 23, 2022 at 10:58
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    $\begingroup$ @DeltaLima Did you have a chance to reflect. I'm interested in if your opinion differs from mine below $\endgroup$
    – Jamiec Mod
    Commented Sep 27, 2022 at 8:13
  • $\begingroup$ What would the line be? Right now it seems a bit arbitrary. Size/useful load [regardless of that load being human], remote pilot regardless of size, actual drone(automated flight, not a remote/radio control pilot), configuration (traditional fixedwing, helicopter and gyrocoters vs multi-rotor[3+] setups), or regulatory? $\endgroup$
    – Max Power
    Commented Oct 2, 2022 at 0:49
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    $\begingroup$ @MaxPower That's what we are discussing here. If you have an opinion, feel free to add an answer below. $\endgroup$
    – Bianfable
    Commented Oct 3, 2022 at 9:36
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    $\begingroup$ I think that almost a month of featuring is enough. @Jamiec, I've accepted your answer. $\endgroup$
    – Federico Mod
    Commented Oct 18, 2022 at 15:52

2 Answers 2

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TLDR; Here is an overview on what I suggest

  1. We clarify the scope of our questions on flying technique, aerodynamics, regulations (including Air Traffic control) and design/manufacture to prefer full scale aviation (ie, NOT drone/UAVs)
  2. We continue to allow questions on Drones/UAVs where there is crossover to full-scale aviation (eg, where the regulations cross over, or the aerodynamics are not affected by the scale).
  3. We migrate questions regarding small-scale aviation to Drones.se (They are happy for such migration)
  4. We write an FAQ on the outcome for future reference. (Completed)

Note, I am not fixed on any of the above (except 4, for obvious reasons) and am happy to discuss/refine.

Full/original answer below.

Do we need a clearer policy?

Yes, clearly.

What that should be?

I believe we should be guided primarily by our on topic help page, for which the scope of our site has been built over many iterations.

Lets take the reasons individually and decide if/how they might relate to Drones/UAVs

Flying technique, maneuvers, navigation, procedures, etc.

If the question is about the technique of flying a drone, in the general aviation sense rather than something specific to drones then it might be on topic here

Air Traffic Control

If the question is about regulations to do with flying in controlled airspace such as ATZs, then it might be on topic here.

Aviation Weather

Unlikely any Drone questions might fall into this category. More likely any questions about drones/weather would be better suited to Drones.se

Aviation Regulations

Similar to the ATC category, it would need to be about how the regulations fit in with full-scale aviation to make sense here.

Aerodynamics (related to aircraft)

This is where it gets tricky. I would advocate this be changed in our on-topic page to relate to full scale aviation as questions about powerplants, control surfaces, etc on drones feels better suited to Drones.se

Aviation Safety

Unlikely any Drone questions might fall into this category, where they do it would be specific to Drones, and would fit better in that site.

Aircraft Design and Manufacture

Again, grey area, I would like our scope here reduced to full scale aviation.

Where a question (such as the one which started this conversation) are asking about the aerodynamics specific to Drones, I feel that question is better suited to a site which specialize in drones, which is why I migrated it.

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  • $\begingroup$ looking at what's on topic for Drones.SE I think that the aircraft's scale is indeed the major factor. I would say that for us unmanned things are fine, as long as their scale is not "commercial toy I bought at the supermarket". This would also cover what DeltaLima mentions, i.e. "heavy e-VTOLs" $\endgroup$
    – Federico Mod
    Commented Sep 26, 2022 at 12:28
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    $\begingroup$ A general principle I've seen applied on many SEs is that questions aren't off-topic for one SE site just because they're "more on topic" for another SE site. As such, I would caution that you probably don't want a rule that questions aren't welcome at Aviation.SE just because they're "better suited to the expertise of Drones.se" -- You can refine the scope to clarify the points of overlap, but the statement and evaluation of the scope of Aviation.SE should be completely independent of the existence of Drones.SE. $\endgroup$
    – R.M.
    Commented Oct 4, 2022 at 18:06
  • $\begingroup$ @R.M. thank you for the feedback (and sorry its taken me a while to respond - its been a busy week). I agree with your points so have changed my suggestion to prefer full-scale rather than make everything small-scale off topic here. $\endgroup$
    – Jamiec Mod
    Commented Oct 6, 2022 at 15:37
  • $\begingroup$ In my oppinion this scope is a bit narrow. What about design, implementation and operation of avionic and avionic related topics, such as digital flight control, flight guidance overall design etc.? What about general design of aircrafts? We have a lot of questions about that and a lot of interesting insights can be gained here. Yet this seems to be often forgotten... $\endgroup$
    – U_flow
    Commented Oct 17, 2022 at 9:58
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    $\begingroup$ @U_flow Im not sure I understand your point. Those things remain on topic here. Or, did you have a specific suggestion for how we handle things differently? $\endgroup$
    – Jamiec Mod
    Commented Oct 17, 2022 at 12:55
  • $\begingroup$ @Jamiec: You specified: "Aircraft Design and Manufacture, Again a grey area". I view this actually as one central aspect of its site. Clearly understanding why and how aircrafts are manufactured is critically important especially for manned aircraft. I read your suggestions to be too much from a pilots view, and I would like to express that I specifically see this site also centered around the engineering part of aviation. Or did I make a mistake reading your post? $\endgroup$
    – U_flow
    Commented Oct 17, 2022 at 13:48
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    $\begingroup$ @U_flow I think you may have misundersatood the point of this answer. Everything is in the context of drones/UAV. Im not suggesting that Aircraft design is a grey area for aviation... im suggesting that it may be in the context of drones. As in, the design and manufacture of drones might be better suited to drones.se $\endgroup$
    – Jamiec Mod
    Commented Oct 17, 2022 at 13:55
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EDIT One day I'll finally understand the downvoting...

Since apparently I sparked this conversation, I'd like to give a short contribute to the matter.

Obviously there are questions which are without a doubt a clear fit either for drones.se or for avaition.se (let's see if someone gets my irony in choosing those questions... eh eh eh).

Anyway sometimes the line between the two is really thin and in my opinion the conundrum might be resolved either historically or pragmatically.

  1. Historically: let's make an example with the question that sparked this discussion; for this question to be answered, the concept of "momentum theory" need to be used. Momentum theory has been historically developed for propellers/rotors and therefore if a drone question implies the use of the momentum theory then it might be correct on aviation.se because the mathematical tools belong to aviation. If one looks for "momentum theory" on aviation.se, some 60 results appear; on drones.se only one. If one searches questions about rotor sizing on drones.se almost all of them points to answers on aviation.se. Does it makes sense to have a question on drones.se and the relevant answer on aviation.se?

  2. Pragmatically: the main purpose of SE is to "help people find the answers they need". Therefore if in doubt the post should go where it has more chance to get an answer. Again an example based upon the specific question that triggered this discussion: on aviation.se it collected hundreds of visualisation in just a couple of days plus one more-than-once upvoted answer and potentially a second answer from @DeltaLima. After the migration on drones.se, the same question has got, after almost one week, only 60 visualisations (and I'm quite sure that most of them come from aviation.se) and basically nobody cares about it. Clearly in this particular case it would have been better to leave the question on aviation.se.

I think this two points should help answering all questions but if a doubt persists then I would use as last possibility the principal "I have no knowledge but I ain't stupid": the question should be left where it was originally posted because the owner felt that that specific SE was the most pertinent one.

Last but not least, I have noticed that this is a generic issue of SE: for example questions related to lift can be found on aviation.se as well as on physics.se. Shouldn't therefore this issue be discussed at a higher level i.e. intra-StackExchange?

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    $\begingroup$ "If one searches questions about rotor sizing on drones.se almost all of them points to answers on aviation.se." I don't see the problem with that. "After the migration on drones.se, the same question has got, after almost one week, only 60 visualisations and basically nobody cares about it." by that logic, if we gobble up all the questions, that site will never grow. - To me, you're looking at this from the wrong perspective. We're here to decide if and what is on topic for us. A question could be on-topic in multiple places, or nowhere at all, and there's nothing wrong with that. $\endgroup$
    – Federico Mod
    Commented Sep 29, 2022 at 11:10
  • $\begingroup$ and no, new users don't necessarily know better, and simply post in the first place they land on when they search on google (many questions on meta.se are the proof of that). and migration is there to fix that. $\endgroup$
    – Federico Mod
    Commented Sep 29, 2022 at 11:11
  • $\begingroup$ @Federico: understand about unaware people posting randomly and the need of migration. I personally do not agree about posting/migrating questions to drones.se only to make it grow... if those questions do not get an answer or get an answer from another SE it simply means that that question is "technically" in the right place but practically in the wrong one. And as highlighted by Jamec there are grey areas which might be handled in this way, just a suggestion from my side $\endgroup$
    – sophit
    Commented Sep 29, 2022 at 12:48
  • $\begingroup$ no, I am not arguing in favor of migrating "only to make it grow", but rather against not migrating because the other site is not "large enough". not migrating will never make it large enough. and again, here we are discussing what's on topic here, not philosophizing about the grand principles of migration, so I'll stop here. $\endgroup$
    – Federico Mod
    Commented Sep 29, 2022 at 13:36
  • $\begingroup$ @Federico: I was not philosophising, I just gave my point of view of how distinguish what should go where. Anyway I agree with you that size plays an important role. $\endgroup$
    – sophit
    Commented Sep 29, 2022 at 13:36
  • $\begingroup$ no, I am saying that the size of the site should not factor in the consideration. at all. $\endgroup$
    – Federico Mod
    Commented Sep 29, 2022 at 13:50
  • $\begingroup$ @Federico? I mean this $\endgroup$
    – sophit
    Commented Sep 29, 2022 at 13:58

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