User:Civilengtiger

Mini Biography
I was born and raised in Buena Vista, Virginia and now live in Helena, Alabama. Previously I lived in Warner Robins, Georgia, Auburn, Alabama, Augusta, Georgia, and Martinez, Georgia. I am an alumni of Auburn University and am a state licensed civil engineer.

My screen name comes from my profession and the mascot of the Auburn University athletics team, the Tigers.

I am a conservative Southern Baptist and beleive the chief end of Man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Smile, Jesus love you!

Articles I Originated
Buck Creek (Cahaba River tributary) - I drive over it twice a day, fish in it, play with my children along side it, and most importantly it is a major tributary of the Cahaba River.

Daniel Field - I was suprised to find that Augusta, GA's oldest airport did not have a page, and given that I took serveral flight lessons through Augusta Aviation there, just had to give Daniel Field its due.

L’Express Airlines Flight 508 - To date, the worst commercial aviation accident in Alabama history. Crash occured in Birmingham in 1991 as the commuter flight from Mobile approached Birmingham International Airport in a thunderstorm.

Alan R. Barton Plant - Proposed Alabama Power commercial nuclear power plant in central Alabama, project canceled in 1977. Was to be a General Electric Boiling Water Reactor. I occasionally came across references to this plant as a co-op in the late 1990's.

Tallassee & Montgomery Railway - This railroad ran from a connection with the Western Railway of Alabama at Milstead, AL to Tallassee, AL on the Tallapoosa River. Most interestingly, and what got me interested in the railroad, is that the iron or steel through truss bridge over the Tallapoosa River still stands right next to AL 229 a short distance off I-85 between Auburn and Montgomery.

Alabama Wildlife Management Areas - I went hunting for the first time (not suprisingly, the only shots I took were with my Canon digital camera) in an Alabama WMA and would like to see more information on these great areas in WikiPedia.

Black Warrior Basin and Cahaba Basin - On my first hunting trip to the Cahaba River Wildlife Management Area, I was suprised to see what looked like oil dericks pumping away throughout the WMA, as well as active coal mines. My curiosity raised, I search the Alabama Oil & Gas Board page and found that coalbed methane, a form of natural gas, is produced right in my home county.

Geology of Alabama - Geology continues to fascinate me so I started the article for the geology of Alabama.

Eastern Tennessee Seismic Zone - Working on geology and seismic pages I found there were about a dozen articles which had WP links to the ETSZ, but no page to point to! So the solution to that problem would be to create such a page...there, done.

Article Sections I Plan to Write

 * List of crossings of the Alabama River based on the List_of_crossings_of_the_Missouri_River
 * List of crossings of the Mobile River based on the List_of_crossings_of_the_Missouri_River
 * List of crossings of the Tensaw River based on the List_of_crossings_of_the_Missouri_River

Articles I Plan to Expand

 * Landsford Canal State Park

Articles I think I provided major contributions

 * Maury River – This was the first article to which I made major contributions. The Maury River has historically had a major impact on my hometown of Buena Vista, Virginia.
 * Helena, Alabama - My current residence and a downright nice place to live, I have probably put more effort into the article than any other.
 * Alabama State Route 261 – This article was a stub with some basic information added, but since I drive the route every workday I wanted to added some more details that others may find useful.
 * Birmingham International Airport (U.S.) - Added major sections on the Architecture and Interior Design of the airport (and learned a lot about architecture in the process), typical commercial aircraft in service at BHM, and a discussion of accidents at BHM since the early 1960's. My home airport so I wanted to see it well represented.
 * Logan Martin Lake - Added major sections, reorganized to meet WikiProject: Lakes template, and added a photo. Upgraded article from Stub to Start Class.
 * Blue Bird Corporation - My dad, brother, and I have all worked for this bus manufacturer over the span of several decades. It was a great, family-run company for generations; post-Luce family it has been terribly sad what a series of management mistakes and some outright dumb decisions (retooling to produce European style transit buses with no US market, what????) have done to this company.
 * Shauna Pender - I had the pleasure of attending Houston County High School near Warner Robins, Georgia with Shauna in the late 1990s and was in her older sister's class. Shauna was highly thought of by the entire school and went on to be Miss Florida 2003. Her reign as Miss Florida was tragically marred by a terrible motor vehicle accident only two weeks after her crowning. Her spirit and attitude in her long recovery have been remarkable and I wish her the best.

Wikipedia "Group Think" That I Disagree With
This section title and paragraph was written by editor User:Americasroof but I thought it was so good (and hits home to me as my high school, Parry McCluer High School, practically defines the city) I am reproducing it here, all credit to americasroof:
 * High Schools are Inherently Nonnotable - There is an amazing debate over notability of high schools. Wikipedia has articles about the tiniest of locations but if you mention a high school that serves that location (which involves budgets, multiple locations, and interactions with other areas etc.) there's folks who scream nonnotable.  High schools often define a community.  Again as long as folks write extensive article articles about virtual places, I find it amazing they go after real places with such a vengeance.

Projects in which I have a keen interest, though not a member

 * WikiProject Trains
 * WikiProject Aviation
 * WikiProject Rivers

States I've Visited
I love to travel and have been blessed to see much of our great nation, "from sea to shining sea!"