Wikipedia:Simple Flying

Simple Flying is an aviation blog and content farm which publishes articles without fact checking while engaging in plagiarism and churnalism. Based on multiple discussions at the reliable sources noticeboard, there is a consensus that it is unreliable and against using it as a citation on Wikipedia.

Wikipedia consensus
There is clear consensus that Simple Flying is not a reliable source on Wikipedia based on the most recent discussion at the reliable sources noticeboard.

There were also two previous discussions on the matter (1, 2) and it is marked unreliable in the Unreliable/Predatory Source Detector (UPSD) script and listed as a source to avoid by WikiProject Aviation.

Examples of Simple Flying's unreliability
Simple Flying is widely viewed as a content farm which regularly publishes inaccurate and plagiarized articles.

There are many examples of Simple Flying's inaccuracies and failure to meet standards of having a "reputation for fact-checking and accuracy" and being "well established" as we would expect. Some of them are listed below.


 * Gary Leff posts: "That's just usual Simple Flying stuff, it's either ripped off or wrong, so it doesn't surprise me when both happen in the same piece."
 * Bloomberg's aviation reporter posts: "I really wish Simple Flying would stop ripping off our stories and suffice it with a simple "credit" right at the bottom of the story. It just doesn't cut it."
 * Ishirion documents some of their inaccuracies
 * Enilria on Patron documents another article with inaccuracies (not corrected)
 * Their "lead journalist" for Africa, contributing since 2018, graduated from high school in 2020. Hardly a professional news operation.
 * A video about SAS that refers to Singapore Airlines throughout
 * Articles where they discuss the A321XLR as operating (before it started commercial flying)
 * An article and video on the 747 where the video and the article contradict each other with the added bonus that it doesn't appear copyedited.
 * They're owned by a company with a business model of churnalism for ad and affiliate revenue. We wouldn't consider their other blogs to be reliable sources, why should Simple Flying be any different?

Usage on Wikipedia and cleanup
Despite the consensus that it is not reliable, there are a number of articles on Wikipedia which link to this website which require cleanup. WP:FIXTHEPROBLEM provides general suggestion how to do the cleanup, which are: fix problems if you can, tag or excise them if you can't.

Fix the problem
Based on discussions at the noticeboard, the ideal course of action for any SimpleFlying citation is to impeach it by looking for reliable sources to replace it with.

Tag the problem
Citations to Simple Flying may be tagged as needing cleanup at the editor's discretion.


 * Which gives: where there is concern over a questionable source.
 * Which gives: where there is concern over a questionable source.

Excise the problem
Alternatively, articles with existing citations to Simple Flying may be removed.

Suggested citation tags, where appropriate:
 * Which gives: where an unreliable source is removed.
 * Which gives: where an unreliable source is removed.

Citations to Simple Flying should be removed, if Simple Flying is not the only citation for the cited information and there are other citations from reliable source.

And, if cited information taken from SimpleFlying proved to be incorrect by other reliable sources, the cited information and it's citation should be removed.

If a citation is removed, editors should not re-add the citation without first gaining a consensus per WP:ONUS.

Suggested edit comments
Suggested edit comments:
 * which links to this essay
 * which links to Simple Flying's entry on Reliable sources/Perennial sources.
 * which links to this essay
 * which links to Simple Flying's entry on Reliable sources/Perennial sources.