I don't know about you, but I am always onthe lookout for a new tool that will make mylife easier and let me get a job done faster.Don't get me wrong, I love building, but withall of life's distractions chipping away at myhobby time, I try to work as efficiently as possible.Consequently, I was thrilled when I saw aprototype of Du-Bro's new no. 480 E/Z Benderlast October. This production-quality tool willclearly speed up the pesky task of bendingpushrod ends and "I was soon to find” many other shapes from small-diameter wire.

Spring steel wire, also known as music wire, is one of the most popular model landing-gear materials. It is readily available at most hobby shops, inexpensive, strong and easy to form into just about any shape imaginable with common tools. Whether you are scratch-building a new design, building a kit, or just repairing the gear for your latest ARF, no modeler’s skill set is complete without a few basic techniques for working with music wire.

This is the first installment of a series of articles on general engine care and maintenance of both glow and gasoline engines. I will cover most of the basics, including setting up your engines, basic cleaning, maintenance and troubleshooting. This month I will discuss the basic setup and tuning of two-stroke glow engines (without a fuel pump), still by far the most commonly used engines in our models.

The fuel system is one of the most important parts of your airplane, but how much do you really know about it?

One important but often overlooked aspect of flying precision aerobatics is setting up your aircraft—“trimming” it. This isn’t trimming in the general sense of adjusting flight controls to hold level flight, but rather the small adjustments you make to your airframe and radio setup to help your model fly as precisely as possible. While this may seem to be a bit of overkill for a new aerobatic pilot, I find that a nicely balanced and precisely set up model makes learning precision aerobatics much easier, and it really isn’t all that hard to accomplish. In this article, we’ll discuss the “why” of aerobatic trimming.

If you are anything like me, when you near the end of a new RC project, nothing seems more important than getting to the field for that first flight. I have been known to cut many corners late at night while looking forward to calm winds the next morning, and cosmetics are often high on the optional list. If that flight gets delayed though, adding some pinstripes is an easy way to dress up a new model a bit more and make those first flight photos even more special.

If there’s one maneuver that’s feared more than any other in the full-scale competition aerobatic world, it’s the rolling circle. I’ve actually been happy with scores of 4 out of 10 in competitions because that was better than the zero I expected! In my opinion, the rolling circle is the hardest precision aerobatic maneuver to fly consistently.

Even in today’s world of ARFs, modelers still enjoy creating their own aircraft. Many of these projects require a little creativity to enclose the powerplant. It may seem old-fashioned to build a cowl out of balsa, but there are several very compelling reasons to do so.

There is a homecoming of sorts that occurs each June in the plains of Central Illinois. Hosted by the Team Horizon manager, Peter Goldsmith, Missie Anderson and the wonderful staff at Horizon Hobby, the JR Aero Tow has arguably become the premier large scale soaring event in America. 2010 was no exception with just under 70 pilots flying a collection of over 300 models over four days while a very healthy crowd of spectators enjoyed the action.

DAY-BY-DAY SHOW COVERAGE by Tom Atwood Links:     Part 1      Part 2      Part 3      Part 4

DAY-BY-DAY SHOW COVERAGE by Tom Atwood Links:     Part 1      Part 2      Part 3      Part 4 We uncovered many more great new products on Sunday, April 3. The Toledo Weak Signals Expo is so large you just cannot see it all in a …

DAY-BY-DAY SHOW COVERAGE by Tom Atwood Links:     Part 1      Part 2      Part 3      Part 4 New Planes from Aeroworks… Aeroworks showed nearly half a dozen new planes. The new Edge 540 (above) got a lot of attention, as …