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Once I finish building an airplane, I immediately build a stand for it. Why? Because such a stand stabilizes the fuselage and makes it easy to attach the wing, or connect the servo wires, etc., and it also protects the plane from your workbench. Whenever you set a fuselage down anywhere, you invite problems. When the fuselage lies inverted, the fin and rudder, the canopy and cowl and the glow plug are stressed as you jiggle the plane around while you prepare it for flight. An inexpensive, easy-to-make PVC pipe stand eliminates the chance of your having these problems.

Skyshark designed this scale Bf-109for .60 2-stroke to .90 4-stroke sizeglow engines, but I decided to convert it to electric flight by installing a power system consisting of an AXI 5320-28 brushless outrunner motor, 8-cell BalancePro HD Li-Poly pack and Jeti Advance 90 Plus speed control. With well over 100 watts per pound, this classic WWII warbird offers unlimited vertical, smooth performance,and a mixed-flying duration of 7 to 10 minutes. This project is a testament to the advantages of electric power for scale warbirdapplications.

With more and more folks chasing RTF and ARF park flyer aircraft, I increasingly hear guys at the field discussing various 3D maneuvers. I kept thinking of ways to help people understand the basics behind flying certain maneuvers. Most of these entail giving proper inputs while the plane changes its attitude in the air.

Every now and then, I hear a little voice that commands me to do things. My little voice came up with a winner recently. I had a Multiplex Acromaster kit waiting to be assembled. I noted that the fuselage and wings are actually made in a clamshell fashion with hollows inside to save weight. Furthermore, the Elapor foam glows very nicely when illuminated from within.

Forberg's little twin is ideally suited for larger indoor sites, or for flying outdoors in your back yard or the local school ball field on calm evenings. The two GWS brushed motors and single ESC promise economical operation. Construction goes quickly, and you can build with any common sheet foam materials, or even balsa.

Another in Leon Shulman's series of foam old timers, Chester Lanzo's Lanzo Bomber is one of the most popular and successful old timers out there. Download the first PDF file below and take it to your local Kinko's or other print shop with an oversize printer, or download the set of files needed to print the plan on 12 letter size sheets.

The July 2007 issue of Fly RC contains a free pull out plan for the Blue Flash, a glow powered .25-.40 size sport flyer.

Thayer Syme designed his Micro Drake seaplane around ParkZone's 2.4GHz submicro equipment as introduced in their Minium Cessna Centurion. This diminutive flying boat spans 16 inches and weighs a scant .6 ounces. The Micro Drake will take off from a smooth surface such as a gym floor, and can even lift off the water in zero wind conditions. Download the plan offered here, and build your own Micro Drake for your backyard pool or the local school gym.

Way back 66 years ago I designed an original free flight tailless model I called the Lil Misery. Why that name? I can’t remember! The plans and a construction article for it were published in the July 1942 issue of Air Trails magazine. Lil Misery spanned 50 inches and flew great. It was powered with a spark ignition Atom engine and was very stable.

Bob Aberle's delightful version of this rarely modeled post-war observation plane is designed for flying in a local park or ball field with lightweight electric power. There are two versions of the plan available for free download. The single sheet plan measures 24 x 36 and can be printed at any print shop with a large format printer.

Scott's Micro Staggerwing is a tour de force in micro scale RC modeling. It was his wish that we share his plan for this model with our readers, and so we have decided to make it available as a free download to encourage as many people as possible to build a version of their own.

This kit has been on the market for a while, so I won’t review the product. Instead, I’ll concentrate on what I had to do to turn the stock Top Flite DC-3 kit into a successful electric-powered model. I will also explain the changes I made to finish it as a C-47 and to enhance its appeal as a super-scale model.