Hacker USA’s Lee Estingoy was in Austria recently at an unusual flying meet – it was all about RC Paragliders. Yup, you read that right, these little gems were buzzing around the hills and they look awesome! We’ve …

By Scott Copeland Time for the two-dimensional world to add a third dimension! In the first two parts of this column (Fly RC April and May 2013) we’ve studied our plans, gathered our tools and carefully cut out …

Words by Scott Copeland Now we are cooking with gas! In our last installment, we discussed how to choose a building project and pointed out how to read the details of the plan. We have done some studying …

The propeller produces thrust and pulls the model airplane through the air, but what makes a model turn to the right or left, or rotate its nose up for a climb or down for a dive? The control …

A while back I wrote a two-part article in Fly RC magazine explaining how I scaled out the big 1/6-scale WACO SRE ARF from SIG. That article was essentially about getting rid of the plastic covering, getting the servos inside where they belong on any self-respecting scale job, and messing with the overall appearance by adding things like scale tail surface cross sections, fuselage stringers, door outlines and the like.

What Goes Up Must Come Down, Safely What a day! You got your brand new airplane to the local field and psyched yourself up for your first flight. After watching tons of videos online and reading everything you …

In this issue, guest columnist Bob Wilder,a longstanding RC modeler, briefly describes his rich background in RC and his rewarding experience teaching his granddaughter, Dana Wilder, to fly RC airplanes.

Flat spins are a spectacular maneuver in which the plane spins in a flat attitude while descending slowly, maintaining altitude or in some cases even gaining altitude. They are not especially difficult to perform, but require finesse to get a truly flat spin. The key to success in this maneuver is having a plane that is setup properly and capable of performing the maneuver.

If there’s one thing that is universal throughout the vast and varied realms of RC devices, glue has to be one of the top contenders. I don’t care if you’re a car and truck guy, a helicopter guy or, in the case of most of our readers for this publication, an RC airplane guy … your machine is going to need glue, thread locking compound or epoxy at some point or another in its existence.

For those new to the RC airplanes, all I can say is that “You’ve got it easy!” At no other time in the history of radio control aircraft has “the fruit” hung so low. The ARF and ready-to-fly market is enormous with offerings that range from micro-size indoor planes to giant-scale monsters.

Conquer Workshop Clutter This Weekend! If you have been in RC for a while you can probably relate to the inevitable crowded workshop corner where partially completed airframes sit mixed with those finished and flight ready, and maybe …

After bending a few aluminum landing gears on hard landings, I decided to make my own out of fiberglass and carbon fiber. My expertise as an engineer was designing carbon fiber structures and components for communication satellites so this endeavor was right up my alley. Many auto makers are now using carbon fiber composites for springs and body parts because they are not only lighter, they absorb energy better than steel and are three times stronger. For those same reasons, RC model airplane landing gear is a perfect application for composites.

The SD-10G is a 10-channel computer radio system that currently occupies the top spot in the Airtronics ‘Aircraft’ system lineup. The system boasts a rather comprehensive programming suite and supports aircraft, glider, and helicopter model types. It is …