Paul Witco from New Jersey has designed a very interesting flying wing model (image attached). He says that he was inspired by my discussion of the Inverse Zimmerman wing planform in RCadvisor’s Model Airplane Design made Easy:

“This prototype has a GoBrushless MiniGBx motor, 7x3.5 GWS-DD prop, 2s300mah Lipo, and weighs about 3-1/2 to 4 ounces. The wingspan is 24” and it glides really well. I plan a larger (about 48”) one for further testing.”

This one was a long time in coming. I just released a new version of the calculator with a long list of changes and improvements. Highlights:

• Huge update on the component database. There are now over 8,000 preloaded components (airplanes, motors, etc). While I was at it, I cleaned up the component database. Many components of questionable quality have been removed from the combined database.
• Recomputed airfoil database. This one took a year of number crunching. Look for smoother lines in most of the charts and more accurate results throughout. You see, the airfoil calculations are at the core of most of the calculator’s fast results.
• Data is now being served from a global server cloud. What this means is that regardless of where in the world you are located, the calculator will load without delay. This change obsoleted the old United States or Europe data server location setting, so it has been removed.
• The tutorials are now also being distributed through this global server cloud.
• New support for Spanish! The calculator will try and pick up the language setting from your operating system and web browser. You can also just use the drop down dialog box in the Admin tab. Not all of the text has been translated, but most of it has.
• Adobe Flash 10 incorporates a new security model to protect your computer from malicious attacks. Unfortunately, it also broke some functionality in good applications (like my calculator). The main difference is that the user data autosave couldn’t work anymore. Regrettably, I’ve removed this feature. Be sure and hit the Save Data button in the Admin tab.

I have a new regular segment over at The Crash Cast called “Ask the RCadvisor”. Most weeks I will spend about ten minutes answering an RC-related question that I’ve been asked. I promise they will all be interesting questions and hopefully you will learn something from my response.

The first segment is in this week’s episode (#54). So have a listen and let me know how you like it!

Do you have a question of your own that you’ve been puzzling over? Then ask away!

I don’t know why I hadn’t done this before, but now Flight Pack purchases include a free three month calculator subscription. Get them while they are hot!

While I was at it, I made a couple of other website changes.

I added the ModiFly airplane video to the ModiFly book page. It does a good job of showing just how nice a flyer it is.

I’ve changed how the website keeps track of the calculator subscriptions. They used to be called “Subscriptions” and were tied to specific products. Now they are tied to the “Subscribed User” role. It makes no difference from the subscriber’s point of view, but the change decreases the amount of manual website maintenance that I have to do. With hundreds of paid calculator subscribers, even a little bit of maintenance can turn into a time consuming chore.

Mike “Crash” Hancock from the The Crash Cast just interviewed me again. I had a great time! We chatted about my recent military UAV design work and the UAV industry in general. I got an opportunity to drop some hints about other projects I’m working on. It was a good interview - have a listen!

The January 2009 issue of Model Aviation, on page 39, features an article I wrote about spread spectrum radio systems. Despite the easy reading, it’s surprisingly technical in nature:

 “One trick that our DSS radio systems use is to stretch the signal transmitted so that it works within the entire band, or spectrum of radio frequencies.”

The October 2009 issue of Model Aviation magazine mentions my latest book twice. Page 14, Worth a Closer Look, says:

 “If you’re like many of us, you need to read RCadvisor.com’s new book about designing and building RC models.”

On page 90, Small-Field Flying column, Paul Bradley had some more nice words:

 “Even experienced designers and builders are likely to learn something from this book; I did.”

After only 21 months since we launched the website, the number of registered website users just blew right past 5,000. Thank you, and welcome!

Writing my second book, RCadvisor’s ModiFly, was at least as much work as writing my first book. Based on that, I priced both books the same.

But it is clear to me now that the ModiFly model airplane design was just the first of what I hope will be many new designs. I’m close to finalizing the designs of a motorglider and a pylon racer, for example. These new designs will be published as smaller books of about 100 pages, selling for $9.95 each. The books will form a “Designer Series”. Each one will cover the motivations, design tradeoffs, detailed building instructions, and ideas for modifying the design.

In light of that, a price adjustment on the ModiFly book was in order. Effective immediately, the price for that book has dropped to just $14.95. It is longer than the books that will follow, and it will continue to be a great starting point for new scratch builders.