A new release of the calculator is ready for your enjoyment:

- The European data server is finally here! For the website users from across the pond, the calculator should load twice as fast as before. New users get prompted at the registration page. If you already have an account, you may change your default user data server (United States) by going to My Account -> Edit -> User Information. Confused? Let me know. I copied the data for current users to the European server, so they can switch servers without losing any work.

- the components database grew dramatically:

• 500 pre-analyzed airfoils
• 300 airplanes
• 100 battery packs
• 30 speed controllers
• 250 motors
• 350 propellers
• 30 full-size airplanes
• 40 locations

- There is a fantastic new filter on every component editor tab. Click on the button next to the component name to bring up the window. Now you have a customizable sort order and a very powerful filter that can work against the input fields or the result fields. Just like the rest of the calculator, it is extremely fast. Frankly, I’m still learning all the possibilities that this new filter opens up.

- I rewrote the formulas for computing the airplane Climb Rate. The calculations are now more accurate, but you also get a new warning when you have a rocket instead of an airplane and the equations no longer apply.

- As always, there are many other improvements. The airfoils are now in a separate file (almost 1MB). If you don’t want them, don’t load them.

It took me over 100 hours to put the new filter together (I have thousands of hours invested in the calculator and website). I hope you enjoy the new features!

Help! Have you used the calculator? How about giving me some feedback by taking the Survey on the website? It only takes about a minute to fill out and the information it provides me is invaluable.

The next version of the calculator has been released! RCAdvisor is now officially out of the beta test period. The latest features include:

• 167 analyzed airfoils
• electric motor data for Hacker and Model Motors AXI
• greatly expanded high-level advice in the form of ToolTips
• user data saving to our server
• full support for English and metric units
• many other smaller improvements too numerous to list

Did we leave out a feature that you’d like to see? Fill out the survey and let us know!

RCAdvisor is one month old! Thank you for all the great feedback. I appreciate it all, both positive and negative.

The next major release of the calculator is scheduled for later this month. Here are the highlights for the features planned for that release:

• A brand new airplane editor will be here. It will allow you to enter the basic information from a manufacturer and predict it’s performance with a given power system.
• Expect a lot more preloaded data. Locations, airfoils and motors are already in the works. Others will be next.
• There are some features (*cough* bugs *cough*) in the charting library that I’m using now that are getting in the way of what I want to do. Expect an entirely new charting module. The new charts are more attractive and contain some nice touches, such as an indicator for the maximum point on a line.
• Many other small changes too numerous to mention. Numbers will be easier to read, performance will be better, etc.

Not all of the pieces for this new release are under my direct control, so it is very hard to predict exactly when it will be ready. There’s a very good chance I’ll be making an interim release in mid-February.