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.”

Long time website visitors might remember the model airplane design contest I held two years ago. The winner was ggtronic (Yves Auger) with his very interesting camera plane.

Yves just emailed me to let me know that he will be hosting a 30 minute TV show about model airplane design for aerial photography. He sent me a link to some of the videos he’s shot with his model airplane. The videos are very nice and definitely worth a look. He reports that my books and online calculator have been very helpful to him.

My French is close to non-existent, but he says that the show is called “Les Trippeux”. Yves says that the show is about people that push the limits following their passions. It sounds to me like a perfect fit!

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!

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!

I just returned to Albuquerque from a three month consulting project in New England. My job was to design a high performance robotic model airplane for the American armed forces. The prototype meets all of the mission requirements and the client is extremely happy. Yay!

The military UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) industry is a far cry from the hobbyist radio control model airplane industry. It was a fascinating experience, and I’ve come back full of new ideas.

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.

I just got an email from Ken Myers, editor of the Ampeer. He reports on the ModiFly’s ability to handle high winds:

 “Hi Carlos,

Thanks for a fun little plane that can handle the wind,
Ken”