Tips Bench Tuesday - Marker Pen Weathering Effects

A weathered model always stands out from the crowd and as an owner serves to create a greater sense of pride in said ownership of such a model. Out of the box, it's the same as everyone else's, a great-looking model sure, but nevertheless the same. And yet by investing just a little time, effort, and patience and stepping into the fold of weathering your camouflaged warbird, you really end up with a model that is 'yours' in the truest sense of the word.

Tips Bench Tuesday - Hand Launching Best Practices

Hand launching and the thought of doing it by yourself especially, have often brought up thoughts of carnage and despair in many people's minds. But taking a model and throwing it into the air is a lot less daunting than people think and in this blog post and the video below we explain not only how, but why.

Mod Tech Monday - Gloster Gladiator Painting and Weathering Part 1

The recently released Durafly Gladiator helpfully comes out of the box painted but WITHOUT the decals applied, so is screaming out for a custom scheme, and with some basic tools, readily available paints, and a good bit of patience you can quite easily paint and weather the Gladiator to really make it stand out from the crowd.

What is Buddy Boxing?

Buddy boxing or buddy box refers to a training system where two RC aircraft radio systems are joined together so an experienced pilot teaches a beginner pilot how to fly their aircraft.

Buddy boxing is accomplished by joining the Student and Master transmitters via cable or wireless. The instructor gives the student control of the aircraft via a switch (or button) on most transmitters. At the same time, in case the student has problems piloting, the instructor can regain control by pressing the switch.

Meet RCPilot.com

Log On, Take Off: A Social Media Platform for RC Pilots

RCPilot.com is the newest and most innovative online platform for RC enthusiasts ever to hit the internet. That’s a bold claim by the creators of RCPilot that we wanted to test. Here’s what we found.

In 1964, Bill Stead organized an air race near Reno, Nevada, and the Reno National Championship Air Races were born. Since then, Reno Air Races, officially known as the STIHL National Championship Air Races, takes place every September at the Reno Stead Airport a few miles north of Reno, Nevada with races in 6 classes and demonstrations by airshow pilots.

What is Outerzone? Outerzone is a database containing model RC aircraft plans from vintage or defunct plans. Since 2011, Outerzone is an RC-community-backed site that started mainly as a repository for free flight, control line, radio control, and Round-the-pole airplane plans for balsa models to keep those plans from being lost in time and for future pilots to enjoy. Outerzone.co.uk now has over 13,000 plans for download and regularly receives new plans from the community.

This guide - as the title says - is a ROUGH guide and offers a basis from which to choose a power train for your model. It is not intended to be a definitive guide but will help you get into the air with performance that will make your introduction to electric RC flying enjoyable.

Back in the day, most, if not all RC planes were powered by internal combustion (IC) engines. However, today, electric-powered planes (EP) easily make up the majority of the commercial market. So, the question is: Are EP planes better than IC planes? The short answer is “NO” - they both have their own pros and cons and in today’s blog, we will (objectively) look at both power choices.

Center of Gravity – abbreviated as CG or CoG – is a crucial concept that is often overlooked by many beginner RC pilots. When not properly balanced, your aircraft will have adverse tendencies making it uncontrollable, unpredictable, and ultimately, poised for a disaster.