Construction Series
I saw a recent post in an online forum asking why Model Aviation doesn’t occasionally include free pullout plans. That’s a good question and one that I answered online, but I also want to touch on it here in the magazine.
The October 2013 issue was dedicated to building. When I was putting it together, I wanted to provide the readers with a set of full-size pullout plans for the Piper Pacer. I found that the cost to offer a single set of plans inside every issue of the magazine would be $12,027; therefore I opted to provide the free plans digitally via www.ModelAviation.com.
Two free sets of plans were provided with the October 2013 issue and one set with the October 2014 issue. Park Pilot magazine often has free plans that are offered digitally as well.
Beyond the construction features that we frequently publish, I am happy to share with you the first installment of the “Model Aviation Construction Series.” This monthly feature will consist of self-contained articles teaching the fundamentals of model building.
Paul Kohlmann has authored several installments of the series. His name might be familiar to some readers because he designed the Grumman Goose featured in the May 2012 issue.
Paul has designed and built several models and we look forward to sharing his knowledge with our readers. You will also find other contributors to this series as it progresses.
AMA Expo 2015
AMA Expo 2015 was held January 9-11, in Ontario, California. The trade show was well attended and vendors and manufacturers had plenty of interesting products on display.
One of the guest speakers at the convention was Tyler Collins, director of business development at PrecisionHawk, a commercial Unmanned Aircraft Systems company. Tyler is featured in this month’s installment of “I Am the AMA.”
To find out more about the AMA Expo and watch several video interviews, visit www.ModelAviation.com and click on “Features.” We will cover the event in a future issue of Model Aviation.
And the Survey Says …
Because we care what you think, we began randomly surveying Model Aviation readers to see how we could improve the magazine. One complaint was that the publication uses too many hard-to-comprehend acronyms and abbreviations—especially for those new to the hobby.
To make our publication easier to understand and to better explain the abbreviations and acronyms used within the hobby, we will now use complete terms in the text, and only after the term has been explained will we use an abbreviation or acronym.
We also have updated our “Frequently Used Abbreviations/Acronyms” list located on page XX. We will continue to use common industry abbreviations such as ARF, FPV, and FAA, but terms such as electric ducted fan (EDF), leading edge (LE), and center of gravity (CG) will be spelled out. We hope this will help those new to aeromodeling better understand what this fun sport is all about.
If you have other suggestions for how to improve Model Aviation, please contact me at the email address above or call me at (800) 435-9262, ext. 225. I love hearing from our readers and am always looking for ways to make this publication the best that it can be.
