Welcome to PETE BANNON, JACK BRANDES, NIGEL COWARD, MAX GEORGE, RON HORSEY (special welcome to you, Ron!), SIMON NADLER and B. SUTHERLAND who have all recently joined the mailing list!

. . . I am sending pictures of Miss 2 and the other with Leonor at our mountain home.

ariascos@col1.telecom.com.co 

Thank you, Alvaro. Please don't forget you promised to let us see your Slowmowatt when it is finished. and it would be nice to see your Aqua Star as well! 

Had a look at the website and I think it great. Thanks for putting the photos up. Things are quiet over here - snow, frost, and worst of all, wind - so no flying. I did try to fly on Christmas day as usual, but I had three near misses with the ground, so I gave up.

We - David [Matthews - the guy with the beautiful F18 Hornet jet that we saw on #25] and myself - are looking into booking flights over to USA. David was invited to fly at Top Gun and I am tagging along!

aduffy@eircom.net 

Thanks for writing, Aiden. Please let us know if the States visit comes off and let's have a report and some pictures!

I made this Centre of Gravity rig in about a half hour and for something around a pound in cost! It is absolutely marvellous and goodness knows why I didn't make myself one years ago. It was "the Christmas present I nearly had" when my wife suggested buying me a £30 commercial gadget and on seeing a picture of it I thought, "I can make something like that for a lot less than thirty quid!". [Click on the picture for a larger view.]

. . . By the way, is there any way in which we can view back numbers? I wanted to read the issue containing the piece about aerial photography, as that is something I really do want to try.

P.S. I have already had an e-mail from Sweden concerning storage so your site reaches many parts. I wish you success with it as the ease of swift, international communication is one of the great things about the advent of the Internet. That just has to be a good thing.

geoffers@ntlworld.com 

Your CoG rig looks good, Geoff - so does the plane! I haven't got the web space to keep all my back issues on the net, but I have a few spare pages on this site where I am always happy to repeat something if requested.  I was pleased to hear you had a response to your request - I wonder who that was from? Tore or Johan perhaps, or maybe another Swedish reader?

[Note: On the original #26, Dereck Veliz's article on aerial photography was repeated here. This can now be selected from the ModelFlight archive index which you are using now.]

Reg, you may be interested to learn about the Friday Skivers Club. Owing to various working practices, a couple of us are able to have Fridays off and are able, subject to weather, to get in a full day flying. Membership currently is three - myself, Luis and Pete. We are actually learning to fly helis. I've a Raptor and Luis and Pete both have Shuttles. I'm still at training gear stage, Luis has just shed his and can hover, whereas Pete is starting to become adventurous. We can all fly fixed-wing.

Today we held our second monthly meeting - and what a lovely morning through to lunch time it was. Luis filled his and our wellies with his fluorescent green and red Shrike. Pete managed to get his heli to climb a tree before it did a hop, skip and wallop into the ground. and me? Well, I had to buy a Raptor crash kit!

However, all was not lost, because I had brought along a fixed wing, for flying this afternoon when two more honorary skivers turned up. She Who Must Be Obeyed had a good day 'cos I wasn't around!

john.hollinshead@v6406.freeserve.co.uk 

Nice one, Johny! Let's have some pictures of this exclusive little club and your models whilst they're still looking good! The trouble with helis is that they're never cheap to repair . . .

Just a quick hello from Australia. The weather here is perfect for flying, 25ºC and light winds. A few too many flies buzzing around than I would like but, well, that's how it is here.

I have got back into helicopters after a break of about 10 years. I got a Century Hawk SE. What a difference 10 years makes. My last helicopter was a Schluter Champion. The Hawk certainly flies well. I just have to learn how to do it again. Actually, it was a lot like riding a bike - you never forget. I find now that I am not in so much of a hurry, and I am progressing much better than I did 10 years ago (I haven't crashed yet).

This leads me to the "Pilot Proficiency Program" I got from a friend. He got it from IRCHA in the USA. It describes the things one should aim for to become a proficient heli pilot. Have a look at it and see what you think. The higher levels are a bit beyond us mere mortals, but the first few levels are something I think we should all aim for.

. . . I am going to Hong Kong on the 15th January. I will visit a few shops there. There is one called Cyber Heli. They sell lots of great "Hot Up" bits so I will probably spend a bit of money there.

I have a peep at your web site often. I do really feel as if I am a member of your club. Keep up the good work.

Thanks, Tom. Keep us posted on your heli progress, and how about a picture of your Hawk whilst she's still in pristine condition?

Level 1 of the Pilot Proficency Program wil be up on the air space page of the next update (#27) and we can all visit Cyber Heli on the site seeing page.

Reg,
Found your site tonight on the browser. 
I've just bought my first kit, a Flair Cub. It's a scratch-build kit which I bought to occupy my time as I've just packed up smoking as a New Year's Resolution. If it's of any interest to you for the site, I've taken pictures of the different stages of the build - I'm currently at the servo stage) which I can send you. Let me know if they are any use.
As I'm completely new to this pastime, you will have to bear with me and my lack of knowledge (three days ago I didn't know what an elevator was!). I hope to get it ready for flight within the next month and then hopefully I can find somebody with enough patience to teach me to fly it.
Any hints you might have or pages which go into more detail about actually setting the plane up for flying would be greatly appreciated.

Matsecsol@aol.com 

I've already congratulated Mike on giving up smoking for aero-modelling and wished him every success with both objectives! I think the Flair Cub looks lovely and I admire Mike for getting straight into building!

The best advice I can give, Mike, is to follow the kit instructions on initial setting up, and join a club from the word 'go'. There you will find help, practical advice and training as well as fun and fellowship with a good bunch of lads (and, rarely, lasses). Check if your club uses buddy-box training and, if so, get a compatible transmitter so that you can benefit from it. A lot of club websites also have some excellent pages for beginners - the HMAC page up on the club scene page is a good example.

I had just finished working on the new 'models in the making' page when Mike's e-mail arrived, so he knows that his progress pictures will be especially welcome.

Thank you so very much for linking to us at RCezine. Your support for our new adventure is admirable and very much appreciated. I'll make sure we reciprocate very soon. I have been to your web site before and it is awesome. It seems you are a one-man-band with the same intentions that we have, to provide a good place to find information and entertainment about RC. Well done!!!

Again, thank you VERY much for your support.

cuban8@kiva.net 

Thanks for that, Frank, nice of you to write.

Frank tells me that they continue to look for folk who might like to become columnists or contributing writers. The glider columnist spot is still open, although it is on offer to a top Australian glider pilot. UK folk would be particularly welcome to help expand their global coverage.

Look on the photo gallery page to see the winner of RCezine's January issue 'cover' photo competition.

• Had a good bit of flying recently or has the weather let you down?
• Enjoyed visiting a show?
• Learned something new and feeling chuffed about it?
• Had a spectacular crash?
• Bought a new model?
• One of the kids started in the hobby?
• How's that new kit progressing?
• Got a question that someone might be able to answer?  

There must be lots you can write to ModelFlight about, so click on the post-box at the top of the page and get in touch! 

If you write to me at ModelFlight, I will automatically add your e-mail address to my mailing list to send you a brief reminder each time a new update is uploaded to the web. If you do not want to receive the reminder, please let me know and I will ensure that your address is excluded from the list.