site seeing

"The up and coming website for all R/C aircraft enthusiasts"

This attractive little website is put out by a guy called Mark, and features some nice subject matter.

As you see here, the home page is very neat and tidy, nicely designed with nine small icons linking to some interesting material - chat, links, for sale, reviews, uk weather, soap box, what's on, other stuff and contact us.

Most of those items are pretty-well self-explanatory, but even so one or two are worth particular mention. The reviews page carries some really good, in-depth reviews of half a dozen or so model kits, together with the invitation for more submissions from builders, kit-makers or distributors. There's a great review by Kevin Routledge of the Duncan Hutson DH82a Tiger Moth kit, for instance, and I've put a couple of pictures of Kevin's mouth-watering model up on photo gallery.

Soap box is where Mark takes the opportunity to 'have a good old moan and put the world to rights', emphasising that any ranting and raving that he does is only HIS opinion. Nevertheless, I suspect a lot of others will share his views - and you

Other stuff is 'for those of us who have nothing better to do' and is an eclectic mix (is that a tautology?) of bits and pieces that might interest, amuse or even challenge.

You might be wondering where the 'open minded' bit comes in as mentioned in the site title. I could be wrong, but that appears to be from the running news headings that scroll across the bottom of the home page (not visible in my miniature above) and which are links to a news site called ShortNews.com which carries not only conventional national headlines but a few that might be described as slightly saucy or risqué - tabloid newspaper sort of stuff - but you don't have to click it if you don't want to see it!

Nice site, Mark, and all the best with it.

http://www.rcportal.co.uk

Two rather special sites here for you . . .

Jim Kiger's
Replicraft

Jim Kiger's very nice site specialises in the supply of his own top-quality plan sets, developed from a life-time in aer-modelling and his own dissatisfaction with the quality of many so-called "Master Plans" generally available.

Jim's plans are produced following careful research, using only authentic information and mostly from 100% original factory drawings, construction and rigging manuals. They are used by a host of world-class r/c modellers and full-size builders and are regarded as extremely collectable by those who have pleasure in simply owning a truly accurate set of drawings.

Although Jim's site states that no personal cheques are acceptable from customers outside of the USA, don't let that jput you off - you can pay by cash sent by insured mail or a bank cheque which should show on it a clearing branch in the USA - just enquire from your own local bank.

Here's the Replicraft URL:
http://home.pacbell.net/fraze/replicraft.html

Gary Moscardini's

Here's a site dedicated solely to radio-control flight simulation, and I take my hat off to Gary for all the research he must have put in to collect so much useful information on this subject.

The site provides direct access to the source of every major retailed model simulator - Truflite, Realflight, CSM, RCFS 2001, Aerofly, Ripmax R/C Sim, Ikarus Easy/Piccolo and Helix. In addition - and here's the bonus! - it also offers no less than eight free simulators for download. Some of this freeware stuff is absolutely amazing, with programming at a level that is truly staggering. One of the best is featured on air space this issue.

Most of the simulators featured, both retail and free, can be operated from r/c transmitters if linked to a suitable interface and the site contains technical information for making such interfaces yourself if you have the necessary technical skills (there's one for the Truflite sim that can be built for under £20, for instance). Alternatively, sources of supply for ready-made interfaces are also given.

Find RC Simulators at
http://www.geocities.com/rcsim_uk