No 52
January 12, 2002

Hi friends,

Is ModelFlight a trend-setter? RCM&E, which proclaims itself "Britain's best-selling model aircraft mag" is about to launch a new feature entitled "Club Pictorial" for the sole intention of providing the means by which model flying clubs can bring themselves "to the attention of the modelling masses" - I wonder if they might have seen our 'club scene' on which 46 world-wide clubs have so far been featured? I doubt it, of course, but it would be nice to think we might have inspired them!

For the record, this lovely Mustang of Harold Clark's that appeared on last issue's opening screen and photo gallery was first flown last year (2001) and not 2000 as my accompanying text implied. Harold used the term 'last year' thinking that his model would probably appear on Modelflight some time in 2002 - I was quicker off the mark than he expected! Actually, I think it's worth saying that if you take the time and trouble to send me material for the site, I always do my best to put it up on the next immediate issue if I possibly can. Very occasionally, I will hold material over if I already have several items for a particular page, mainly to give due attention to your offerings rather than have them vying for attention (and it's quite nice to have something in stock!). By the way, that little pic is a thumbnail, so just click on it if you want to have another good look at Harold's superb model.

archive

To overcome recent difficulties in up-dating the ModelFlight archive, it is going to be moved to a new and faster server through the hosting services of angryrhino.com, a web-hosting company run by our friend Gary Clemans-Gibbon who also owns the great FREE r/c classified advertising site RC Pages. The switch-over is going to be a big up-loading job for me, so the archive will not be accessible for a time whilst this essential maintenance is carried out. I will let you know when it's up and running again.

Frank Shears has announced that his brilliant free monthly Internet magazine RCezine is ceasing publication with the issue currently on the web (http://www.rcezine.com), although noises off suggest that someone might come up with a plan to keep it going. Frank's day job workload has increased to the point where he cannot any longer continue editing and publishing RCezine as he must devote considerably more time to his 'paying' job. The readership of the mag was staggering, with hits well in excess of 100,000 from over 4,000 visitors in a typical month - big enough to attract serious advertising! There are clearly many of us who have enjoyed the publication and, although I am obviously not qualified to speak on their behalf, I am sure they would join me in thanking Frank for his great contribution to our hobby. As a sort of small tribute, I have reproduced the cover of Frank's final issue as the opening screen on this issue of ModelFlight which, incidentally, sees the completion of our second year of publication. All the best, Frank - here's hoping you will drop in on ModelFlight from time to time; you are certainly most welcome! 

Regards to all,

If you are not already receiving a reminder each time a new issue of ModelFlight is published every two weeks, but would like to do so, please click on the e-mail icon and send me an e-mail giving your name and simply saying "reminder" and I will be very pleased to add you to my e-mailing list. I send the reminder through the Yahoo! groups service.

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Reg Heath · 60 South View Gardens · Andover · Hants · SP10 2AQ · UK