December 2022
Where in the world is the New RCSD?
From our friend Sverrir Gunnlaugsson we recently received an absolutely fabulous write-up of the F3F World Championship in Denmark which ran from October 2nd through 8th of this year. Hopefully without stealing any of Sverrir’s thunder, the well-run event hosted 54 competitors from 17 nations around the world. The descriptions and photos — just a few of which are featured in this edition of Lift over Drag — really puts you there. It’s brilliant work and well worth picking up the issue for this one article alone. That said, when you check out In This Issue immediately below, you will see there is lots of other great stuff as well.
We’re overjoyed to hear that face-to-face competition is back after a much-too-long hiatus. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that we have all of that behind us — permanently.
We were so impressed by the number of countries represented, it got us thinking about just how many countries in which you will find readers of the New RCSD. We have always had a feeling it was a pretty good number, but when we consulted our GDPR-compliant analytics tool (Fathom, see Resources below) we were — candidly — blown away. The final tally came to a globe-girdling one-hundred-and-six (106!) We were so pleased and proud we even created a little memento of this auspicious occasion which we have in The RCSD Shop, below.
In This Issue
But before we get to that, here are a few of the highlights from the upcoming issue:
- In The Launch Zone we have The Ed’s latest missive subtitled, curiously, The French have a word for it as well as a welcome return of Letters to the Editor, Cool New Stuff and the spectacular F3F World Championship write-up mentioned above.
- We have some great Features this month: Philip L. Richardson of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution provides the science — and math — behind high speed dynamic soaring. Marc Panton finishes up and flies the Rico-SHE he started in the November issue. Domenico Bosco provides the next fascinating instalment of his Dream 2700 design/build/fly. Our old friend Rene Wallage returns with a new nugget and Vincent de Bode finishes his series on the Slingsby King Kite.
- We have our beloved Ongoing Series once more with return visits from Peter Scott, Chuck Fulton and Tom Broeski with their Science for Model Flyers, Soaring the Sky Podcast and another time-saving tip, respectively.
- Amongst our usual stories in Retrospectives, we have our annual celebration of Wright-mas (see Resources) with an amazing story by Simine Short: The Year of 1911 in Aviation…and the Wright Glider. It’s a stunner and puts you right there on the bluffs of Kitty Hawk on arguably the day recreational soaring began.
And, of course, we’ll be putting a bow on the whole package with The Trailing Edge. Without a doubt, there will be a few surprises on the journey from here to deadline — tune in to find out what these turn out to be.
Featured in The RCSD Shop
This brand new addition to our collection of quality logo merch features the flags of all 106 countries where the New RCSD is read — we think it looks just great, particularly when set against the light grey or white. But that’s just us — you may want something a bit jazzier. It’s a tribute to our readers all around the world and a thank you to them rolled into one.
Also, here’s a special BFCM-ish offer exclusively for Lift over Drag readers who had the patience to read this far: a whopping 25% off this beautiful shirt through the end of November 2022. That’s just a few days from now so you had better act quickly. Order your Where in the World is the New RCSD? t-shirt today and simply enter code BFCM2022 at checkout.
Don’t Want to Miss December 2022?
It’s out in just a few days, so if you don’t want to miss the next issue of the New RC Soaring Digest make sure you connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or LinkedIn or subscribe to our Groups.io mailing list. And please share Lift over Drag with your friends because we would love to have them as readers, too!
One final thought: wouldn’t it be amazing if a future F3F World Championship were to feature hundreds of competitors from — dare we dream? — over 100 countries from around the world — we now know where they all are!
With that inspiring thought we wish you fair winds, blue skies and all the best for the holiday season to everyone. Now, without further ado — get out there and fly!
©2022 The New RC Soaring Digest Staff
Resources
- Fathom — The analytics tool employed by the New RCSD, which is how we determined the countries in which we’re read as discussed above.
- In The Air: December and the annual rite of Wright-mas. — “the rather fanciful, hocus pocus festival on the 25th came in a dim and distant second place to a much more significant event occurring eight days before. On my calendar that was, of course, Wright-mas…”
