In The Air
Welcome back. We really missed you.
In his first monthly editorial, Terence C. Gannon, the recently appointed Managing Editor of the NEW R/C Soaring Digest, pays tribute to the past and talks about the future of the publication.
I am both humbled and honoured — and a little nervous — to bring you the very first issue of the NEW R/C Soaring Digest. Officially, this is Volume 36, Number 1 which means that RCSD published for an unbroken run of over 400 issues sweeping across 35 years concluding in December of 2018. Most recently, it was very ably published by Bill and Bunny Kuhlman. My first happy duty, therefore, is to thank them for their years of hard work in producing a beautiful publication we all loved to read every month. I am delighted to announce they have agreed to stay on as Editors Emeritus of the new publication. I would also like to thank them for making the assumption of this new role a true pleasure. I only hope I can do their legacy proud in this and future issues.
I’m anxious not to get in the way of your reading the articles I have curated for you this month, but a few preliminary comments are in order:
The first and most obvious is that RCSD is being delivered in an entirely new way. It’s now a fully digital publication suitable for reading on your desktop or laptop. But is also designed to flex so it can be read just as easily on your tablet or phone where a staggering amount of online material is consumed these days. Candidly, the new format may intially be a little jarring to readers, but I also believe that its benefits outweigh any disadvantages over the long term. The new platform is also an integral part of a new mode of operating which keeps costs low — that translates to a vastly improved reading experience. I am committed to keeping advertising — particularly those truly awful pop-up ads — out of the journal permanently. We have some innovative revenue programs in the works which I will talk about in future issues.
However, beyond this new method of delivering RCSD to you, my objective is to bring forward as many of the values and as much of the culture of the original publication as I can. First amongst these, RCSD will continue to be a free — there will be absolutely no charge and no other encumbrance to simply reading the publication each month. Second, RCSD was and will continue to be a reader written publication: it will depend on your story contributions to fill out each issue. If you have enjoyed articles in the past, please consider contributing one of your own in the future. From how-tos on high tech composites, to photo essays, to personal memoires and everything in between, anything goes. To help you start on your writing journey, this issue features Writing for RCSD: Steps, Guidelines and a Few Pro Tips for Authors. At just eight minutes, it will still take longer to read than it will actually take to go through the steps to get started.
Another exciting capability that we’ll be rolling out in the coming months is richer content. RCSD has always been greatly admired for its text and photographic content. In the future the journal will also be adding video content and a great way of embedding large format PDFs such as detailed plans and three views. Spoiler alert: you’ll need to brush up on your panning and zooming skills. I’m planning on using future In The Air editorials to talk about some of the other exciting additions to the publication.
Before I turn you loose on the rest of this month’s issue, a couple of groups to thank: first, thanks to all the authors who contributed to this issue. Finally thank you, the treasured reader, for your support of RCSD both in the past and in the future. If there is anything on your mind that you would like to discuss, by all means, please get in touch. I really hope you enjoy what we manage to cobble together for you each month.
Fair winds and blue skies!
The beautiful cover photo for this issue is provided through the tireless efforts of Ian Cummings. Please check out Ian’s work at Ian Cummings Photography. Now, read the first article of this issue or go back to the table of contents. Downloadable PDFs: article issue
