Letters to the Editor
Around the world with stops in Portugal, India, the United States, the United Kingdom and Poland.
Another Source for Martin Simons Books
First of all congratulations on the magazine, it is fantastic. Just saw the article on Martin Simons and would like to inform you and the article’s author that other books by Martin Simons are available new in English, directly from the German publisher EQIP — they are super friendly. You can have the three book set or each book individually. I have all three and they are amazing.
Best wishes from Portugal,
João Monteiro
Thanks so much for your kind words about the New RCSD, João. The link you sent looks great, thank you for the recommendation and we have added it to the Resources section below. — Ed.
Dispatch from Indore, India
In response to the question posed in last month’s In The Air, a long-time reader responds:
Glad RCSD is still around, I joined over 10 years ago. How many participants? There were about 2500 subscribers then. Wonder how many now?
One of our fellow flyers leased a plot three miles off the highway, and built a proper model airport, mowed runway, night lights, air conditioned hangar etc. Had a wonderful time there for a couple of years, till it got shut down due to some unfortunate circumstances. Fortunately another fellow flyer owns a cricket ground just beyond restricted airspace red zone. Post COVID we hope to start flying there again.
Here’s a short video of my Sunbird flying there about six years ago. In a thermal after about 22 seconds from launch! Age 70, flying soarers 55 years, global moderator of RC India.
Regards,
Krishna Kumar (KK) Iyer
Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India
KK — thanks so much for your letter and thank you for your kind words. You’re absolutely right: we can use our own social media platforms to provide additional data points as to the size of the RC soaring community. The direct answer to your question: we currently have 2,399 addresses on our mailing list. Along the same lines, we have 2,920 followers on Facebook, 1,609 on Instagram, 870 on Medium and a couple of hundred more split between Twitter and LinkedIn. We have added the link to your video in Resources, below. Finally, please consider writing an article for RCSD.We would love to feature more news of RC soaring in India!— Ed.
‘Latest Insanity’ Not So Insane after All
I maidened the 2m ASW-15 this morning. It flies! To my amazement the little sloper zipped around the sky like it had been designed for a ducted fan. The turbine-like sound, though not loud, is kinda cool, too. A little right rudder was all the trim that was needed. I was pleasantly surprised at how flat the -15 glides with the motor off. Only about 10% throttle is needed to maintain level flight. At full chat, near vertical climb is available with the 4S/1800 battery pack. The heavy little thing glides very fast, which makes it a real challenge to land with no flaps. Anyway, it’s the closest I can get to slope soaring sans slope. Good fun! Worth all the effort.
I took photos during construction and will incorporate them into an article for RCSD. Will try to get some in-flight video, as well.
Waid Reynolds
Green Valley, Arizona
Waid — thank you so much for the follow up from last month’s letter and congratulations on the successful first flight of what should now be called the ASW-15J? We’re looking forward to the article, as I’m sure all RCSD readers are as well. — Ed.
It’s Called a Teaser, Folks
I’m going to be a bit pushed to put something together for the next issue, so how about a teaser pic for a feature on the Rhonadler 35 next time around?
Chris Williams
Dorset, England
That totally works for us, Chris. Can’t wait to see the full article. — Ed.
Likes the Novel Way Information Is Presented
A faithful reader in Poland sent in some wonderful photographs and (as we always do) sought permission to run them in the New RCSD:
Of course you can use my photographs. I must admit that I am curious how you want to use the content. Personally — I wouldn’t be able to use it in a way that would interest another reader. But I like your articles and I always look forward to them. Like most of the photos posted on your website, I am delighted. Sometimes they are even ‘works of art’!
The content of most articles is basically known to me — 50 years ago I obtained electronic education — but I always admire authors for the structured presentation of this information. That is, the way of passing it on and ‘selling’ it to young people — seems interesting to me and I wanted to see whether it will be more effective than traditional knowledge in physics lessons in primary school?
Jurek Markiton
Poland
Thanks, Jurek, for your kind words and your beautiful photos. Just so you know, we have also featured them in this months Lift over Drag and In The Air articles where they provided great inspiration for the written text. It seems like you are doing a wonderful job of attracting many new, young participants to the hobby! — Ed.
Resources
- EQIP Werbung & Verlag GmbH — Another, highly recommended source for Martin Simon’s books.
- RC Indore Sunbird Electric Glider — KK Inyer’s video of his Sunbird in action. What a beautiful, unobstructed flying field.
- RC India — The premier online resource serving the RC community in India. Lots of great material including (even if we do say ourselves) the index to the New RCSD, which we post every month in the Chatter Zone.
Send your letter via email to NewRCSoaringDigest@gmail.com with the subject ‘Letters to the Editor’. We are not obliged to publish any letter we receive and we reserve the right to edit your letter as we see fit to make it suitable for publication. We do not publish letters where the real identity of the author cannot be clearly established.
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