The Trailing Edge
Some modest goals for 2022.
We have successfully launched Volume 37 of the New RC Soaring Digest! We really hope that you have enjoyed what we have put together for you this month and we’re also really looking forward to bringing you 11 more numbers in 2022.
In his In The Air editorial which kicked off this issue, RCSD Managing Editor Terence C. Gannon made reference to 2022 being the year where “more content can be delivered in more formats”. For those of you who may be wondering, this does not herald a return to the beautifully realised PDFs of the Bill and Bunny Kuhlman era, unfortunately. That is something we would actually love to do, but it is simply not feasible in this era where we are expected to do (much) more with (much) less. You will, of course, be able to request reasonable facsimiles of any article — or the whole issue — in PDF format. There are links for these which appear at the bottom of each article. A number of readers have regularly taken the opportunity to submit requests and download these PDFs. We will continue to offer this service until there are consistently zero requests over the course of a few months.
One interesting project on which we’re working is adapting the RCSD content to additional news distribution services. While for the moment we can’t say which ones specifically, it’s just possible that your favourite RC soaring magazine might start showing up in places it has never been before. (Rhymes with dapple blues.) If we’re successful with this effort — and there are many bridges to cross before we are — we believe we’ll be getting to a whole new audience. This is very much consistent with Terence’s other stated goal for 2022: “to consciously reach out…to audiences with which we are not currently in touch”. We believe that these exciting new channels will make a whole bunch of new folks aware that ‘RC soaring is a thing’, as those audiences are wont to say.
In 2022 we would also like to get some ‘real time, contemporaneous events’ rolling. Or stated in a much less pompous way, scheduled events where you participate with other participants at one, scheduled block of time. There are Spaces on Twitter and en masse Zoom webinars, the latter with which many of you are all too familiar in the work-from-home world. We also have Slack setup and we just know there are a million potential applications for that, particularly in the mass build domain for example.
So please stay tuned in 2022 for all of that and of course, if you have any specific suggestions along those lines, please let us know. In addition, we’re often asked “what can I do to help?” and the answer is always two things: first, contribute articles or other kinds of material — that’s the lifeblood of a reader-written publication like RCSD. The second is to purchase something from the RCSD Shop — all proceeds go to support the rather substantial cost of keeping the New RC Soaring Digest an inviting reading experience as opposed to one completely obliterated by pop-ups and banner ads.
New in the RCSD Shop
OK, this is really (and we mean really) exciting. One of our readers and contributors, Chip Kaye, stepped forward and felt that he could add something to our product line in the RC Shop. Turns out that Chip is not only a talented writer but also a very talented graphic designer and he has come up with these wonderful designs above. We’re thrilled to be able to say that they are available now in the Shop, as they kick off our Designer Series collection. Check them out. You will truly be the coolest kid on the slope or at the field — or wherever great apparel is worn. And you can feel good about it, because all proceeds support a pristine, commercial-free New RC Soaring Digest.
Make Sure You Don’t Miss the New Issue
If you don’t want to miss the February issue of the New RC Soaring Digest make sure you subscribe to our Groups.io mailing list or connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or LinkedIn. And please share RCSD with your friends — we would love to have them as readers, too.
That’s it for this month! Thanks to all of our contributors and above all, thank you, the RCSD reader — without you, we’re nothing.
Now get out there and fly!
Read the previous article or go to the table of contents. A PDF version of this article, or the entire issue, is available upon request.
