Links, Links, Links...

Think U Know Global network of professionals with a passion for protecting young ones. Advice on how to stay safe online.

EFlightWiki Do you know what a 'Wiki' is? Visit this site to either learn about electrics or contribute your experience.

electrifly The new 'electrifly' forum is worth visiting if you want to ask for some advice or see what others are doing.

EZone The EZone has to be in your 'favourites' as it is an outstanding site. Free online magazine and huge reference database. Very addictive discussion forum! The search capability allows you to find almost anything, and if not, just ask the rest of the world!

The Future is Electric A major electric modelling site by Ken Myers. Free on-line monthly newsletter. Every link you can imagine. ESSENTIAL READING is shaw1(...4).pdf (755kb) which will help you design and lighten aircraft. On the same page scale.pdf suggests that Clark Y and NACA 2412/2410 are good airfoils for models.

BEFA is the specialist association for Electric's in the UK. Has a very good guide for newcomers to Electrics.

Ornithopters The O Zone 'Flapping Flight Forum' is not about electrics but 'Freebird 2' is great for a little fun when you next fly indoors.

Eflight 101 A solid collection of links relating to electric flight.

LRK Group 'Advanced' discussion group for LRK and CDRom motors. The daily summary is a good way to stay in touch.

POWER CROCO Outstanding site by Ralph Okin. Ralph drove the development of the Crocodile motors based on his earlier experience with motors based on Iomega Ditto drives.

PROFILIOutstanding program for designing airfoils. Free and cheap versions available. Stefano now also has a huge collection of free plans.

Foils Reasonable airfoil plotting program produced by John Hunt and is currently free (455kb). I like the washout option. Cannot draw spars.

PLOTFOIL can also draw spars, well sort of. It's harder than most programs to install on a PC though.

The Incomplete Guide to Airfoil Usage provides a list of airfoils used on over 5500 aircraft. Root and tip airfoils provided.

TraCFoil seems to do a good job with many options. Available as a free 45 day trial.

Scale Model Research Bob Banka has this site which is major source of scale documentation (commercial). He has an on-line catalogue (pdf file) for his thousands of 3-views and photo packs. I've always been EXTREMELY impressed with the speed with which Bob has sent my order. UK supplier.

Eduardo has about 700 3-views on his site which he makes available for free. Won't suit F4C scale documentation but is nevertheless useful. Similar information here, perhaps better presented.

Flight Sims Have a range of free 3-views.

Aerofiles Basic information on aircraft manufacturers, over 10,000 US aircraft types and 1,800 photos. A good starting point when assessing the feasibility of scale projects.

Fantasy Planes if you are into the exotic!

Ezone You might like this thread on Mystery Planes too.

The Nurflügel Page covers deltas, flying wings, lifting bodies and similar stuff.

Unreal Aircraft The name probably says it all - not sure if still live.

Pete's Pilots You've gotta have a Pete 'at the helm'. Excellent range of latext pilots. Ask him to leave the gunge in the mould for only 5 minutes instead of 20 to get a super-lightweight version!

Vortex Vacuum formed plastic pilots and other stuff.

CadStd The 'Lite' version is one of the few free CAD programs rmaining. The features look OK but I've only used it to open and re-save files so far. It can handle DXF as well as its own file format.

WinTopo for excellent free 'Raster to Vector' conversion software. This allows you to convert bitmap images (such as scanned 3-views and even photographs for scale detail) into vector drawings for use in CAD packages. Creates DXF files.

SEBRFC where I spend most weekends flying. Our club is affiliated to the BMFA...

BMFA The British Model Flying Association is the UK's controlling body for model aircraft and is a good source of info.

LMA The UK 'Large Model Association' site.

FlyingWings UK supplier of blocks and sliced sheets of the normal 'coarse grain' EPP. Lots of sizes (many thicknesses and most 600x900mm) and even two colours.

Flying Foam USA supplier who sell both blocks and sliced sheets of the normal 'coarse grain' EPP. They use a saw to cut sheets down to 3mm thick so they have no skin. Blocks are up to 4.75" thick.

EPP540 Another USA supplier who sells sliced sheets from 6mm up.

EPP Hobbies French manufacturer (JSP) who has opened this 'hobby' site. They have 150mm thick blocks in a couple of sizes such as 1000x800x150mm.

HEItec German supplier with varying thicknesses and densities.

RobotBirds UK supplier seen with 8 and 10mm EPP sheets at an airshow. May increase their range if you ask them nicely.

Flite Hook can mail order fairly large sheets of Depron in the UK (600x800mm I believe) and can sell you double this size at the major shows. Here is their Email address and phone number 023 8086 1541.

DepronFoam for 2, 3 and 6mm depron in the UK.

Floor Heating Systems/Handy Heat/Depron Foam in the UK have 2, 3 and 6mm depron in white and grey.

Depron Australia for 2, 3 and 6mm depron in low volumes.

Beeline have 2, 3 and 6mm Depron in the UK. They can mail order sheets up to 800x1000mm.

SAMS specialise in free flight in the UK and sometimes have various sizes and thicknesses.

Depron USA At last! 2, 3 and 6mm available.

Peck Polymers has been a regular supplier for Depron in the US.

Air Dynamics (previously NY Blimp) should have Depron or an equivalent in the US.

Brent Carter can be contacted on this Email address for deliveries of Depron out of Orlando.

Innovative Model Aviation for Depron based in Belgium but offering international deliveries.

K-rauta for Depron in Helsinki, Finnland.

Selit manufactures 'Selitron' in Germany which seems to be a Depron equivalent. Web site in English and German.

Saarpor manufacture another Depron equivalent called 'Climapor' in Germany. Web site in English and seven other languages. They list their European retailers.

Paint.net Intended as a free replacement for the MS Paint software that comes with Windows. MUCH BETTER! It started as a undergraduate project mentored by Microsoft and is a great product. Thanks!

MediaChance If you have a digital camera you MUST try 'Digital Camera Enhancer'. Similar to the 'instant fix' programs in some image editors, this one is only 530kb to download and produces stunning results. Loads of other free programs to correct digital images automatically. Put some low light night shots through the software and turn darkness into light; where does it find the detail?

DP Review for everything you need to know about digital cameras. Read the forum pages if you are serious about a camera to identify any issues. Download some original photo files and print them out on your equipment to assess the quality; I think you will be amazed if you've not tried digital cameras yet.

Digital Photography Reference for a very comprehensive site with topical information and zillions of links, nicely sorted into tabs. Covers web stuff as well as photography.

iRate Radio Use this tool to download MP3's from sites that promote less well known artists. Meant to only find royalty-free music. Not peer-2-peer (that's good!). You rank each track and the software tries to find more that you like. Neat!

Indy Another free music discovery program that also claims to only download legal music. Also not P2P. In the UK I get much better download speeds with this tool but I use both.