Useful Links

Here you will find links to useful/interesting websites.

NOTE: I have visited all these sites and the links are checked fairly frequently (I hate it when half the interesting sounding links on a list are broken, so if you find one of these not working please let me know. links@rdmac.org.uk Thanks).

If you have any favourites I've missed please tell me about those too.

Organised into

Local Model Clubs
Basingstoke MAC	Details of events, flying site etc. Even a forum for online discussions
B.M.F.A.	British Model Flying Association. Handbook and R/C Achievement scheme details are available plus a useful Club Search and links to a number of club websites. Now has a Sales/Wants advert section too.
Southern Area BMFA web site	Website of the BMFA Southern Area group
Bracknell and Disctrict MAC	Bracknell club seems to be more inclined to competition than us. Details on the site.
High Wycombe MAC	Big club, over 180 members and a couple of flying sites. We usually see a few of them at the Beale PArk Floatplane events.
Twinwoods MAC	Radio Control modeler's based in the Bedford area
South East Berks RFC	SE Berks fly near Wokingham, fixed-wing R/C only. There are quite a few electric fliers around including David Theunissen of "Fly Electric" fame (see below)
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R/C General sites
R/C Flight Unlimited	Excellent site with a Beginner's Guide that everyone should read, lots of good reviews plus loads more
RC Groups	About the best site for R/C forums IMO. Home of the E-Zone, Lift-Zone and Power-Zone. Also provide the free hosting for this site.
Hovercraft	A bit out of the ordinary this site has lots of info about hovercraft, both model and full-size
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R/C Related Personal Web pages
Drop the Pilot	RDMAC club members R/C model picture site (and they nicked my weather thingy :)
Jim Archer	Some useful hints and tips and nice pics.
Harold v.d.Berk	Dutch based. Harold's Electric Flight page with an excellent set of mainly European links.
Chuck Gadd	Interesting electric info but the highlights are some really useful calculators (servo size, wing loading etc) and an English translation of the excellent free FMS flight sim.
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Electric Flight
B.E.F.A.	British Electric Flight Association. Details of events most of which should not be missed if you have any interest in electric flight in the UK. Also a good Beginners guide to electric flight
E-Zone	Home of the E-Zone e-magazine, e-flight mailing list and more
EFlight search	Search the archives of the EFlight mailing list. There's more Electric Flight knowledge here than you'd believe
Fly Electric	David Theunissen's excellent site including details of his large scale models and a couple free plans.
MFG Aspach	Major European E-Flight meeting in Germany.
Red's Battery Clinic	Red Scholefield knows a lot more about NiCad batteries than most people. Read this before you start sounding off about "memory effects" and "batteries should be stored discharged". Some of the information is a bit dated but you'll have trouble finding a better site.
Ken Myers EFO	Home of EFO and the Ampeer magazine plus lots of articles by the electric maestro Keith Shaw and others
Team Klaustrophobia	Superb German slowfly site. Take a look at the indoor, fully aerobatic Pitts biplane among many others. And now free plans for a Citabria built from Depron
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Helicopters and Autogyros
JB's Autogyros	Now THE site to visit for autogyro information. I like these odd devices
Rick's Gyro page	Another excellent site exclusively about autogyros. I have to build one soon.
Pixel Homepage	Is this the smallest helicopter around at only 99 grams ? 3D in your own living room ?
Torsten's Heli site	Loads of useful information from the creator of the excellent additional heli graphics for CSM.
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Control Line
CLAPA	Control Line Aerobatic Pilots Association. What we used to call "Stunt" when I were a lad.
Control Line UK	Useful site for general UK information
UK C/L Navy Carrier	If you haven't seen Carrier competition yet go and have a look.
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R/C Flight Simulators
Aerofly	New German flight sim with helis and fixed-wing. Looks interesting.
CSM Flight Simulator	Still the best R/C flight simulator for serious use in my opinion. The current version is V10.
FlyRC simulator	Take a look at this FREE simulator which includes instructions for connecting your Tx to the PC. The graphics aren't brilliant but it's great for the price.
FMS simulator	Another FREE simulator from Germany this time. Some interesting planes including a slow flyer. Some of the expensive commercial sims are going to have to get moving if they want to stay ahead of this excellent freebie
TruFlite	TruFlite 98 latest upgrade of this UK based simulator. Uses your own Tx, has excellent graphics, helis and fixed wing but some folks have suggested that the flight dynamics are a bit suspect. I haven't tried it myself.
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Plans, software and electronics sites
Ken Hewitt	Ken is electronics editor for RCME. The site contains details of his many electronics kits and designs plus other useful info.
Foils 4.2 and more	John Hunt's useful site with a free aerofoil program and other interesting stuff
Profili	Here's another excellent free aerofoil display/plotting program, from Italy this time.
Seagull Homepage	Build your own CNC router and other projects (not many quite that ambitious).
Electronic gadgets	A wide range of electronic projects for R/C and associated info. Also links to many other related sites.
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Aerodynamics and other technical aviation sites
Selig at UIUC	The definitive airfoil site. More airfoils than you will ever need plus loads of good info
Martin Hepperle	The other airfoil site. First class information including some good general aerodynamics and even "How propellers work".
How it flies	Again aimed at full-size (pilots rather than designers) but the physics is the same for us. Mercifully short on complex mathematics
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Flying Schools
Paul Heckles School of Flying	Paul and his colleagues are based just outside Swindon and provide friendly, professional and good value flying tuition on virtually anything from basic training toward your A test to helicopter acrobatics to jets! If your looking to improve your skills I thoroughly recommend you give them a call.
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UK Modelling Suppliers
Electrics
ANSA Products	Home of the IFO and Mini-IFO plus other indoor equipment.
F2A Supplies	CEM cobalt motors and lots of other electric flight goodies.
Gordon Tarling	Gordon makes some excellent ESCs of his own and imports loads of other electric goodies into the UK including Schulze and Orbit chargers, Jim Ryan's S400 warplanes and ModelAirTech gearboxes etc.
Gliders Distribution	Loads of sailplanes and electric stuff, especially Graupner
Overlander	Difficult to beat for batteries and associated bits
Ratby Aeroplanes	Ratby have taken over and updated Dave Chinery's "Team Gear" multi-motor concept. Also a few interesting looking kits.
RC Scale	Excellent for general indoor R/C equipment as well as some gorgeous indoor scale models
General
Free Flight Supplies	Mike Woodhouse. A good range of high tech (carbon/kevlar etc) materials as well as other lightweight stuff ideal for small electrics/slowflight. Don't expect much real information though. Mike sells information as well as products. His choice !
BillKits	Foam wing and float cutting service
HMM	Howard Metcalfe Models. Howard has some very nice designs, glow and electric (and even indoor rubber !). The kits are comprehensive and reasonably priced.
Inwood Models	Excellent range of general modelling gear at some of the best prices around.
Just Engines	As you might guess, suppliers of many fine engines. Moki, MVVS, Jett, OS, PAW, SuperTigre etc. Look out for the Special Offers page, changed monthly.
Mainlink Systems	Manufacturers and suppliers of first class battery analyser, chargers and other electronic goodies
Model Technics	Everything you might want to know about fuel and associated matters
Nexus Publications	It took them a while to get into the electronic age but this site is not bad. Separate sections for the 3 mags (Aeromodeller, RCM&E and Silent Flight) plus top 10 plans and books to buy.
PAW Engines	The Eifflaenders, Gig, Tony and Paul have been making model engines, almost exclusively diesels, for over 50 years now. Also Staystrate C/L wire which is getting hard to find.
Phoenix Models	Mainly soarers but also the famous (notorious ?) Wingbat and a growing range of "unbreakable" EPP gliders
Ripmax	One of the biggest distributors of modelling gear in the UK. Importers of Futaba, MDS engines, TopFlite kits among others. Distributors of the wonderful Model Designs electric scale(ish) kits.
Sussex Model Centre	Large stocks of pretty well every modelling need. The best (printed) catalogue in the business. Sometimes a few special offers available on the site.
Traplet On-line	Website of Traplet Publishing, home of Electric Flight International, R/C Model World etc. On-line ordering for mags, books, plans etc.
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R/C suppliers outside the UK
Electrics
AstroFlight	Astro Flight high quality cobalt motors and now brushless, plus controller, chargers etc. Astro Bob practically invented electric flight and he has the patents to prove it.
Aveox	You must have heard of Aveox brushless motors, controllers etc. Used by lots of the top competetive electric fliers. Very good but not cheap.
Electricalc	Program to calculate flight characteristics of Electrics and more. If you're serious about Electric Flight you need either this program or Motocalc (or both)
MaxCim	Maxcim Motors Inc - brushless motors and controllers from the US. Aimed more at sport and scale fliers rather than serious competition and used by such luminaries as Keith Shaw and Jack Sowle. Like all brushless motor systems these are expensive but brilliant. (Can you tell I've just talked myself into buying one ?)
IMA	Innovative Model Aviation (foam electric models and supplies). They have indoor and outdoor models plus R/C blimps. Based in Belgium they are good people to deal with.
Motocalc	Like Electricalc, a program to calculate flight characteristics of Electrics etc. You need either this program or Electricalc(or both).
Modelair Tech	Tom Hunt has some excellent gearboxes and DeWalt motors. But for me the highlight is his range of "Stik" built plans and kits. First class planes built almost entirely from 1/4 x 1/8 balsa strip.
New Creations	US based company specialising in Electrics and Gliders. Lots of good detailed info.
Schulze	Schulze Elektronik - first class chargers, speed controls etc. Available in the UK from Gordon Tarling. Site is in English.
WES-Technik	German company but don't panic the site is in English. Probably the best supplier in the world for Indoor and Slow Fly R/C equipment. Tiny receivers, servos, ESCs etc. And have a look at their terms of business, you won't believe them.
General
Dr Diesel	There are not a lot of model diesel engines available in the US. Eric Clutton (Dr Diesel) is an ex-pat Brit from my home town of Stoke who imports the PAW range and a few others.
Great Hobbies	Horrible name but nice people from Canada. They carry a huge range and if you're thinking of ordering direct from "over there" try them. They don't charge an arm and a leg for shipping to Europe like Tower seem to. Watch out for conversion rates, the Canadian dollar is worth much less than the US dollar so the prices look high at first.
Hobby People	One of the main US competitors for Tower Hobbies. Used to be Hobby Shack. Not a bad site.
Spirit of Yesteryear	Some of the finest classic models of, as the name suggests, "yesteryear" reproduced with modern techniques.
Tower Hobbies	You must have heard of Tower Hobbies. Probably the largest modelling retailer in the world. This is a good site with some useful information and a lot more links for you to check out in the R/C Web.
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