Outerzone

I just found out about Outerzone, a new website dedicated to the preservation of vintage model airplane plans. The website is run by volunteers who collect free plans from the Internet. The idea is to create a stable, easy to search, backup depository. The founder says Outerzone is built on an "industrial strength" platform with enough storage space for about 25,000 plans. There are already over 1,000 plans on the site. This could be the start of something special. Check it out: www.outerzone.co.uk

The Livesay Files

A lot of people in the free flight community miss Dave Livesay's Briefcase, a huge online collection of free plans that disappeared in October 2009 when Yahoo pulled the plug on GeoCities. For the past month, there's been a lively discussion in the Small Flying Arts forum about making the files accessible again. The question is how to do it.

A group of SFA members is working on a project to distribute the files on CD in the same manner as a chain letter. That will get the collection (over 1200 files) into more people's hands, but it doesn't address the problem of making the plans permanently and readily accessible to anyone who wants them.

The Internet is obviously better than CDs for distributing digital media. So why doesn't someone create a new website for storing the Livesay files? That's what Chris Boehm decided to do. He just started the merlin236 Yahoo Group (Merlin's Free Flight Group) and has already uploaded hundreds of peanut plans. In so doing, he's used 78% of the group's storage space, meaning an upgrade will be needed to accommodate all of Livesay's Briefcase.

Incidentally, it is possible to view some defunct websites (or parts of them) using the Internet Archive Wayback Machine. For example, here's a snapshot of Livesay's Briefcase back in 2002. And here's a look back at another site we miss, Deathtrap Squadron Plans.

Hey, why not build one of these?!

An easy to build, all sheet model by Dave Thornberg.
From the pages of Model Builder magazine.

Field Trip

Sunday was mostly a bust because of the wind, but we did manage a few flights. There's a picture below of Jerry & Phobi with Heinkel and Jimmie Allen yellowjacket, and of a beautiful bi-plane that someone is sure to identify.

Some of us headed over to Schellville to enjoy the open day and an opportunity to browse the hangar - pics below.

The military plane at the bottom is a Broussard MH 1521. We agreed that it would make a great build. George has subsequently obtained a plan for a peanut version from Bill Hannan, and we think it would make the perfect scale contest build to kick off the 2011 season.

Copies will be available soon - please let us know if you'd like a copy.

FROG Delta 16

I posted a picture of Mike flying his FROG Delta 16 last month and remembered that model from my first outdoor MAC meeting in 2006. That was before we started this blog, so my pictures from that day were never posted... until now. Here is Mike on May 14, 2006, in the field behind the St. Vincent's gym in Marinwood (we moved our outdoor sessions to Lakeville in 2007).



Mike built his Delta 16 from plans which are available to download free from the House of Frog website. The video below shows the model flying in 2006. I guess it isn't easy to trim a flying wing, but Mike is doing okay. (Tom: "The glide is superb." Mike: "Yeah.")