Articles

SCCMAS 2008 Show Report

Daniel — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 22:21:31 -0500

The Santa Clara County Model Aircraft Skypark (SCCMAS) airshow was held July 12th and 13th in Morgan Hill, California. This free annual show spans a wide range of radio control flight, from gliders to gas powered acrobats, and helicopters to turbine powered jets. It's a great chance for existing pilots and those new to the hobby to see a little of everything that RC has to offer in the air. Keep reading to see these planes and helis in action.

How To Build A Servo LED Driver

Daniel — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 20:47:06 -0500

One way to get into night flying is to fill a plane with LEDs. You can do that by connecting them directly to the motor battery, or to a dedicated second pack, but neither approach gives you any control. Here's how to reuse an old servo to drive your LEDs, with either on/off or variable brightness from the transmitter.

HPI Pro-D vs Tamiya TA03F

Alex — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 16:47:47 -0500

HPI have finally got the drop on their main drift rivals Yokomo, and come out with a ‘revolutionary’ drifting car – the HPI Pro-D. With a carbon main chassis, carbon upper deck and orange anodised aluminium bulkheads, it's a very slick design. Only one question remains...

WRAM Show 2008 Report

Daniel — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 22:02:28 -0600

The 40th annual WRAM Show took place in White Plains, New York this weekend. Organized by the Westchester Radio Aero Modelers, the show draws a crowd from all over the Northeast U.S. This year a major snow storm hit Friday morning, the first day of the show. While this led to several vendors not showing up, most of the big names were there, and audience traffic on Saturday was dense.

How to go really fast – Interview with Tony Lovering

Alex — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 16:03:49 -0600

Forget about squeezing a little more power from your engine, filing the ports or any of that nonsense. There have been some quite extreme RC machines before now and none more so than Tony Lovering’s 3 engine monster.

He managed to squeeze 3 engines onto an 1/8th scale on-road Kyosho Evolva – (I think 2 chassis and a hacksaw were involved) and flew from the UK to last year to compete in the world fastest RC competition at the California Speedway in Fontana on the 28th of July. He picked up the trophy for the fastest nitro RC car with a speed of 88 MPH, but has since gone as fast as 103 MPH in speed trials in the UK.

How to Disassemble and Clean The Savage X

Sean Manibog — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 04:13:42 -0600

I always hear alot of talk on all the popular forums that the HPI Savage is a difficult vehicle to work on and clean, so I am making this to possibly help out a little bit. Since I went mud bashing the other day, I thought it would be wise to tear the truck down and give it a good clean. Here are pictures, and a detailed explaination of everything that I had done.

R/C Airbrushing Tips and Tricks: By Eclipse Customz

Zero — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 21:16:40 -0600

Note from Zero: Eclipse Customz design and create custom paint jobs for your RC body. Ryan has put together some great tips if you're looking to do your own custom designed paint job.

Everyone always has wanted a nice lid on their R/C car. Now it is possible with these great tips by Eclipse Customz.

Interview With RC Pro Adam Drake

Sean Manibog — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 03:56:52 -0600

When you think about Nitro RC racing, here are a few names that might come into your mind. Adam Drake, Matt Francis, Jammin Jay, and a few other great people. We here at Zero RC received the blessing of being able to interview one of those three men, Adam Drake! Adam is well known for his racing capabilites, and one of his main sponsors is Team Losi. I spoke to him for a few days, getting things ready for him to get the questions and let us know whats up! Here are the 7 Questions and Answers with Pro RC Driver Adam Drake!

Propeller Safety

Daniel — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 10:59:44 -0600

We all know that propellers are dangerous, but it may be less obvious that propellers on electric-powered aircraft carry some additional risks. Here are two important risk factors to be aware of, and how to deal with them.

Just Plane Chris Interview

Daniel — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 19:49:03 -0600

I recently got in touch with Just Plane Chris, one of the hosts of the All Things That Fly podcast, and he graciously agreed to an interview by email. Chris is an accomplished helicopter and fixed wing pilot and an active member on RCGroups, so I was curious to pick his brain a bit. Here are his responses: