SGibson

My Feedback: (2)

When I was a school kid in the late 60's to early 70's I knew to the day when Model Airplane News and R/C Modeler would show up at the drug store magazine stand. I would read and re-read every article and pour over the ads. I think I knew the retail price of every DuBro and Rocket City part/clevis. The construction articles were of particular interest. I built a Cold Duck, Little V, Plank, Miss Bikini and almost finished a Tarman, all from R/C Modeler plans. Model Airplane News always had an article about some engine or plane from Europe and Flying Models Magazine had all sorts of less popular model information such as indoor, free flight, etc. Times have changed and I go through the AMA magazine in about 10 to 30 minutes. This isn't a criticism of the magazine but an acknowledgment of how times have changed. How may of you still buy or subscribe magazines other than the AMA magazine?

whatwheel

Do not like them, do not need them, do not get them.

Glenn.

Laird SS

Have to agree with you. I subscribe to the British mags (RCM&E, Flying Scale Modeler, etc.) because they are more like what we used to have in the US. they're more than a bit expensive, but I love the content and at my advanced age (70+), feel I've earned them.

Jim Thomerson

I subscribe to Flying Models and the reincarnated British Aeromodeller. I am happy with both. They approximate what they were in the late '40s and early '50s when I first started building model airplanes. I have no interest in ARFs (I have been looking at some old magazines recently, and there were ready to fly airplanes available in the 1940s.) So I find little of interest in Model Aviation. The last issue was particularly easy to get through.

I build own designs, from plans, and from kits. I have flown mostly free flight and control line competition events, but now, due to health issues, have started on my first RC airplane. It is a Texaco size Buzzard Bombshell for a Cox Black Widow 049.

jfuller

My Feedback: (8)

Hi,
Today's magazines, with the exception of Flying Models, have become not much more than catalogs designed to encourage you to buy the products that they lovingly review. I can't really fault the magazines as they are responding to what the folks want. I too am in my 70's and don't need to be sold something. I subscribe to RCM&E because it reminds me of the model press of the 60's and 70's. full of really good articles and at least one and sometimes two plans in each issue. I also enjoy FM as it covers the full spectrum of modeling, not just the latest electric foamies. Nothing wrong with them just not my cup of tea.
JamesF

TFF

Mid 70's to mid 80's was my golden time. Every magazine had 3 plans articles, radio stuff like building a Ace Silver Seven, articles on competition not on who competed. The adds had you dreaming. I still have all those, and one still better than a whole year of anything else. Even Flying Models has gotten too ARFy, but they try.

Frank Schwartz

My Feedback: (1)

I agree....with the exception of Flying Models, the other magazines are nothing but slick product reviews...OK for the buy and fly group, but where is the modeling...the building and the challenge? Slowly dying. I used to get the British magazines, but they were expensive. I built a number of planes from their full size plans (wonderful) and they all flew just great...I think maybe I better go back and subscribe to them again.. When I was a kid back in the thirties, I used to scale up the plans from Model Airplane News and Air Trails and build the planes...we all did.... I think I will let my subscription to Model Airplane News expire..not much there for a modeler, I think, and the AMA magazine is going that way, too....
I fear true modelers are a dying breed...

bogbeagle

If you go to this website ... [link]http://website.lineone.net/~raynes.pk.mac/[/link] ... which is the site of the Raynes Park modellers, you can find a link to their PDF magazine, which is called Sticks and Tissue.



It can be delivered free to your email Inbox. It is published whenever an issue is ready. You are welcome to contribute your pics and articles.


[link]http://http://www.holmesa.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/sticks&tissue/newsletter.pdf[/link] This link will take you to the latest issue. Admittedly, this is not one of the better issues, but there hasn't been much decent flying Wx for some months.

All the back-issues are available, free ... and some of them are really quite good.

HTH

Joe Nagy

My Feedback: (3)

Hi Everyone;

I still subscribe to my favourite mag, FLYING MODELS, and have almost every issue from 1955 to date, and love and cherish them all. I stopped purchasing MAN around Y2K as it had just become an ARF/RTfers' catalogue mag, of no value whatsoever to me, but do have and save all previous issues of MANs, from about 1955 on; compleste sets of MB and RCMs, and AM/MA from about 1955 to date, and consider them all to be a valuable resourse, especially when researching something. I am certainly glad that I purchased/saved all those mags back in the old days, because there certainly isn't much available to help newbees these days, with the exception of the always wonderful and informative FLYING MODELS.

Will close for now, best regars from a'gettin' real hot. Glendale, Arizona,

Joe Nagy.

wellss

Haven't bought a new magazine since the mid 90s. Instead, I find all the good old ones from before I entered the hobby, on Ebay and whatnot

Avaiojet

I belong to the AMA but I have the magazine sent to another modeler that doesn't.

I'm missing nothing!

Give me the good old days.

Charles

Quikturn

My Feedback: (12)

A friend of mine and I came across a box of old model aviation magazines from the 60's thru the 80's. After reading some of the articles I realized how dumbed down today's articles/reviews are. For instance, one of the older articles talked about some very technical aspects of a design like the wing cord being thicker to keep the speeds more constant in the down lines, or wing span relative to fuselage length, etc... Today's articles seem to focus on quality of finish and how something looks in the air. It's very disappointing to see.

Mustang1971

My Feedback: (30)

How about the bikini clad cover models of yesteryear?....pure eye candy to this kid from the 70's ;-)

OliverJacob

My Feedback: (12)

The magazines I remember were a lot more critical with their reviews...
Now it feels like the reviews are nothing but advertisement.
So with 90% ads there is not too much to read.

I'd like to see more 'reality' - go to some rc fields and report about the clubs, members, models and their lifes, other hobbies...

And what about more scratch build planes, some builders would like to share their experiences and maybe get someone interested
in building.

[email protected]

My Feedback: (1)

i think its a waste of money for the [ama] to print there magazine same old thing everymonth>>

airraptor

My Feedback: (66)

I dont like any of the new mags either. All they promote is the electric stuff. All of these newer mags and older companys are ran my younger people that are not into the hobby as we are. They care about a profit. Electric stuff makes money over kits and the stuff to build kits. These places can buy a foam airplane for 40 dollars and then sell it for 180. then when you break a wing you buy a replacement for 60 dollars. Since the electrics make so much money they can pay a lot for advertising so then the mags want to make money also. so they follow the money.

I was mad when RCM went away.

[email protected]

My Feedback: (1)

iam about ready to tell {ama] to not send me any more magazines

tailskid

My Feedback: (34)

We must remember that in the "good old days' we were DISCOVERING how to do things (like building a better mousetrap)....we BUILT things, had problems, resolved those issues and submitted them to mags for publication. About the only ones doing that nowadays are the scale guys.

It took time to solve an issue - trial and error - and when someone did solve the issue at hand, it tooks MONTHS to get those results to the modeling public....nowadays, everything happens so fast and very few "NEW" things are being discovered - instead they all fall out of the box when you open your latest ARF!

Just my $.02 worth....and yes, I wrote for a couple of magazines!

N1EDM

My Feedback: (2)

I'm about to drop my subscription to MAN and am not sure about SR/CF. I dropped FlyRC a long time ago. I still pick up FM

There was lot of good stuff, as we can all reminisce, like Walt Schroeder's editorials, Don Dewey's magazine covers, etc., in the good old days.

There was a thread that started almost 8 years ago about the demise of RCM and how it had changed from being the superior magazine that it once was to becoming just another 'catalog'. That thread is still going and if you thumb through it, you should find lots of old magazine covers (in high res, actually). But it shows the kind of interest that that magazine could generate if folks still talk about it years later.

I still grab a stack of older RCM's and will thumb through them for writers like Jim Oddino, Chuck Cunnimgham, and the host of others, including Dave Platt. They all had something to say and their magazine reviews were very fair. Have a look and tell me what you think?

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11528833

Bob

MTK

Model airplane-dom is still fertile ground for innovation and personally, I love that part of the hobby. However, if it wasn't for the fact that back when I was learning the craft 40 years ago, there was precious little ready made and readily available, I would probably not developed the noodle enough to innovate in the first place.

So many clever folks came up with specific solutions over the years.In so many cases, those solutions were immediately marketed and those individuals who simply didn't want to bother with creating their own solutions, purchased the ready made ones. Such is the case with certain types of models today....nobody likes to build and figure out how to create anymore; a real shame!

The biggest drawback in today's mag content is the fact that so little of the content is challenging.....it is indeed dumbed down to the point of useless scribble. Bob Hunt's articles are about the only ones remaining with some really useful information, but even he, as Chief Editor Emeritus of MA is forced to dumb things down by current MA staff. And Dean Pappas, well, the editor simply told him he didn't care if Dean wrote any more articles for MA. If that wasn't one of the most bone headed things to happen recently, I don't know anything about model airplanes.......

As luck would have it, Dean gave me a subscription to MAN a couple years ago. Well, I found the magazineso dull Ididn't renew. Flying Models still has some decent content, with real teeth, but for whatever reason, it has never caught on

Foamies anyone?

N1EDM

My Feedback: (2)

A point that I made in that thread (post 19) was that I was wondering whether it would be feasible for someone to buy the rights to RCM Magazine and have a monthly reprint of all the timely articles, ones that aren't date-specific. I don't think that it would ever gain back the readership that it once had, but I would be that the magazine would still be a viable option.

Just my $.02

Oh, and if you go to that thread, thumb through several of the pages... have a gander at some of those magazine covers from days gone by....

Bob

wellss

Here's one guy who's making all those old RCM articles available ( Scale R/C Modeler as well )

http://pulling-gz.blogspot.ca/

jcpenney

MY FAVORITE MAG WAS R/C REPORT. fOR YEARS i READ GOOD AND TRUE REPORTS ON ALL HIS REVIEWS. HE WAS A GUY WHO WAS NOT AFRAID TO PUT A STICK IN THE EYE OF A BAD PRODUCT! it was the best mag ever.GOD I MISS IT![]

chip_MG

My Feedback: (14)

I agree all the rc mag,s SUCK big time these days. I used to subscribe to Flying models, RCM, and MAN. ALL OF THEM ARE OF NO USE anymore just a waste of good money.. I think the writers they have working for them are the reason they all suck.. non of them are builders or radio control people, its just a job to them they got their jobs because they had a college degree only.. that seems to be the problem with some things today.. people get hired to do work only if they have a degree.
It doesn't matter if they do the job terrible or not as long as they have a degree they get to keep the job and continue to ruin it..

[email protected]

My Feedback: (1)

went to the web site seen a lot of covers but did not see one fo r ..april 1987 it shows 2 models holding a balsa enforcer each