Which model airplane magazine
 

My subsciption for Model airplane news (MAN) expired this month and I wonder which magazines are out there and which are prefered?
Living in Finland I have to subscribe from overseas so if it's from USA, England or elsewhere doesn't matter.
Also I can't just stroll in and buy a few copies of diffrent magazines to make up my own mind, so I need some opinions here.

I have started to dislike the MAN magzine more and more for their overwhelming possitive attitude to absolutely all products they get their hands on.
For me, the real objective review is missing when everything is 'outstanding', 'top ten list' and 'must have'.
All airplane reviews contain about the same conclusion; No bad tendencies, no tip stall, gentle low speed characteristics and overall a great product!

(Don't get me wrong here, I like good products, but in my eyes they loose credibility when everything is soo perfect... If they tested a product/plane once in a while they didn't like or had some real critisism towards it would make the whole thing more real in my eyes...
The articles and news are really good, it's the reviews that get to me :) )



My interest is kit building and sportflying with 40-60 size glow airplanes.
No electrics, no parkflyers........Which magazine should I get?

RE: Which model airplane magazine
 

I'm a big fan of R/C Report. I think they do a good job of telling it like it is MOST of the time. They do cover a lot of areas but that's OK I read them even if I'm not interested.
I haven't been to their web site in a long time so don't really know what you may find there but here it is. www.rcreport.ws If you want to email them it's [email protected].

Hope this is of some help. ENJOY !!! RED

RE: Which model airplane magazine
 

Ditto.....R/C Report. Mike

RE: Which model airplane magazine
 

My favorites are R/C Model World (Traplet) and Flying Scale Models (Model Activity Press) both UK publications. For the U.S. I prefer R/C Report, too. Regards.

RE: Which model airplane magazine
 

I'm a kit and plans builder like you are. Unfortunately there are very few magazines left that cater for our needs. It appears that there are too few of us "builders" left for the magazines to take notice.

In Europe, the U.K. magazines are your best bet.

If you have the slightest interest in scale models there is [link=http://www.modelactivitypress.com/fs-monthly.htm]Flying Scale Models[/link] that is oriented towards building. There are very few ARFs and reviews in sight. A lot of the published construction articles are for WW 1 aircraft. Presently they are republishing a revised edition of Gordon Whitehead's excellent book "Radio Control Scale Aircraft Models for Everyday Flying", one chapter each month. This book is a goldmine of building information that is immensly useful.

I have a soft spot for [link=http://www.modelactivitypress.com/ami-monthly.htm]Aviation Model International[/link] (AMI) and [link=http://www.modelflying.co.uk/pages/index.cgi]Radio Control Models and Electronics (RCM&E)[/link]. Both are good but are becoming more and more oriented towards reviews of ARFs and small electrics (especially the latter). They do however usually provide free plans which I find very nice (I have built a few of those). [link=http://www.rcmodelworld.com/]Radio Control Model World[/link] (RCMW) has about the same content as RCM&E with a slight bias towards bigger models and scale.

There are a couple of French magazines that may be of interest as well.
[link=http://www.mra-magazine.com/]Model Reduit Avion[/link] I consider to be a French relative to AMI.
Looping is a magazine that is geared towards the average sport flyer and RCM is a French alternative to RCMW.
There are a few others as well, Fly International and Modèle Magazine but I can't comment on those because I have only bought the occasional issue.

As for the U.S., IMO, one of the best is [link=http://www.flying-models.com/]Flying Models[/link]. It covers a fairly broad spectrum of model flying activities, which I find interesting because often you can get ideas from other areas of the hobby that I find useful for my projects.

I have lost interest in the other U.S. magazines.

/Red B.

Addendum:
I recently found out about the French magazine [link=http://www.rcpilot-online.com/index.php]R/C-pilot[/link]. What is interesting in that it is available both on-line and as a printed magazine. It looks very promising with a nice mix of plans and reviews. The also offer short kits for many of their plans. Arguably they probably have the best web site in the business.

RE: Which model airplane magazine
 

Thanks for all replies guys.
I think I'm gonna look into "RC-Report" & "Flying Models", they look pretty good.

Red.B: I don't speak French, so it's a no go.

RE: Which model airplane magazine
 

I don't know if you're a full scale pilot or not, but I find a lot of the AOPA publications very interesting to read, along with Flying magazine. I read them because I'm a student pilot and also because they give great ideas on a next RC project, as well as ideas for trim, and even flying technique.