Another month, another Top 10 list. This month we have quite a few changes from July and a new comer almost dethroned the most popular Steve Shumate plan on the site. With three plans in August that were not on the list in July, August shaped up nicely. Let's not waste time, or words and get to the most popular RC airplane plans on the site.
NEW PLAN - F4F WILDCAT
New Plans
Jamie Rothwell, the designer of the great Alpha Jet and the excellent F-15, sent us over for his intrepretation of the mighty F4F Wildcat. Using many of his techniques, including semi-scale with simplicity, Jamie as provided an excellent plan for an RC F4F Wildcat.
STEVE SHUMATE - INTERVIEW
Interview
Frequent visitors to Parkjets probably already knows the name Steve Shumate. His designs have been featured in multiple print magazines and continue to be very popular on Parkjets. Some even call him the "godfather of parkjets." Since Steve's designs are by far the most popular download on our site and since we started this interview series, we figured we would shoot him an E-mail. Well, we reached out to Steve and asked if he would be willing do a small interview with Parkjets and he agreed! So sit back and enjoy a little insight from one of the best designers of RC Parkflyers out there...Steve Shumate.
TOP 10 PLANS - JULY
Top 10One month down, two more plans added, a shake up in the Top 10 list and summer is quickly coming to a close. July was a fast month, it seems like only a few days ago we were talking about June and all the projects we have yet to complete sitting on our RC workbench. So what are the most popular free RC parkjet plans that were downloaded in July? Great question, and we have your answer. All of these plans are fantastic, so if you are new to Parkjets and want to know where to start, this is a great place. Take a look at the Top 10 and take your pick. Here we go!
NEW PLAN - MIG 31 FIREFOX
New PlansNEW PLAN-F-15 EAGLE
New Plans
The designer of the awesome Alpha Jet, Jamie Rothwell, sent us his take on the popular F-15 Eagle. One of the best platforms for parkflying, the F-15 by Jamie Rothwell features a semi-scale look and a mid-mounted prop with a full fuse nose design that takes simple design to the next level of scale looks. A very smooth flyer and very simple to set up with two servos and elevons, the F-15 is an excellent choice if you are looking for a quick build and excellent flying.
INTERVIEW - NICO HOBBIES
InterviewFor those of you that have been on Parkjets for very long, you have probably seen some of the great designs from the designer of Nico Hobbies, Pat Gagnon. We thought we would continue our series of interviews by brining in Pat to answer a few questions about his business, his designs and over all his contribution to the RC community.
TOP 10 PLANS - JUNE 2012
Top 10June proved to be an interesting month for the top 10 plans on Parkjets. We have got some feedback that these posts are helpful for folks wanting to know what others are doing and really, its a simple check for us, so sharing the information is no problem. This month we have a new arrival, a new plan exits the top 10 list and some familiar plans remain at the top of the heap. Let's check it out.
HD CAMERA + MIG 29 = VIDEO LOVE
VideoThis video is an excellent example of the excellent platform that the Tomas Hellberg MIG 29 provides. We know that one of the trends in RC is strapping on an HD camera on to the fuse and capturing some video. In this case, the pilot takes excellent video of Cardigan Bay. Most of the time our video turns out to be rather boring, but the view in this video is worth a look.
GLUE BASICS
KnowledgeThis post was originally created a long time ago, so updating felt like a good idea. After all, over the past several years, new adhesives have come onto the market.
But, no matter what RC glues are out there, TRY IT OUT ON A SCRAP PIECE OF FOAM FIRST, so you understand how it reacts with the foam your using!!
Someone once said, "There is a glue for every job", well they must have been a R/C Hobby Shop owner (or a home improvement store salesman). When building a lot of the models featured on Parkjets.com, there are so many different glues you can use and a lot you should use. So lets give the quick run down.
SU-47 UPDATED
VideoJust a quick notification that we recently updated two of the plans on Parkjets.com. First, the Concorde SST by Nico Hobbies as well as the SU-47 by Nico Hobbies. I guess some were having some issues with the .zip file. That should be fixed now. And while updating the plans, we noticed an excellent video of the SU-47 on YouTube, so we thought we would share.
ALPHA JET - IN DEPTH
InterviewLast week we got an E-mail from another designer with another excellent plan up for posting. You might remember last the plan submission via E-mail, the EADS Barracuda from Germany. This plan comes all the way from the U.K. and is one-of-a-kind unique. We asked the designer for a quick interview and he was kind enough to help out. Let's get to the interview.
ALPHA JET PREVIEW
VideoWe are getting the next parkjet plan all prepared for upload onto Parkjets, but we wanted to give our visitors a sneak peak of the newest plan on parkjets.com, the Alpha Jet. Featuring a unique dual wing design, with excellent stability and incredible high alpha abilities, this incredible design is one of the most unique on the entire site. So watch the video, sit back and check back here in the next few days for the Alpha Jet!
MAY 2012 ROUNDUP
VideoMay was a busy month for Parkjets. We have been adding to the home page and giving you more and more information about parkjets. As a recap, we posted several new plans to Parkjets, posted some new videos and wrapped up an interview with 6mmFlyRC.com. Want a full run down? Read on....
TOP 10 PLANS ON PARKJETS - MAY
Top 10Last month we checked out the downloads and put together a list of the top 10 plans downloaded for April. Well, May is a new month and let's see if there are new plans that have cracked the list. The rundown looks in many ways the same as last month but with some moving up and some moving down on the Iist and some making a first time appearance.
F-18 PARKJET - VIDEO
VideoSPONSOR INTERVIEW - 6MMFLYRC
InterviewWe have been reaching out to various folks in the RC community and doing some interviews and it hit us that we have not done one with the folks from 6mmFlyRC, our primary site sponsor. Some of you may know that 6mmFlyRC provides parkjet style kits that are already cut and ready for assembly. Let's get started picking the brains of the folks behind 6mmFlyRC!
MINI EADS BARRACUDA
VideoThe designer of the EADS Barracuda sent us this video of his shrunk down version, the mini Barracuda. The plan file already contains the smaller version, but the video shows a couple of things.
DRONGO PLANS
New PlansWe just added to our growing catalog of free downloads of RC plans, the Drongo. It's designed by Marcel du Plessis, who already designed the BD-5, Sea Dart, and the Draken. The free file download includes full size drawings as well as tiled plans for A4 and letter size printers. That way, you can print them off at home, piece them together and get to cutting.