We know we are running way, way behind this month in updating the site. What can we say, things got busy. But we did pull the data and have the list for the new Top 10 plans on Parkjets. Now, the last few months have been interesting with some new #1 plans, and this month, we have some shake ups a well. Here we go.
TOP 10 PLANS - JULY 2013
Top 10The heat of the summer is here. This is usually the time of year we see a bit of a drop in traffic and activity, as many builders are out flying and crashing their winter projects. But, we still have a Top 10 List for July and we have some new members of the Top 10 club, a new #1 and more. Let's go!
NEW PLAN - F-15 EAGLE MK2
New Plans
The designer of the SU-37, F-15, Eurofighter, and more just sent us over the latest design from FRCFoamies, the F-15 MK2. Now, while it may look like the original F-15 MK1, it is a completly new design offering some improvements in scale and performance.
NEW PLAN - F-242 SPIKER
New Plans
From the designer of the F/A-241 Shrike, comes the new parkjet plan, the F-242 Spiker. Oh sure, it's a fantasy plan, but the lines are nice and no one will have this design on their workbench. You can see from the picture, the Spiker features large delta style wings, something we know produces the best parkjets.
Designed to be a highly maneuverable project, the F-242 doesn't disappoint. Coming in at about 27" wingspan, its small enough for even the smallest parks. Just the way we like them.
TOP 10 PLANS - JUNE
Top 10PANEL LINES - DAMBUSTERS
Knowledge
We got an E-mail over the last week with some awesome pictures attached. Shaun decided to take Tomas Hellberg's F-18E Superhornet design and do some custom work. This is just something you can't get out of a box.
He added in a custom battery hatch, custom airbrakes, and an LED flashing light set up all worked into the design. We won't really discuss his custom paint job representing the VFA-195 squadran out of Japan, because we noticed something else, careful panel lines pressed right into the foam.
T-38 SUNDOWNERS AWESOME
Annoucement
A Parkjet fan sent us over his pictures of his Steve Shumate T-38 build. And we have to say, it turned out awesome. He dressed it up in the popular "sundowners" scheme complete with the details that make it look right in the air.
TOP 10 PLANS - MAY 2013
Top 10Folks, for the first time in a year, we have a new #1 plan downloaded on parkjets since we started keeping track just about a year ago. Honestly, we never thought it would happen. But it has.
For those of you new to the site, you might not know that every month, we break down the most popular plans and let you check them out, so you can get a jump start on some popular plans. After all, the popular plans are popular for a reason. They have good documentation, excellent flying capabilities, and look good too.
Well, let's check out the most popular downloads for May 2013 and see who is king of the mountain!
DASSAULT RAFALE PICS SUBMITTED
Annoucement
We had a member of the RC Community out there submit some pictures and video of his version of the Mike Jackson Dassault Rafale profile style parkjet.
So we thought we would get them posted.
This is an excellent plan, inspired by the designs of Tomas Hellberg, that provides a great platform for a parkjet. The large delta wings, large control surfaces and simple set up, coupled with a mid-motor mount design make for an easy to fly and build jet.
INTERVIEW - TOMAS HELLBERG
Interview
For those of you that have been following Parkjets for a while, you will be familiar with our interviews with popular RC airplane designers that have allowed us to host their awesome designs right on our site. It has been a while since we posted an interview and so we thought its time for a fresh one.
We reached out to Tomas Hellberg and he gratiously agreed. Tomas has designed some of the most popular and rock stable designs on Parkjets, including the F-22, F-18, SU-31, SU-37 and more. His designs feature simple build techniques with tabbed construction and profile looks. His unique thrust vectoring tabs allow for excellent acrobatics without a lot of fuss. And we should mention that our prime sponsor, 6mmFlyRC, features many of Tomas' designs as kits, so you can get your hands on a laser cut version. Okay, that's enough of an introduction, let's kick this off....
NEW PLAN - SU-37/27
New Plans
Last week we uploaded a new plan to our FREE plans page. Jamie Rothwell let us know he has made some modifications and some size adjustments to his very popular SU-37 plans.
First, he shrunk the plans to 80% of the original size. Then he cleaned up the plans, improved the canopy, nacels and some other minor tweeks. Then he changed the plans to allow for a simple modification so that the builder could convert the plans to the SU-27 with a little effort.
TWITTER - 1000+ FOLLOWERS!
Annoucement
Back at the start of the new year, we put out the call to have folks follow us on Twitter. Back then, we had just a few hundred followers but we decided to focus a little more on getting our social media credentials up to par. This week, Parkjets reached a small milestone, we crossed over the 1,000 followers threshhold and could not be more excited.
TOP 10 PLANS - MARCH
Top 10Every month, for nearly a year, we have been logging the most popular plans on parkjets on a monthly basis. Its time to look at last month, and see what the list has in order. Here we go!
10. Cutlass by SDParkflyers - The Cutlass has come to Parkjets and its found a great little spot. The Cutlass is a great beginner plane, featuring broad delta wings and moderate speed. A great Parkjet!
MERMAID VIDEO
VideoOkay, so it's obvious we have been slacking on adding in plans and keeping up with the constant demands of Parkjets and the folks that visit often. Rest assured we have not been doing nothing. We are working on a few more plans, working hard to boost our social network standing and just trying to keep up with life.
In the meantime, we updated the very popular Mermaid plan with a great short video of the Mermaid on grass.
This video lives in the plans page, but here it is without all the clicking.
TOP 10 PLANS - FEBRUARY
Top 10VIDEO: F-18E SUPERHORNET
VideoWe ran across this video from a customer of our sponsor, 6mmFlyRC and it is stunning. The video is not that stunning granted, but the model itself is just fantastic.
The F-18E SuperHornet is a great model for those just starting out building, but as you can see, you can take this design to the extreme with details. Complete with LED lights, panel lines, clear canopy and pilot, the model here is perhaps the best example of craftsmanship we have ever seen on a simple profile model.
Sit back and enjoy the show!
2 NEW PLANS - MERMAID & MIRAGE
New Plans
We just finished posting up two new plans by Marcel du Plessis. His designs are rock solid and he already had four models in Free Plans Catalog. These are two great examples of plans you can put together in fairly short order and achieve great results with just a little effort.
FOLLOW US ON TWITTER
Annoucement
This is a really simple post here, but we are asking you, our visitors, our newsletter subscribers to do something that costs nothing...follow us on Twitter. Parkjets tries not to ask much of our loyal visitors, but we have set some goals in 2013 and without you, they won't happen.
We have the crazy goal of getting 5,000 twitter followers in 2013. When January 2013 rolled around, we were at a lowly 165. As in less than 200 followers. Now at the beginning of Feburary, we are at 257, a great jump, but you don't have to be a math whiz to see we need some acceleration in our followers. We only post once or twice a day, we don't overload you with garbage, just a few things we find, buried articles on Parkjets and other tips from around the world. So go ahead, follow us.
TOP 10 - JANUARY 2013
Top 10To kick off the new year, its time to take a look at what people downloaded on Parkjets.com. We have been maintaining the Top 10 list now for the better part of 9 months and there have been many new plans to crack the list, some stay, while some fall off to an old classic.
Before we really get started, we want to thank everyone for an incredible January 2013. Parkjets received over over 30,000 visitors who looked at 239,000 pages on Parkjets! That's the biggest traffic month yet! So thank you.
Alright, let's get to the top 10 plans for the month of January 2013!
TWO NEW PLANS - T-28 & SUPERSLO28
New Plans
As January creeps to a end, we added two more plans for you to enjoy. And like the Cutlass added last week, we dipped into SD Parkflyer's pool of excellent plans. And in an effort to really expand our offerings, we are looking to add some plans that have not been invited to reside on parkjets in the past, namely some 3D flyers, warbirds, and we are looking for some more EDF plans as well. To wrap up January, we have some excellent 3D style park flyers up for your enjoyments.
Let's get started....