This Amazing Community
I laid out the plans for my first flying
model back in 1972 and had no idea what I was
getting into. The
series of frustrations that followed weren't unique
- many of you lived that story too. So I'll get
straight to the point: success in building &
flying came to me only after I became part of
a modeling community. My experiences have led
me to believe that modelers need (and want) to
be apprenticed into this hobby. Building a model
that's capable of flight is quite an art form,
and actually getting it to fly is another art
altogether! Both disciplines require a fair amount
of skill before any worthwhile results can be
had, and few individuals will accomplish that
without some mentoring.
If you're a newcomer to the scene you have a tremendous
advantage over past generations of modelers. At
your fingertips (literally!) is a vast network
of modelers who are eager to share their experience
and help you out. Small
Flying Arts provides access to a
particularly talented and enjoyable segment of
that community, in an organized and entertaining
format. If this is news to you, I invite you to
join us in the SFA
Forum and see for yourself!
The new SFA Forum Archives
We now have over 500 members registered in the
SFA
Forum! This part of SFA
grew much larger than anticipated, and I realized
something had to be done before we ran out of
storage space. Limiting the size of allowable
posts wasn't an option - the high quality images
uploaded by forum members are just too great a
resource to lose. A more reasonable alternative
was found by creating the
SFA Forum Archives to store
the older posts, and offering access to it for
a small subscription fee of $15/yr. That fee helps
to pay for the extra storage space we must purchase
to keep the regular SFA
Forum operating at the same high level as
always. Don't worry - access to the SFA
Forum is still free - it just doesn't hold
posts older than 6 months anymore. But the SFA
Forum Archives has some excellent
treasures that are well worth the subscription
price, so I encourage everyone to consider supporting
us this way.
Article updates
You've probably noticed the scarcity
of new articles at SFA
lately. My return to college life has left me
with little extra time, so it's hard to solicit
contributions as aggressively as I did before.
But I'll still publish any material I get (if
reasonably substantial), so once again I'm putting
out the call for article submissions! Why not
photograph that project you're working on now
and do a short write-up? Take a look at our Submit
an Article page for some ideas on how to proceed.
My first Geneseo experience
The 2004 FAC Nats was an absolute blast - a real
eye-opener on the state of the art. Trying to
absorb everything going on there was like drinking
water from a fire hose! The best part for me was
getting to meet so many of the visitors &
contributors to SFA,
and I plan to repeat the experience in 2006. Hope
to see you there!
Bhagat Dhillon
Editor
email
me
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