Brand New Podcast Episodes! Post topics you want to see!

wilmracer

I build things that fly (sometimes)
Mentor
There are a TON of builders in the FT community who I'd love to hear on the podcast talking about their projects. I'm a more of a builder than a pilot so I'm aware my interest skews heavily toward the building process. Off the top of my head I'd love to hear Rockyboy discuss the monster FW-42 project, PLUS he'd be a great one to highlight some of the FTFC19 "fantasy" builds since he kicked off and is effectively the project manager for that contest. You might also pick his brain about how the FT community and the AMA club community at large can work together. He is our local AMA club president and IMHO he has done a great job of helping make our club welcoming to ALL aspects of RC.

Related to the FTFC19 challenge you might mix up a pod cast by doing brief 5-10 minute interviews with the builders who have successfully finished and flown their models. There are a lot of REALLY unique models in that challenge and some of them are already getting to the point that they are "airworthy" :)

Joker 53150 seems to be amassing a squadron of big balsa gassers and he'd be fun to talk to about salvaging and restoration techniques to take a dusty model from someones attic and get her back in the air. Every time I check the balsa subforum he seems to have found another diamond in the rough. In that vein Joshua Orchard has a "pimp-my-jug" (my words, not his :p) project that is kind of similar, except he is starting with a new-in-box ARF and "fixing" it. Both are topics that I think would interest the community.

So I'd also like to float the possibility of reaching out to a few modelers who are outside of the Flite Test community but are doing a lot of interesting stuff with foam. A lot of them are active on that "other" forum. The names that jump to mind are Keith Sparks, John Morgan, Damon Atwood, Brent Heicht (SP?), and Steve Shumate. There are more, but each of these guys have made significant contributions to foam building. Keith literally wrote the book on foam building, John's builds and pace are an inspiration, no one does it BIGGER than Damon, although Brent's 12ft dual 120 EDF T-38 is close, and Steve Shumate can be credited with designing about a dozen of the most popular pusher jet designs many years ago. While Steve's models use a slightly different build technique than an FT model anyone with an FT model or two under their belt could build one easily.
I think there would be some interesting conversations to be had about the push back against foam in the past, the reception their models get today, and where they see foam scratch building going.

Finally, I'd love to hear an interview with a few of the guys behind the FT cameras about their tips and tricks for filming RC planes. I know some (a lot) of it will come down to quality gear and practice, but they may have some low cost tricks and suggestions that could help the rest of us out. If anyone could design a DTFB camera stability rig it would be you guys :)

Looking forward to more podcasts!

On edit: One more guy from the other forum came to mind. Goes by Lockey. He's got a pile of interesting foam board builds that would interest the FT community.
 
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Captain Video

Well-known member
You might want to level the volume between people. When listening in my car, I have to turn up the volume but then turn it down as different people are at different volume.
 

JamesWhom

Project Air on YouTube
Thanks for the suggestions chaps! Keep them coming. We're looking to really up the podcast game in 2019 with varied and interesting guests and subjects coming to your ears once every two weeks. Will let you know of upcoming confirmed guests ahead of time on this thread, as I'm sure you'd all appreciate being kept up to date. :)

You might want to level the volume between people. When listening in my car, I have to turn up the volume but then turn it down as different people are at different volume.

Thanks for the feedback Captain! :) We've had a few teathing problems to work through whilst finding the best way to record with guests all over the world. I think we're just about getting there now so you should hear a marked difference in coming weeks.

Cheers!
 

JamesWhom

Project Air on YouTube
New podcast ft. Nic Lechner. This was a good'n!
https://www.flitetest.com/articles/podcast-designing-airplanes-with-nerdnic
Podcast Template.jpg
 

CrazyFastFlying

Elite member
Hey James,

I REALLY want a podcast all about going to FliteFest. You know, like what to bring, what to expect. Like a guide to going to FliteFest.

And maybe you could have Josh Bixler, Josh Scott and maybe a few other FliteTest guys on.
 
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JamesWhom

Project Air on YouTube
Hey James,

I REALLY want a podcast all about going to FliteFest. You know, like what to bring, what to expect. Like a guide to going to FliteFest.

And maybe you could have Josh Bixler, Josh Scott and made a few other FliteTest guys on.

Sure! Thanks for the suggestion. I'll see what we can pull together.
 

rockyboy

Skill Collector
Mentor
A very interesting episode - some really inspiring project work that I'd never heard of before - thanks for sharing this!
 

rockyboy

Skill Collector
Mentor
Good conversation on this one! Appreciate you keeping the commercial short, and not like Mike Rowe's sponsor spots that average between 2 and 3 minutes (so darn long they take 4-6 skips of 30 seconds each)
 

Vimana89

Legendary member
I'd like to see a podcast episode about designing your own plane from the ground up, not a model of an existing full scale plane or RC, but borrowing concepts and inspiration from those to build one's own design. Josh Bixler talked a bit on this subject on the approach to aerodynamics, but it's a massive subject and should have its own episode. You could discuss some different approaches, some people get heavily into cad and digital rendering programs to mock up designs, while others like myself prefer a ruler, pencil, straight edge, and graph paper.

The approaches may be vary, but there are consistencies to scratch designing no matter what methodology is used. How is the process of designing a plane from the ground up different than simply going off of a plan or using a speed build kit? What things are already thought out for you on a plan or kit that a scratch designer will have to work out themselves?(CG, thrust angle, wing loading, etc.) What are the most common issues that lead to failure on a scratch design's maiden flight?(I find this closely related to the last question, it's usually the stuff that's already thought out for you on a kit or plan like thrust angle and CG).Another good issue to address is how to best anticipate the handling qualities of your design before even launching it for the first time, and how to anticipate how design changes will affect or improve the build(If I make the vertical stabilizer a bit bigger, increase the angle of the dihedral this much, etc. what will happen?).

The final thing I think that would be worth talking about is how to make the process less intimidating and frustrating, especially to those with huge ambitions and limited experience. What steps could someone like that take to speed up the process and make it easier? For me it was training on a sim and learning to fly a basic trainer, as well as building a kit(All things I thought at first were extra steps I just wanted to skip over, but found out later were actually huge shortcuts!)

I think an episode like this will be a great help to those who have some basic, but not a huge amount of RC building and flying experience with RTF, kits, plans, etc. who want to start designing their own planes. It will be an even bigger help to those who start the hobby from the very beginning with the goal of making their own designs but little to no practical knowledge or experience.
 
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