May 2012 The Inside Loop


Editor Jay Smith [email protected]		 Having previously lived in Florida and being able to fly year-round, moving to a wintery wonderland such as Indiana makes me look forward to spring. Although the famed “building season” has certainly helped me complete a few projects, I find myself eager to fly.
Fortunately, I have indoor flying and the flight simulator to hold me over, but by late March I have the urge to pull out the bigger stuff.
When I think of spring, my thoughts often involve watersports and it was with this in mind that I put together a float-fly-themed issue. Inside these pages you will find six feature articles dealing with amphibious aircraft. Two are event articles, two are reviews, and I’ve included a how-to and an exciting construction feature about the Grumman Goose by Paul Kohlmann.
One of the reviews is of the Polaris XL, with a chance to win one as we profile Model Aero in the “About Us” feature.

I hope you enjoy the coverage and it gets you excited to try an amphibious model or attend a float-flying event! Redesign and Changes to Model Aviation I want to thank everyone who has taken the time to contact me via letter, email, or telephone regarding the magazine’s redesign. The majority of responses that I have received have been positive and I greatly appreciate your feedback.
One of the alterations we made was changing the text to a different font in a larger size to improve readability. This necessitated changing the frequency of some of the columns to keep the magazine at roughly the same page count.
“RC Scale,” “RC Giants,” and the “Frequently Asked Questions” columns have all been changed from monthly to bimonthly. These columns were selected because RC receives the most feature coverage and they often contain material that crosses over into other columns.
As I mentioned in my February editorial, the biggest challenge I face when putting together the magazine is providing the appropriate content to satisfy our readers. If you don’t see the amount of coverage you would like on the disciplines in which you participate, I challenge you to let me know and to provide topics you would like to see covered.
One of the tools I use to determine the interests of our readers is the data AMA collects with the membership application. Currently 92% of our members have selected RC as their primary interest.
Although I believe this data is a clear indication that our primary focus should continue to be on RC, we will still cover and support all aspects of aeromodeling. I believe our ability to do that, and show an appreciation for anything that flies regardless of its power system or control method—be it a transmitter, a CL handle, or trimmed to fly on its own—is what makes Model Aviation great.MA


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