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Old March 21st 20, 05:08 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
Martin Gregorie[_6_]
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Default Helium bubbles used to show bird aerodynamics

On Sat, 21 Mar 2020 07:38:34 -0700, Eric Greenwell wrote:

Martin Gregorie wrote on 3/21/2020 6:42 AM:
All you need is:

- a copy of "Circular Airflow" by Frank Zaic ABE Books
https://www.abebooks.com have a few copies if you don't have one
(and you won't unless you were a keen FF model flyer). Other second
hand bookstores should also have copies


That was my bible over 60 years ago. Twenty years ago, I finally gave it
to a college friend that's still building models, even now. What is the
"bible" for modelers now?


Thats still worth reading if you want to design your own models, but you
do need to remember that materials and ideas have moved on since that was
written: nobody had glass or carbon back than and everything was still
covered with modelling tissue and lightweight silk and nylon.

Jim Baguley, a Brit, wrote an excellent set of articles in Aeromodeller
magazine back in the '60s and one of the Swiss flyers wrote a good series
on FreeFlight News in, I think, the late 70s. Both are still worth
finding and reading.

NFFS (American) has a seminal series of annual Symposia, starting in 1968
and still going strong - I have a complete set. Its packed with good
ideas and the Models Of The Year are worth studying.

Articles in Free Flight News, SCAT News (Californian - formerly on paper,
now online as SCAT Electronic News) and Vol Libre (French, stopped a
decade ago) are all good sources, but the best source of design ideas are
still in the bars and various International and World-class competitions.



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Martin | martin at
Gregorie | gregorie dot org