By Ian Cole
Posted June, 2008.

The following letter is in response to a review by ‘Flyonline’ and ‘Surfimp' of Ian Cole’s work on slope soaring aerobatics. But first a bit of trivia: Aussies (Australians) can spell but there are at least three types of variations in spelling used frequently in aircraft lingo that may differ from some countries. 1/ The word maneuver is spelt differently as in, manoeuvre. 2/ The letter ‘z’ is often replaced with the letter ‘s’ toward the end of words such as organi(s)e and exerci(s)e. 3/ We use two of the letters ‘l’ toward the end of words such as model(l)er or travel(l)er. Don’t blame me, I didn’t make the rules. J)

Thierry Platon (of TP42 / TP29 fame) has made his airfoils available for download and use on Pierre Rondel's Planet-Soaring website.

• TP Airfoils page on Planet-Soaring

Benoit Paysant-Le Roux, aka BPLR, one of the world's greatest R/C pilots and progenitor of the Madslide 3D glider, was kind enough to respond to an email inquiry I sent him concerning how to successfully pull of the "flop loops" shown in his awesome King Madslide video.

BPLR responded with the following, which I repost here in hopes that it will help others seeking to emulate this exciting and very cool flying style, which Benoit calls "madflight."

The below comes from a private message exchange I held with Steve (aka "Flyonline" on RCGroups) from New Zealand. He was able to tease out a pretty good bit of my current thinking on the subject of slope aerobatics. I hope this helps elaborate further where I'm coming from in terms of my understanding of the subject, and what motivates me to publish this website. Enjoy! :)

I'm pleased to announce that the English build instructions for the Wasabi have been released. Hopefully this will help current and prospective Wasabi builders with their task. Enjoy!

• Wasabi English Language Build Instructions (Adobe .PDF, 1.4mb)

Pierre Rondel has received a Coquillaj kit and posted photos to his website. Check it out if you're interested in this funky little DLG/VTPR glider :)

• http://pierre.rondel.free.fr/images2/CoquillajKit/index.htm

SlopeAerobatics.com has been featured in Andy Ellison's On The Edge column in the latest issue of RCM&E, one of the UK's biggest R/C print magazines. Super cool! Andy was kind enough to allow me a few words about my views on the resurgence of interest in slope aerobatics, and my goals in creating this website. Thank you Andy!

Here's a link to the On The Edge article.

Short video of me abusing my scratchbuilt "Cartoon Scale" P-51 Mustang at the Ruins. That last inverted fin drag attempt was just *a bit* too low! Plenty of fun weedwackers and general light lift shenanigans, though.

Well it finally happened! The Wasabi has flown and it is AWESOME!!! Nothing more to say that hasn't already been said in the build thread on RCGroups, so check out the video and enjoy. I know I did!