SiteLog

Site Log

This section contains a list of changes and updates to the Hand Launch Aerobatics web site. Whenever any significant change is made, it will be listed here. This allows you, the loyal Hand Launch Aeroabatics enthusiast, to quickly find new content on the site. Since the site is about content, it is important that HLAerobatics site visitors are able to find content of interest without trouble.

October 2008: Advertising Added: After considerable research on how to advertise at HLAerobatics, Google AdSense was chosen for content specific (contextual) advertising. This was necessary for generation of revenue to keep Hand Launch Aerobatics from going down (yikes!) Hopefully these ads will help visitors find products of interest without being too much bother for the general visitor. Please ignore the ads if you are not interested.

If you notice any vendors or product that you are interested in, by all means click away on any advertisement you wish. Clicks don't cost you anything, and you may learn about new and interesting things from the ads. Remember, checking out the businesses and products advertised here at Hand Launch Aerobatics will help keep this sight up and available to all of you loyal visitors, and to the many newcomers who have yet to find all of the valuable, helpful content contained here.

We must always think of the future to help those coming after us, as I have by creating and maintaining this web site. Thank you all for your interest and support over the years. I look forward to many more years of communicating with, and flying with (!) as many of you fine HLAerobatics enthusiasts as possible.

-TH

12 May 2005: Indoor SLOFLY videos: The Metro Sport Squadron page now has working videos. This group flies indoors in a large venue. A Brownstone Beam hand held camera positioner system was used to gather unique footage of these wonderful people and their flying machines, both freeflight and radio controlled. Some of the footage could be considered landmark, as no one has ever maneuvered a camera in formation with such airplanes like this before. Don't sneeze while watching these clip - you are so close to the action that your breath may blow these models apart. These clips didn't work when first uploaded in late April. That problem has been corrected, the content has been trimmed to the best of the best and the compression has been managed to keep the file sizes small. Some of the clips are quite long, however, so use a broadband downlink if possible.

29 April 2005: The STORE: The store has been inactive for just about the entire history of the web site. The specialty items historically listed there do not justify the cost of the store service itself, and that is why it has never been kept active. If you are interested enough in any of the items listed at the HLAerobatics STORE, most of them are available by contacting Tim Harris. If he doen't have your item of interest in stock, he can probably steer you to other sources. And always rememeber one of the critical slogans of Hand Launch Aerobatics, "the whole world is our hobby store". Because Hand Launch Aerobatics is not a mainstream category of model aviation (yet...), we must often invent it as we go. As you can see from the videos and other content provided at this website, lack of innovation or commercially available products doesn't stop us from practicing some SERIOUS Hand Launch Aerobatics.

29 April 2005: Various: The Feedback link on front page was corrected and actually works now. If you want to contact us for any reason, to point out one of many typos or for something more important, give the feedback page a try. Also, this Site Log is now in place (finally!) to help returning visitors navigate the vast and ever increasing spread of content offered here at Hand Launch Aerobatics. After a long dormant period, the editing staff of Hand Launch Aerobatics has been revived. We are back on track and spreading the word. This is THE model airplane web site to learn about science, engineering, art and nature. Excellent for both kids and adults, we dedicate this site to spreading the positive interdisciplinary cultural experience of model airplane design, building and flying. Fun for the whole family!

28 April 2005: New SloFly/Indoor page: A new Metro Sport Squadron page with a bunch of new video clips was added to the existing SloFly/Indoor RC section. The video clips don't have individual titles, names or explanations as they should yet, just numbers in a list. The folks at Metropolitan Sport Squadron bring new meaning to the term SloFly! They are an excellent group of dedicated modellers, very helpful, enthusiastic, and extremely experienced. Click on the images of the page to see flying models up close in tight formation with the camera....

06 April 2005: New LiPoly battery page: The Batteries page of the Laboratory section was modified, and a new Lithium Polymer Battery page was added to cover rapidly evolving battery technology. Can you say "fifty amps at twelve volts?" This is serious stuff, and safety is extremely important when dealing with this sort of technology in the shop or in the field. The new LiPoly battery page loads kind of slowly because it has lots of high resolution photos. This is necessary to clearly portray all of the safety critical info on the page.

20 March 2005: New "ZoomZoom" airplane page: A new page was added to the Airplanes section to cover an electric powered aerobatic RC model called the ZoomZoom. Its a radically maneuverable model with a fuselage and wing made of EPP (expanded polypropylene). EPP is the same material that has revolutionized RC combat flying wings that are so excellent for Hand Launch Aerobatics. The ZoomZoom page has lots of interesting text and photos about radio mounting, control linkages, control hinges and plenty of other material relevant to HLAerobatics. This page has useful vendor links for control hardware, electronic speed controls, radio hardware such as receivers and servos, a great full service e-flight distributor, and a great e-flight forum. E-flight means electric flight, for all of you glider purests that didn't know.

2005 arrives: HandLaunchAerobatics.com is busy!: The site is getting huge traffic. People are finding HLAerobatics by searching for crazy things that don't seem related, and then viewing 50 to 100 pages after they find the site! Armed with new photographic and computing hardware and software, the editing staff of Hand Launch Aerobatics decides to start supplying new content to the huge number of visitors it gets every month. Many of the radio and airframe technologies that make HLAerobatics possible are advancing rapidly, which makes the picture that much better. The workload of website upkeep is increasing as the volume of content and traffic increase. Management is considering ways of taking the site commercial without offending masses of loyal HLA enthusiasts world wide. Stay tuned to this issue, and give us your thoughts via the Feedback Form.

2002, '03, and '04 fly by: Content is added slowly and in small pieces. A page here, a few video and stills there.... Although HLAerobatics is a dot-com site from the beginning, the store remains inactive the entire time and the staff create content for the sake of content. The site has taken on somewhat of a journal motif, with no other goals than family friendly content and the pursuit of serious vehicle and pilot performance. The overall theme is one of education for all ages.

Feb 2002: Hand Launch Aerobatics gets a stronger presence: Early clips of !HLAerobatics! action are uploaded in better format to a relatively new web site. Response is very positive from all around the world. People from many continents are interested in and amazed by HLAerobatics. Many had always wanted to do this type of thing, but had never figured out how or heard of anyone else doing it. The "foamie" combat glider airframes are changing history....

January 2000: www.HandLaunchAerobatics.com starts: After decades of building framed up wood and composite airframes, aerobatics enthusiast Thomas "Tim" Harris is introduced to an RC "foamie" combat wing design. His life is forever changed, and Tim doesn't build another framed up model for many years. See Tim's bio on the "About Us" page of the STORE.

Thanks for visiting, and FLY SAFELY! - TH