My first plane after my .40 size trainer was a profile 3D plane. It was a total accident that I bought a $30 scratch built profile but it paved the way for the rest of my RC career. Over powered and huge throws were all I wanted. This led to me creating the Profile Brotherhood and that led to me working as the PR marketing person at Hobby Lobby back in the early days of 3D. It was the beginning of the brushless outrunners and lipos. Mike Glass and I created the first pre-printed foamy planes. I have a garage and workshop full of profile planes and some Nikitis foamies that still do the job but things have taken a turn!
Last summer I was at the Clover Creek Invitational doing coverage for RCGroups.com and FlyingGiants.com. During the lunch break a pilot walked out on the grass and threw up a discuss launch glider. The DLG hit it's peak height and then he starting doing some hardcore aerobatics. He did them all the way back to his hand and then spun around and threw the plane back into the air. That was it, I knew I wanted one. Now I have one, thanks to Skip Miller, and it's on the bench and ready to be tossed into the sky. I spent the afternoon working with my new Aurora 9, learning how it worked and tweaking the DLG. It's raining right now but I'm hoping to get a quick first flight in the morning.
What would make me shift from over powered 3D planes to a DLG plane? I think it might be the simplicity - a plane, two servos, a battery, an RX, and the wind. Here is a plane that actually has to be flown. Many years ago Jim Martin, the founder of Hobby Lobby, stood behind me one day and watched as I flew 3D. When I asked him what I thought he said, "What you are doing up there is an abomination!" "That's not flight! That's an affront to aviation!" While I didn't agree then, and I don't agree now, I do think that Mr. Martin might actually appreciate my DLG.

A vid of a DLG in action:

DLG F3K aerobatic funfly by Kölleteam (0 min 45 sec)

I always keep my eye on the site numbers of RCGroups. Those numbers are like the speedometer, gas gauge and oil temp of a highly tuned race car. Today I checked out my RCG gauges and BAM there it was - we broke 18 million posts! It seems like we just broke the 10 million post mark the other day. That is a lot of RC information in one place, and another reason that RCGroups.com is the world's largest RC site. Once again, thanks to all of you that make all those posts possible and here is to 18 million more!

RCGroups.com is the world's most active RC site!

Our goal has always been to create a site that is informative, fun, and easy to navigate. Our Google Analytics are telling us that we are doing something right! Thanks to all of our members who make this site what it is, and thanks to Jim Bourke for having the crazy idea of creating the first RC web forum 15 years ago.

RCGroups.com Google Analytics for the last 30 days:
Registered Users - 357,985
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New Visitors - 29.16%