eBay's CD-ROMS Burtsing With Plans: Any Good?

There are so many plans on the net for free, I would not spend money on what you saw.

You're right - there are many, many really good plans on the web, available just for the asking.

But one of my interests is those plans of no real commercial interest for models from defunct firms, or out-of-production kits - the model 'plane world's equivalent of abandonware. (It's a grey area, I know.)

It's not always so easy to find that stuff on the internet, but we all know that copies are circulating off-line. And maybe also on those disks on eBay?

There are also many, many not-so-good plans on the web, available just for the asking. If the disks contain a high proportion of those plans, then there's no point in handing over the cash.

Eamon

I checked out one of these -- essentially, the plans were scans of the magazine plan pages, and really bad ones. Plus the 3-views had been scooped from the Russian 3-vview website.

I've also looked over the plans that are available on eBay. If they are from a small list of dealers (who shall remain unmentioned but a little research will find them), they are illegal copies (run down to Kinko's, get 20 copies of the plan and glog the copies).

For what it costs, dealing with the publisher's plan service is always better -- magazine stays in business (yes, advertising pays the bills) and they have the incentive to print and sell plans. Magazines are slso getting smart about their plans -- free copies with the issues (great!) or are blocking out sections (RCM did this for the last few years -- enough to decide if you wanted to buy the plans).

For what's on the web, well, a lot of what I've seen is the same as what's on the CD-ROMs....

Why put your hard-earned money in the pockets of someone who has had no original product to sell but sucks off the property of others (copyright).

No need to start another copyright flame-war. But answer this question: do you work for free?

The currently commercial material - I've no interest in that. I only am interested in the plans that the hobby has forgotten and modeller's freely available own-designs. The old Jasco, Sterling, & Veron stuff for free flight, for instance, or some of the obscure one-off kits boxed up in somebody's garage, like the un-attributed no-name-brand Papillion 1/2A RC 'plane that Hobby-Lobby (I think) sold in the 70s. (I would love a plan for that.)

Completely agree with you about exploiting the current work of others. Having been ripped off a couple of times in my life, I'm not about to make anyone else feel the same way. It sucks.

Eamon

PS - OT: Yes, my employer demands that I work a significant amount of time for free. They call it "being a dedicated, goal-oriented professional." I call it... well, this is a family newsgroup.

A lot of the Veron plans are still available from the guy who originally designed them. They are very reasonably priced.. £2-50, £4-50, etc. I have just bought 3 plans for slope soarers and a Nordic A2 glider for around £12 total.... approx $20 .

I can let you have his address in the U.K if you want it. There is an illustrated catalogue (line drawings) for approx $1-68 and postage.

Reg

OT Reply: Does this advance my career? Does this establish my professional credentials? Does everyone else work the same? Is this an industry norm? Does this affect my home life? How many of my co-workers are divorced because of working hours?

If you get yes on the first four, then it is a normal situation. If you get yes on #4 and at least 1/4 of your co-workers, you might want to start asking some serious questions.

I've got a pile of the free-on-Internet plans that are legitimate -- soem just for ideas, some as projects. If I build a plane off of such plans, I try to get information from the designer on experiences. Of course, lately, the plans have "gone private" as a kit manufacturer has picked up the design -- e-Bobcat and depron F-18/F-15 designs are examples -- first on RCGroups.com, then manufactured. Plans for both are still available on the Internet. The kit plans are usually a step up and incorporate the latest design changes.

That sounds good. I'd be grateful for the guy's contact details. You can email me at

eamon (dot) silver (at) blueyonder (dot) co (dot) uk

Regret the anti-spam precautions.

Thanks in advance!

Eam>

Details sent, bound to find something you will want to build >:-)

Reg

Thank you all for your input. Based on what you guys said, especially about the quality of the CD contents, I'd ditched the idea of buying a CDs. I had a couple of them on my eBay watch list, and interestingly, last night, I got emails from eBay saying that they had removed the items from auction and that I should not send the seller any money.

Reg, thank you for the Veron information. I will follow it up.

Eamon

Thank you for the comments. FIVE kids in college? Whew! Maybe not such a problem for me - we haven't even started with kids yet!

Anyway - need to give contracting some more thought. My contracting friends do not feel the need to give up their way of life, but times are good right now in the industry. When times have been bad, they have decamped and gone to South America, etc, for work. Life was perhaps not so good there due to some of the social problems where the work was, but the flip side was the money - it was great.

In the meantime, I think I'll build a Plouf.

Eamon

We decided to have 5 kids really early. IOW "gitterdone" baby........one after the other, each 2 years apart. Was a lot of fun after the fact, since the kids were growing up while we were still in our "can do anything without collapsing". Still a lot of fun today after they are all out of college.

Advice: If you want a really nice life after your kids are out of the house, then teach them the facts of life and make sure they all have a college education, so they can support you later ....... Ours do and we love it.

We are just exiting that "can do anything without collapsing" phase. Maybe we won't be having any kids. That makes life simpler now, more difficult later on...

Hej Eamon, how about using my e-mail address ? Regards, and Merry Christmas.