INDOOR PLANES - PAGE 2

Intro

It has been some years since I hosted my first indoor page, and in that time I have built several indoor models, and some have flown well and I still have them, and some have not and they are no more. However, the most important discovery for me is that I cannot build indoor scale models, like no-cals, or anything that requires a framework of 1/16 square balsa, because it is too delicate for me, and I just make a rotten job of it.

So with that it mind almost all are of the sheet balsa variety. With reasonably careful choice of balsa they can be quite light, and fly well. Most are from plans in old Aeromodellers, or R/C Model Flyer, but the odd one is from plans I have found on the web. One of my favourites is Impi, by Bill Brown. It was designed by Bill to fly at Impington, the home of Ray Malstrom's model flying club. It is simply one of the best indoor models I have built, and the website where I found it is very interesting as well.

The only other material I have had any success with is 2mm foam. This is the sort used for underfloor, or wall insulation, and I bought mine in B & Q. The great thing about it is that 30 meters costs in the region of £2.75. So even if I am very extravagant it should build about 400 indoor models - WOW! The only problem with it is that it is very weak, so needs a thin balsa spar support, or utilisation of the natural curve to form rough aerofoil shapes, and it this curve that adds strength. I have been amazed at how well the models built from this material fly, it is quite thick after all, but its great advantage, apart from being very cheap, is that it is very light, and lightness is of vital importance to indoor models.

I have used depron foam, and while it makes good models, and is easy to work with, it is much heavier than good balsa or insulation foam.

Finally I should mention propellers. You will notice that almost all my models use the butterfly prop assembly, because I have no time to spend constructing balsa props, and frankly they are just too fiddly for me.

Impi

Impi is unconventional being low wing and having a butterfly tail, but with a little careful trimming flies very well indeed, and is a tribute to its designer Bill Brown. If you want to build one have a look at the Small Flying Arts website. Its an interesting read, and there are several plans to download as well as Impi. SFA

Aeronca The Aeronca is one of Ray Malmstrom's designs, and was built for a one-model competition that is held twice a year at Ray's model club IVCMAC. I was fairly new to indoor modelling then and was not aware that you could buy just about any thickness of rubber you might need. When I discovered this I simply bought a size of rubber a few thousandths of an inch bigger and the Aeronca has flown well ever since. Have a look here to see what happened to the Canair at another of the IVCMAC one-model competitions. Oops!

LEFT: The Dragon is the first model I built using 2mm foam. I found the foam difficult to work with at first, and then I managed to paint Idris with a mixture of enamel that was far too thick, and which consequently added too much weight. So the first attempts to fly the Dragon were not successful, until I increased the size of the rubber motor, then he started to reach for the sky. The other problem with the foam I discovered was that while the paint made the foam stiffer and less likely to flex, it also made it brittle, and so bits of him keep dropping off!

RIGHT: The Swift is one of the many creations of Dave Ridgeway and was published in R/C Model Flyer in 2003 or 2004. Unpainted it is one of the best flying machines I have built so far, and it is the only indoor model that has won me a prize.

Serene

The Serene is one of my latest models, built from a plan in R/C Model Flyer in the November 2005 issue. It will fly better when I buy a Butterfly prop that has not been repaired with epoxy!

Canard A Stuart Marsden design intended to be built by kids or newcomers to indoor flying - I thought, "Just up my street". The wings are 2mm depron foam, and the canard foreplane is glued onto a cocktail stick pushed through the fuselage. The idea of the cocktail stick is to be able to adjust the foreplane incidence. However, in my haste I managed to glue the stick to the fuselage! It flies really well, but is a bit heavy. I might rebuild it using balsa for the wings, as the 2mm depron is the heavy part of the design, just to see if it will fly better.

LEFT: Smallfly is a Tony Draper design that was published in R/c Model Flyer some time ago. I managed to persuade about twenty people from my model club to construct it to take part in a one-model comp. Great fun on the day, but a few had problems making it fly. I never had any problems until I broke one of the wing mounts, and then for some reason it has not flown as well.

RIGHT: The Spacecopter is not really a plane, but is surprisingly good fun anyway. Kitted by Ray Malmstrom and John Wynn in the mid 70's. I managed to get it to fly up to the ceiling at Watford on 650 turns, where it would pause for a second or two and then descend in a sort of helical curve to the ground. With careful choice of motor size it might be possible to coax even longer flight times. I look forward to trying.

Geebee

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . and the Flyabout

LEFT: Yet another of Ray Malmstrom's designs, this is undoubtedly the most tricky to trim. So far it has not been successful, but at least it looks cute.

RIGHT: Ray again! This Flyabout was built for the one-model competition at IVCMAC in October 2005. Heavier than I would have liked it flies OK, but not long enough to win the competition!

LEFT: Small A4-sized indoor planes can easily be enlarged up to 140% to A3. Here are the 140% enlarged Dart (left) and Serene (right). They fly at the about the same speed as their smaller cousins, but the increased size makes it look much slower.





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