Indoor Flying Jan - Mar 2004

Indoor Flying is a phenomena which the GMC has been fairly slow on the uptake of.  Boy, have we made up for lost time!!  Our first indoor event was in a small hall at the start of 2003.  In January 2004, we hired the Grammar School hall for an evening.  What a difference.  The hall at the Grammar is massive.  We were even flying Mini-Pipers in there!  And crashing too.  You think you have loads of room, then the wall moves closer and BANG!  Many of us fell victim to the walls, doors, Speaker-brackets and Basketball rings.

Of course, with this type of flying, anything goes.  If it is small, light and electric, the chances are it will fly. And if it doesn't you can have one hell of a laugh trying. Just ask Thomas.

Above, Dave Vivian flying a Piccolo Pro.  The photo below shows how big the hall is.  There is no shortage of room in this place.

Below, the Hirobo X.R.B Lama.  This clever contra-rotating head helicopter is so stable and easy to fly, you wish it wasn't tethered so you can go and fly it around, instead of being stuck within 3 metres of yourself.  Good job they're making a new un-tethered version then.

Above, a piccolo Pro, having had the 'scale treatment' applied with this cool Huey body kit.

You can almost imagine the door opening and a load of troops disembarking onto the Battlefields of Vietnam.

A victim of the hoop...the Lil' Mo 3D.  Brings a whole new meaning to the phrase 'Prop hanging'.

Doh!  This IFO's got his wheel caught up in the hoop.  Another plane that's just hanging around.

These Blimps are great.  I recently flew a promo one for a local telecom company (thanks mate, can't remember your name) at the Airport open day.  Great Fun.  This one can drop bombs too.

Above, a close up of the lama, a great bit of kit.

Another Piccolo in a Huey shell, this one is the fixed pitch version...a real handful if you're not used to flying helis.

Looks Great!

Not another one with his motor stuck in a bad place, this slow stick has come to a complete stand (hang!?!) still.

A parachutey Skysurfery thing, which seemed to be attracted to the magnets in the Speaker on the wall.  It crashed into the wall near that speaker about 3 times.

The final picture is Thomas' home design (does that mean he designed it at home, or it was designed by his home?) indoor flying machine.  A couple of bits of balsa, some cling film or grease-paper, 3 servos, motor etc and for some reason it actually worked bloody well.  Like I said earlier, virtually anything goes.

So, what else was there.  Well, the Mini-pipers were great while they were moving, but took their fair share of whacks.  I think all the ones flown hit the wall or floor hard at some point, mine included.  The IFO's were great as expected.  The Lil' Mo 3D was Ok with the single-engine gearbox, but ballistic with the twin set-up.  The flying saucers etc attracted interest due to their odd shape or control set-ups, like Nick Brehaut's where the only control is a trigger.  The harder you pull the trigger, the faster the saucer goes up. Piccolos went well, especially with the large hall.  Rob Bougourd even hovered his Logo 20 helicopter!!

Thanks to everyone who attended our indoor sessions.  We hope next autumn to maybe change the night to a Thursday, still once a month, and there is the possibility of us hiring out the whole of the big hall at Beau Sejour for a one-off before Christmas.  Now that really is a big hall.  Seems like the model to have for then is the Ikarus Shockflyer.  A couple of flyers have already tried one of these with a hot motor set-up outdoors, and it's great.  indoor should be even better. In the meantime, have a good summer, and we hope to see you at our evening park-fly events.