Leicester Indoor meet
14 Feb. 1999
Just a little page on the BEFA fly-in at Oadby, Leics. Kevin and I went out of curiosity to see what went on, I took a lump of polystyrene foam with some radio bits taped to it, hoping it was capable of indoor flight.
A summary of the event? "Brill", "Crackin'" come to mind, I shall certainly do it again.
Claiming a vacant table for the charger and model, I had a quick trot round the hall, which had a suitably high ceiling and no obstructions. About half the tables had free-flight airforces on top, the rest radio, with a mixture of scale and fun types. Here's a view of one end, with a radio model just touching the floor:
Sorry about the low picture quality, I'm trying to keep the load time down, and the light was awful too. Some sort of sodium lamp and it turned all the pictures bright red.
Here are some of the scale free-flighters:
Dave Ridgeway brought two wonderful little scale models, SE5 and a Vimy twin, both fly well and look just great in the air, made from polystyrene again. Here's the Vimy:
Finally, a few pics of non-scale stuff. Check the complex radio installation on my flying wing:
Ray's Delta, he also has a ducted fan version:
I couldn't resist this freeflight electric wing:
Now if you see one of these (below), BUY IT! I did, cost 7pounds and flies beautifully. It is a Butterfly from Ikara in the Czech. Republic, and comes ready built, all you have to do is tie the motor and wind it up. The box is a carry-case, unhitch the prop and motor and clip the model back in. I have flown it in various rooms at work, longest timed flight 35 seconds with a short motor. This one bought from Flite Hook (01703 861541).
Butterfly is surprisingly sophisticated, with wing and rudder offset built in, a deliberate wash-in on the port wing, adjustable tail length and wing incidence, even a tiny scrap of thread on the wing to check the balance with.Weight? 2g! Comprehensive adjustment instructions included, though it should fly straight out of the box.
PS. How did the wing fly? Good. A bit trim and pitch sensitive, marginal on power but good for at least 4 mins, and I looped it too! (It has no wing spars). Not bad for a lash-up, and the airframe cost about 50p.
Mabuchi 180 motor, Thimbledrome 3 x 1.25 prop, Simprop indoor 2000 rx, Jeti 05 esc, Hitec 50 servos, and a (too heavy) 7 x 270 pack.
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