Indoor Flying. I fly my indoor models with the Ottawa Indoor Model Flyers, in Ottawa, Canada. Flying is on Monday Nights 7-9 pm at the Woodroofe High School from mid-Sept to mid-May, with the exception of holidays. Come out and watch or join in. Everyone in the club is more than eager to help a newcomer. NEW:Freeflight Plans

Here is my fleet of indoor models:

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Albatros W4 The Albatros W4 features a 1/32 sheeted fuselage, to simulate the plywood of the full sized plane. I stained the balsa, before assembly, so that the glue would not affect absorption of the stain. Even though the floats look like a hinderance to good flying, they allowed me to use a light prop and still have a balanced model, by putting a small amount of lead in the tips of the float.  The plane is very stable in its right hand turn.  I haven't yet gotten more than 20 secs of flight yet (I probably need a better prop), but it does look good, especially the smooth landing on the floats. wingspan: 46 cm weight: 17.5g without rubber power: 1 strand of 3/16 inch design: John Cooper built: 2008 -----------------------

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Hawker Typhoon This plane is build from the Guillows 900 series. I really like this series of kits, because for a scale Guillows kit, it has the most potential for being built corectly and flying well. My major modification was to make all wing ribs half thickness, for better efficiency. I can get close to a 1 min flight, indoors, with the Typhoon. YouTube Video wingspan: 46 cm weight: 16.9g without rubber power: 1 strand of 1/8 inch design: Guillows built: 2008 -----------------------

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Junkers Ju87 Stuka This plane is build from the Guillows 500 series. I tried to build it light as possible as I knew that this plane would be difficult to trim. It simply does not fly well in the gym. I can make it fly straight fairly well. As soon as I add some rudder, it will either spiral or stall. I gave up trying to trim it as it looked like I would damage it with too many crashes. ` wingspan: 40 cm weight: 17.3g without rubber power: 1 strand of 1/8 inch design: Guillows built: 2008 -----------------------

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Curtis P6E Hawk The Hawk was built from a Comet plan from the 1930s. For reasons of nostalgia, I kept the simple and inaccurate details of this simple dime scale model. The major change I made to it was using thinner balsa wood. The plane flies well with flights around 40 sec in the gym. wingspan: 40 cm weight: 10.3g without rubber power: 1 strand of 1/8 inch design: Comet built: 2008 -----------------------

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deHavilland Canada DHC-1 Chipmunk The Chipmunk is a 900 series Guillows kit that has flown well from the beginning. I made the plane lighter by using very thin acetate for the canopy and by using 2/3 less balsa wood in the tail. One weak point of the kit is attachment of the wings to the fuselage, simply by butting. This works OK if there if the landing gear can be kept off (like the Typhoon). However, with fixed gear, this puts too much stress on the joints. Chipmunk Video wingspan: 46 cm weight: 11 g without rubber power: 1 strand of 1/8 inch design: Guillows (modified) built: 2008 -----------------------

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Cessna 180 This plane is from the plans on Paul and Ralph Bradley's site www.parmodels.com The model can be put together very quickly. The model is obviously well designed and was flying well after minutes of trimmming. Changes I made to the plans were a nose block that slides into the fuselage and the use of 1/32 balse for the wing wingspan: 52 cm weight: 11 g power: 2 strands of 1/8 inch design: John Cooper built: 2007 -----------------------

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Fiat CR42 This No-Cal plane features a motor stick made from rolled 1/32 balsa tube. The complex camoflage and markings were printed on white domestic tissue via an injet printer. The model flys quite well, but only to the left. It would either stall or spiral if I tried flying to the right. wingspan: 16 inch weight: 11g without rubber power: 1 strand of 1/8 inch design: John Cooper built: 2007 -----------------------

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Curtis F9C-2 Sparrowhawk This is my heaviest indoor freeflight plane, despite my effort to lower the weight of the kit. I substituted 1/32 balsa for the rear half of the fuselage and many wings ribs. The plane has removable wings; the upper wing, via slots and the lower wing via balsa spars in paper tubes. Despite its weight the plane is a stable flyer, although a little fast wingspan: 76.2 cm weight: 102g power: 2 strand of 1/4 inch design: Dumas built: 2007 -----------------------

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Breguet 14 This is an all balsa sheet model, inspired by the plans on Paul and Ralph Bradley's site. It is a stable flyer but needs more work to get more altitude and more duration. wingspan: 44.5 cm weight: 19.5g power: 2 strands of 1/8 inch design: John Cooper built: 2007 -----------------------

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Morane Saulnier A1 This plane is build from a Dare kit. The kit is clearly high quality and intended for experienced modellers. I have started to trim it indoors, but had numerous heavy landings. I am going to complete trimming outside in tall grass. wingspan: 73.9 cm weight: 72 g power: 2 strands of 1/4 inch design: Dare built: 2007 -----------------------

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Guillows Lancer Another outdoor model, flying happily indoors, the Lancer is an excellent beginners plane and an excellent flyer. At about US$ 9.00, the kit is great value and I was surprised at the quality of the wood, die cutting and the plans. I made several minor changes to the model, but I believe the model will fly nicely if built unmodified. The only real weakness of the model is the landing gear; it will break after the first few flights. I would suggest leaving it off, or, as I did, replace it with bent wire. I used one piece of wire with about 3cm sandwiched between balsa and glued between the longerons on the bottom of the fuselage. wingspan: 61 cm weight: 25 g power: 1 stands of 1/4 inch design: Guillows kit (modified) built: 2006 -----------------------

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Vought F4U4 Corsair At 98g, the Corsair is pushing the limits of what can fly indoors. None the less, the fighter flies in very stable circles, although quite fast. The plane was mostly a stock build of a Herr kit. The well fitting, laser cut parts made it very enjoyable and quick to put the frame together. The major modifications were a removable wing, and a large flap on the port wing to counteract the torque. wingspan: 76 cm weight: 98 g power: 2 stands of 1/4 inch design: Herr kit (modified) built: 1999 -----------------------

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Fairey Firefly MkII The Firefly is built from Lubomir Koutny's beautifully rendered plans. I modified the plans to use fewer stringers and fewer wing ribs. The plans include no written instructions but are very detailed and accurate. The model flys quite well and really needs more space than an indoor gym has. I originally started with a 3 blade balsa prop but had to switch to a 9.5 inch Peck because the blades were always breaking on landing. Plans can be bought from Mike Woodhouse here:www.freeflightsupplies.co.uk wingspan: 71 cm weight: 51 g power: 2 stands of 1/4 inch design: Lubomir Koutny (modified) built: 2006 -----------------------

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Lockspeiser LDA-01 Another Walt Mooney plan, the plane is still in the trimming phase. Unlike most models, the issue with this plane was being too nose heavy because of the short moment of the rear cowl. Typical of canard models, it will not stall - it just slows down and descends. wingspan: 13 inch weight: ~12 g power: 1 strand of .080 inch design: Walt Mooney built: 2006 -----------------------

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Morane Saulnier MS225 This is probaly my best flying peanut model. It is covered with light domestic tissue. Domestic tissue has advantages for this size of model. It is more opaque than Japanese tissue and is far less likely to cause warping. wingspan: 13 inch weight: ~11 g power: 1 strand of .080 inch design: John Cooper built: 2005 -----------------------

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dehavilland Canada DHC-5 This plane has alot of potential and is capable of long flights. It has, however, one major problem - its flight path is random. This makes indoor flying difficult as it constantly runs into walls. The issue is that large lengths of rubber in the nacelles bunch up so that thrust is inconsistent. wingspan: 51 cm weight: ~20 g power: 2 strand of .080 inch design: John Cooper built: 2005 -----------------------

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Links

•  Darcy Whyte's great flying, yet extremely simple to build, stick and tissue rubber powered plane: www.rubber-power.com
  

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