Indoor
Author
Jim Buxton 550 McMurray Rd., Bethel Park PA 15102
Event overview
From May 28 to June 1, the East Tennessee State University Mini-Dome hosted the United States Indoor Championships (USIC)/Indoor Nationals for the 17th consecutive year. The Mini-Dome first saw indoor competition in 1987 at the National Free Flight Society–sponsored USIC. Since then the AMA Indoor Nationals has been combined with the USIC for a joint-sponsored, five-day flying frenzy under the massive 116-foot-high dome.
The USIC/Nats offers nearly every conceivable indoor category, from the international rubber duration class F1D to local club “grudge match” events. If it is an indoor event with published rules, chances are it has a time slot on the schedule. The result was 47 events packed into about 65 hours of flying — there truly is something for everyone.
If you have never attended an indoor free flight contest, seek one out. Indoor flying has several attractive qualities:
- Inexpensive: for roughly the price of an ARF or a quality free-flight radio system you can buy the three most important indoor tools — a good scale, a winder, and a rubber stripper — and they’ll last a lifetime.
- Weatherproof: no rain, wind, or tarp-covered fields to spoil your Nationals preparation.
The Indoor Nationals traditionally start with the glider events. Indoor glider is a unique class and probably the quickest and cheapest event to begin with.
Gliders
Glider is divided into two categories: Hand-Launched and Catapult.
- Hand-Launched Glider: Best described as a little javelin with wings, typically built from balsa and reinforced with carbon to survive the throw. This year the author threw an 83-second flight to win the event and establish an FAI record.
- Catapult Glider: Launched with one or more loops of 1/4-inch rubber. These models climb vertically and reach impressive altitude. In Unlimited Catapult Glider this year Kurt Krempetz and Jim Lewis battled with different strategies; Kurt’s solid-winged glider edged out Jim’s built-up geodetic design.
Speed events
While gliders climbed to the ceiling in center stage, speed events ran along the sidelines.
- Straight-Line Speed: Competitors cover a 50-foot distance as quickly as possible. Jim Lewis loaded his Quail design with two motors to blister the course.
- Unlimited Rubber Speed: More like pylon racing, requiring two laps around a pair of helium-balloon pylons. Models are simple sheet-balsa designs, but the challenge is getting tight circuits around the pylons. John Diebolt beat Jack Boone by less than two-tenths of a second.
Contrast of events
One great quality of indoor flying is contrast: a morning of rockets-to-the-ceiling gliders and speedsters can turn into an evening where one revolution of an Intermediate Stick propeller can decide a contest. Slow-duration and scale events require patience and finesse.
Scale and novelty
Scale and novelty events showcase craftsmanship and attention to detail. Small models line up for charisma and authenticity judging; events such as Pennyplane draw enthusiastic participation across ages.
Scale began on Day Two with about a dozen different scale events to match any building style. Popular classes include:
- Peanut Scale: wingspan no more than 13 inches.
- Pistachio Scale: wing limited to 8 inches in span. Emil Schutzel’s winning Santos-Dumont 14bis used canards to pack area into the limited span.
- Coconut Scale: “Giant Scale” of indoor, wingspan exceeding 36 inches. Coconut Scale has seen strong participation from young people in Tim Lavender’s Flying Aces Club of Smyrna, Tennessee.
Pure scale events combine static judging and flying time. If you prefer flying-only competition, try the mass-launch events (World War I, World War II, Coconut Scale). These are flown in several rounds with eliminations; strategy and “psycheing” are important. Jack McGillivray won the World War II division with a three-minute flight in the finals.
The Bostonian event allows semiscale designs with a maximum span of 16 inches. Competitors are judged on a “charisma factor” (1.00 to 1.20) multiplied by flying score to reward stylish creativity. Richard Miller won Bostonian with flights approaching six minutes, using about 7,000 turns in a 60-inch motor.
Intermediate Stick
Intermediate Stick models are limited to 100 square inches of wing area and must use commercially available covering. As Mylar films have gotten thinner and lighter, flight times have risen dramatically: in 1987 the winning flight was just over 20 minutes; now times are roughly 40 minutes.
The Intermediate propeller turns only about 60 RPM during flight due to a variable-pitch design that changes pitch throughout the flight to make best use of the rubber motor’s torque range. John Kagan, a past F1D World Champion who converted from FAI radio control, topped the field in Intermediate. Senior flier Doug Schaefer finished second; Doug is a product of the Science Olympiad program and the defending Junior F1D World Champion. Jon Leblanc was third in his first Nationals; he brought his family, and his sons Christopher (8) and Benji (5) won many junior events.
F1D and other slow-duration classes
After a morning of scale events, evenings slowed for duration classes like F1D, Hand-Launched Stick, and Rise-Off-Ground (ROG) Cabin.
F1D has had major rules changes making models smaller and a bit heavier. The newly leveled playing field renewed interest in the class; many newcomers arrived with first F1D models and were aided by veterans. John Kagan, the 2000 F1D World Champion, won this event but struggled to find the right motor combination. Indoor rubber is variable in quality; the best batches are referenced by month and year and are stored carefully. Kagan accidentally loaned the last of a “good batch” to a fellow competitor and had to dig into a different batch to find the winning combination. Tom Sova and Larry Cailliau finished second and third; young Doug Schaefer edged out seven-time F1D World Champion Jim Richmond for fourth place.
Hand-Launched Stick (effectively “unlimited” with the caveat that the model must be heavier than air and rubber-powered) still uses microfilm covering in some entries. Jim Richmond’s Star Walker is a classic large microfilm model; its late-evening appearance is like an encore. The Star Walker’s performance took the event win.
Rise-Off-Ground Cabin and other slow-flying events round out the evening schedule and reward precision.
MiniStick, Easy B (EZB), and FIL
MiniStick is one of the most popular Nats events. These tiny models (7-inch maximum wingspan) can be flown in a living room, are simple and inexpensive to build, and are fascinating to fly. Flights of several minutes are possible in a living room; in high-ceiling venues, flights can exceed 13 minutes. Rob Romash repeated his win with a 13:09 flight; Walt Van Gorder trailed by about 20 seconds.
Easy B (EZB) has a misleading name. Originally intended as a simple newcomer event, the lack of a minimum weight requirement has made it an exercise in materials management. Current EZBs can weigh as little as 0.3 grams and fly over 30 minutes. Alan Cohen sold motorsticks from his workbench during the Nats — he had cut, sanded, and graded at least 50 motorsticks to meet competitors’ needs. He built an EZB from scratch during the event, often with an interested audience watching and asking questions. Alan used the new aircraft in competition and posted 27:07, finishing second behind Larry Cailliau’s 28:28.
FIL (F1L) is an emerging international indoor duration event similar to EZB but with a 1.2-gram minimum weight and a different scoring system: best two of six flights rather than best one of five. This reduces the chance of winning with a single lucky flight that happens to avoid obstructions. John Kagan and Rob Romash battled closely in F1L; Kagan edged Romash by six seconds with a two-flight total of 42 minutes, 10 seconds.
Science Olympiad and juniors
Science Olympiad models have become popular across indoor classes. Science Olympiad is a national junior- and senior-high-school competition that includes “The Wright Stuff,” where students build and fly indoor rubber-powered duration models. It has proven a great training ground for junior flyers such as Doug Schaefer, Matt Chalker, and Ben Saks, who comprised the 2002 World Champion U.S. Junior F1D team. This year there were divisions for junior-high, senior-high, and open-class fliers.
Closing
By the time the five-day meet concluded, the Mini-Dome had hosted 47 events in roughly 65 hours of flying. If you have never attended an indoor free flight contest, seek one out — it is inexpensive, weatherproof, and offers something for every type of modeler.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
