Free Flight: Indoor
World Indoor Record: In September, 1962, Karl-Heinz Rieke set the absolute Indoor World Record at 45:40, with his third official flight of the 1962 Indoor World Championships. The 1962 WCh was held at Cardington, England, former home of Great Britain's two dirigibles. Fourteen years later, on Aug. 14, 1976, Dick Kowalski's "300" (maximum size for AMA Indoor Stick is 300 sq. in. wing area) logged a 50:41 flight. The site was the Goodyear Aerospace Hangar, where the American dirigibles Akron and Macon were built. Kowalski had witnessed the Rieke flight, and his own flight culminates many years of planning and preparation. With both AMA and FAI sanctions in effect, this flight also qualifies for the AMA Cat. III Indoor Stick record.
Free Flight: Indoor
Now Is The Time: Get out all your indoor models and check them over for warps and needed repairs! The indoor season is in full swing, with a number of clubs having regular practice sessions and contests set up. After your models are ready, make up new motors, and test fly your models if you have access to a site. Set up some sessions of your own-get into the swing of the season! Visitors Welcome: For the various cities listed below, there is a list of indoor session/contest dates and a contact for more information:
Free Flight: Indoor
TRULY COMPETITIVE activity in any kind of model flying requires careful attention to detail, but this is especially true with indoor models. Each time a model is flown, things must be exactly right for the model to give its best performance. Is the wing incidence right? A tiny fraction of one degree change in incidence will make a noticeable difference in performance, yet 1/16 in. change in incidence is only one degree for a wing 3 1/2 in. wide. If you change props on your super FAI ship, does the new prop weigh the same as the old one? A change in prop weight on the average FAI indoor model will shift the center of gravity about 1/4 in. for each .001 oz. of weight change! Does that explain why the "super" model suddenly started flying like a lead sled?
Free Flight: Indoor
ANOTHER NIMAS INTERNATS? Tentative planning now underway (late February) is that the National Indoor Model Airplane Society will have another International Record Trials at Northwood Institute in West Baden, Indiana early in June. Actually, the activity will be expanded to include both the NIMAS event and the opening rounds of the Central Zone qualification trials to select the U.S. Team for the 1978 Indoor World Championship. Final decision time on this activity will come at a time not compatible with the next issue of this column, so anyone interested can get information on the NIMAS Internats by sending a self-addressed, stamped envelope to Box 545, Richardson TX 75080.
Free Flight: Indoor
REMEMBER THE INSTRUCTORS! If your club is one of those with a fairly active indoor season and you have a good group of beginners of any age range, the odds are long that you have one or more of those selfless individuals who spends endless hours helping people. The same can be said of most clubs regardless of the type of model activity, but indoor is a special case. At least limited help can be found at the hobby dealer for almost any kind of model except indoor models-likely not even the supplies are available for indoor. As a result, those in your club who have learned indoor recently either dug it out for themselves or were guided by someone. So, if your club has one of these tutors, take a minute to thank him. Even if he hasn't helped you directly, he has advanced modeling all around you to the detriment of his own modeling.
