Indoor Plans – BAESMAC

Indoor Models

During winter months, indoor RC flying takes place every other Monday evening at the Warton Lightning Club Sports hall between 7pm and 9pm. (See here for dates)

More and more interest has been generated in the small to medium size “shockie” type models that have been flown at the events. These are powered by inexpensive or home made CD rom size electric motors or the the slightly more expensive commercially available, but more powerful smaller motors. 2s LiPo (7.4v) batteries ranging from 250mAh to 600mAh. 4 micro servos, a mini receiver either on 2.4GHz or 35MHz and a 10Ah speed controller.

The models are made from 3mm Depron foam, which the club has stock of. To buy these models in kit form (just foam and carbon/plastic), from a shop would set you back probably in the region of £20 – £40. You can put one of them together for less than a Tenner! (£10) Which ever model you buy or make, you will still have to buy radio gear, motor etc so making your own not only brings much satisfaction, but does not break the bank either.

Whilst the Parkzone type aircraft, fixed wing and helis are still very popular, these are expensive and some of which are just too fast for the venue we have. The models flown by Paul Whittle, Andy Holden and Colin Waite have generated much interest, especially when they can be made in a couple of hours and at minimum cost. They can fly slower, are generally more manoeuvrable and give much more value in terms of £’s per fun.

To this end, There are many sources of plans for these type of models online, some of which are a little too big for the sports hall. However, we have produced some plans of the size of model that is suitable for the sports hall. All around 650mm in wingspan. Over the next month or so, we will be providing more links and articles to get you started.

As a start, here are a few ideas of the sort of model you may want to build and fly, the cost and how to build.

AmpEater – Latest shockie style model from Andy Holden.

Click on image left to download the PDF plan. When printing, select print scale- “none”. This will then print tiles onto A4 paper (13 pages)

See indoor article by Andy Gill – Part 1 – Part 2

Shockie 650 – designed by Mick Lomax

A fantastic manoeuvrable model with extreme control deflections. But flies nice on reduced controls. Hard to beat, but would suggest something different for your first indoor foamie.

Sebach

A smooth design by Design by Andy Holden.

Has good handling qualities…. Nice

Alpha – Based on a much smaller single cell motor model called a “Dynex2.4” but scaled up to shockie size. Flies well, but needs to be flown faster than the other models due to lack of wing area.

Beta – Fuse and tail the same as the Alpha model but with much greater wing area. creating a much slower and forgiving model than the alpha. Good roll rate performance but not excessive and is more than adequate to start with.

AndNow

Available by following this link: http://www.flyelectric.ukgateway.org.uk

Paul’s Recommendation:
The Ultimate starter model – Anyone building it today should use a 250 to 600mah 2 cell lipo and CD-Rom size brushless motor along with 3off 3.7 to 6gram servos and 8 to 10 amp ESC

Extra 300

Available by following this link:
http://www.flyelectric.org.uk/indoor.htm#extra

Comes highly recommended:
Paul used the ‘Extra’ wing on the ‘AndNow’ fuse for some time before he went to the shockies, worked very well and improved the inverted and particularly the roll ability of the ‘AndNow’, but would not fly as slow as the stock ‘AndNow’

These models are made from Depron Foam sheet, each sheet will make more than one model of this size. (2 sheets will make 3 models)

The foam is strengthened by carbon strip -flat or small dia rod or tube, but the model foam does deteriorate over time, from the knocks and mishaps. But once the Depron model has passed its best and needs replacing – the carbon is generally re usable and can be removed and reused on another model, so the cost of the carbon is offset against additional models thus reducing the cost of the model even further.

Control Rod ends are easily made by forming a Z bend on a paper clip, lightly emery the last inch of the carbon rod and then bind the carbon rod and paper clip together with cotton thread, repeat for the other end. Once you are happy with the length and orientation of the ends add a drop of cyano and allow to dry – perfect control rod.

Estimate cost for the 650 Shockie is laid out below:

Airframe

Depron £2.00. (part sheet)
Carbon £6.00
1mm Dia Piano wire £1.00
Diamond tape £0.30
UHU Por £0.30

Radio / motor

Servos 3.7g to 5g 3 off £18
Receiver £8 (35Mhz or 2.4GHz micro size light as possible)
8 – 10amp ESC £10
Brushless motor £18
Prop £1
300mh Lipo 2 cell
Approx Total £70

Please bear in mind that when crashed / smashed,In the main, the only damage will be to the Depron, therefore total cost of a totally written off airframe is about £2.00 – now that’s MUCH better value for money than the shop bought RTF planes. Build time for an airframe is around 3 hours on the first one you make and about 1 hour on subsequent ones. Repairs are often possible on a damaged airframe (just look at mine) and cost almost nothing and are quick to do, so only make a new airframe when absolutely necessary.

The club now has stock of some materials for making the models:

3mm Depron Foam Sheet (2 sheet will make 3 models) £3.00 ea

(Flat carbon is normally used for the wing leading edge i.e. 3mm X 0.9mm or 3mm X 0.5mm, but we do not have this presently. However Carbon tube and rod can be used instead)

Carbon Tube: (3mm OD X 2mm ID X 1 Metre) £2.00 ea
Carbon Rod: (1.5mm OD X 1 Metre) £1.25 ea
Glue: (UHU POR 40g size) £2.50 a tube

The above can be obtained from Paul Whittle by dropping him an email,

Paul will then bring the order to the next indoor session or will arrange for you to collect from St Annes.

warton.indoor.flying@googlemail.com