This past Monday we our club was invited to fly at the Tustin California blimp hanger.  The event was to show city and county officials how we could use the hanger for indoor model airplanes.  There were other clubs representing indoor R/C and indoor free flight.  The videos show Larry Renger with two young ladies flying the ET-1 trainer.  I was on the transmitter controlling the throttle.  We had around 15 people from very young to adults.  Several of the adults hadn't flown control line since they were kids.  The final video is Larry flying my electric 1/2 Pathfinder.  Wish us luck in getting access to this fine indoor flying site.

Since Larry was in every video I included a picture that was taken of my Continental that was at the event just for static show.  The place is plenty big enough for .40 size airplanes but with the large crowd and all the other flying we limited our stuff to 1/2a size.
Andy

Hmm ok i watched the videos 3 times already and now feelings on side ...
Isn't it somehow too quick that electric model? What is the size and what type of engine? I thought that because of horizontal fly , showing to girls he made different setup but...i saw also his flying....and hm? somehow quick? 

Andy's photo is a victim of a pro "artsy" photographer who insisted on the 1000 yard stare off into the ether. Andy usually is much happier than that.  

We are careful to take a backward step with each loop to avoid turbulence. I still hit one small bump.

Being small, the models do fly shorter lap times than the "biguns". Can't be helped. We need the small model size because of the restricted spaces where we do training. Also, we fly a bit fast to allow good wind penetration. We also have a version with fixed flaps and elevator kicker for flying on 15 ft lines in smaller spaces indoors. That version uses a smaller battery to move the CG back  and reduce weight.

At the AMA Expo we trained 50 kids and a few adult "retreads". We will next do training at the RCX show in Long Beach, CA June 1 & 2.

Bob Hunt got a copy of the ET-1plans to build a big version for the Bob Nall meet. I don't know if he did it.

BTW, the hangar is 190 ft high, 300 ft wide and 1200 ft long. If you staggered them you could probably run 15 full size circles at the same time!

The 1/2a Pathfinder does not seem to fly fast, but as Larry said the 1/2a planes in general are turning quicker lap times because lines are shorter.  The actual speed of the plane is really not that fast.  By the way did you notice how low the bottoms were that Larry was flying.  He does that just to scare the heck out of me, then again he is the "Zen Master" and I am just a grasshopper.  Tania this blimp hanger is so big it can hold several full size blimps at one time.  I saw three blimps in it once and it didn't cover more than 1/3 of the building.  If we do get access to the hanger some were talking about holding the indoor world F/F event there. 

Regarding wake turbulence  it seems to get worst with the larger models.  Again like Larry said we take one step back on each iteration of the maneuver.  As far as the picture goes, the photographer had be stare off and look up.  Oh well I am not going to win any beauty contests. 
Andy

hmm think I am agree with Tim : )
But if you really do such big contest,... I will save money and come to USA : )

The speed of the training plane is variable.  We installed an R/C receiver in place of the timer, that was I can control the speed and flight time while Larry is giving instructions to the young pilot.  In the case of the girl in the video, she already knew how to fly so we set the speed a little faster for her.  With very young first time fliers I can set the speed very slow.  The ET-1 works very well indoors and outdoors, we have put a couple of hundred people through this flight training program.
Andy