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General control line discussion => Open Forum => Topic started by: Steve Helmick on February 10, 2015, 05:20:36 PM
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It's about F1D, and it's interesting! :o Steve
http://vimeo.com/118981171 (http://vimeo.com/118981171)
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Thank you, Aki .... that was beautiful. I did some Indoor flying many years ago (1970s). It is a challenging discipline.
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I agree, Akihiro-san has shown the beauty of free flight in microfilm at its best. As an adolescent, I used to build the Japanese stick and paper rubber powered ROG airplanes. Recently I had a good discussion with Ken Kron, an CL flier here in Clovis, NM. He mentioned the same as Aki-san about his grandchildren not interested in CL except may be one.
I find it interesting that the Japanese youth are no different than American youth, in that they are no longer fascinated with flight as I was when growing up, being into electronic games instead.
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Very well done and touching too.
I too am surprised about the lack of young modelers.
Too bad the smartphones don't have wings too.
Shug
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A 32 minute flight! Very impressive!
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If you consider yourself a modeler, you have to try some sort of indoor free flight. I feel it is just as rewarding as control line stunt. The models don't look like much, but require a whole different mind set and skill set. If I had access to a regular indoor flying site, which is the main ingredient to building success in this area of the hobby, I would definitely participate more. I used to actively fly penny plane, p-nut scale, No-Cal scale, and HLG before I got put on the second shift treadmill. There are lots of plans on line for what are refereed to as parlor mites or mini-sticks on line that are a good challenge to build and fly in your living room and/or family room. 6 or 7 inch wing span models that with practice, can achieve a minute or more in an average living room. That doesn't sound like much compared to the 32 minutes described in the video, but try it! If you can successfully build an indoor model that will fly in your living room for a minute or more, you will have successfully learned most of the skills to move on to the other classes. The tools required are not expensive. For the cost of PA-75 or a Ro-Jett you have have everything you need to strip balsa and rubber. So much fun and very relaxing, believe it or not!
Remember Paul McCready and his Gossamer Albatross man powered plane that won the Kramer Prize after so many years of people trying? You had to fly a figure 8 course for 1 mile and clear a ten foot obstruction at the beginning and end of the flight. People had been successfully flying man powered planes for a mile or more in a straight line for years, the problem was turning the huge,gangly airframes. Paul McCready was a prominent indoor flyer in his early years, and applied what he learned trimming indoor models to controlling the Albatross and that was the key. Looking through the old magazines in the 40's will show coverage of the NATS and stuff with discussions that 30 minutes with the large indoor jobs might never be achieved. It was BIG news when Pete Andrews finally broke the barrier and times have been climbing ever since. I think 60 minutes has been achieved in practice but don't know if official flights have been recorded in competition. Variable prop pitch and diameter methods are what have gotten things to this level along with advances in some materials. Other people, including young people, will pick up this end of teh hobby, they just have to discover it. The same thiong with control line stunt, you just have to keep putting it out there and make information available. Akihiro is an inspiration, to say the very least! True tribute to the line "Never give up, never surrender!"
Type at you later,
Dan McEntee
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"INDOOR MODELERS ARE VERY STRANGE, YOU KNOW."
"LITTLE GUM-BANDS THAT DON'T GIVE MUCH POWER."
"THEY WALK AND TALK REALLY SLOW."
"AND THEY DON'T BREATHE FOR HALF AN HOUR".
(Shakespeare)
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Thanks for an amazing story Steve. Seems like someone could help him get to competitions or even the worlds. I remember my first sight of an indoor microfilm plane at the 64 NATS. A photographer was about to get slaughtered when he turned his lamps on for filming a flight.
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Wow!
I'm a bit overwhelmed at the moment.
Akihiro San, you have my sincere admiration for what you do. I have never built or flown indoor aircraft but do understand how difficult it is and the very special skill set it requires to do it at the level you have attained.
Thank you for the video. If more youngsters could see this a few might be challenged to try it.
Randy Cuberly
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Thank you very much for introducing the video, Steve san.
I regret a little having used the word 'hobby'.
I should say 'sport'.
Randy san, Indoor is not special at all. Indoor is identical with C/L, design, build, fly and enjoy.
And Indoor is not so difficult. Only just a little different.
Aki
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The crossovers from discipline to discipline seem wide, but in reality skills for each can only make you a better modeler overall. I was raised flying everything, soloed CL at 6, flew rudder only escalpement RC at 7, and FF rubber always. No competition until I was 13 and that was FF. but the point is we seem to want to segragate into groups when in reality we should cross pollenate. I specialized in competitive FF gas and transitioned to Rubber (F1B Wakefield) but flew CL and RC on my "days off". When I started getting interested in Classic Stunt I found my building skills very much helped by what I'd done with balsa and composites and that my addiction to weight savings a big plus. Trimming also was a big plus because no matter what you fly, the principals of flight are the same thought a captive model does offer some unique issues to be dealt with. Indoor FF is a challenge, adm I've never tried microfilm. I belong to the Detroit Balsa Bugs and have known and flown with some of the best indoor fliers in the country and that all admit that it makes you a better modeler because you become so accutely aware of the niuances of flight and the effects of all the forces acting on the aircraft. They are usually plainly visible, the "tail wag" was mentioned here. Cross drafts, even flying over a person you can see the heated air lift the model and then see it settle back down as it passes. The delicacy of the models makes you much more cautions and therefore more patient.
Wonderfull video, I enjoyed it completely.
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Aki, very sad but very inspirational at the same time. At least you can still build and fly. I have always thought that indoor planes of this type are more like poetry in motion.
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Thank you very much for introducing the video, Steve san.
I regret a little having used the word 'hobby'.
I should say 'sport'.
Randy san, Indoor is not special at all. Indoor is identical with C/L, design, build, fly and enjoy.
And Indoor is not so difficult. Only just a little different.
Aki
It's a thing of beauty
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Hi Aki,
It is great to see the video! And, I am very impressed by your accomplishments in the indoor arena. Truly poetry in motion!
Bill