Any suggestions for indoor flying?

[david james 1]

I have recently joined my local indoor flying sessions. I am a reasonably experienced outdoor flyer but am finding flying in such a small space quite challenging.

 

I have started with a Microaces SE5A but a couple of times the wall has jumped out and hit the plane. I am wondering if I should get something slower flying to get my eye in.

 

UMX Night Vapor seem quite popular but other suggestions are welcome.

[Don Fry]

Nothing slower or friendlier that a night vapour. Get a cloth, 6 feet long, at a carrier top. Couple of shoe boxes. Good concentration needed.

[Shaun Walsh]

5 hours ago, Don Fry said:

Nothing slower or friendlier that a night vapour. Get a cloth, 6 feet long, at a carrier top. Couple of shoe boxes. Good concentration needed.

Agree, not much flies slower than a Vapor, although in terms of £/g they cost more than printer ink!

I also have a couple of these:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004241637508.html?pdp_npi=2%40dis!GBP!￡15.84!￡11.09!!!!!%40211b58ef16788147216954026e8bac!12000028496839593!btf&_t=pvid%3A20a8ab7f-f2d4-49e1-b346-aaf53d1a9e7e&afTraceInfo=1005004241637508__pc__pcBridgePPC__xxxxxx__1678814721&spm=a2g0o.ppclist.product.mainProduct

 

Cheap as chips and fly quite well. They are almost indestructible, great for indoor combat.

[Don Fry]

Would agree re cost. I’ve had a Mini Vapour, alas no longer made. Over the years it’s done many hundreds of flights, including carrier deck onto the dining room table.

Another tough one, cheap as chips, is the Simples RCME free plan. Full acrobatic  capability on 4 channels. You break a motor occasionally. Cut a few templates, and a kit is made in half an hour. But, you absolutely need to know the box you fly in, or you hit the wall. This one is a stalled build. Lost the indoor site.

[GrumpyGnome]

Vapor/Night Vapors are great but their flight envelope is a bit limited.

 

Microaces stuff looks great but they fly a little fast for my liking. 

 

I started with a Vapor that got eaten week 2.  Then I got a Vapor clone off Banggood - was less than than £20 and made use if all the 1S batteries I'd accumulated.  Still fly it occasionally.   If you're a competent flier, the Superlite series from RC factory are brilliant fliers.  Take a beating and easily fixed.  Don't really need expensive gear either...

 

We have a few of the Volantex type high wing models in the club.  They're a little fast until you're well acquainted with a hall.  We also have a few of the UMX planes are sold as suitable for indoors - the Americans have bigger halls than us so they're all quite challenging.

[Graham Bowers]

Try a small Nutball. Easy enough to find information about them. 

[Nightflyer]

In our club Night Vapors are very popular and can be fun with inventive minds for carrier table top fun, limbo, even mini pylon time trials etc. Micoaces range is popular too. The Brisfits fly well because of wing area, triplanes are more of a handful if space is tight because of speed. However the Volantex range has proven popular especially T28's when there is regularly a Squadron of them flying same time. These are the popular choices but other models are flown. Hall size is often the key to what you can fly.

[Trevor]

We have traditionally run a cycle of 4 slots at our indoor sessions - Helicopters (and multirotors), Slow fly (mainly Vapors and variants), Scale, and Shockies (mainly Ramiels). 

 

The idea of the Scale slot is for fixed wing craft that are not as slow and delicate as the Vapors but don't really want to share the air space with the Shockies. Taking of Airspace, it is a very small sports hall (1 netball court) and the only Scale model we've found that was comfortable to fly was the UMX Spacewalker, now sadly discontinued. A couple of Micro Aces models have managed a few circuits in competent hands but, as others have said, they're a bit fast to be enjoyable in such a small hall and too nice to crash a lot. We have one aged Spacewalker left which will need a motor transplant before the next season but if anyone knows of anything similar, I'd love to hear about it.

 

Trevor