Indoor flying

[andy watson]

I have the opportunity to buy some planes to fly at school- indoors.

As I currently only own IC outdoor planes I will need a full set up- presumably electric.  I do want something a bit more elaborate than the £25ish ones.

 I will have a budget in the region of £300-£400, and will need about 5 planes for the money, plus any spare batteries, chargers etc.

Please remember I know nothing about electric set ups, so the more detail the better!

[Stephen Grigg]

Andy can you get 6 cause ID LIKE A GO INDOORS AND iVE DONE A BIT OF ELECTRIC THIS YEAR

[Jonathan Lewzey]

The parkzone Embers are quite good at £58 from Als. shop around. They are a complete setup although i do believe you can buy spare lipos from horizon distributors.

Personally, i would buy a shocky. You won't be able to get 5 for £300-£400, but they are very good. The clik! from www.expressfly.org.uk is amazing, very slow and precise, but get some decent kit for it. www.robotbirds.com do a good selection of shockys such as the donuts models range. if you're interested in a shocky i could specify gear for a particular model. usually with a shocky type its possible to trace round the depron components and create your own from 3mm depron sheet after the first model is a bit battered.

It is possible to convert an existing free flight model to indoor r/c. our club chairman has a 200% hangar rat which flies great on a GWS motor gearbox unit and 3s lipo.

falcon models do some great tiny stuff, including their 1.6g servos. A couple of clubmates have these and they fly really well.

Jon

[Clark Ross]

the parck zone vapor is very popular around here ,they are easy to fly and you can take the components out and put them in a peanut rubber type model or design your own airplane using the vapor guts

[David Ashby - Moderator]

These are for your pupils to fly Andy?

I'd go with Clark on this, the 3-channel Vapor will fly slowly so beginners will soon get the hang of things, pretty robust and supplied complete with Tx for £70 or so. The box is an excellent carry storage hangar too and the battery charger doesn't need mains electricity. Horizon do spares and new batteries are just £5 when I last looked. You can fly the Vapor outdoors in dead calm too.

[andy watson]

Cheers for that guys.

 Yes, they are for pupils.  Although I passed my A last week, I don't think it qualifies me to fly 5 planes at onece, even if they are slow!!

Sorry for not replying earlier Johnathon- your list was excellent, and gave me a good idea of the kind of things I had as options.  I had pretty much decided, after looking at tem, that the embers looked like the best way to go, as the RTF set up seems easiest for me to organise.

So now I need to decide- Ember or Vapour..............

We need a poll option on these forums!

[Jonathan Lewzey]

I thought you were buying 5 planes for yourself!. I'm sure rookie pilots could handle both the ember and vapor. The vapor has the advantage of being lighter and flying slower, while the ember is cheaper and possibly more resilient being all foam flying surfaces. The transmitters are also a handy size for junior flyers.

[Clark Ross]

i agree with jonathan  the ember and vapor are both good flyers and either one will do what you want .

the vapor flys slower and slower is better when flying in a confined area like a gym. those walls keep getting in the way.

[andy watson]

Well I bought 4 embers and a vapor.....just for a bit of variety!

Got them from Als Hobbies in the end as the cheaper places were out of stock, although I did nearly tell them to do without my sale when they told me I would have to phone round their branches to see if they had enough.  I also wasn't happy that the spare batteries I wanted weren't on the web site, so I couldn't just order online and had to phone up- as they do a discount for online ordered stuff.  Final gripe was trying to get the order delivered to school- they would only deliver to the cards registered address.  I said we could raise a purchase order, but they would only send the goods once the cheque cleared- as if a school would move to avoid paying for a few model planes .  Eventually they managed to decide they could post them to school, so why couldn't they decide that straight away!!

 Nothing to make me want to shop there again to be honest- everything was too hard work.

[buster prop]

I've got an Ember and it's a great little flyer. One thing to remember is that there are 2 versions, which are the same plane but with a different Rx. Ember 1 (which I have) won't bind to a DSM2 Spektrum Tx. Ember 2 has a DSM2 Rx and will bind. I spent ages trying to bind my Ember1 to my DX7 before I found this out so I have to fly it on the Tx supplied. Ember 1 has an orange pattern across the wings and Ember 2 a blue pattern. Thought you might like to know.

[Tim Mackey]

What unit is in the Ember 1 then ?? - it cant be the DSM protocol, becuse the DX7 ( which is DSM2 ) is backwards compatible with all Spektrum recivers...including the very early DSM

[buster prop]

I read that the Ember 1 has a DSM1 Rx. DSM1 was used by the Spektrum DX6 (not the later DX6i which is DSM2). Ember 1 definitely won't bind to a DX7. I think the Ember 2 uses the same module as the Vapor which is definitely DSM, a friend has one and flies it with a DX7. Maybe this should be in  the Radio thread.

[Tim Mackey]

It cant have - as I said, the DX7 ( and 6i)  is compatible with ALL DSM protocols that spektrum have used ( which is actually only 2 = DSM and DSM2 )

 

Its only  when you try things the other way around that you get problems

EG: You cant use a DSM Transmitter ( the DX6 ) on DSM2 Rx

Incidentally the Vapor is not DSM ...its DSM2

I suspect the mk1 Ember must have not used a spektrum rx at all, and was only compatible with the supplied tx.

Edited By Timbo - Administrator on 05/01/2010 23:13:53

[andy watson]

Wow, forgot about this old thread.

 

A quick review of the planes.

 

All of them are now in a non flying condition wairting for me to repair them.  The students managed to crash them all into pieces.  That's not a real criticism though- they are not sold as trainers and whilst the engineering is superb, they are fairly fragile due to their incredible light weight.  Having said that, they stopped the school several times as the students loved them, and they worked brilliantly.

 

The Vapour was definately better than the ember, and I would recommend it to anyone that has flown before.  The ember is a bit more basic and limited, the vapour has a greater range of tricks.

 

I have had some problems with the transmitters (I bought the option which included transmitters) losing binding to the receiver, and then having to try rebind them.  The instructions for this were not clear, and the process isn't as reliable as it should be.

 

Would I buy them again?  Well for the students the embers were fine, and they seem a bit tougher as well as cheaper.  For an experienced flier I would really suggest the ember might prove a bit limited, and stretch to the vapour.

[Jonathan Lewzey]

ember mk1 only works with the supplied tx. no other tx's.

 

I'd say they're probably the most resilient proportional controlled planes i've ever flown. The construction is light, but the inertia carried is so little that even a major crash shouldn't do too much damage.

 

Haven't flown the vapor much, but try these tricks with the ember if you're getting bored with it:

- fly circles and 8s (as tight as possible) around yourself, not turning to face the model

- build up speed close to the ground in a straight line and fly a stall turn across the wall, trying to brush the wheels on the wall

- fly between your legs

- fly 8s between your legs

- when you spot another flyer really concentrating on their flying , fly right infront of their face . gives some people a massive shock  about 20-30cm is about right .

- fly in slalom around poles (our local hall has a balcony with structural supports)

- dive straight at your face (no power) and then pull away at the last minute (get it wrong and you look a complete donut) 

- fly all this with the tx behind your back

[buster prop]

My Ember 1 must have a non-Spektrum compatible 2.4 Rx then and I didn't know the DX7 was backward compatible with earlier DSM. My DX7 definitely won't bind with it although it did with my Blade McX heli and a BNF Vapor. I like the Ember because I fly in a large hall mixing it with other planes where I once saw a Vapor get chopped by a shockie, with my Ember I can get out of their way. The Vapor would be better in a small space though for doing the tricks described by Jonathan.

[Phil Claridge]

only a complete donut would fly past another flyers face that close with any plane or fly staight towards his own face intentionally.

[Jonathan Lewzey]

ok, maybe it is a bit silly , but these indoor models are so light and fly so slowly and are very controllable. they're on 2.4 too so no glitches.

 

this particular stunt may pale in comparison to the one thats possible with my dad's mCX - its just about possible to touch the tail fin on your nose in a steady hover. the blades are only centimetres from you so you need a steady hand. wearing glasses is also advisable

[DaveS]

For my money the Vapor has to be the aircraft for novice flyers indoors.  We fly 8 at once on a regular basis in a small village hall.  You can expect 15 min plus on a battery with spare batts costing around £1.50 each fro Hobby City.

 

DaveS

[Tim Mackey]

Or me