FAI F1D

[Brucester]

Hey everyone, although this is not really a Science Olympiad related topic, there was an F1D Indoor Free Flight demonstration at Solon's invitational this year, and it interested me....A LOT. If anyone has any contact information that would be great because I'm really trying to get involved into this competition. This is just another great thing Science Olympiad has pointed me towards, and I think Wright Stuff is really made to push you towards bigger and more competitive indoor free flight competitions. I know since I started Wright Stuff I've gotten into Radio-Controlled planes as well as building balsa models at my own house. The main thing is, any contact info on any FAI F1D flyers would be awesome!

Thanks,
Brucester

[calgoddard]

Yes F1D planes are incredible to watch in flight, but also incredibly difficult to build and trim.

You have to build very, very, very light, and trim perfectly. Just building the rolled motor stick can take many, many hours. You have to select the very best 1/64 balsa sheet out of many, many possible candidates.

First try mastering Wright Stuff airplanes. That class has a seven gram minimum weight.

Once you can consistently break 3 minutes in a twenty foot gym with a Wright Stuff plane, try building a Penny Plane. That will take a few months or years to master. It has a 3.1 gram minimum weight. You should be able to break six minutes in the same gym.

Then try to master the EZB class, a much more difficult plane to build and trim than a Penny Plane because there is no minimum weight for an EZB airplane. These airplanes can fly for twenty minutes in a high ceiling site. If you can master EZB, then you are ready for your first attempt at building an F1D airplane.

An F1D plane has a much larger wing and stab than a Wright Stuff plane yet it typically weighs about 1.2 grams. The record for an F1D flight is over one hour.

You can make contact with F1D modelers and other indoor duration free flight rubber powered modelers via the Indoor Construction group on Yahoo.

Good luck.

[jander14indoor]

Try to contact whoever did the F1D demo for you, the NE Ohio area has a number of very strong indoor flyers more than willing to give time to students. If you traveled a long way to Solon, give us a general idea where you live, there may be an active club in your area.

And while I generally agree with calgoddard, there are several examples of good WS fliers who make an almost direct leap to F1D, several who've gone on to win the Jr World championship. It is challenging but doable with the right info and some mentoring.

Jeff Anderson
Livonia, MI

[eta150]

With F1D, the competitions are generally in the limited class, which flies for 40 minutes. The unlimited class has had 2 planes ever that have broken 1 hr.

[Brucester]

Thanks everyone for the super quick replies! Wasn't aware of all those different competitions. I'm going to see what I can do about doing pennyplanes and those other ones first. I'm in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area, I've come in contact with several RC clubs (by the way, anyone interested in Wright Stuff should get into RC planes.....great, fun, and can be challenging hobby). I haven't had the chance to meet any indoor free flight communities in Pittsburgh. The hobby shops have been help in finding RC clubs, but there really doesn't seem to be much of a free flight craze at that shop, and they had little knowledge on any clubs. Anyways, any information on anyone in any free flight competitions I could contact about a club in Pittsburgh would be great, not just F1D, though I'm betting the club does the pennyplanes, F1D, etc..

Thanks as always,
Brucester

[blue cobra]

I'm in the same boat. Thanks to Wright Stuff, I'll probably be doing indoor free flight for the rest of my life. There is a model plane club near me, thankfully. Also, my Wright Stuff mentor now builds micro R/C planes, with like a 2.5" wing span, that I'd love to try. You mentioned doing R/C planes, so would you know of a good place to start?

[Brucester]

It's always nice to have a mentor such as your coach, but talk to your local hobby shop about clubs and when they meet indoors for flying something that small, although your gym works just perfectly, it's always nice to fly with some company. Check out a site called plantraco, they specialize in really micro aircraft like you talked about. Their stuff is expensive, but state of the art. They use metal actuators instead of servos. If you're looking for a bigger plane for outdoor flight, I recommend the Super Cub LP, but talk to your local hobby shop, they're very knowledgeable. Anyways, If you're at the national tournament contact me, because they have a huge barn to fly in, and the day before I might bring some of my smaller (18" wingspan) planes to fly! That goes for anyone interested in watching what a great hobby it is!

Brucester

[jander14indoor]

Noooo, noooo, not the evil rc (never capitalize)! Stay with a True Challenge, Free Flight (Always Capitalize)!

NOTE, above meant (mostly) as a joke, whatever floats your boat (or lifts your plane as the case may be).

VERY few hobby shops know anything about Free Flight any more. Most of the commerce and information has moved to the internet.
Its too challenging for most, and as I'm sure you've already found, a little tricky to find convenient places to fly.
And, frankly, there's just not much money in Free Flight. Prices for rc have come down lots recently, the cheap rc toys are under a hundred, park flyers in the $100 to $200 by the time you get the accessories necessary to fly. But serious rc stuff climbs into the thousands FAST.
As a semi hard core Free Flight afficianado I only have three tools more than $100 after many years as an adult at the hobby. A rubber stripper, a very fancy micrometer balsa stripper, and a nice scale. The rubber strippers about the only MUST have among the three for serious indoor flyers. Scales have gotten cheaper, and there are perfectly adequate balsa strippers that will do most of what mine will doe for tens of dollars. As to planes, the only ones I have with more than a few dollars in materials are large outdoor Free Flight jobs, and we're still talking under $100 for those.

As to help in the Pittsburgh area, I'm pretty confident there's a Free Flight club nearby. Suggestion, join the Yahoo groups Free Flight Mailing List http://groups.yahoo.com/group/freeflightml and Indoor_Construction http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Indoor_Construction and ask. You might also try the Small Flying Arts forum http://www.smallflyingarts.com/

Good luck,

Jeff Anderson
Livonia, MI

[blue cobra]

It's always nice to have a mentor such as your coach, but talk to your local hobby shop about clubs and when they meet indoors for flying something that small, although your gym works just perfectly, it's always nice to fly with some company. Check out a site called plantraco, they specialize in really micro aircraft like you talked about. Their stuff is expensive, but state of the art. They use metal actuators instead of servos. If you're looking for a bigger plane for outdoor flight, I recommend the Super Cub LP, but talk to your local hobby shop, they're very knowledgeable. Anyways, If you're at the national tournament contact me, because they have a huge barn to fly in, and the day before I might bring some of my smaller (18" wingspan) planes to fly! That goes for anyone interested in watching what a great hobby it is!

Brucester

Yes, thanks. He didn't start with planes that small though. He started out with 20+ gram outdoor planes around Wright Stuff size, built with components from store-bought R/C cars, balsa wood, and tissue. He then progressed down to a 390 mg plane with a 3.125" wingspan, custom milled prop spinning at 36k RPM, brushless motor, and a carbon fiber airframe with pieces no larger than 0.008", all built and coded by him. I hope to follow a similar path.

And jander14indoor, that doesn't mean I'll give up Free Flight

[Brucester]

Haha, I like doing both though! Thanks so much for the info. Anyways, anyone know of any good kits to start a penny plane? Just to get me started, of course mods will be necessary, but I need the rules, and a kit the shows me what they're doing to get planes that light.
@Blue Cobra: That sounds awesome! Carbon fiber is a huge on every rc model (notice the noncapital), whether being used as a motorsitck, stiffening control surfaces and wings/stab, and going though the wings to support them!

Thanks,
Brucester