F1D Team Selection finals
by Don Slusarczyk
don@donsrc.com
The 2016 USA F1D Team Selection finals were held last Labor Day weekend in Hangar No. 1 at the Lakehurst Naval Air Station in Lakehurst, New Jersey. The three-day contest consisted of three rounds per day (nine flights total) with the competitors’ best two rounds being scored.
The competition was fierce, and flights were often late into the evening, but after three days of flying, the 2016 Senior and Junior F1D Teams were decided. The 2016 USA F1D Senior Team members are John Kagan, Brett Sanborn, and Joshua Finn. The 2016 USA F1D Junior Team members are David Yang, Wyatt Wear, and Joseph Szczur. Joining them will be Yuan Kang Lee (defending Senior World Champion) and Evan Guyett (defending Junior World Champion).
They will be heading to the Indoor Free Flight (FF) World Championships in the Mihai salt mine in Romania later this year. Congratulations to all of the 2016 team members.
F1D Tutorial
This is a great time for anyone who has an interest in building F1D, but might be unsure about how exactly to build one or how to even get started. There is now an excellent online tutorial that explains the process and steps involved in making an F1D airplane. This tutorial has been put together by Yuan Kang Lee and has photos, text descriptions, illustrations, and many details and links about where to buy the items needed. The building methods shown in his tutorial are not limited to F1D; the information and methods can be adapted for other Indoor FF events as well.
If you’re a beginner at Indoor or an experienced Indoor modeler, I recommend checking out the F1D National Free Flight Society (NFFS) blog. The link is listed in “Sources.”
For additional F1D plans, check out the Indoor News and Views website. It offers plans for the Senior F1D team members’ models.
Labor Day Weekend at Lakehurst
Labor Day weekend at Lakehurst was not limited to just F1D flying. Max Zaluska took the opportunity to get in some flights with his Hand-Launch Stick (HLS) model. HLS aircraft are the ultimate Indoor models for pure duration with flight times now in excess of 60 minutes.
Max’s model has a 36-inch wingspan,
is covered in Y2K2 film, and weighs 1.4 grams with a VP propeller. Powered by a 19-inch, 1.9-gram loop of rubber, Max put in a flight of 54:25 and a later flight of 58:53, nearly breaking the 60-minute barrier.
Congratulations to Max on his great flight time and for joining the ranks of only a handful of people who have flown an Indoor model for so long.
New Indoor Facebook Page
Dezso Orsovai has created a new Facebook page dedicated to Indoor model aircraft. Called IndoorFlying, it is a great way to keep up with the European Indoor FF community. This Facebook page is replacing Dezso’s website, so the next time you are online, check it out.
Dezso is still selling his Violet Dream microfilm solution. Violet Dream microfilm is one of the easiest pour-and-lift microfilm solutions I have ever used and is reasonably priced. He uses a storage bottle that prevents the solvents from evaporating, so the solution will last many years without going bad.
Indoor Old-Timer
Many years ago, Tony Italiano started an event called AJI Old-Timer that was flown at the US Indoor Championships for a few years. The event was for Indoor stick models of which plans were published in the Zaic Model Aeronautics Yearbooks in the 1930s and 1940s.
Most model aviation disciplines have a Nostalgia event, except Indoor Rubber. The long-wingspan models from the early days of Indoor flying are intriguing, and I wonder if there is any interest from others in flying an event such as this.
Years ago I built a Featherette, an Indoor model that was sold in kit form in the 1950s, and it would fly approximately 10 minutes in a gymnasium. It was covered with Y2K film and had a hollow, rolled balsa stick and X-spar design propeller.
The model was roughly the size of a Limited Pennyplane, but with the weight of an F1L. Perhaps a One-Design contest would be a good place to start an Indoor Old-Timer event. I would love to hear any feedback on creating an Old-Timer Indoor event.
Until next time, keep the weights down and the times up!
SOURCES:
NFFS F1D blog
nffsblog.wordpress.com/2015/06/14/f1d-plan-construction-information
Indoor News and Views
www.indoornewsandviews.com
IndoorFlying
www.facebook.com/indoorflying
