RAFMAA Indoor 01/08 - RAF Digby 10/11 Nov 07

The first indoor event of the 2008 season took part at RAF Digby on the 10/11 Nov 07, and was reasonably well attended.  As well as most of the usual suspects, and  our regular civilian guests we were pleased to welcome a small contingent from the BMFA National and International indoor scene, who flew EzB and F1D duration models, and showed us how it should be done.

Saturday was bright and cold outside, but inside the gymnasium warmed up nicely and the models performed fairly well.  A stiff breeze meant that there were drafts inside the hangar and the slow models tended to drift a little.  A battle of the “chuckies” commenced, soon separating it self into two groups as S/L Ian Pallister and Mr Tricker fought for the 30 second mark whilst I struggled to compete against Michael and Simon, my sons.

As the hangar warmed the flimsy duration models made an appearance.  As usual a long afternoon was spent trying to squeeze the best from the worst named models in history (there’s nothing Ez about them!).  As the inside of the hangar started to cool I had managed a couple of fair times, closely followed by Ian Pallister, and my two lads who were having a private competition.

On Sunday the external weather was much colder, with a strong wind from the north, and it affected the conditions inside the hangar quite severely.  I had given up any hope of bettering my EzB times but Michael and Simon struggled on, and with very little interference from me, both managed to improve on Saturday’s results.  Ian Pallister and I spent a couple of hours trying to achieve the impossible - something that passes for flight from indoor helicopter models, and in the end the results were very close.  Whilst Ian’s model is much more stylish I came out (very slightly) on top using brute force (a bigger rubber band!).

Ian spent the remainder of his day trying to get the better of his CO2 duration model but was beaten by an empty CO2 bottle.  Even still he recorded times that will ensure that Phil Morgan has to fly in the spring!

The conditions were such that by 3pm everybody had had enough and the party broke up.  Overall, despite the trying conditions a very successful competition, with provision results recorded in 4 duration classes, and a lot of flying with some very fine scale and International duration models.  The second round of Indoor will take place at Digby in the Spring, where the scale classes will be flown, along with a second chance to improve upon the duration scores.  If you would like to try (or watch) something just a little bit different and challenging, then please come along.

Martin Paffett

Chief Tech

Indoor Comp Sec