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The Midwest Performance Flyers is a
radio control model aircraft club
that promotes flying,
training and building R/C model
planes, helicopters,
gliders, scale, and
indoor electric. We have a lot
of activity in both indoor and
outdoor helicopters. There has been
a tremendous increase in the
technology in gas and electric
helicopters. There has also been an
equally big jump in the technology
of indoor and outdoor electric
airplanes. This makes both of these
activities very interesting to
participate in as there is something
new every day. The two most
important improvements in electric
have been the brushless motors and
the new Lithium Polymer batteries.
With these two improvements you can
increase the power to weight ratio
to a point that will give unlimited
vertical performance. I have
personally been very involved with
indoor flying. I have found some
types of airplanes that can be used
for indoor flying which can do both
acrobatic and 3-D flying and most
important are almost indestructible.
The two planes that I have found to
be best for this are the
IFO
and the
Revolution 2. The IFO can be
flown in a very small area and can
do loops rolls and inverted flight
but is not as good at maneuvers like
the torque roll. Although it does
not revolve in a torque roll if you
add a rudder to the plane it can
hover. The
Revolution 2 can do the torque
roll very well but is harder to fly
in a small Gym. The IFO gets it’s
strength form a carbon fiber frame
covered with ripstop polyester and
the
Revolution 2 gets it’s
durability from the use of EPP foam.
The EPP foam lets the airplane bend
when it hits something but it bends
back without breaking or deforming.
While on the subject of durability I
might mention the motor/gear train
for the airplanes. When we used to
fly with motors that had brushes in
them the motors had to turn at a
higher RPM to make their power. This
meant that you had to have a gear
reduction because they couldn’t turn
a larger prop that was necessary for
good vertical performance.
Unfortunately every time you hit
something it would either break or
knock the gear train out of line.
After repairing the gear train it
was usually necessary to run it for
about a ½ hour before the gears
would wear in and reach maximum RPM.
By that time you would hit something
else and have to start all over. Now
however you can purchase an
Outrunner brushless motor, such as
the
Nippy Black, that can turn the
bigger props without a gear box.
This eliminates all the hassle of
keeping up the gear box and the
plane will run at maximum RPM
without any wear-in or break-in
time. When you use an Outrunner
motor with the EPP foam or carbon
fiber/ ripstop polyester planes you
will have eliminated almost all of
the upkeep and repairing.
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