Indoor Flying at Ashfield Girls School
The Belfast Model Flying Club organises sessions for Indoor Radio Control flying at Ashfield Girls School, Holywood Road, Belfast one Saturday afternoon a month and one evening a month from September to April.
The sessions are split into fifteen minute intervals – roughly the length of a battery charge – consisting of :-
Light models
Helicopter – Drone
Small Aerobatic
Large Aerobatic
Some members have a suitable model for each type resulting in a great busy flying day.
The indoor season is pre-paid for, this keeps the cost per session down.. For information on the flying sessions contact indoor co-ordinator (Details in site Contact section)
Come join us and have a lot of flying fun during those drab winter days when outdoor flying is just not going to happen.
We have only one major caveat – You MUST be insured.
to fifteen minute intervals – roughly the length of a battery charge – consisting of :-
Light models
Helicopter – Drone
Small Aerobatic
Large Aerobatic
Some members have a suitable model for each type resulting in a great busy flying day.
The charge for the season is £60.00, paid up front. Prepaying is the most cost effective to get a season of eight, three hour sessions. To make contact see web site contact section.
Come join us and have a lot of flying fun during those drab winter days when outdoor flying is just not going to happen.
We have only one major caveat – You MUST be insured to cover damage to property and injury to others.
Belfast Model Flying Club
Report on their annual indoor Flying displays held at the NDMRS 2018 show
The weekend of 21st & 22nd of April 2018 where the dates for this year’s North Down Model railway Society show held in Bangor Grammar School, Gransha Road, Bangor.
BMFC have had and manned their own static display stand at the NDMRS show for the past 20 years. We were supported by North Down MAC and other N.I.A.A clubs, however it is now very much a N.I.A.A stand led primarily by Bill Scott and members of our own and other clubs who help in manning the stand over the weekend of the shows.
This is Belfast model flying clubs third successive year providing an indoor flying display on behalf of the club and NIAA at the NDMRS show.
Our objective: To demonstrate to a large section of the public, ALL the various categories of aeromodelling in a safe, professional and entertaining format, so as to encourage like-minded people to take up our hobby/sport now or in the near future.
The display team consisted of the following people:-
Maurice Jess Display coordinator/pilot & co-presenter(B.M.F.C)
Ken SmeltzerDisplay pilot/co-presenter(B.M.F.C)
Maurice Doyle Display pilot/Pits crew(B.M.F.C & N.I.A.A)
Rodney O’Neill Display pilot/Pits crew(B.M.F.C)
Dorothy RobinsonDisplay pilot(B.M.F.C)
Eric MillarDisplay time keeper(B.M.F.C)
Peter BradshawDisplay setup/teardown (B.M.F.C)
Bill ScottDisplay setup/teardown (N.I.M.S.A & N.I.A.A)
Leslie Ward Pits Crew(U.M.A.C)
Kubinder BhamaraDisplay plane supplier(U.M.A.C)
Ross McConnellDisplay Pilot (B.E.F.C.)
Mark Patterson Display Pilot (B.E.F.C)
Craig KaneDisplay plane supplier(B.E.F.C & N.I.A.A PRO)
Back Row L to R: Eric Millar, Dorothy Robinson, Ken Smeltzer
Front Row L to R: Rodney O’Neill, Ross McConnell, Mark Parsons, Leslie Ward, Maurice Jess
As is mandatory when running events like this, we contacted the BMFA prior to the show and submitted the Public display application paperwork and received the appropriate insurance cover in good time for the event. A pre-show practice session was also held at BMFC’s indoor flying location at Ashfield Girls School Holywood Road, Belfast.
Back Row L to R: Eric Millar, Dorothy Robinson, Ken Smeltzer
Front Row: Rodney O’Neill, Ross McConnell, Mark Parsons, Leslie Ward, Maurice Doyle
The Friday night display hall setup was well attended. To comply with the school & NDMRS stipulations we were required to lay carpet in the spectator seating area, so the gym floor would not be damaged. The club had previously purchased carpet specifically for this event. We also erected our own safety netting, which enclosed the 55 seat spectator seating area with standing room at the rear.
The public safely seated behind netting in the spectator area
We put in place a well laid out Pits area with sufficient tables for the display models. This allowed for unhindered access to the pilots box for the display pilots and Pits crew, seating was also in place for the display team. We erected a line of static display aircraft for public viewing on a simulated runway between the spectator safety netting and the display line.
A well laid out Display Team Pits enclosure
Eye catching custom made signage was placed in key locations around the show informing the public of the location and times of the displays. From a start time of 4:00pm we were finished by @08:00pm, many welcome hands sharing the workload.
A few of our previous years display pilots were regrettably unable to attend this year due to unavoidable commitments over the specific weekend, however Ross & Mark accepted our invitation to join us in participating in the displays.
Mark Parsons standing in front of his display aircraft
Capacity crowds quickly filled the spectator area just before each display was about to commence, so people were well aware of and had noted the display starting times.
Ross Mc Connell beside his display aircraft line up
Each display lasted @40 minutes and we provided 5 displays on the Saturday and 3 on the Sunday.
Each display was divided into 10 individual elements representing the varied aspects of aeromodelling, the duration of each of these elements ranged from @3 to 4 minutes:-
- Free-flight demo of catapult launched foam aero-boomerang planes (on sale to the public), Bleriot chuck glider, BMFA Delta dart, Butterfly and Penny planes.
- Indoor electric control line flying demo.
- E-flite Mini-Vapor & Night-Vapor demo.
- Ares Fokker D7 & E-flite Sport Cub S demo (with attached FPV camera)
- Helicopters & Quads demo – counter rotating helicopters, fixed pitch helicopters, sound equipped & FPV quads.
- Warbirds, Bombers & Jets demo – Umx Spitfire, Mosquito, B25 Mitchell, B17 Flying fortress & a ducted fan Hawker Hunter.
- 3D flying demo – multiple makes and sizes flying together.
- Fast UMX planes demo – E-flite Sbach & Beast
- Outdoor planes-Indoors demo – Large EDF F4 Phantom ground taxiing, E-flite Convergence flight with FPV demo.
- Suspended multiple balloon bursting demo – using 3D planes and quadcopters.
We integrated into the various elements above multiple LED illuminated airgates of various shapes and sizes for display pilots to demonstrate their flying abilities or lack off!
Maurice Jess co presenter looks on as Leslie Ward retrieves one of the display Airgates
The club has also purchased a large 42” LCD flat panel TV. This serves two functions, prior to the display starting it is used for club publicity purposes whereby we have a looped power-point presentation detailing club activity running for seated spectators to view. Also during the display we channel FPV video footage through it were all the spectators can obtain a “pilots eye view” from multiple FPV equipped aircraft types in flight. I suppose we could probably call it GPV –General public view.
Ken Smeltzer displays an indoor electric control line aircraft
Feedback on the display from the general public was excellent and we also received very positive comments from the other exhibitors and the NDMRS. The flying displays have now become an integral part of the overall show that the public look forward to seeing and certainly do not want to miss.
Dorothy Robinson with her Hirobo Llama counter rotating helicopter
We finished off the show as usual with our crowd rousing balloon bursting demo using 3D planes and quads.
N.B.
With regard to the balloon bursting element of the show on Saturday, display pilots took a few displays to find “their wings” so to say.
The competitive edge however started to rise when Ken Smeltzer opened his mouth and shouted “I wonder whose burst the max number of balloons”. Well that started it, by the last display on Saturday with the last balloon still hanging, it was like a combination of “bees around a honey jar” and “a cat fight” to see who could burst the last balloon, instead of “fur” flying it was “foam”
Further debate continued over the number of balloons burst per pilot. Ross claimed 19, Mark claimed 14 & Maurice claimed 26, this debate however fell silent when Ken said “wait a minute, there were only 50 balloons in total used in all the displays today”
It was reported on Sunday morning prior to the commencement of the displays Ross was spotted sitting in a corner with a file stroking what looked like an 8 x 4.3 slow fly prop, Mark made some excuse about a dead transmitter battery and temporarily disappeared however he was spotted scouring the trade tools stands asking did they stock pins and lastly Maurice was shown how to access the calculator app on his mobile, someone suggested his mental arithmetic left a lot to be desired and he was also informed he was not allowed to count the balloons he had burst whilst inflating them prior to the display starting!
Ken was simply told to shut up and stop stirring it!
A busy Pits area in between displays
Maurice Jess with some of his display aircraft
We continue to develop and enhance the flying display each year so as to keep the content fresh and up to date. We deliberately adopt a tight time schedule for each element, this keeps the display dynamic and the spectators engaged and focused.
A great team effort over the two days of the show resulted in a safe, professional, entertaining and above all enjoyable series of indoor flying displays both for the public and the display team. Yes it was hard work, but enjoyable nevertheless. It just goes to show what can be achieved by a dedicated group of people who gladly give of their time to promote our hobby/sport to a large section of the general public at an event like this.
A Fokker D7 in flight and just visible in the background is a FPV equipped Sport Cub S
Dorothy Robinson and Rodney O’Neill with their Free-flight Butterfly & Penny planes
Control line experts – Ken Smeltzer and Maurice Doyle
To all of the people listed above who contributed to the event, BMFC extend their sincerest thanks for their time and support in producing an excellent indoor flying display.
If you haven’t seen the display to date, make a note in your calendar for next year’s show, you’ll not be disappointed.
We hope to have some video footage of the actual display posted on our website when editing is completed, so check out the Belfast Clubs website https://belfastmodelflyingclub.bmfa.club/
We hope to see everyone again at next year’s show, preliminary work has already started.
Maurice Jess
Belfast Model Flying Club – Indoor flying display coordinator
