Under "normal" conditions, the topic would have been started long before the event, as it did in previous years. Now it is well after the event.
Like everyone involved or interested, we are still waiting for the Aeromodeller report by Pete Fardell and Mike Stuart's report in ffscale.
But I hope they will not mind if we post here as well, prior to their "publications".
"Old news" maybe, but still a lot of people do not or cannot make it there, and it is always nice to see pictures of models.
This was the 13th edition and despite the number it went pretty well. A new hall was needed and luckily found in near by Wijchen, since the old has been demolished to allow a new one to be built. Initial reservations were quickly forgotten after a few hours of flying. We do miss the large flying area but this was compensated by the higher ceiling and the Walsall style layout, with all participants closer together at one oend of the hall. Yes Lurk, we will always have Walsall, or Wijchen in this case ;)
(most photographs taken by my friend Tasos Markoussis, who came along as a visitor)
With about 35 participants, many new faces (and many missing ones), from the Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Sweden, United Kingdom and host Netherlands, it was a well attended event, but still comfortable and relaxed, despite the loss of Friday's trimming session.
The usual classes were flown, i.e. indoor duration F1M, F1L, F1N glider, Sainte and No-cal
The majority of participation was in peanut scale and F4D open rubber. Kitscale and pistachio were also well attended. Electric and CO2 less so but still highly competitive
The greek "team" was stronger than ever. For the first time since 2010 there were two and a half of us participating, two in person (me and Spiros) and one by proxy (John Kourbanis). Plus, we had two spectators/photographers, who certainly enjoyed themselves seing something new, coming from the larger outdoor RC world.
Spiros with his messy table (although a rookie, he quickly learned how to do this, following my example)
Me, Nikos (nickhawk) and Spiros, at the event and at the debriefing room
The Czech team, larger than ever.
Rumor has it they were detained at the border back home for carrying too many trophies. Well, they did almost sweep the competition.
In much previous years it was easy, there was only Tonda Alfery. But recently there are more like him... Respect...
Then the Swedes, as always great fun of guys to be there and around. Next time a mic will be provided for their musical performance during flights.
And the Germans, 4 out of 5 as Sven (SvenH) was seated further to the right. Also their strongest presence ever.
The British and the Dutch were scatered around so no group photos of them.
But plenty more to follow later.
Tassos took about 150 pictures...
British team members. Beginers all of them, who came to watch and learn ;D
Richard, Mike and Tim.
Sorry, no pictures of the rest, guys...
Dutch...
Andre Wind, full of joy after his CO2 powered Fokker Spin finally made a perfect flight, following many frustrating attempts
Rina Pijnappels, a regular in F1M
Two happy judges, Wout and Louis, despite having to judge all weekend.
And Bernard giving the closing speech at the awards ceremony.
And others too, but not photographed... next time.
on to some models...
Andre Wind with his CO2 models, the Fokker Spin which he entered in the competition and a Bleriot monoplane which was not flown.
He was struggling with the Spin (dutch for spider) on the first day, got it trimmed on Sunday and achieved this flight on round 4, with a justified applause
more CO2 models...
Tonda Alfery's Rumpler C.IV was having troubles at performing this year, did not manage the usual excellent flights we are used to. It finished 4th, quite unusual for Tonda.
Statically of course it remains a magnificent model, as can be seen in the photopgraphs
His 4th flight too was his best
Failed to mention in the previous message, all videos taken by
Jirka Alfery and uploaded by
Vladimir Alfery, both sons of Tonda and officially designated video providers for all of us
Here is Martin Huk's Fokker B.II, got second place through an excellent balance between static and flying.
Sadly no picture of the winning model of Jiri Dolezel, his Fokker E.III.
Bad Vlad did catch it on video, here on its fourth flight. It won the class with top static and second best flying.
3rd place and quite surprisingly to place first in flying went to my own PZL 24.
This was the third and best flight, this time filmed by Jiri Pavlicek (Hi Jiri!). A bit stally at first before it settles into a nice cruise.
I tried to improve on the 4th flight but the spinner flew off during take off and the unbalanced model flew into a hole in the closed stands.
I could/should have started with it, but only remembered it now...
For many more (and better) pictures (and many interesting build logs) there is also the website of Ramses de Looff.
https://www.delooff-aeroplanes.nl/
and specifically
https://www.delooff-aeroplanes.nl/events/international-indoor-fly-in-2025
Ramses is here too, but has been very quiet about his website...
In return, some photos from his models. He did have bad luck at the event with his Polikarpov, but at least he had fun, like most/all of us
Continuing after a break...
Some models from the German "team"
Not shy, probably admiring his Fantrainer electric model, Martin Lambert. His Mig 17 Kit scale entry in the foreground.
(not to mention two shameless advertisement plugs... got to earn some money somehow ;D )
The Fantrainer charging
And here two flights, courtesy of Jirka/Vladimir Alfery...
Jodel D.112 peanut by Ralf Schnieder. His first time participating, with an untrimmed model too. Could not qualify (welcome to the club...). Next time...
The Cessna 150 built from the Guillows kit was built by SvenH, as his first ever free flight model of this size. Beautifully built but not quite ready for the event. Also, Guillows kits do not make the best indoor models in my opinion.
Still valuable lessons learned there, plus what I hope he learns here, so next time much better.
There were 5 Germans this year, also higher than ever. But next year that number can reach 8, judging by current interest.
Sorry, no pictures of the models of Christian and Matthias.
and the UK "team", or some of it...
Beautiful and with a striking colour scheme, the Klemm Sk15A by Graham Banham, entered in F4D Open Rubber.
His 4-engined F4E electric Armstrong Whitworth Ensign
Richard Crossley's Fiat CR-42 Falco
And his Fw 190 pistachio
I am posting this in a hurry, will return to add videos and more...
Hmmm, mebbe just as well Martin Lambert's fan trainer registration number ends in "J" & not "H", eh?
Enjoying the reports, please keep 'em coming.
took me 3 seconds ;D
Yes, gladly, although it will take some time.
And of course others can chip in.
I took a photo when Martin was stuffing all the rubber into his MiG, finally to achieve some flight altitude ;D
Great pix - thank you!
Some pictures from my side as well
Richard's Masterpiece!
Wout and Louis holding my BD4.........
Qoute would be: "Sweet Jesus, please make him dissapear!"..... ;D ;D
Rumors say that Martin is planning to attend next year with a model powered by one of his miniature turbines.....I think he was saying something about an F-104 .....
Quote from: Spiros on Dec 31, 2025, 09:11 AMWout and Louis holding my BD4.........
Erik ("Ecrins"), not Louis. Louis is in an earlier picture
I broke off just before posting about the UK entries and their flights.
So, here are two fo Graham Bantham's Klemm:
The weird background noise in the first video is simply the Swedes singing their national anthem, since one swedish aircraft was in the air. For next time they need a microphone and megaphones.
And here is the A.W. Ensign in flight
And Richard's Fiat CR42 Falco in flight as well
A new model, not yet fully trimmed, yet it performed beautifully.
But, as always with free flight, the models do not always behave as they should... A later flight:
Mats was quick to the rescue...
One of the new models of the event and one everyone wanted to see in flight was Richard's Grumman J2F-6 Duck electric model.
It had already shown some of its potential in trim flights in the UK, but was a real show stopper when it flew in IIFI.
Second round / flight. This time it was Tonda who saved it
Third and fourth flight, both a delight to watch
And since we are in F4E electric, her is another interesting model. Not a new one anymore, but it seems to be unbeatable for many years to come.
Tonda Alfery's Curtiss Condor AT-32C. A twin with fully working retractable under carriage, receives the maximum of flight bonuses at 30%. Coupled with very good flights and a high static score, the total it gets is beyond reach for the rest.
Flight 1 or 2
Flight 3, the highest scoring one
Flight 4, just as good
I arelady mentioned it before, Jir Pavlicek also took videos and has uploaded them on Youtube. Not as many as Jirka Alfery, but he can be forgiven because he also had to fly at the event.
His channel is here
https://www.youtube.com/@jiripavlicek2140/videos
So cool, love the pictures and videos!
Interesting small and temporary wing wobble as the undercarriage is lowered.
yes, there is. But I am not sure this is because of the landing gear. At this spot I saw plenty of models behaving similarily.
Whether an air current or the model's own slipstream, I do not know.
Or indeed because of the landing gear perhaps not coming down exactly simoultanously?
Second place in F4E electric went to Jiri Dolezel and his Pfalz A-1, third to Richard Crossley and the Grumman Duck and fourth to Martin Huk and his Morane Saulnier parasol "L".
Sadly, no pictures were taken of the Czech models, except the one of the Morane from a distance.
Here they are, flying
And having registered just yesterday and being the newest member here, Jiri gets an extra post. He would get it anyway, of course, given what he brought to the competition, but did not fly.
B-17, electric with retracts. I do not know if it was good or bad that one motor was not working, so he did not get a chance to test it. For the rest of us I mean.
Amazing work and detailing, will be another Czech show stopper next year, I imagine.
Jiri uses his own made "Chronos" timers, which allow servo operation for restracts as well.
At some point he can present them in the forum too, I hope.
And to close the electric class of 7 entries, it was my Avro 504"O", the hydroplane version that I chose this year as my entry to spend another troublesome weekend.
It was always there, but not quite there yet. But getting closer.
First flight went very well and quite high but when the second phase came the model chose a straight path, heading for the distant rear wall. So I had to reach for the RC transmitter (blasphemy, at a free flight event, I know), thereby losing the flight but saving the model.
Second flight was even worse, more on that later.
Third flight was not as bad, but too banked, too low and of course too short.
And finally the fourth flight, a proper qualifying flight. Far from good, but good enough not to leave the event completely dissappointed.
Re: wing wobble on undercarriage deployment...
My thought was also that it was related to asymmetric drag.
Is there a single servo or two? Are the linkages identical? Is there an obvious visual difference in speed/ movement?
Or is it that the deployment is identical but the outer wheel is flying around a longer turn radius?
I do not know the model interior details Maybe one of the czech guys here can add more light.
Back to my Avro, as I mentioned, the second official flight was worse. Exactly how much worse, I had to see it, nut also had to relive the terror.
So, during the first start attempt I dropped the dolly and had another problem. I hurried to the table and when I got back I did not notice it, but the front right wheel axle holder of the dolly had broken. So the wheel was not turning properly and acted more as a brake.
This led to the model taxying to the right, straight towards the judges table. In the tenths of seconds I had I tried to steer it away but all I could manage, by pure luck, was to start a roll to the left. But that proved more than enough. The model went at 90 degrees through the table legs and landed inverted tight after the table. No contact with the legs at all. A minor contact of the wing tip with the table underside did not cause any damage either.
I could not figure out how it managed to get out of that with no damage at all. The video explains it.
I couldn't repeat this in 1000 tries.
Thanks to Spiros for having taken the video, did not know he had it. His voice says a lot for that moment...
Mike Stuart's report of the 2025 IIFI is out:
https://www.ffscale.co.uk/page3ay.htm