This was my fleet for this year, with only the Kingfisher having flown before at the competition. The Superfreighter had never flown indoors before and the Keil Kraft Bonanza was completely untrimmed.
The trip over was uneventful with very calm seas this year - my companion this time was Steve Haines, on his first visit to Nijmegen, as sadly Pete Smart couldn't make it this year. I think it's fair to say Steve really enjoyed the trip and is certainly intending to come again.
After we'd all had a coffee on arriving at the hotel on Friday morning, the weather looked calm enough for Pete Fardell to give his new Stinson Sentinel a quick hop in the field over the road. There's a bit of a story to this model, but more of that later.
After lunch it was time to set off for the hall to do some trimming. Most people take advantage of the five hour session - it's a great chance to sort your models out before the competition proper starts. The scale competition classes are flown over the next two days, which leads to a more relaxed feel to things compared to our BMFA Nats - all classes are flown both days so you have more time to retrim and repair models.
The organisers run the competition to our old 2019 BMFA rules, so the main difference is in the peanut and pistachio classes, where the rankings in static and flying are added together with the lowest score being the winner. Also there is no maximum flight time. Open classes are virtually unchanged, though CO2 is run as a separate class within F4E.
The F4D (open rubber) class was well supported with 17 entries, 14 of which managed a qualifying flight.
Lars Tolstam's Rumpler C.1 has been a regular top three finisher over the years and this time won the class. The model is very light and has a realistic scale-like flying speed - the flight score was the best by any model in F4D. A model like this shows that you don't need scale rib spacing to win an open class - sometimes light weight is the key. I should point out that the engine detail on the Rumpler is superb - an area on a WW 1 aircraft where you can go to town, safe in the knowledge that you would be having to add noseweight anyway.
Many thanks to Michal Gasparin who gave permission for me to use his superb flying shots that are scattered throughout this report.
Vladimir Alfery was busy with his video camera again, so many of his video are featured here. Above is The Rumpler C.1 in action.
It was nice to see Martin Huk back competing - his beautiful Bleriot XI placed second in class. Video shown below.
Third was Tonda Alfery with this very nicely detailed Roland C.IIa. This is the model that had won the BMFA Scale Indoor Nats in April and is a fine flyer as you can see below. It also got the highest static score in F4D.
Jiri Dolezel placed fourth with his stunning Avia BH-9. If you ignore the prop, I think it looks just like a very well finished plastic kit.
Here's a perfect example of how you can place well in the open classes with a relatively simple, tissue-covered model. Henk de Jong entered this Piper J.5 Cub Cruiser and finished 5th. The relatively modest static score was boosted by a very high flying mark to give a combined score higher than many more complex and detailed models.
Very impressive airbrushing evident on Michal Krepelka's Microplano Veloz to simulate the scale structure of the aircraft.
Test-flying my Blackburn Dart on Friday did not get off to a good start, as half way through a promising first flight, the rubber slipped off the motor hook and shot to the rear peg, causing a stall and sudden drop to the floor. This caused the torpedo to detach together with various cradles and struts. A bigger problem was how to get the ball of rubber out of the model without causing more destruction. I ended up cutting away two panels of tissue on the bottom of the fuselage to facilitate this, after which I just tacked the tissue back in place, hoping the static judges wouldn't mark me down for the damage. Moral of the story - don't rely on a simple diamond hook for models like these. The solution was to cut the prop off and bend a new "Z" hook - thanks to Steve Haines for helping me with this. The rubber stayed on the hook safely for the rest of the weekend.
I managed two decent qualifying flights and two others that had to be intercepted before they hit the wall. Lars Tolkstam's save was the most spectacular - he showed heroic determination to get part of his body between the model and the wall! Needless to say I was very grateful. You can enjoy this in the video below.
Steve Haines only knew he was coming to Nijmegen about three weeks beforehand and although he had peanut and kit scale models from the BMFA Indoor Nationals, he didn't have an open rubber model ready. He did, however, have a new Currie Wot model built from Andy Sephten's plan. He thus spent two weeks adding extra details and rigging it, plus sorting out the necessary documentation. I think it's fair to say Steve didn't have any great expectations for the model, but he ended up finishing eighth, and came close to beating my Blackburn Dart which was seventh.
Tim Horne brought along his smart new RWD-10 which put in its best flight on the Sunday after having its wing glued back on. I do love a nice parasol, but they tend to come off second best after a wall strike.
It's always a treat to see a new model from Richard Crossley - here is his beautiful Curtiss R-6 racer, finished as immaculately as you would expect. Sadly, Richard couldn't quite get a 15 second qualifying time, though got close with the fourth flight.
Another new model was this very nicely finished Lublin R.XIII by Graham Banham. It looked stable in flight when travelling in a straight line, but was not at all happy when asked to circle, when it would drop a wing. Thus a qualifying flight couldn't be achieved. Since getting home, Graham has added some more dihedral and I confidently expect it to perform much better when we next see it at the Indoor Nationals in April.
In F4E (Eectric Open) were nine entries this year, the same as last time. Of these, eight managed a qualifying flight.
So, Tonda Alfery did it again! He loves to push the boundaries of what is possible in free flight scale, and this time he brought along a new Curtiss Condor, constructed from foam, with working undercarriage retracts. The only time I've seen this done before was Richard Crossley at Interscale in 2004 with his rubber-powered Douglas Dauntless. The two photos here show the gear in both positions. The model was a deserving class-winner.
Richard Crossley placed second with his majestic Short Shetland.
I left it quite late on Friday before making a first test flight indoors with the Bristol Superfreighter and somewhat to my surprise the flight pattern looked perfect straight away - even the timer settings looked spot on. By making sure I fitted a fully charged cell for each flight, I was able to get a consistent flight pattern in each round. The geared Voodoo 25 motors are rather noisy compared to those typically used by the Czech modellers but I think rather suit the Superfreighter as it trundles around. I couldn't have been happier with the way it perormed and was delighted to place 3rd in class. Definitely worth all the effort I put into repairing it after the early trimming mishaps.
Superb workmanship and finishing evident on Martin Huk's Morane Saulnier Type L which placed fourth.
Graham Banham's Armstrong Whitworth Ensign, powered by four Voodoo 10 motors, got the second highest flight score and came fifth overall.
Intricate scale structure visible through the tissue on Jiri Dolezel's Pfalz D.III.
Doug Hunt's SE5A was built from the Vintage Model Company kit and finished as a post-war skywriting aircraft.
The F4E (CO2) class had seven entries this time, two more than in 2023, of which five models achieved the qualifying time.
Michal Krepelka's lovely Hansa Brandenburg was the worthy winner - the natural wood finish on the fuselage was beautifully reproduced. The model also got the highest flight score in the class.
Tonda Alfery came second with this Rumpler C.IV, which got the highest static score in the class.
Jiri Dolezel placed third with his Fokker E.III in British markings.
This is Martin Huk's Fokker B.II - I love the simulated metal finish on the cowling and front fuselage panels.
George Kandylakis put in some very long flights with his PZL P.24. This model is based on the 1/24 scale plan here but enlarged to 1/20 scale.
Kit scale was once again the most popular class with 20 entries, four more than in 2023 and they all managed at least one qualifying flight - the target for this class is 10 seconds.
The static judges had their work cut out - here are some of the entries awaiting their turn. Front row left to right: Jiri Pavlicek's Comper Swift, Michal Krepelka's Stolp Starlet, Graham Banham's VMC Jodel D.18 and Matthias Kritzler's Guillows Messerschmitt Me 109. Behind the Jodel is Vincent Merlijn's Pitts Special from the Herr Engineering kit.
Class winner was Michal Krepelka with this Stolp Starlet, which is actually a prototype for a future kit to be sold under the brand name "Model Max". It was a great flyer, scoring the highest flight score in a very competitive field - see video below.
Paul Hoey placed second with this Veron Tru-Scale Tiger Moth. All the markings were done with coloured tissue, which must have required considerable patience. The model got the second highest static mark in kit scale.
As mentioned earlier, there was a bit of a story behind Pete Fardell’s Stinson Sentinel, which placed third in class. There is an information board placed just over the road from the Hotel Rozenhof, explaining that in 1944 there was an airfield here from which reconnaissance missions were flown in support of the artillery of the US 82nd Airborne division. The commander was Major Tony Lala who flew a Stinson Sentinel named Houston Hunch II, pictured here. Pete built his 31" span model from the old Model Craft plan and finished it to match the photo. On the Friday afternoon he gave the model a test flight over the grass where the original aircraft would have flown from. It flew really well straight off the board and ended up getting the second best flight score indoors in the kit scale class.
I spent quite a time on Friday trimming the Keil Kraft Bonanza. I got lucky in that the model had a tendency to circle left without me having to play with the tail surfaces. To reduce the bank angle I added Gurney strips under the inboard left wing trailing edge and also added some weight to the right wing tip. Take-offs were fairly straight due to the tricycle undercarriage, after which the model settled into a turn. As the torque rolled off, the model then straightened up for a nice landing. I was grateful for the size of the hall - I don't think there would have been enough space for the landing roll in Walsall. I was very happy with fourth place, especially as the model was untrimmed before the competition.
This was the second Veron Tru-Flite design in the top five - Jiri Pavlicek's Comper Swift, which got the second best flight score.
Very rare to see a twin in kit scale, so great so see Richrd Crossley's new, beautifully finished, Comet Douglas A-26 Invader. I used to own an example of this kit but was never brave enough to build it. The model had to be trimmed during the meeting, with Richard's persistence being rewarded with two qualifying flights on Sunday.
Another unusual model was Martin Lambert's Mig 17, built from the Dumas kit. The tricycle undercarriage made for nice take-offs and the Mig circled very smoothly, registering four solid qualifying flights.
Johan Wallin placed sixth with this Airsail Pilates PC-6 Turbo Porter.
Tim Horne got the top static mark with his very nicely built VMC Sopwith Triplane.
I loved the colour scheme on Ramses de Looff's West Wings Puss Moth.
I don't think I've ever seen a purple Mustang before - Christian Fritzsche chose this striking scheme for his Guillows kit model which got the third best static score.
There was a good turnout for peanut scale this year with 17 models, four more than 2023.
A selection of peanuts on the judging table.
First row, left to right: Peter Fardell's Bristol Scout, Paul Hoey's Salta Fossi and Lars Tolkstam's Gerner G.1, which placed second in class.
Second row, Tim Horne's Parnall Imp, Christian Fritzsche's Scott Ironsides XS-1 and Henk de Jong's Farman F.400.
As in 2023, Tonda Alfery won the class with his beautiful foam North American P.51D Mustang. His best flight was an amazing 95 seconds. My Kingfisher can be seen lurking behind, which placed 5th. I was pleased with how it flew as I finally broke the 50 second barrier from a take-off for the first time. My best was 55 seconds, which became 65 after adding the 10 second ROG bonus.
Jiri Dolezel placed third with his Vought OS2U Kingfisher, which is proving to be an excellent subject for this class. Jiri's is of foam construction and a bit lighter than mine, but the models were very closely matched - we got identical static scores and Jiri's model got a two flight total of only one second more than mine.
Michal Krepelka's Sopwith Schneider got the highest static score and finished fourth overall.
This is Martin Huk's sixth placed Letov S.39.
Attractive and unusual Parnall Imp by Tim Horne
Nice to see an increase in pistachio scale entries - up three this time to eleven.
Jiri Dolezel won the class with this foam Vought OS2U Kingfisher which got top static mark and a best flight of an impressive 64 seconds. This shows that if you've got a successful peanut design, then why not scale it down for pistachio?
Second place was taken by Tonda Alfery with this foam Grumman FM-2 Wildcat - best flight was an amazing 79 seconds. Richard Crossley came third with the foam Focke wulf FW 190 A-5 which came second last year. Lars Tolkstam photo.
This odd looking plane is the Kokusai Ta-Go, a late war Japanese kamikaze prototype, designed to be built cheaply from basic materials. The model was built by Martin Huk and placed 6th.
Fike model E by Ondrej Kruckj - that's about as much wing area as you can get with a pistachio!
Foam Farman F.380 by Luis Bautista.
Two other scale classes were flown - profile scale, which had 12 entries (three times as many as in 2023!) and was won by Tonda Alfery with a Hawker Sea Fury and scale glider (seven entries) won by Tonda Alfery with his Zlin Z-24 Krajanek. You've probably gathered by now that Tonda had an extremely successful weekend!
So, that was another great weekend - not only the flying, but also the chance to meet and chat to fellow modellers from around Europe. Steve commented that he really appreciated how friendly everyone was and how ready the top flyers were to answer questions and offer advice, even to somebody they had never met before. Maybe it's the nature of the hobby, but I'd be hard pushed to think of a nicer bunch of people to spend a weekend with. Although not confirmed yet, there should be another IIFI in 2025 in Nijmegen, but in a smaller hall. The thinking is that it would be best to keep the event going, rather than having a break while the Jan Massinkhal site is being redeveloped. So, for the next two years we will just have to persuade our models to fly in slightly smaller circles!