As for the last two years, I was very grateful to Paul Rich for taking on the CD role on Sunday so I could concentrate on my flying. 2025 turned out to be my last year on the organising team, as after the event, Peter Fardell heroically volunteered to take over the role, for which I am very grateful. After six years I can now go back to being just another entrant in 2026.
As in 2024, there were no significant rule changes this year - If you would like to have a look the BMFA scale rules in detail, here is the BMFA Scale rule book 2025 - scroll down to page 100 to reach indoor scale.
Here was my model fleet for 2025 - I was hoping to have a new model for kit scale, but I managed to break my VMC Lysander during trimming, so the Veron Nieuport 27 came out of retirement. I had high hopes for the Superfreighter and Dart after flying them at the Manchester Velodrome earlier in the year, but things didn't go quite to plan, as you will discover below.
As has become traditional, lets start with the open classes. Tonda Alfery made the trip again from the Czech Republic and showed us all how it was done. Here is his table of superb models - every one of which won its class. In rubber we had double the entries of last year, with 12, though only 10 flew on the day. Tonda's winning Roland C.IIa is shown at the left. This model was 827 points ahead of its nearest challenger. To put that in perspective, there were only 10 points between second and fourth place! The Roland achieved the highest flying score of the class, getting up to a good cruising height and making good take-offs and landings. The video below is one of several taken by Jirka Alfery at the event and posted by Vladimir Alfery on his YouTube channel.
It's always a treat to see a new model from Richard Crossley and this Polikarpov I-16 got the top static score in class. Trimming has proved a little tricky, but Richard got three qualifying flights in, the most entertaining of which is shown below, when it flew twice over the pits area before landing safely back in the hall. The model finished second in class behind Tonda.
Since Nijmegen last November, Graham Banham has added a little more dihederal to his lovely Lublin R-XIIID parasol, which has added some more lateral stability and the model was better able to hold a stable circuit in the hall - see video below. When the scores were added up, Graham had finished only one point behind Richard to take third place.
John Cooper placed fourth with his Lockheed Vega 5C, built from Richard Crossley's plan - video below.
I only managed one qualifying flight with the Dart with my final attempt and that ended up smashing into the wall just before it landed - see video below. All very frustrating as it had been going so well at the Manchester Velodrome. It looked rather sad afterwards with both wings detached and struts and rigging hanging everywhere. Fifth place was my reward. It's currently up in the loft while I consider its future (i.e. can I be bothered to repair it?) Thanks to Danny Fenton for the photo.
Stephen Haines placed 6th with his fine-flying Currie Wot built from Andy Sephton's plan that was featured in Aeromodeller magazine. This shows you can still do well in the open classes with a model finished in just coloured tissue. I'm still going to suggest he gets the airbrush out for his next one though!
Peter Brown was a first time entrant and brought three models along - this is his open rubber entry, a very neatly finished Piper J-3 Cub.
Henk de Jong made the trip from The Netherlands for his first Nats and entered this Koolhoven FK.43 in Open Rubber. As per the prototype, the model featured very little dihedral, but still achieved three qualifying flights. Behind you can see Henk's kit scale entry, a West Wings D.H. Puss Moth.
In CO2/electric there were six models entered, all of which achieved qualifying flights.
No great surprise that Tonda Alfery won the class with his wonderful Curtiss Condor AT32c, which benefits from flight bonuses for twin engines and retracting landing gear. Thanks to Danny Fenton for the photo.
Richard Crossley placed second with his marvellous Piper Tri-Pacer, which got the highest static score in the class as well as flying extremely nicely
I had tightened up the circuit of the Superfreighter a bit at the Manchester velodrome meeting in March by adding a small gurney tab to the rudder, but this wasn't quite enough for a comfortable circuit at Walsall - I tried three different launch points and every time the model ended up hitting the wall. The best flight was this first one, when the main wheels just touched down before the nose hit the wall, so I got at least some of the landing points and finished third. Some damage was sustained, but the solid balsa nose stood up to the abuse well, and repairs are well underway as I type this. Thanks to Danny Fenton for the flying shot.
Pete Smart had failed to get a qualifying flight in 2024 with his electric-powered Blohm und Voss Bv.222 flying boat, but after an intensive trimming session on Saturday evening, this year managed one in each of the four rounds. Danny Fenton photo.
It was brilliant to see George Kandylakis get three qualifying flights with his stunning Avro 504N, something he had failed to do last November at Nijmegen.
The Intermediate Scale Class is continuing to be popular, with 16 entries this year, of which 14 managed a qualifying flight (compared to only six from 15 entries last year!)
Winner was richard Crossley with another brand new model - this terrific rendition of a Piper Pawnee. The neatness of the lettering was outstanding, especially with it being primarily white on a red background. Span is 31" and it is built lightly, so a slow, realistic flier with all that wing area.
Paul Hoey placed second with this Myers M-1 special, based on Richard Crossley's peanut plan recently featured in Aeromodeller magazine, but enlarged. Paul got the second highest static score behind Richard.
This is Graham Banham's lovely new 24" span 1/12 scale Chilton DW.1. Another lightweight model (36g without rubber) which flew very nicely with only a 6" prop, to allow it to take-off.
I really liked Pete Startup's very neatly finished Miles M.5 Sparrowhawk, which got the third highest static score - the same as Graham's Chilton.
Stephen Haines built this new Bucker Jungmeister shortly before the event and was working on improving the trim during the competition. Getting your best score with the last flight is always a good feeling. The model is enlarged from the old Alan Callaghan peanut plan.
Daniel Rackstraw made his first visit to the Nats and designed and built this very smart Ultimate Biplane to enter in the intermediate class. Trimming was something of a work in progress, but the model obtained three qualifying flights.
C.Greenock (aka "Lurk") entered this Be2c, built from the Peter Smart plan, featured in Aeromodeller a couple of years ago.
Henk de Jong placed sixth with this Piper J.5 Cub Cruiser.
Chris Chapman's Taylorcraft DC-12D placed seventh in class.
Pete Fardell does love to hunt out obscure and quirky prototypes - his latest is this Catron and Fisk Sport Triplane. Sadly it was refusing to cooperate on the day, and a 15 second qualifying flight wasn't quite achieved.
The kit scale class remains very popular and we had 22 entries of which no less than 21 achieved the 10 second qualifying time. As last year, The Vintage Model Company generously donated a trophy and cash prizes for the top three places in the class.
Graham Banham built this Veron Comper Swift in about two weeks after finishing the Chilton and made a lovely job of it. I thoroughly approve of his choice, as this is the model featured elsewhere on this site in "Build your first Flying Scale Model". They always seem to fly well and Graham got the highest flight score in the class. This, combined with a good static score, gave the Swift a commanding class win, plus the Veron Tru-Flite trophy. Phil Smith would have been very proud!
The old Micro-X designs make great kit scale subjects - last year Dave Whitehouse won with a Stinson 125 and Steve Haines came second this time with their Taylorcraft design
Chris Chapman placed third in class, the same as he did last year, with his fine-flying Tern Aero D.H.82 Tiger Moth.
My original intention was to enter my new VMC Westland Lysander in kit scale, but I broke it during trimming, so I brought the Nieuport 27 out of retirement and was very happy to come away with fourth place.
It was great to see Andrew Darby back competing again and I had the pleasure of sharing a table with him. He'd built a new example of his VMC Hawker Hurricane design to enter - very neatly built as you can see.
Ted Griffiths entered this peanut Peck Andreasson BA-4B in both peanut and kit scale, placing an impressive fifth in the latter, beating many larger models.
I think this was David Cowley's first visit to the indoor Nats and he brought this very nicely built VMC SE5a - a good flyer too and the model finished 8th
There were two Dumas Stearman's entered in kit scale this year - this is John Cooper's U.S.Navy example.
And this is Ben Pallister's example, finished as a wing walker with a ridiculously complicated colour scheme executed entirely in coloured tissue. No surprise the model got the joint highest static score in class. Thanks to Peter Fardell for the photo.
Another Dumas kit entered was this neatly finished Pietenpol Aircamper by Peter Brown.
Very nicely built Keil Kraft Cessna 140 by Martin Pike.
Pete Startup had made a lovely job of this Auster J.4, built from the Aerographics kit.
Peanut scale entries were a very healthy 22, of which 20 posted flights.
It’s proved more difficult that I’d thought it would be for modellers to achieve the elusive 60 second max twice in peanut scale, but Tonda Alfery managed it easily with his foam North American P-51D Mustang, and with an excellent static score, was the clear class winner. See video below - it gives us all something to aim at!
Only two other modellers managed the double max – Nick Peppiatt with a Nesmith Cougar (who came second) and Chris Chapman with a Piper Cub (6th). I managed third place with my Kingfisher – my best times being 52 and 51 seconds (including the 10 second ROG bonus). Video of part of a flight below.
Here are Nigel Monk and Doug Hunt, hard at work judging a pair of peanut scale Nesmith Cougars. Doug is holding Nick Peppiatt's example, with Steve Haines's fourth placed model sitting on the table. If you are looking for a good first peanut model, the Peck Nesmith Cougar kit is an excellent choice.
Paul Hoey placed 5th with this Myers M-1 Special, built from Richard Crossley's plan featured in Aeromodeller Magazine.
So nice to see one of the old Andrew Moorhouse designs competing - this super little Comper Swift was built by C.Greenock (aka "Lurk").
Here is John Valiant's collection of beautifully finished foam models - his peanut entry this year was the Messerschmitt BF 109K-4 at the front of the photo. I think this is a different model to the one of the same aircraft he entered last year. C.Greenock photo.
Gary Flack entered this very nice foam Focke Wulf FW 190D-9 - a new model I think.
This Farman 400 was entered by Henk de Jong.
David Prior's smart Zlin 50M was not performing quite as well as it had in 2023, but managed a best flight of 41 seconds.
First time entrant Peter Hall entered this splendid Blackburn Monoplane.
We had nine Pistachio entries, eight of which registered flights.
Just as he had in peanut, Tonda Alfery achieved two maximum flights in pistachio scale with his Avia BH-21R, as well as getting the joint highest static score. Needless to say he won the class by a considerable margin. The little Avia also takes off from the ground, which is very impressive. You can see it in sction below.
Nick Peppiatt placed second with his familiar BAT Baboon.
There were two foam FW 190's battling it out for third place, with Richard Crossley's example coming out slightly ahead of Chris Chapman's - the deciding factor being slightly higher flight times.
Foam Westland Wyvern by Gary Flack.
I suppose I'd better mention my new Folkerts SK-3. I only had time to make three flight attempts and this was in the very last peanut/pistachio session. If I'd started earlier I might have made some more progress with the trimming, but I only managed 4, 4 and 10 seconds. At least I didn't break it, so I can try and do better next time!
The Starter No-Cal class models are flown during the peanut/pistachio sessions. Models are limited to 16" wingspan with a minimum weight of 6 g and final score is the sum of the best two flights (in seconds) out of six. Nine models were entered and two competitors managed flights of over two minutes.
Chris Blanch won with his Cessna 195 Turbo, as he had in 2023 - the best flight was an impressive 160 seconds.
Roel Lusassen placed second with this Mitsubishi Zero.
Tim Horne's Chambermaid took third spot (Danny Wynne-Fenton photo).
Mark Richards entered this Cassutt 111M racer and came fourth in class. Racing aircraft like this and the Chambermaid generally give you a relatively large model for 16" wingspan, and hence the ability to carry a long rubber motor.
Gert Brendel's Grumman Hellcat was finished in an attractive drone scheme.
Scale gliders made a return to the event in the form of an informal competition during the 30 minute lunch break. Bernard Bruins kindly volunteered to run it, based on the successful Nijmegen rules. Due to time constraints and the unexpectedly large entry of 17 models, there was only time for two rounds to be flown, both of which involved hand-launching from the spectator balcony. Round one was duration and round two was who could get closest to a designated target, which in this case was nominated as the far corner of the sports hall. In addition, Bernard gave each model a static ranking. The flight and target scores were ranked and added together for each model, plus the static ranking to give a total score. The model with the lowest total taking first place. It may seem obvious, but the biggest challenge to achieving success seemed to be getting your model to fly in as straight a line as possible. Circling back to hit the wall under the balcony is not ideal!
Winner was Richard Crossley's foam Kirby Kite, which is 27" span and extremely light. This model got the joint highest duration (14 seconds) and was closest to the target in round two. C.Greenock photo.
Here are all the entries lined up. At the front you can see Tonda Alfery's second placed Zlin Z-24 Krajanek, which got the top static mark and behind that is Andrew White's Fouga Cyclone. Peter Fardell photo.
A new trophy was presented at the Indoor Nats this year - the Chris Strachan Trophy, shown here in the centre, surrounded by some of Chris’s models. This has been donated by Chris’s family and is to be presented to the winner of the traditional air race, always held at the end of the event. This seems very appropriate as Chris really loved his racing aircraft. The inaugural winner was Tim Horne with his Floyd Bean Racer. I'm sure this trophy will encourage even more people to join in with the air race - in fact I’m very tempted to give it a go with my Elmendorf Special next year.
On behalf of the organising team, I'd once again like to thank everyone who helped make the event such a success - the static and flying judges, timekeepers, scorers, IT wizards and the door team/raffle sellers, all of whom gave up their time to help out, for which we are very grateful. We covered our costs again, which is great for securing the future of the event and a provisional booking has been made for the 2026 Scale Indoor Nats on the weekend of 25th - 26th April, with RC on Saturday and FF on Sunday. If you fancy coming along next year for the first time, you'd be made very welcome - why not give it a go? - I think all our first-timers this year really enjoyed themselves. I suggest Kit Scale and Peanut as good classes for beginners.