Just got the Inum..... (And Calling Joshua Finn!)

unixrevolution

Multicopter Crash Expert
I'm a new pilot, and after trying a couple Multi-rotors I thought it would be fun to get the Inum. It's my first RC Plane.

The Inum is very, very, VERY light. about 0.3 ounces, just over 8 grams. This makes it less than half the weight of a Blade Nano and about 3 grams lighter than a Proto X. It has an 8" polyhedral wing, large tail, and a pusher prop, and two channels: Throttle and rudder.

The Inum is designed to fly in small spaces. It can just manage a large living room. The tightest circle it can turn is about 8 feet.

I've flown it two or three times, and though i've crashed it a lot, crashes don't damage it. It is *damaged*, but it's mostly from incautious handling rather than crash damage. (One crash did manage to pop a landing wheel off, though.)

All in all, I like it. The novelty of an indoor plane is awesome, and it's small enough to actually fly inside, and not "Sports complex" inside, but "Classroom" or "Living room" or "Basement" inside.

Mine took tweaking. I had a bent rudder, so I bent it back a little, then nearly destroyed it with CA (Forgetting that garden-variety super glue hates foam.) it's fine now, I've got it taped up and it's tracking straight. But between the bent rudder and the stock battery placement it always wanted to bank left. My battery is now housed on the right-hand side of the airframe, and a bit back, but it flies like a dream now.

At high speeds it tends to do oscillating stalls, but when it's calmer, around half throttle, it flies pretty nicely. it taxies really well when it has both its landing wheels ;)

It's fun to fly, and I'm going to enjoy it until the airframe sustains irreparable damage. But even after, I ahve plans. I'd love to turn a rubber-band balsa plane into a real RC plane with the Inum's guts. at $40 for an Inum, that's the cheapest super-ultra-tiny-micro plane guts I've seen. I'd also like to build an F1D style stick-and-film plane, but as an RC with Inum electrics rather than simply a free flight plane. The Inum doesn't fly as slow as I'd hoped, and the thought of doing something to make it fly even slower is interesting.

Anyone else taken the plunge on one of these, or share my desire to see a super-slow indoor plane or a RC version of the venerable balsa kits?
 

FAI-F1D

Free Flight Indoorist
I've seen these for sale...they do look like fun, though I'm not the biggest fan of rudder-throttle only control. Several questions come to mind--is it Spectrum compatible? Also, if the quoted wingloading is to be believed (2 oz/sq ft), that's about four times the loading of a comparable *outdoor* free flight model in that size range. An indoor one would be far less, so consider that for indoor flying, especially the type you're looking for, that you need to be probably 1/8 the weight of this model. I don't know if you can get the guts of the plane down that light.

So let's talk alternatives... You can pick up a Vapor style brick, but they aren't cheap ($60 for just the brick, no motor/battery), but then there are the clones out there, which would get you a full setup for something around $25 including battery (go have a look at Target Hobby). Also, Hobbyking's SuperMicro setups now include a DSM2 compatible brushed brick for $22 at 3.4 g. With this setup, you could build a lightened pennyplane and get into the wingloadings you're looking for. I'd recommend that brick, a 30-50 mah Lipo, and a motor comparable to what was on the Mini Vapor (I'm still mourning that I didn't get one before they were discontinued). Should give you flight times around 10 minutes, perhaps longer. Perhaps *much* longer.

If you want to go *really* light, like F1D light, things get more expensive. The recommendation there would be to look toward something on the order of the Plantraco setups. You could get something that would set you on track for an R/C F1D (beefed up a touch for the extra weight of the radio gear) for $100. That would be a complete radio system, power system and batteries (mind you it's only 2 channel, though). Because these are designed for a small model, you either need to build a mildly beefed up F1R, or you're going to need a secondary reduction gear to turn a prop big enough to fly your F1D (Plantraco GB03 might get you close). Also, you'll need it set up as a pusher prop because you have to get the weight off the nose (CG is close to the trailing edge of the wing on D's, and the battery alone is enough to push the CG forward of that).

What you really should take a look at though is the Deltang product line. In particular, the RX52-M (http://www.bsdmicrorc.com/index.php?productID=991) is an actuator output 5 channel DSM2 receiver with brushed 2A esc. All that in a 310 mg package. You'll probably be in the 2.5 g range for your complete R/C system. With beefed up wing spars, your F1D would be fairly happy with that, and would fly as slow as you could ever want. Pair it with a Plantraco GB-03 (860 mg with prop), 3222 carbon prop, two Plantraco HingeAct's (220 mg each), and 20 mah Bahoma cell (950 mg) for a total weight of 2.56 g. Your airframe would then be another 1.2 g roughly for an F1D with beefed up spars (450 mg wing with boron capped spars and compression ribs, everything else stock but without boron. That has you in the air under 4 g, which should equate to an airplane capable of 20 minutes in your living room if flown efficiently (it'd be a lot more fun, though, at Lakehurst!).

Opposite end of the spectrum, have a look at the Stevensaero kits and similar balsa kits which are built around the Parkzone Vapor bricks. You can have an absolute blast with those rascals in the back yard. They are capable of really impressive aerobatics, unlimited vertical in some cases, or just calm flying for longer than you care to have. Another model along those lines is the Herr Starlight, which was one of the very first micro-RC kits. It's not a tiny model at 30" span, but was designed around excellent performance and extreme flight endurance. As I recollect, the maiden flight of their prototype lasted over an hour, and that was back when LiPo's were a glimmer in a scientist's eye!
 
Last edited:

unixrevolution

Multicopter Crash Expert
Wow! Thank you for the detailed response! I'm honored :)

Have you, yourself, contemplated doing something like this? I know you're still probably content and more with free-flight, but I can't imagine the thought hasn't occurred to you before I suggested it.

I'll follow up on these links and ideas. DSM2 compatability seems a big plus. Especially since I have a Taranis with a DSM* module now. THe idea of using the guts of the Inum would be something more like "It's dead anyway, might as well use it", though I agree the throttle/rudder only is somewhat limited, even if the Inum is a fun flyer.
 

Craftydan

Hostage Taker of Quads
Staff member
Moderator
Mentor
. . . has he contemplated it . . . Ha!

Those links didn't appear magically -- he's been trying to find a clever/cheap way to lighten and slow down his PZ vapor ever since he got it last year ;)
 

unixrevolution

Multicopter Crash Expert
. . . has he contemplated it . . . Ha!

Those links didn't appear magically -- he's been trying to find a clever/cheap way to lighten and slow down his PZ vapor ever since he got it last year ;)

Well, you never know. Knowing something exists doesn't mean it appeals to you, personally :) But I fully expected Josh to be tinkering with some ultra-micro planes, I was just curious if he had any progress he wanted to share more than anything. I know that after I got my Inum I've been really fascinated with the idea of ultra-super-micro indoor slow flyers.

Big RC planes are neat, but tiny ones are even cooler. I never knew all this componentry existed for planes in this size class.
 
Last edited:

FAI-F1D

Free Flight Indoorist
. . . has he contemplated it . . . Ha!

Those links didn't appear magically -- he's been trying to find a clever/cheap way to lighten and slow down his PZ vapor ever since he got it last year ;)

Make it stronger, lighter, faster and slower, better...

Yeah...I'm nuts and I know it.
 

unixrevolution

Multicopter Crash Expert
I have been perusing the links given above. The little Vapor control boards are pretty amazing, and the ultra-micro fingertip-sized DSM2 recievers are crazy!

This will definitely give me some options besides cannibalizing my Inum once it dies.