Patch News History

Last month I said in Patch News that the weather was utterly bonkers and it has continued to be much the same right through July, with many days that were too hot for comfort and almost no rain. As I write this at the end of the month, we are in yet another heatwave, the fourth one this year, and it’s only July, although fortunately it isn’t quite as hot as before. But the whole of the country desperately needs some rain, and lots of it. The patch is just brown now, but at least there isn’t anything much to cut! I was away for a week in July but didn’t miss much flying as many members felt it was too hot to stand out in the sun. Some of us flew on the slightly cooler days including 1066, Windshy, and MacFly, pictured here.

In July Woody flew the latest foamboard plane that he’s built and guess what, it has lights! It’s a Sukhoi SU-57 and Woody downloaded the PDF plan from Parkjets.com where you can find over 100 park jet plans to download for free. This is the second SU-57 that he’s had and he built this one because he liked the first one so much and it flew really well. The Sukhoi has a large wing area which is probably what makes it such a great flier as a foamboard model. If I remember correctly the first one was a foamboard kit from Ali Express, but this one is made from a sheet of white 6mm Depron that Woody bought from Sarik Hobbies, so he had to do all the cutting out and decorating himself. He has fitted his standard foamboard power set-up consisting of a 2212/06 2450Kv motor, a 40amp speed controller, and a pair of Etronix servos, all powered by a three cell 2200mAh battery. Oh, and of course the lights, which came from Amazon. To finish the Sukhoi Woody hand painted it with Decoart acrylic paints that he bought from a local art shop, and I must say that he’s made a good job of it, it looks great. I did the initial test flight which went well and after a few rate and trim adjustments Woody took over and he’s flown it a lot in July. You can judge for yourselves how it flies as it’s in this month’s video.

As most members will have seen on the PAM WhatsApp group, ex-member Gorgeous Gary (Houghton) has been having a clear out of his model shed. He has already sold his Wot4 Foam-E to Catapult King, along with some speed controllers etc. MacFly has bought Gary’s Weston Cougar 2000, and I have his Multiplex FunJet Ultra and Arrows Hobby Viper. Gary still has some motors to sell, including some top quality new in box OS motors, and an assortment of servos (some new in box digitals), speed controllers, and receivers. Give Gary a call if you are interested, he isn’t looking for lots of money, and would ideally like all of his stuff to go to PAM members. Message me if you need Gary’s phone number.

Towards the end of the month, I fitted out both the Multiplex FunJet Ultra and Arrows Hobby Viper with my Multiplex receivers and was very happy with how they both flew. Apparently Gary had previously flown the FunJet but I don’t remember it myself so I was a little unsure of how it would fly. Several years ago I used to fly a Multiplex Micro-Jet (still got it) and I was never very happy with it, I think the thrust line was incorrect. Having just dug it out I see I have a fair chunk of lead on the back, just in front of the motor so maybe the centre of gravity was wrong. It has a 2212 1400Kv motor fitted with a 7”x 4” prop. I’ll have to get it flying again and see if I can make it fly better. Anyway, back to the Ultra, the thrust line is adjustable and at the moment it looks to be set to zero., as recommended. I can’t see what motor is fitted although I can see that it’s a Multiplex Himax motor so it’s probably the recommended C3514-2900. Likewise, I can’t see which speed controller is fitted but the recommended one is a MULTIcont BL-70 S-BEC speed controller so it will be that or something very similar. The manual says to use a 6″ x 5.5″ propeller but mine is fitted with a 5.5” x 4.5”. So, does it fly ok? Yes! The first flight was rather interesting as there was far too much aileron movement, making it very twitchy but I’ve been gradually reducing the movement and increasing the expo on every flight and it’s about right now. It’s an amazing flier, very fast flat out but it will also slow up nicely and it glides really well. Presumably if I were to swap to the larger recommended prop it would be even faster. I won’t be doing that, I’ve barely used full throttle as it is, I’m too old for it! I am using a 2200mAh 3 cell battery fitted as far forward as it will go to achieve the correct C of G and I was surprised to see that Gary had obviously been fitting the battery further back. Then I noticed the manual recommends a 3300mAh pack so that must be what Gary had been using. I’ll stick with 2200’s, the flight is plenty long enough for my aged nerves!

Next to try was the Arrows Hobby Viper which I don’t think Gary had ever flown. I wasn’t too concerned about the Viper as there are already several owned by other PAM members and they all fly well, plus for a while now I have been flying an Arrows Hobby Avanti which is from the same range and very similar. The Viper is 773mm wingspan and comes fitted with an 11 bladed 50mm fan, a 2627 4500Kv motor, 30A speed controller, and three 9g servos. The newer versions of the Viper come with a gyro installed but mine is an early version without the gyro. My Avanti came with a gyro but I wasn’t expecting any major difference when flying the Viper without one and that proved to be correct. The plane went away from a hand launch with no problems at all and just flew beautifully, very similar to the Avanti as expected. I think it possibly goes slightly better than the Avanti but it’s difficult to tell. There was a very strong wind blowing the next time out but the Viper handled it with no problems although the lack of a gyro showed up a little as it wasn’t quite as smooth as the Avanti in the windy conditions. I use 3 cell 2200mAh batteries in both the Viper and Avanti, as do other PAM members with these 50mm fan models, but the specs say 1300 to 2200mAh packs and the 2200 packs need to be as far back as they will go to obtain the correct centre of gravity. All in all, I’m very happy with the Viper and look forward to lots of flying with it. Both the FunJet Ultra and the Viper can be seen in this month’s video, but be aware, that part of the video was being recorded when I was flying on a day that had ridiculously strong winds!

On 22^nd July the PAM Competition Secretary Dwayne Pipe ran the annual Chuck Glider competition for us. The competition was initially planned for the evening of 15^th July which I was unable to make, but fortunately for me Dwayne had an issue that meant he couldn’t make the 15^th either so the comp was switched to Wed 22^nd. Here is Dwayne’s report: Despite being deferred for a week, the annual chuck glider competition was held at the Buriton village hall field and as usual in the middle of July the conditions were perfect. We had eight people turn up and all took part in both of the competitions. In the standard Chuck glider category, it will come as no surprise to learn that Colin Cowplain won.  His plane gets more beaten up every year but still outperforms all comers. His consistent times are part of the key to his success, but his overall time of 40.9 seconds this year was rather less than his time last year of 58 seconds. Second place was won by MacFly who built two new planes for this competition and gave Colin a close competition with a creditable time of 37 seconds.  Dougal Entendre came third. We also had the Catapult glider competition as well. For this the results were completely different with Dwayne Pipe coming first with a time of 67.4 seconds, and Colin Cowplain second with a time of 57.9 seconds and Dougal Entendre third. Everyone seemed to have a good time.  I would recommend for next year that you get lots of practise in trimming your aircraft and consistent launching before you turn up on the night. Thanks for that Dwayne, it was indeed a good evening that everybody seemed to enjoy. MacFly made a very short video of some of us trying to fly which you can watch here:

Captain Slow bought himself a rather nice second-hand model in July, a Horizon ArtiZan. The ArtiZan is an all-foam aerobatic model with a wingspan of 1080mm and it flies on a three cell 1800-2200mAh battery. Rather strangely, when I looked the model up on the Horizon Hobby website it’s listed (discontinued) as a ParkZone ArtiZan even though on the model itself it says Horizon with no mention of ParkZone. So, this is from the website: The distinctive ParkZone® ArtiZan® park flyer is a nimble, grab-and-go sport plane that’s perfect for exploring aerobatics. Its sleek lines, light wing loading and powerful motor provide a superb balance of slow speed stability and high-speed agility. Even the high-visibility trim scheme by Mirco Pecorari of Aircraft Studio Design contributes to its sharp appearance. Anyone with experience flying 4-channel park flyers will feel right at home the first time on the sticks. Vortex generators on the leading edges of the wings enhance aileron control particularly when flying at slow speeds. Specially designed air inlets and strategically placed vents in the fuselage keep air flowing around critical electric components. A high-output 480-Size, 960Kv power system delivers plenty of speed and vertical performance for exploring a wide range of aerobatic manoeuvres. An E-flite® 30-amp ESC with a switch-mode BEC cleanly channels power from the battery to the motor. I was surprised when I read the specifications that it’s smaller and lighter than I thought, to me, it seems bigger when you see it at the field. This is what Captain Slow told me about it: I was looking for a (temporary) replacement for my WotsWot that decided to eject its motor and mount whilst in the circuit.  I saw the ArtiZan advertised on Facebook in Worthing at £80. it was claimed to be as new – it wasn’t – though to be fair it hadn’t been crashed, there was just some hangar rash. When I researched the model it’s still shown as available on the Horizon US website, although it appears to have first surfaced some 10 years ago.  It’s very similar in shape to MacFly’s and Mini Mike’s E-flite Sportix; there are slight changes to the cockpit shape and it has tip ailerons rather than full span ones; as sold it didn’t come with spats either.  I’m very pleased with it as it flies very nicely. As Captain Slow says the ArtiZan does fly extremely nicely, he let me have a fly and I found it to be a smooth, responsive, and pleasant model to fly. You can of course see it flying in this month’s video.

Ex-PAM member young Leo came along to fly as a guest at the patch one Sunday in July. He flew a FW190 that he had bought at the Popham Model Show for around £40. That had to be a bargain as it even has retracts and, as you can see in the video, it flew very well. He also flew a large ASW28 which also flew well, and his Volantex Phoenix which is in the video. Unfortunately I don’t have any further information about any of the models.

This month the action photos were all taken at the club Chuck Glider competition:

Video time now, this month with footage by me, MacFly, Dougal, and Captain Slow. Please watch the video full-screen, it’s so much better with small models flying around. If the video won’t play for you please click HERE.

The Final Funny: Last month at Heathrow, as I queued to check-in for my Virgin Atlantic flight to New York, I overheard an American chap ask for window seats for both himself and his wife. The check-in girl politely pointed out that this would prevent them from sitting together. “Listen love” the man replied quietly, “I’ve just spent the last three weeks on holiday here, touring all of England, Scotland, and Wales in a compact rental car with this woman.” “Believe me, I know EXACTLY what I’m requesting!”

Colin Cowplain

Utterly bonkers! No, not the club members, this time I’m talking about the June weather. As I begin writing this edition of Patch News it’s mid-morning on June 25^th and the temperature in the shade is 31 degrees and climbing. We called off our usual Wednesday morning flying session on 24^th June as it was just too hot, dangerously so for us oldies, but Friday was a little cooler so a few of us flew. The last Sunday of the month was still hot but much more pleasant because there was a really blustery wind blowing. Utterly bonkers! Earlier in the month we had more normal weather so we flew a lot and in the pleasant sunny period before the heatwave hit the farmers cut the whole field (leaving our patch of course, and a 5metre border all around to encourage wildlife) and were able to get the grass turned and then baled before the rain came along. We are fortunate to have a great relationship with our farmers, George, Oliver, and Will of Meonside Farm, (click the link for more information) and they do a lot for the good of the countryside and local people. As well as allowing Petersfield Aero Modellers to fly on their land they also have MVSA (Meon Valley Soaring Association) flying slope soarers and the Sky Surfing Club who fly hang gliders and paragliders from Wether Down when the wind direction is suitable.
As part of their diversification efforts they do regular educational trips for local school children, exploring the farm in a tractor towed trailer and explaining about the various aspects of farming. The trailer often stops at the top of ‘our’ field where there is a great view over lots of their farmland while George tells the kids all about farming, and then he’ll do a slow drive-by near our patch so they can see a little of our flying. The kids all seem to love it and who knows, we might even gain some young members from it!

Several new models were flown in June, as well as some older planes that we hadn’t seen for a while, including Catapult King with his Wingnetic and his Sunbird electric glider.
Lots of PAM members had Wingnetics several years ago so it was good to see one in the air again. I’ve still got one of those tucked away somewhere, I really must dig it out and fly it!
Both Catapult’s Wingnetic and Sunbird can be seen flying in this month’s video.

First up of the genuinely new models was MacFly with his rather lovely E-flite Sportix.
The Sportix was a new one to me and I must say I rather like it. Here’s what the Wheelspin Models website says about it: The E-flite Sportix 1.1m PNP (EFL10775) is a modern sport aeroplane designed to be the ideal next step after a trainer and a no‑hassle everyday aerobat for experienced pilots. With a 1100 mm wingspan, it remains compact for transport and storage yet large enough for excellent visibility and confident handling in typical flying conditions. A factory‑installed brushless power system, four digital metal‑geared servos and a Spektrum Avian 45A Smart Lite ESC deliver precise control and strong performance on both 3S and 4S LiPo batteries. Assembly is fast and straightforward thanks to a snap‑plus‑bolt design requiring no glue or special tools. A two‑piece wing with hands‑free servo connections simplifies field setup, while the top‑mounted hatch offers easy battery access. Functional LED navigation lights enhance visibility and orientation, and durable aluminium landing gear with wheel pants completes the clean, modern look. MacFly got a good deal on his PNP E-flite Sportix from Wheelspin Models and everything went together as it should, with no problems.
The only change he made was to ditch the spats and fit larger wheels that are more suited to our grass patch. I did the trimming flight which went perfectly with virtually no trim changes required so MacFly has been happily getting used to flying the Sportix himself.
The plane flies beautifully but MacFly has had one problem, I’ll let him explain: After the first morning of flying, I tried to set up the brake on the motor to lessen the chance to damage the prop on take-off and landing, when tipping forward.  But being a Spektrum ESC it needed the Spektrum ESC programmer device to alter the settings and after purchasing this unit I found that it did not work.  When connecting the plane’s battery, it went into manual set up mode with all the bleeping sounds and it would not stop.
I was unable to find the manual method for programming online for this Spektrum ESC.  Following the process of elimination, the system would work correctly again after changing the ESC and the receiver.  I changed the ESC to the Ripmax Quantum which brakes fine at home, but not when flying! Very strange MacFly, I can’t imagine why both the ESC and the receiver had to be changed but Spektrum does have a few oddities sometimes. Anyway, you can all see the Sportix performing in this month’s video.

Last month I included some photos and information about Dougal Entendre’s latest model, a Freewing Flightline Velocity. At the time Dougal hadn’t had a chance to fly the model but he brought it to the field in June and it’s now had lots of very successful flights.
This is what Dougal told me: A few thoughts on the Velocity, now that I’ve flown it. First, my worries about torque on launch were completely unfounded – I can go off at full throttle without it rolling to the left. Second, it’s fast! (but I think we guessed it would be). Third, I can get a good 5 minutes duration and come down with at least 30% in the pack.
This is way better than the Rare Bear or my E2K racer, which only get 3 to 3-and-a-half minutes from the same packs. It’s pretty good at smooth aerobatics for a model of its size, but can do the flicky stuff as well. It normally comes out of inverted spins reasonably quickly, but not always, as I found out the other day! (fortunately I had enough height, and it stopped spinning when I put a bit of power on).
The wings look like they flex a bit, particularly when doing a fast low pass in turbulent air, but they haven’t snapped yet. All in all I love it! Thanks Dougal, yes it flies really well, and yes, those wings certainly do flex a lot! It’s in this month’s video so take a look.

In the May Patch News I wrote that Comp Sec Dwayne Pipe had confirmed the Chuck Glider comp will take place at Buriton Recreation Ground on Wednesday 15^th July at 7.30pm. There will be two classes, hand launched, and catapult launched (catapult provided). If the weather is bad it will be delayed to the following Wednesday, the 22^nd.
But what I hadn’t realised was that I’ll be away on 15^th July…doh! So the comp will go ahead without me unless the weather is bad and it has to be postponed until the 22^nd when I’ll be back. Guess who’ll be doing a rain dance on the evening of 15^th July!

Of course Dwayne is also in charge of the various fun-fly tasks that are open to all PAM members and can be attempted at any time during normal flying sessions. Each task has two classes, one for BMFA ‘A’ certificate holders, the other for ‘B’ cert holders. The tasks include Spot Landing, Max Loops, Max Glide, and several others, all the info you need is on the club website. So please have a go at some or all of the tasks, it’s all just a bit of fun.
I managed to hit the spot with my Max Thrust Riot in June and at the moment that’s the only score that’s been recorded in any of the tasks! So have a go, just ask someone to witness/measure/time/count and let Dwayne know your score. Good luck to all.

When 1066 broke the foam nosecone off his Arrows Hobby Viper at the field one day he just carried on flying without and said he’d probably just tidy up the break and not bother trying to refit the nosecone. I half-jokingly suggested he found a suitable sized spinner and glued that on instead, it would be much sturdier than the original nosecone.
A few days later he sent me a couple of photos showing that he’d done exactly that! I can’t help thinking that he could have made a rather neater job of filling in the redundant propellor cut-outs but 1066 says it’s an old model and he had his hot-melt gun to hand! Fair point, The Viper flies as well as ever although it’s a tad nose heavy now, I wonder why!

New member young Tom is now the proud owner of a Durafly Ugly Stick. It’s not a new one, Tom (no doubt helped by grandad Dom) bought the plane from Woody who had decided to sell it as it was surplus to requirements, plus he needed the space!
The Ugly Stick is an ideal next model for Tom, the Arrows Hobby Mustang that he also owns is a big step up from the little QIDI-560 Maule M7 that he can fly really well.
This month Tom had lots of flights with the Ugly Stick and he’s flown it superbly with no problems at all. On the last flying day in June there was a strong and gusty wind that was challenging for all the fliers, but Tom had several successful flights with the Ugly Stick.
On every flight he took off, flew around, did some touch and go’s, and finished with great landings back on the patch. Despite only starting to fly very recently he coped with the conditions much better than many of the established pilots! I filmed Tom flying in the blustery conditions so you can see how good he is at the end of this month’s video.

In June Bob the Builder turned up at the patch with another new creation that he’s built.
This is what he told me about it: My BobScout is based on the Flite Test Simple Scout. Wing span is 800mm, the maximum I could get from a single sheet of Hobbycraft 5mm foamboard. The whole thing is made from 2 sheets of foamboard.
I just wanted something that I can play around with, so it has fairly large control surfaces and a low wing just be different. What could possibly go wrong?
SunnySky 2216 1400Kv motor, 30amp ESC, 1300 3s lipo, 4 11gram servos. Currently using a Fly Sky S8R stabilised receiver. Spray paint finished to protect foamboard paper covering and to make it look better. All up flying weight 640 grams, about 150 watts/lb.
Cheap and easy to make and repair, fun to fly, room for variations, uses parts most of us have laying around. Would make a good club build. Thanks Bob, it looks like a nice all-rounder. I don’t have any video of it flying yet, hopefully I’ll be able to shoot some in July.

Bob also sent me some information about a new giro he’s been trying out: I have purchased an FMS Reflex3 giro and fitted it to my Skylark. I am hoping that the FMS name will ensure some quality and it has a useful feature that allows the gain to be adjusted from a phone app. Seems OK so far and it makes the Skylark a lot easier to fly. I’m not sure what giro  Bob was using in the Skylark previously but it did seem to give him a lot of problems so hopefully this one will prove to be better.

This month, as last month, the action photos were all taken by young Tom:

Video time now, this month with footage by me, MacFly, Dougal, and Captain Slow:
Please watch the video full-screen, it’s so much better with small models flying around.
If the video won’t play for you please click HERE

The Final Funny:
Many years in the future a young pilot is flying around in his spaceship, and after flying for quite a while he lands at a convenient fuel station to refuel his spaceship’s tanks.
Once he’s filled up he asks the cashier where the nearest bar is. The cashier responds with “Pop over to the next moon, there’s one called The Keyboard, you’ll find it easily enough.”
The astronaut thanks the cashier and flies off to the next moon. Once he’s landed he finds The Keyboard easily enough, just as the cashier had said, so he goes in and sits down.
The bartender asks him what he would like “Just a drink or something to eat as well?”
“I’ll just a beer for now please. Oh, and tell me, why is this place called The Keyboard?”
The bartender says “Because it’s a space bar…”

Colin Cowplain

It’s still officially spring in England but it hasn’t felt like it. I was away for about half of the month so I missed some of the action but I’m told that for the first ten days of my holiday it was freezing cold, and it rained every day in England. But just before I returned the country was hit by a heatwave that saw record high temperatures for over a week!
All the rain made the buttercups grow more than the grass but the usual suspects got stuck in, and in the photo above 1066 was trying to look as if he was working hard.

The Popham Model Show was held over the weekend of 9^th/10^th May with the forecast predicting the best weather on the Saturday, the day I went away, so sadly I missed the it. But several PAM members made the trip and by all accounts it was a great show with non-stop flying displays of fixed-wing aircraft, gliders, helicopters, and FPV (First Person View) drones.  Highlights included excellent flights from pilots like Adam Broomhead with a half-scale Bucker Jungmeister and Dave Franks flying a 1/5th scale turbine F-16.
Alongside the flying displays the main marquee featured ground demonstrations and “have-a-go” activities with RC drift cars, tiny whoops (drones), military vehicles, boats, and scale tanks. Chas and Dougal Entendre sent me a few photos of the event and when I asked Dougal if he’d bought anything I was expecting great things, a twin motored EDF Su-57 perhaps, or a 1/3^rd scale Pitts Special complete with onboard smoke system?
But no, all he bought was a DPR chuck glider! Never mind, maybe next year…

Well, thinking of the Chuck Glider Competition, as Dougal obviously is, I’ve just checked with PAM Comp Sec Dwayne Pipe who has confirmed the comp will take place at Buriton Recreation Ground on Wednesday 15th July at 7.30pm. If the weather is bad it will move to the following Wednesday, the 22nd. It’s always a fun evening, be there or be square!

To redeem himself Dougal sent me some photos of a new toy he’s purchased, but from AliExpress, not Popham. His report starts with some sad news: My first bit of news for May is the sad demise of my venerable Sportjet, after 12 years of loyal service. It was already looking tatty after numerous repairs, so I was taking more and more chances with it (coming inverted through the trees etc). In the end it was a simple landing goof on my part which knocked the nose off, having clipped the long grass and cartwheeled onto the patch. Inspection back at base revealed that the battery housing was broken, the nose cone was fairly well splintered, and an earlier repair on the wing mount had given way.
Plus I had a brand new plane waiting for the receiver, so the equipment was duly stripped out, and the foam consigned to the bin.
The new one is a Freewing Flightline Velocity, sourced as a PNP from AliExpress. It takes a 4s 1800-2600 pack, and given how small it is (1M span), I’m hoping it’ll go quite fast!
Assembly entailed two screws to hold the tail on, four screws to hold the wing on, and two screws to hold the battery mount in place. To make it a bit more like real modelling I then had to glue the plastic skid onto the fuselage and wing with the EPO glue provided.
Installing the receiver and getting the Tx set up took longer than the rest of the build.
I’m already getting apprehensive about the first flight. If my experience with the Rare Bear is anything to go by, it’ll need an underarm launch and about two thirds throttle to avoid torque problems. We’ll just have to chuck it and see.
Thanks for that Dougal. I think it will be much easier to get away from a hand launch than the Rare Bear, I’d be happy to give it an underarm launch, what could possibly go wrong..?

Towards the end of May we were very pleased to be joined by two prospective new members, Dom and his grandson Tom. Tom is thirteen and has already been flying a little gyro stabilised foamie model but having recently purchased a P-51 Mustang they decided to seek some help and advice before flying it. They first came along on Sunday 24^th (when I was enjoying a 14-hour flight delay to get back home!) and brought the Mustang along to be checked over by experienced modellers. Dougal and 1066 gave it the once over and found there was way too much aileron movement, but not having any knowledge of the transmitter, they couldn’t figure out how to save the settings so were unable to test fly it. Dom and Tom returned the following Wednesday having reduced the aileron movements on the Mustang, and they also brought along Tom’s small foamie, a QIDI-560 Maule M7. The Maule is 510mm wingspan, weighs just under 100gms, and flies on a single cell 500mAh lipo battery. It has the usual controls, ailerons, elevator, rudder, and throttle, and has a switchable gyro. Woody loves it as it also has lights! It was a bit breezy for such a small, light model but Tom had no trouble flying it at all, I think we were all surprised at how good he was! He had several flights and landed safely back on the patch every time. 
The Mustang is one from Arrows Hobby and this is from their website: The Arrows Hobby P-51 Mustang 850mm PNP with Vector Stabilisation System captures the character of the legendary WWII fighter with crisp scale detailing, from riveted panels and machine guns to exhaust stacks, drop tanks and cockpit detail. A glue-free assembly approach makes getting airborne quick and tidy, while the pre-installed 30A ESC and 2212 1300KV power system offer the vertical performance and classic warbird manoeuvres enthusiasts expect. With 4-channel control, a high-lift wing section and LED navigation lights, this compact EPO warbird is built for confident, spirited flying. Experience Level: Intermediate / Advanced. Age Recommendation: 14+. Sounds like a perfect trainer for a 13-year-old beginner…not! I checked it over and thought the aileron movement was probably still a bit too aggressive but it should be OK to fly. The wheels are quite small and there are lots of buttercups growing on the patch at the moment which stopped the Mustang taking-off so 1066 gave it an underarm hand launch and it flew away beautifully. It was definitely a bit twitchy on aileron but otherwise perfect, just needing a couple of clicks of up trim adding. After a few minutes checking it out I asked Tom if he wanted a go, fully expecting him to instantly over-control and me having to snatch back the transmitter but no, he flew it well! He did slightly over-control a bit at first but soon settled down, the only problem was me having to tell him to keep it high enough for me to save it if he got it wrong. But he didn’t get it wrong and after a few more minutes he asked me to land it. I think all those present agreed that Tom is very quickly going to become a great pilot!

As many of you will know, Dwayne Pipe is an avid builder and is happy building new models using either traditional balsa construction or various types of foam. Over many years as a PAM member he has built dozens of models, some from plans but also lots that he has designed himself. I might be wrong but I don’t remember Dwayne having any off the shelf models. This month he’s been good enough to share some of his secrets of success: Not many flyers build their own planes anymore, so they may be unfamiliar with the skills that previous generations had to learn when deciding where the centre of gravity was on their new aircraft, or which KV motor to use with what prop size etc.
Even these days you may need to know these things if you buy a second-hand plane with no motor or prop. You may feel your existing plane is underpowered and do you increase the prop size and if so, how will that effect the current rating of the ESC.?
Due to the wonders of the internet, all these problems can be solved. There are several free programs available on the internet to calculate these parameters, but the ones I use are WEBOCALC for deciding motor size, battery voltage, prop size, current pulled and wing loading. 
For working out the optimum centre of gravity for your plane I use the imaginatively named AIRCRAFT CENTER OF GRAVITY CALCULATOR.
Both can be found on your search engine of choice, and I have found them to be reliable.
Thanks for that Dwayne, that’s useful stuff for all of us.

Another proper modeller who always seems to build his from scratch is Catapult King, so I was rather surprised to hear that he’d arrived at the patch with a plug and play EDF jet. Things became clearer when Catapult explained that the Arrows Hobby Viper came from his nephew who had bought the model second-hand and then given it to him as a birthday present.  Hmm… I have one nephew; I wonder if he reads Patch News?! Captain Slow sent me some photos but wasn’t able to take any video but no doubt I’ll be able to shoot some for the next Patch News. Several of us own Arrows Hobby models and they all seem to be of good quality and fly well with no problems, so there were no concerns with the Viper. Dougal did the initial trimming and found that, as expected, it flew nicely and he was quickly able to pass the transmitter over to Catapult for him to enjoy.

In May we were pleased to welcome Norwegian Nick back to the field after an absence of several months. He brought along an electric glider and an Archie that he’d built from a plan that was originally published in May 1972 in the Radio Modeller magazine. Nick built his Archie a few years ago but has only flown it once before, a couple of years ago.
It was designed by Peter Holland and the plan is available as a free download from Outerzone who say this about Archie: For the average to skilful pilot Archie is a perfect relaxer for a lazy afternoon in the sunshine, as the bee’s drone and the wispy clouds drift lazily across the sky. Although it is relatively slow flying, it is far from loath to perform simple manoeuvres, such as loops, rolls, inverted flying and similar aerobatics, but it will not spin easily because the stall is almost non-existent, which is as it should be, so that it can be ‘held off’ for those satisfying three pointers, or touch and go’s. Also, if you fancy a brief chat to your next-door pilot, Archie will fly itself around quite happily for a circuit or so, yet send a control and it will respond. In other words, then, a model to have fun with. What, however, if you are not a practised pilot? Well Archie is still for you, because it is a trainer which is not outgrown as soon as one has mastered the rudiments of flying. We do not recommend Archie as a trainer to someone who is going it absolutely alone from scratch – not because it is not as docile as other trainers, but because, if one does make an error, as all beginners do, then being a biplane there is more of it to break! However, for the tyro who has the help of someone who, as a minimum, knows how to take-off and land, Archie can be recommended as a happy choice to ease your way into solo flying…”  As it is a forty-four year old design it was of course designed to have an IC engine but as we only allow electric Nick has made his electric powered and has fitted an OS 5020-490 motor, a Hobbywing 80A speed controller, and a four cell lipo pack. The OS website says the motor is equivalent to a .55-64cu.in 2 stroke or a .72cu.in 4 stroke but the plan says to use a .35-.49cu.in motor so Nick’s Archie has more than enough power!
It flew around nicely on about third throttle and seemed to fly well although Nick said it was too twitchy on elevator and perhaps the C of G needs to be a bit further forward.

May wasn’t the best month for Woody as early in the month he totalled his foamie Eurofighter Typhoon when he lost orientation. It’s loss is a great shame, it was a nice flier.
Then, at the end of the month, he joined the illustrious ranks of the tree dwellers when he landed his XFLY Tasman very gently in the top of Dougal’s Dogwood! The Tasman looked to be undamaged but the problem was how to retrieve it without wrecking it.
Almost immediately Windshy took the decision to climb the tree and he was soon able to give the branches it was wedged into a good shake. He couldn’t quite reach the plane, the branches were too thin to take his weight, but he managed to get it to fall lower down. It’s not easy to see but Windshy is in both of the photos, you’ll need to zoom in to see him! With the use of a fence post the rest of us (me, Woody, 1066, and Norwegian Nick) eventually managed to get the Tasman back on the ground, although by then the tail was damaged, nothing that can’t be repaired fairly easily though. I think Windshy deserves a nicer nickname after his excellent tree climbing efforts, and he’s got more used to flying on windier days now anyway. How about Terrytree? Suggestions please but keep them clean!
STOP PRESS: On the last day of the month John Warren performed a copycat landing in Dougal’s Dogwood with his XFLY Tasman, maybe it needs to be renamed Tasman Tree! This time Windshy wasn’t around but newbie Dom sprang into action, climbed the tree, and successfully retrieved the Tasman. Maybe he should become Dogwood Dom!

It turns out that not only is young Tom a promising flier, he also takes excellent photos and videos. So, this month all the action shots were taken by Tom, thank you young man:

Video time now, this month with footage by me, MacFly, Dougal, Captain Slow and Tom:
Please watch the video full-screen, it’s so much better with small models flying around.
If the video won’t play for you please click HERE

The Final Funny:
Two aliens are flying a fact- finding mission around the Earth. The first one says
“The dominant life form here have developed satellite based nuclear weapons.”
The second one says, “Ah, so they are an emerging intelligence then?”
The first one replies, “Apparently not, they’ve aimed them all at themselves.”

Colin Cowplain

Welcome to springtime, April actually had mostly good weather! It was often quite windy but there was very little rain and club members were able to gets lots of flying time in.

We had some unfortunate mower problems in April which I won’t go into here but, following a WhatsApp request for help from 1066, there was a good turnout of helpers on Tuesday 21^st and after a couple of hours work the patch is in great condition once again.
It’s amazing how quickly dandelions appear on the patch, the first photo was taken after cutting the grass on 7^th April and second one on 24^h April following two more cuts.

The farmers put about fifty young bullocks in the field early on Friday 24^th and they seemed rather pleased to see us when we arrived to fly just a few hours later.
The young ones are usually the most trouble as they tend to be rather inquisitive, maybe they think we have food for them. But these weren’t much of a problem and we only had to herd them away when we arrived and then once again shortly before we packed up.

The club Competition Secretary, Dwayne Pipe, has asked me to remind everybody that the fun fly competitions run throughout the year and he encourages us all to take part. Dwayne has made a posh new aluminium spot for the spot landing task which is just one of seven tasks to try. Pilots can have a go at any or all of the tasks, whatever they fancy, as often as they like through the year. No need to stop the general flying, just ask someone to time/count/measure whatever they choose to try and let Dwayne know the score. There are two categories, one for BMFA A certificate fliers, the other for B certificate fliers so whatever your skill level you’ll be competing with similarly skilled pilots. Go on, try it!

In April we heard the sad news that ex-PAM member John Bourne had passed away on 15^th April at the age of ninety two. Most current PAM members probably won’t have known John but I first met him while working at IBM in Havant about forty-five years ago. He is probably best described as a bit of an eccentric, nutty professor type, he was constantly making odd gadgets and experimenting with anything he could think of! Although he was employed by IBM as an Interior Designer he had his own large well-equipped workshop there and seemed to spend his time doing almost anything he wanted! When he heard I was a modeller he put in a request for me to help him during his busy times. I was in heaven, getting paid to play with stuff such as building mad machines to entertain the kids (and adults) at IBM Family Days etc. One day he told me that he’d built an electric powered Luton Minor but he couldn’t fly RC so wanted me to check it out. I flew it in the IBM car park one lunchtime, my first ever electric flight, and it flew surprisingly well.
He was a great model builder but I remember thinking that if he could build a successful electric model when he knew little about RC planes, I should be able to do even better.
At John’s invitation I joined the IBM model club where I also met current PAM member John Warren. Shortly afterwards John Bourne joined PAM and gave us several club meeting talks on things such as the series of fully working Stirling engines he had built and his exploits in hang-gliding when in it’s infancy, even flying at Dog Mountain near Seattle!
A couple of years ago John and his wife Kay had to move into a care home and he asked his daughter Rona to contact PAM to dispose of his aero-modelling stuff, and both I and Dougal Entendre went to sort it all out. Many of his planes were sold at a club meeting, along with more of his modelling goods, with all the money going into club funds.
I took the opportunity to buy that very first electric model I had flown, the Luton Minor.
Several other members also bought some of John’s models including Dougal Entendre who bought a large vintage Sportster that he flew a few times but has since sold on,
Gordon Bennett bought a Fosdyke Flyer, and Dwayne Pipe bought an electric glider.
All these models had been beautifully built by John and fly well, he was a great modeller. Doreen and I attended John’s funeral on 30th April and met more of his friends and family and heard more of his exploits over a long and well lived life. You’ll be missed John.

Although there was plenty of flying in April there wasn’t a single new model flown. I think that’s a first, I can’t remember a month when there wasn’t at least one to write about.
So I’ll concentrate on other things this month, starting with Dougal’s FPV (First Person View) plane, a SonicModell Binary. Both Dougal and I fly FPV occasionally, and Captain Slow tried it for a while but decided it wasn’t for him and sold the equipment.
It’s not something we do very regularly, partly because it can be a bit of a faff setting everything up, plus you must always have a willing spotter to stand by the pilot and advise on positioning and, in case of emergencies such as video loss, to take control of the model.
Also, unless there is another plane to follow, or maybe a bird, it can get a bit boring just flying over the same bit of countryside. FPV is limited to LOS (Line of Sight) so the pilot can only fly over the same area around the field. Having said that, it’s fun to do now and again, and it’s certainly quite a challenge at times. Dougal and I tend to spot for each other when possible as it’s helpful to have a spotter who is familiar with the problems that can occur. !’ve had occasions when I’m unsure where I am and asked the spotter for directions only to be told “Head back towards the patch”, or “Turn left…no right…”.  All great fun…!
As well as the FPV gear Dougal has added a 4K action camera alongside the Foxeer FPV camera to record better quality in-flight video. Dougal says: The FPV camera is right next to the action camera, and they both seem to get a similar field of view. Although the action camera is 4K, I only run it in 1080p mode (at 60Hz frame rate). This is because 4K video files are huge and unwieldy, and the camera drops the frame rate right down to get 4K, which is no good at all, whereas the 1080p quality seems pretty good. I got comments about how long it took me to prep the plane for each flight. This is because I have to power up about 6 systems. In order, I go: Transmitter, plane (including lights), video Tx (from separate 1000mAh 3s battery), goggles, action cam, then set goggles and action cam recording. When I power up the action cam, it’s very difficult to see the video screen, even if I do remember to take my sunglasses off! I have to listen to the chimes as it powers up, and then different chimes when I press the button to start it recording. The latter nearly always seems to coincide with someone loudly saying “that’s a right faff to set up”, or “why has it got two cameras”, so it’s a miracle we have any video at all.
Well we do have video and very good quality it is too. I’ve included some of the footage in this month’s video, interspersed with footage from the ground recorded by MacFly.
Here are a couple of stills from the video, I’ll probably use more video in May Patch News.

The other day I mentioned to 1066 that I was very short of material for this month’s Patch News as there had been no new models flown in April. He told me that he was in the process of covering something and he hoped to have it finished by the end of the month, in time for this Patch News. Then he sent me a photo…he’s covering his garage roof!
Well, he uses his garage for his modelling so I suppose it sort of qualifies…

Another non-new model story was something that happened to me at the start of the month. It wasn’t even a new model when I got it, I bought the XFly T-7A Red Hawk EDF jet from Woody when he found it was a bit too much of a handful for him.
I’ve been flying it a lot recently and very much enjoying it as it flies very nicely, but you do need to keep the speed up unless it is flying more or less straight and level. When the speed drops there is not enough airflow over the surfaces (no propwash of course) and you lose control until the speed builds up again. The same is true of most EDFs but it seems more pronounced on the Red Hawk than with other EDFs that I’ve flown. It sounds great in the air with its 12 blade 64mm fan and, being ex-Woody, it has a throttle linked ‘afterburner’ ring which shows up well when climbing out from a low and slow pass. Incidentally, the Boeing-Saab T-7A Red Hawk is one of the aircraft currently being considered as a replacement for the Red Arrows Hawks which are scheduled to be retired in March 2030. So what happened to mine? The short answer is that I ran out of battery. My throttle timer was down to about 30 seconds and I was just turning in on finals when I realised I had no power. Unfortunately the plane was quite a long way downwind, out over the valley to the east, and the Red Hawk dropped out of sight below the field level.
1066 was good enough to retrieve it for me and, although the nose is quite badly damaged, it is certainly repairable. I just need to put this laptop down and get round to doing it!

Did you know there is a full-size display team that flies electric powered aircraft? Yes, there really is, the NEBOair Electric Arrows! They aren’t quite in the same league as the Red Arrows, they are a team of just two and they fly a pair of Pipistrel Velis Electros.
I found this on the Pipistrel website: This aircraft is world’s first electric powered airplane to receive a Type Certificate (EASA.A.573 TCDS). The two-seater, intended primarily for pilot training, is a game-changing aircraft in terms of technological innovations and cost-efficiency. Velis Electro can be operated commercially and is fully approved for pilot training as well as other operations. With its quietness, Velis Electro can bring flight training much closer to urban areas without adversely affecting communities’ quality of life. Unlike a start-up procedure of a conventionally powered airplane, the Velis Electro is powered-up by four switches and requires no warm-up time before take-off. This paradigm shift coupled with unprecedented quietness both inside the cockpit as well as from the outside, the Velis Electro truly is a game-changing aircraft to revolutionize your organization and empower a new generation of aviators.

As the last Patch News was published on 1^stApril I felt obliged to include an April Fools story, something I do almost every year. Amazingly 1066 was the only member who definitely spotted it, some even said they looked for an April Fool’s joke but didn’t find it.
Well look, I said I wanted to build an RC model out of recyclable plastic yoghurt pots etc from the fridge that I would call Polar Fly. I explained that it was proving tricky so I’d abandoned the idea and had put it all in the recycling bin (which pleased my wife no end!) I ended the article with the words Adios Polar Fly, an anagram of April Fools Day!
Now come on you lot, you must try harder next year, I expect a whole lot better of you!

Take a look at some of the action shots from this month’s flying, all are from the video:

Video time now, with footage shot by me, Dougal Entendre, and MacFly.
Please watch the video full-screen, it’s so much better with small models flying around:
If the video won’t play for you please click HERE

The Final Funny:
The passengers boarded the plane which then took-off for a long flight over the Atlantic Ocean. The public address system came on with an important message for passengers.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, today we are introducing you to the latest and biggest aviation advancement in history. This plane is flying without either a pilot or co-pilot. Everything is controlled from the ground. by way of microwaves  Sit back and relax and enjoy your flight. Be assured that absolutely nothing can go wrong…absolutely nothing can go wrong…absolutely can go wrong… nothing wrong, go wrong….wrong…”

Colin Cowplain