Patch News History

Patch news this month will only cover part of October as I’ll be away for the last week of the month and, as I was also away for the start of the month, I don’t have much time to write it. But I’ll catch up with anything I’ve missed in November. October was a good month for the club with unseasonably warm weather and quite a few good flying days. We were pleased to welcome another prospective junior member, another Tom, and his dad Ed. This Tom knows existing member Tom through school and like him had already flown a small ‘toy’ foamie plane but with limited success and is looking for a club for some guidance. This is going to get confusing, we’ll have to dream up a nickname for one or both of them, or maybe just Tom1 and Tom2.  Tom2 has spent some time on a flight simulator which has stood him in good stead. Following their first visit Tom2 and Ed went away and bought an XFly Glastar, an ideal model to learn with. I did the Glastar trimming flight and then Tom2 had a go on the second flight. He flew it well, I’m sure he’ll very quickly master it. I didn’t get any photos or video of Tim2 flying yet but hope to include some next month.

Meanwhile Tom1’s flying has been progressing very well and 1066 decided to give him the old Kung Fu that was just cluttering up his workspace. There’s lots of history with Kung Fu’s in the club as way back in 2017 many of them were built them as a ‘Club Model’. The idea was that members all built the same design model and there were a series of competitions with everybody using an identical design. This is what I wrote in the October 2017 edition of Patch News: The Kung Fu was chosen as this years’ club model as it is a very simple Depron flying wing that is quick and easy to build and can use equipment that many of us already have kicking around. At the club meeting on 5^th October a total of eleven Kung Fu’s were presented although one of them was a control-line version! The models were judged in three categories by all members present, Most Original Design, Best Looking Model, and Least Likely To Fly. The winner of the first category was 1066, purely because he was the only person who couldn’t follow the plan properly! Best Looking Model was Colin Cowplain (his Kung Fu was quite nice as well). Least Likely To Fly went to Woody, a choice that proved to be totally correct! The Sunday after that the models were all test flown at the field and most were very successful with many going on to be flown many times over the next couple of years.

Eventually 1066 crashed his and in August 2018 he decided to build another one. Just like the first one he’d built 1066 seemed to have trouble counting fins as his only had one rather than the two shown on the plan. The club models were built from Depron and most flew very well, 1066’s being vastly over-powered as usual. He built the replacement Kung Fu from foam board, the paper faced/foam core stuff that can be found in art supply shops etc. It’s very easy to work with although 1066 found the paper is easily damaged by tape when trying to hold it together while glue dries. I imagine cyano would melt the foam so UHU Por, Gorilla Glue or epoxy would be the obvious choices. The new one is to the plan apart from only having one fin and a slightly lengthened nose in order to achieve the C of G without requiring nose weight. It seems to fly just like the original which is unsurprising as 1066 has fitted the same motor etc. Back to 2026 now and the Kung Fu was given to Tom1 as a step-up from the Ugly Stick that he has been flying recently. 1066 took it up first to trim it out and check everything was still working as it should. All went well so he handed control over to Tom1 who quickly found he could handle the Kung Fu with no problems at all, an amazing feat considering the short time that he’s been flying. In this month’s video you’ll see Tom1 flying the Kung Fu in a really strong wind.

Now for a couple of Jono’s models that are not new but are new to our field. First up is Jono’s Mini Blitz which he built from a plan he downloaded from the Outerzone website. The Mini Blitz is familiar to club many members as, like the Kung Fu mentioned above, it was a ‘club model’. It was the chosen model in 2018 ago and fifteen members built one. Bob the builder actually combined a Kung Fu and Mini Blitz by joining them together and amazed everybody when not only did it fly, it actually flew very well! Unfortunately it met an untimely end when the hatch became detached and the battery fell out mid-flight. To this day Dougal Entendre still flies his Mini Blitz regularly. Back to Jono’s now, the motor is a Scorpion 2208 MkII 1280Kv with an APC 7x6e prop which is powered by a three cell lipo via a Robotbirds 18A speed controller. Jono says the set-up is possibly a bit soft and he’ll check with Dougal to see what motor he’s using. Jono uses RadioMaster RC gear and has fitted an ELRS ER4 receiver with battery monitor, along with Hitec servos. The green parts on the Mini Blitz are interesting, they are all pieces that Jono 3D printed. Yes, not only does Jono have a laser cutter, he also has a 3D printer…that’s two things worth remembering! So, now for the important bit, how does it fly? I’ve got no idea as he chickened out of flying it that day (Jono’s words not mine)! He has flown the Mini Blitz before, just not at our field, so no doubt we’ll see it over the PAM patch before too long.

On the subject of Jono’s 3D printing, I noticed a very neat receiver holder in his OMP Challenger and asked him if it was a proprietory item or something he’d 3D printed. He explained that first he had drawn it with the Autodesk Fusion 360 CAD package and then he had 3D printed it in PLA on his Elegoo Centauri Carbon printer. As it was so successful it’s something he has now done for quite a few of his models.

Next, 1066 has finally finished building the Chipmunk kit that he bought from Stan Yeo. For those of you who are not already aware, Stan is the owner of Phoenix Model Products. I asked 1066 for a few words and this is what he came up with: As most of you know, over the last few years I have rediscovered building from kits. I started with a modern kit from the Dancing Wings brand but the quality was very poor, so much so I very quickly gave up on it, eventually giving it to Dwayne Pipe to see if he could make it work. I also tried an Angel Wings Delta, this was far better, modern laser cutting which just slotted together, but sadly their range is mainly small slope soarers, so nothing else tempted. My Fugly (to you and me that’s an Evolution Models Fusion II that 1066 thinks is Flippin’ Ugly…or something similar…) was more traditional apart from the wing ribs which were made from foam, so made building the wing quite difficult. So, if you want a traditional kit you have to look back to manufacturers like Great Planes, Chris Foss, Ripmax, Flair, or Phoenix Models, which is where I found the character scale Chipmunk. Those who have been a part of this hobby as long as I have will know the name Stan Yeo, so having placed the order for the Chipmunk, I was surprised to get a phone call from Stan the next day. During the call Stan explained he doesn’t debit your card until the kit is ready to dispatch, and that as he is now in his eighties it can take a day or two as he is fully responsible for putting the kits together himself.  I got the impression he wasn’t selling so many kits these days. His kits are really old school, with all the small wooden parts produced by Stan, all the hardware is supplied, and it looks like the pre-bent push rods etc are all made by Stan. It’s obvious the kit is from a life-long builder, all the wood is beautifully chosen for its specific job, which means it builds into a very nice model. My only criticism is a couple of the wing sheets being too soft, and being thin it takes a lot of concentration not to overdo the sanding. Unfortunately, I didn’t concentrate hard enough, resulting in putting my finger through the bottom sheet of one wing at almost every bay. I found this very disheartening and put the almost completed model aside in our spare room. Seven months later the wife had become tired of my toy plane sleeping on our spare bed, and gently suggested it was time it returned to my modelling shed. Having not looked at the model for all this time, it turned out the repairs to the underside of the wing weren’t as bad as I remembered, so I decided to finish it. I already had the covering, but had used the electronics on another model, so a quick AliExpress order was made to purchase the recommended setup. A couple of weeks later it was ready for its maiden which was pretty straightforward, just a few adjustments to trims, control movements (I never look at the recommendations) and CG had the model flying nicely. In the words of our illustrious editor, “Here is what Stan has to say about the model”: “The Chipmunk is a favourite among modellers, evoking fond memories for many of their first flight in an aeroplane. Whilst the Chipmunk CS is not true scale it captures the essence of the full-size aircraft. With a typical 4/500W 3542 size motor and using 3S 22/2900mAh lipos, the Chipmunk has a spritely performance and capable of performing a wide variety of manoeuvres. It is both a delight to build and fly attracting compliments on both fronts. The all-wood easy build construction follows the now well proven path of other models in our range in that it incorporates a fully sheeted built-up wing with a comprehensive collection of cut parts and accessories. The unique adjustable motor mount assembly means most 35mm diameter brushless motors can be accommodated.” Thanks for that 1066, I can happily agree that the Chipmunk flies very nicely indeed and certainly looks the part in the air. You can judge for yourselves, it’s in this month’s video.

Back to Jono for the second plane he brought along, an Evolution Models Micro Fusion. As the name suggests it’s simply a smaller version of the Fusion with a wingspan of 39” against the larger Fusion II at 52”. This is from the Evolution website: The Micro Fusion maintains the characteristics of it larger brother! It’s the perfect size to throw in the back of the car and fly anywhere (responsibly!). Using affordable servos, motor, ESC and batteries the Micro will fly just about anywhere and perform fun fly aerobatics straight from the boot of the car. The kit is supplied with the same high quality components as the larger Fusion, and will contain the following components: Laser Cut Balsa Laser Cut Ply Laser Cut Depron High Quality strip and sheet materials Comprehensive Hardware Pack inc Closed loop kits, pushrod connectors, saddle clamps, hinges, pre-bent Undercarriage etc and a Comprehensive Instruction Manual. Jono has fitted his out with an Overlander Thumper T3536 1050Kv motor and an Overlander 30A speed controller which he has mounted externally as per the kit instructions. He says the wing was a pain to build as the ribs are made of Depron and are very fragile but other than that the kit was OK. He has finished it using Oralight which apparently is 40-50% lighter than the more common Oracover. Jono has used more of his own 3D printed parts including a receiver holder, the undercarriage clamps, and a motor spacer. The finished model looks very smart and, as you can see in the video, flies well.

Action shots time now, with the photos being taken from the last two month’s videos:

This month’s video includes footage shot by Dougal Entendre, and Colin Cowplain. 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: A USAF C-130 Hercules, full of marines, had to make an unscheduled landing at Thule Air Base due to  some unexpected headwinds that had cut into fuel reserve. Thule is located about 750 miles north of the Arctic Circle so is permanently cold. While on the ground the Aircraft Commander, a very inexperienced captain, calls the control tower and asks to have the nearly full toilet serviced. About 30 minutes later, an airman shows up with a pumper truck to empty the toilet. With the temperature hovering around -30C the airman is struggling to get the valve on the end of the hose unfrozen. After about 15 minutes struggling with it, the airman decides the only way to get it working is to go back to the hangar and either thaw out the hose, or get a new one. Meanwhile the Aircraft Commander is impatient to get back in the air and asks the Airman what the problem is and how long he thinks it will take to fix. The Airman says the hose is frozen, and he doesn’t know how long it will take to thaw it. After some 45 minutes, the Airman returns to the aircraft and begins to empty the toilet. The captain confronts and berates the Airman for taking so long, and for his “lackadaisical attitude”. He tells the Airman he will be making a report about how the Airman caused a long delay, and how his attitude bordered on insubordination. The Airman gives the captain a sidelong look, then says, “Captain, I’m stationed here at Thule; the nearest single woman is probably 1000 miles away; my tour isn’t up for another 11 months; I’ve got one stripe; it’s 30 degrees below zero and I’m pumping crap out of an airplane. What exactly do you think they’re going to do to punish me?”

Colin Cowplain

September was an interesting and active month for the club, the grass on the patch recovered from the lack of rain incredibly quickly, we enjoyed the first club meeting that we had held for ages, and we gained a new member, with a second one looking quite likely.

The speed of the grass recovery took us all by surprise, the drought ended with some steady rain over a few days but not a massive storm or floods, and the dead looking brown shrivelled remains on the patch suddenly sprouted like mad and very quickly became lush and green. In fact, the whole field quickly recovered enough for the farmers to put sheep out to graze. One of the sheep seemed to enjoy watching 1066 working on his plane!
The patch was mown twice and it’s growing so quickly that we needed it to be cut shorter.

The club meeting I mentioned was held at the Hampshire Hog on Wednesday 23^rd with the main event being a talk that was given by Dougal Entendre about the many changes in radio control gear in general but mostly focussing on the various RadioMaster sets.
It was good to meet up away from the patch for a change and have a good natter as well as learning quite a lot about the way RC gear has changed lately and is heading in the future.

The new member who has joined PAM is Jono Robertson, an ex-PADMAC member who was looking for a new club after PADMAC have lost their field in exactly the same way as we lost our previous one. Their site, just off the A272, was rented from the White family by the Atkinsons and the Whites suddenly told the Atkinsons that they wanted it back for their own use. We know just how that felt when it happened to PAM but we were fortunate that the Atkinsons were able to offer us the field we currently use as a replacement.
Jono is an experienced builder and flier and, having completed his three visits within only a couple of weeks, he paid his subs and became a welcome new Petersfield club member.

I’ll begin the new models that I spotted in September with two models flown by Jono.
OK so they aren’t actually new models but this was the first time they’ve flown from our patch so we haven’t seen them before! The first plane Jono flew was an OMP Challenger.
It’s not a model I had been aware of before but apparently some Petersfield Aero Modellers members had seen them on sale at various models shows. The Challenger is available in two sizes, you can choose either a 49” (1250mm) span or a 59” (1500mm) span model. Jono’s is the 49” ARTF version (Almost Ready to Fly or Almost Ready to Fail as 1066 likes to say!) so comes with everything already fitted except a receiver and battery.
The motor is a SunnySky 2820 which is coupled to a 40A speed controller and spins a 12×6.5E prop. All four of the ready fitted servos are OMPHOBBY SG5 17g. Jono uses Radiomaster gear and has fitted the Mini Bird with a Radiomaster ER5A 5CH ELRS receiver which has a built voltage sensor and sends the info back to the transmitter (those of you who saw Dougal’s talk on RC gear will know exactly what the ELRS bit means)! Jono is using three cell GNB 3500mAh lipos rated at 70C continuous and 140C burst.
The Challenger is also available built and covered but without any of the electrical equipment so the purchaser needs to provide and fit their own power system and radio set-up.  I found this on the Model Shop Leeds website: The 49” Challenger, an aerobatic high-wing sportster, is an ideal model for skilled pilots who just want to have a little bit of fun; it would make a perfect first truly aerobatic plane for a weekend flyer as well. The fuselage is of light balsa and plywood “box” design covered by the Oracover® iron-on film. It is prepared for installation of 500-600W brushless motor using a radial mount with 40-60A ESC featuring powerful SBEC. Detachable hatches on the top and bottom of the fuselage are giving perfect access to the entire power system and RC gear. The elevator and rudder micro servos are to be installed into the tail end of the fuselage. The two-piece all-balsa wing with a semi symmetrical airfoil uses a carbon tube joiner; the wing halves are secured with screws to the fuselage. The full span ailerons are controlled by a single servo each. The empennage is a light all-balsa work.
The main undercarriage features aluminium legs and lightweight large diameter wheels; the tail wheel with a carbon bracket is coupled with the rudder.
Obviously Jono had flown the model many times before at the PADMAC field so I can’t report on the maiden flight but it appeared to fly well on it’s first outing at the PAM patch.

The second ‘new’ model that Jono brought to the patch and flew several times was his Mini Bird that he built from a plan, but he cheated and used laser cut parts from Cloud Models.
The plan can be downloaded from the Outerzone website for free and their website says this: Mini Bird. Radio control sport model. Wingspan 770 mm. For .049 engine and 2 channels. Plan file includes full build instructions. Quote: “Before starting building: For a better finish and flight performance, take time in reading building instruction and referring to the plans, and assemble in good order and correctly and carefully”.
Jono has fitted his with a Scorpion 2208 1280Kv motor but is thinking about replacing it with a T-Motor for a bit more performance. The motor spins an APC 7x6E prop and is fed by a three cell GNB 1350mAh lipo via a ZTW Mantis Slim 15A speed controller.
He has fitted a Radiomaster ER4 4CH ELRS receiver (which like the ER5A in his Challenger has voltage sensing) and Hitec servos on the ailerons and elevator.
Incidentally, although Jono bought the laser cut parts for his Mini Bird, he tells me he has since bought his own laser cutting machine, so I suspect he might be looking to recover some of his costs by cutting parts for other modellers…just saying! Form an orderly queue.
Jono says the Mini Bird flies very smoothly and you can judge for yourselves as both the Challenger and Mini Bird can be seen in action in this month’s video.

The bromance continues between myself and Woody! Note the matching glasses, they are ones that Woody found on Temu that fit over normal glasses and have an amber tint that somehow makes planes stand out better. I think they are really sold as driving glasses to improve vision at night by removing the glare, but they also work well for model flying.
Also in the photo, note the cans. One of the birthday presents that I received from my daughter a few weeks ago was a pack of alcohol-free beers. I’m not sure what she is trying to tell me by buying alcohol-free ones, I honestly don’t drink very much alcohol at all!
Anyway, amongst the beer assortment were a couple of Brewdog Wingman cans so it seemed only right that I should share them with Woody and of course, being alcohol free, they were the perfect drink to enjoy at a flying session. Cheers Woody!

The only other new model that I spotted in September was a HobbyKing J3 Piper Cub.
It was brought along by Snoopy and looks very nice in its Swiss colour scheme. The plane is an updated version of the previous Cub that HobbyKing sold in a camouflage scheme.
Here’s what the HobbyKing website says about it: This version of the popular Piper J-3 Cub is in a striking new Swiss colour scheme which is a must for all scale pilots. This colour scheme uses a lot less paint so there is a bit of a saving in weight which further reduces the already low wing loading. The attention to detail makes it an extremely realistic model, and it comes with a nice, generous size 1400mm wingspan. Like all Cub’s with its large wingspan, and stable flying characteristics it is very easy to fly, perfect for low-hour pilots and experts alike. The Swiss Cub also has a new all-metal landing gear which is virtually indestructible, this will survive the hardest of landings.
Further weight saving has been achieved by the removal of the metal tail bracing wires, these have been replaced with scale-looking, easy to fit, lightweight elasticated white shock chord. Fellow PAM member 1066 had (has?) one of the previous camouflage versions and said the undercarriage was always a problem with it so hopefully this version with a newly redesigned undercarriage will prove to be far less troublesome.
The Cub is a PNP (Plug’N’Play) EPO foam model that comes with a 45A ESC and powerful 3648-700Kv brushless motor pre-installed as are the 9g servos. It can be flown using either a three or a four cell lipo with no need to change the 12×6 propellor. So, now the important bit, how did it fly? It looked good to me, the Cub took-off with no problems (none of the ground looping that 1066’s was prone to do} and flew very nicely. Snoopy was being rather wary with it and kept the Cub about five mistakes high for most of the flight but when the transmitter timer announced that time was up he landed the Cub back on the patch with no problems at all. That first flight can be viewed in this month’s video.

I don’t think it was related to Snoopy buying the Piper Cub, perhaps it was just a happy (?) coincidence, but Snoopy recently had a “minor incident” with his Durafly Ugly Stick…
I reckon it was just an excuse for him to tell the missus “I think I need a new one dear”!

This month the action photos are an excellent assortment that were actually taken in August by Kryten plus a couple of less excellent screenshots from this month’s video:

This month’s video includes footage by MacFly, Dougal Entendre, and me.
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:
Some wise words from a light aircraft pilot: Stay out of clouds. The silver lining that everyone keeps talking about might be another aeroplane going in the opposite direction.
Reliable sources also report that mountains have been known to hide out in clouds.

Colin Cowplain

I must begin Patch News this month with an apology. As most club members with be aware, the club website has been out of action for several weeks. It wasn’t the fault of anyone in the club, the problem lay with the BMFA who host our website, apparently they had a major server problem in mid-August and all the various BMFA sites went down. They managed to restore the main BMFA parts reasonably quickly but getting the hosted club sites back up took a very long time. As you can see the site is back up again now and hopefully BMFA will have put measures in place to prevent the problem reoccurring.

On with the more interesting stuff now. The crazily hot and dry weather continued through most of August although in the last week the temperatures dropped somewhat, it got pretty windy, and we did have a small amount of rain. We had scrubbed a few flying sessions at the beginning of the month when it was just too hot to go and stand in a field that has very little shelter, but, as always, the old faithfuls still turned out regularly.
Dougal Entendre flew his SonicModell Binary FPV (First Person View) plane on August 9^th and you can see just how dry and scorched the whole of the area had become.
Dougal complained that looking at the landscape via his goggles it was much more difficult than usual to spot the patch from the air and this photo demonstrates the problem well:
Normally the patch stands out well from the air as the mown grass looks greener than the rest of the field but that was not the case in August. It demonstrates why a spotter is vital!

Nothing especially exciting happened at the field in August but there was one very notable achievement when young Tom passed his BMFA ‘A’ certificate. That means he can now fly unaccompanied. Tom has only been a regular at the field for a couple of months and it was clear from his first visit that he was quickly going to become a very capable pilot. So much so that the older members moaned he was too good! He has always been brought to the field by his grandad Dom who has been very supportive of his thirteen-year-old grandson.
For the test Tom flew the Durafly Ugly Stick V2 that he had bought from Woody a few weeks earlier and had used to practise extensively for the test. I was the examiner for the test and Tom flew well throughout as I was sure he would. I did ask him to repeat the figure eight as he lost a bit of height the first time, and the second one was much better. His landings (including the required deadstick one) were good, but this was no surprise as his landings are always good and have been since his very first visit to the field.
The questions were the part Tom was most worried about but Dom had coached him and had even been testing him on their drive to the field each visit. Before they joined the club Tom has passed the online CAA test but that one is slightly different to the BMFA RCC online test so I had to ask him five questions from the Mandatory Questions list and Tom rattled off the answers with no problem. A few days later, having passed his test, Dom and Tom took the online BMFA RCC and passed so all bases are covered now. Well-done Tom!

Following his test success, the next time he came to the patch Tom brought along his Arrows Hobby P-51 Mustang. Arrows produce Mustangs in two sizes, an 850mm wingspan one with a fixed undercarriage, and an 1100mm span one that is fitted with retracts.
Tom’s is one of the smaller ones and he had brought it along to the field when he first joined the club and sensibly sought advice as until then he had only flown his 512mm wingspan Qidi Moore M7. The M7 is one of the very light, single cell, gyro assisted small foamies that come complete with transmitter. It flies well but obviously has it’s limitations.
Tom could fly that very well but figured the Mustang was going to be a step too far so he got me to take it up for him. I flew the Mustang two or three times and Tom took control briefly each flight once it I had trimmed it out but it was a bit of a handful for him and he gave it back to me to land each time. But at the end of August, having passed his test and brimming with confidence, Tom flew it by himself with no problems at all. It was a very windy day and I had a few misgivings when he took the Mustang out to the patch, fearing a cartwheel if the wind got under one wing. I fully expected him to ask for help but he didn’t. Once he had safely taken off I offered to land it if he was struggling but I wasn’t needed at all. Tom flew the whole flight and then made an excellent landing. To prove it wasn’t just luck he flew again a little later and that flight was even better and finished with another great landing. You can see Tom flying the Ugly Stick and Mustang in this month’s video.

There was only one new model that I spotted in August, 1066’s new Arrows Hobby Viper.
I say his new Arrows Hobby Viper as this is actually his second one. No, he didn’t crash the first one (well not properly anyway), but the airframe had got rather knocked about and tatty, but more seriously, after a great many flights it had become quite noisy.
The noise was probably caused by the various bits of grass and other muck ingested by the fan after scores of landings on the patch (and a few off it!) but 1066 liked the Viper so much that he just went out and bought another one. Arrows Hobby have updated things a little since the Viper was first sold and the new one came pre-fitted with a Vector stabiliser but 1066 is old school and doesn’t like them so he removed it before flying the new model.
I overheard him muttering something about not trusting them and being perfectly capable of crashing without the help one of those new-fangled gyro things! If anybody wants a cheap and unused Vector stabiliser have a chat with 1066, I know he’s had it up for sale, although with the delay of Patch News this month it may have already been sold.
So, how does it fly? Unsurprisingly it’s much the same as his first one, although 1066 thinks maybe it’s a tad down on power compared with the first one. Perhaps you need to run it in, check the tappets, and then change the Duckhams? LOL.  It looks to go about the same as my own pre-stabiliser one, which I reckon goes better than my Arrows Avanti. Both 1066’s and mine are in this month’s video so take a look and see if you can see a difference in performance. Obviously, one is being flown rather better than the other…

After quite a long absence from flying, towards the end of August Kryten came along to see us all at the patch. He didn’t bring a model with him this time but he did bring his camera and he captured some great action shots, some of which you can see below. But, much more importantly, Kryten brought cake! I think we had made him feel guilty when lots of us sent him birthday wishes on the club WhatsApp group so he made a rather lovely lemon drizzle cake and brought it along to share between all the pilots present on the day.
It was great to you Kryten, come again very soon and bring some of your planes with you!

The last Sunday of the month was only a couple of days before my own birthday so, not wishing to be outdone by Kryten, I also provided cakes. Sadly nothing special that I’d made, just some Tunnock’s Tea Cakes but they seemed to go down well anyway.

In August Dougal Entendre was invited to give a talk to Rowlands Castle u3a Science and Technology Group. He went along one evening, taking with him his 1/5th scale Maxford Spad III, his SonicModell Binary FRV equipped twin, and one of his drones.
The talk went down very well and received a good write-up on the group’s website:
The group spent an exciting evening hearing from Mark Agate, Vice President of Petersfield Aero Modellers, about his passion for power models, gliders, helicopters and drones. This had all started in his youth and developed when he designed and built a working model for his degree at university in Sussex, using the Downs for test flights. He showed and explained a wide variety of radio control equipment which has improved over the years from AM to FM to PCM. He demonstrated a drone in the garden and we were able to use goggles to get a first-person view [FPV] of the drone’s flight. It was interesting to hear the wide range of use of drones for commercial and industrial use.
They promoted Dougal from Vice Chairman to Vice President but we can forgive that!
Well done to Dougal for promoting the hobby to a local group, it’s all good publicity.

This month I have the luxury of including some action shots taken by two members, Kryten and Tom. Here are six, I’ll use more from both of them over the next few months:

This month’s video includes footage by MacFly, Dougal Entendre, and me.
Please watch the video full-screen, it’s so much better with small models flying around:

The Final Funny:
An air traffic controller at the Nashville, Tennessee airport related an incident from several years ago when he cleared a Cessna 172 (4-seater small aircraft) for landing.
As the Cessna turned to final approach, an airliner called in ‘over the marker’ (5 miles from the airport). At this point the Cessna was only about a half mile from the runway, and the controller knew he could land and clear the runway well before the airliner would land, so he cleared the airliner to land as well.
A few seconds later, the Cessna pilot radioed “How far behind me is that 737?”
Before the controller could respond, the airline pilot, in a deep bass voice, boomed
“Don’t look back!…”

Colin Cowplain

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