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 22nd July the PAM Competition Secretary Dwayne Pipe ran the annual Chuck Glider competition for us. The competition was initially planned for the evening of 15th July which I was unable to make, but fortunately for me Dwayne had an issue that meant he couldn’t make the 15th either so the comp was switched to Wed 22nd. 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
