Patch News – April 2015

April saw the weather improve dramatically and for a couple of weeks after Easter it was perfect for flying. The Midweekers made good use of the weather and flew lots. Chairman Ron cut the grass a few times and the patch was looking great…until the sheep and cows arrived. Never mind, I expect they’ll soon be gone. Of course there were some bad days as well, the last Sunday in April was very grey with low mist/cloud and although we flew it wasn’t ideal. However the following day was absolutely glorious and I took this photo so the people who were back at work won’t feel too left out, obviously we felt for them!

I’ll start this month with a link that has absolutely nothing to do with the patch or even the club but it’s sort of aviation and it’s just so good you all need to see it, trust me, you will like it! CLICK HERE

We had a new arrival in April, Tim Clay. He is new to flying but his dad is a long term modeller and Chairman of Eastbourne & District Model Flying Club so Tim has grown up with modelling. He’s spent some time on a simulator and it shows. Tim had obviously taken advice from dad and he turned up with an ST Discovery, an ideal electric powered trainer, and he was equipped with two transmitters and a buddy lead. Unfortunately we didn’t get off to a good start. Steve 1066 checked it all over and trimmed the model out on the master TX, did a couple of rolls etc. , then passed control to me on the slave TX. I trimmed it out and then did a roll but when I stopped the roll the plane carried on. Steve released the buddy switch to take back control but the plane just kept rolling all the way into the deck.

Hang on; I think I might have spotted a problem with the slave TX… Fortunately the damage wasn’t too bad but it certainly wasn’t what should have happened. The plane has been repaired and has now had several flights (without using the buddy lead) with no further problems. Both Steve and I have since taken Tim for flights with the Discovery so hopefully he knows we are aren’t really a pair of idiots. We don’t know for sure what the problem was but we think the radio went into failsafe mode and it was possibly something related to the buddy lead. Guess what make the radio is… no I mustn’t! Following the crash Richard King kindly let Tim have several flights with his Clouds Fly and it was immediately clear that Tim won’t take long to learn how to fly.

Richard King’s flying has been steadily improving, flying both his Clouds Fly and Wot 4 Foam-E, and most of his training has been undertaken with Dougal Entendre (Mark Agate) supervising. As Dougal is now a club examiner it seemed fitting that he should take Richard for his ‘A’ test. Richard was certainly ready for the test and seemed determined to prove it by taking the test on a day when there was a howling gale blowing. All went well, Richard certainly showed he can fly a Wot 4 in pretty much any weather, and he passed the test and received his certificate at the following club meeting. Well done Richard.

Sadly I forgot to take a photo of Richard, in fact looking back through my pictures I don’t think I’ve ever taken a one of him, although I have found one of his Clouds Fly.

Several new models were flown in April, first up is Mike Smith with his Great Planes Tracer. The Tracer is a ‘proper’ plane, a balsa and ply kit of laser cut parts, that you have to glue together yourself and then cover.

The model is 1335mm span and weighs around 2.4kg. It’s supposed to have a 40-51 cu.in I/C engine but of course Mike has converted it to electric. He also added electric retracts which seemed to work well on the test flight. The landing caught Mike out, he let the Tracer get a tad too slow but I don’t think there was any damage.

You can see some of the Tracer’s first flight and lots of other members and their models in THIS MONTHS VIDEO which you can see by CLICKING HERE

I included a photo of Dougal Entendre’s nose-less Spitfire in the March Patch News, the result of a cartwheel on take-off. Dougal was keen to explain that it went back together well and in the Comments section last month there was some discussion about paints and the different shades of grey on offer.He sent through some photos to show the end result, but I’m not certain his research was quite correct.

1066 has put together another HK 3D style model, this time it’s a Katana and he has set it up for a 4 cell lipo instead of 3. He still has the first pale green MXS, which flies very well, but I think this one looks better in red, white, and blue.They are both of unusual construction; they have a lite-ply frame that is covered in EPP foam. It shows up well in the photo below, the manufacturer has even put lightening holes in the box that houses the wing joining tube which seems a little excessive to me.The Katana certainly performs well and can be seen in THIS MONTHS VIDEO.

Smiffy is also known as The Invisible Man because he seems to disappear for a few months at a time, but he reappeared in April and flew on several days. As always, he had more equipment than I take when I go camping for a fortnight.He brought along some models we’d seen before but also some new ones. When we all started flying the little Spirit Mini Sport electric gliders last year Smiffy called us clowns and the planes ‘Mini Gay Gliders’! Well, now he’s seen how they perform (I was brave enough to let him have a fly of mine) he’s a convert and has bought one himself. No doubt his will soon be fitted with an exotic hot motor and a 10 cell lipo but in the meantime he’s enjoying it in stock form. He also had a larger electric glider with him, a 2 metre span Kunlun 2000 from CM Pro. No, I’ve never heard of it either. It looks as if it should be a hotliner with its moulded fuselage but apparently the forums warn of overstressing the wings so Andy will have to be a little careful with it, more of a warmliner perhaps.Following some advice found online he changed the tail configuration from a T-tail to a V-tail. The major reason for this was that the model comes out very tail heavy so removing the fibreglass fin and cutting the original tail-plane in half to use as a V-tail makes it possible to balance the model without needing loads of lead in the nose. He fitted a Dualsky 850kV motor, a 60A esc, and a 4 cell lipo driving an 11 x 6 prop but it was rather tame so he tried a 12 x 6 which was much better, and has ordered a 13 x 7 to try next. It looked pretty good to me although it would definitely benefit from having a bit more oomph. But try not to rip the wings off Smiffy.

The final new model he flew was an E-flite Carbon-Z Yak 54 3X, bit of a mouthful so let me explain! The Carbon-Z part refers to the type of construction; apparently it’s extremely light whilst retaining the strength for violent manoeuvres. The 3X part of the name only applies if you either buy the BNF (Bind-N- Fly) version or fit a Spektrum AS3X-AR635 receiver to the PNP (Plug-N-Play) version. AS3X is Artificial Stabilization 3 aXis, in other words the receiver has a built in 3 way gyro that can be programmed in different ways, either to provide extra stability or to give enhanced agility. Smiffy bought the PNP version and as he uses Hitec radio gear he doesn’t have the gyros.Anyway, it’s a Yak 54, 1220mm span, is fitted with a 25 size 1000kV motor and runs on 4 cells. Following his usual very thorough pre-flight checks Smiffy attempted the first take-off only to find the motor was running backwards. Obviously we were all very sympathetic and barely mentioned it!I was videoing at the time so you can enjoy the moment in THIS MONTHS VIDEO. Once the motor was sorted the Yak flew well and should be a really good 3D machine when Smiffy gets used to it.

The Spirit motor doesn’t seem to be available as a spare so my own Spirit has been fitted with a Kinetic motor and prop after the original failed. A couple of weeks ago it threw a prop blade and the imbalance tore the motor mount clean off the fuselage, destroying most of the foam around the area. Whilst ordering a pair of prop blades I noticed HK also stock the Kinetic motor mount which, unlike the Spirit one, has a couple of side cheeks that fit around the nose. Fitting this to the Spirit strengthens the nose generally and in my case made the nose rebuild much simpler.I took the opportunity to tidy up the fuselage front with a bit of filler, some acrylic paint, and a couple of new stickers.

John Warren has been successfully flying an old biplane for a long time, in fact it first flew over 20 years ago when it was I/C powered. It’s a Sunday Flyer, designed by Mike Conrad in 1989 and described as a vintage style sports biplane. John converted it to electric power when he joined us at PAM but until recently it has only had rudder and elevator controls, no ailerons. Then, a few weeks ago John decided that it might be worth trying to fit some ailerons and I suggested it would be pretty straightforward to build a new bottom wing incorporating them. But John had other ideas; he simply tacked some ailerons onto the trailing edge of the existing wing!Despite my mockery of the end result John asked me to test fly the plane and I found that, surprisingly, the ailerons worked well and the model was much more precise in its flying than before. John has now had several flights with it himself.

Landing on the ship during the daytime is like sex, it’s either good or it’s great. Landing on the ship at night is like a trip to the dentist, you may get away with no pain, but you just don’t feel comfortable. — LCDR Thomas Quinn, USN.

Colin Cowplain