Patch News – April 2016

Well my April Fool in last month’s edition fooled at least one person, but I won’t embarrass Dwayne Pipe by naming him…oops! For all you others that haven’t confessed, there are NO giant moles at the patch… so I don’t know what these three pillocks were looking for!

The recent weather has been typical for April, a bit of everything but especially wind. I was away for a week so missed some of the flying but there’s still plenty to talk about. The bullocks came and went a couple of times but hopefully they’ve gone for good now. They weren’t as curious as usual and didn’t bother us too much but unfortunately they have churned the patch up quite badly.

I featured Dougal Entrendre’s badly smashed Wingnetic last month and I had my doubts that it was repairable. But Dougal proved me wrong and the model was soon back in one piece and flying again…briefly!It seems there was some unnoticed damage to the folding propeller assembly in the crash and after only a couple of minutes of flight the prop failed and ripped the motor clean out, taking a chunk of the nose with it.But, undefeated, Dougal repaired it again, and flew it using a new Devention 7 transmitter. The original crash seemed to be caused by the Deviation software that Dougal had installed on his Devention 12 transmitter. So he’s swapped the software back to the original but has also bought a Devention 7 tx as a back-up.All went well with the new transmitter for the first couple of flights but on the third flight, while having a go at the max loops competition, there was a radio failure and the model drifted away downwind, constantly looping. Eventually, after quite a hike, the wreckage was recovered almost 900m away.This time the Wingnetic was deemed to be beyond repair and has gone to the recycling centre in the sky.The cause was soon discovered, while setting up the new radio Dougal had inadvertently set the power output to Range Check mode. The surprising thing is that the first two flights were fine; I suppose the model must have stayed just within range each time, it actually shows that the transmitter is pretty good I reckon. Presumably the failsafe hadn’t been set either as low throttle would have soon brought the model down.

The Wingnetics are proving to be popular models and there are now several in the club. They are made of EPO foam so are quite robust little things, easy to store and transport, and they are cheap to buy and quick to get in the air. There are three versions available, ARF (airframe, motor mount, and folding prop only), ARF-Motor (which comes with the motor and motor mount already fitted), and PNF (just glue on the fins, and fit a receiver and lipo). HobbyKing seem to have different versions at sale prices fairly regularly and at the time of writing the ARF-Motor version is half-price at just £21.12, which means it cheaper than the ARF that doesn’t include the motor! I ordered one last week but received the ARF version by mistake.Expecting a bit of hassle and/or delay from HK Customer Services I ordered a spare motor from the HK European warehouse where they were in the sale for £4 odd. I then contacted HK Customer Services who were very efficient and helpful and promised to send me the missing motor. Needless to say I received the one from Customer Services before the one I had ordered. Oh well, at least I have a spare now, I’m sure I’ll find a use for it.

We had a couple of rare visits to patch by our treasurer Nick Squire in April. Nick wasn’t keen on his Doughboy nickname so how about The Squire, Nick? Has a touch of class about it I think. Anyway, he has a couple of new models to go with his ancient (must be old, it’s I/C powered) Cougar 2000.Both the new models were raffle prizes I believe and the first to appear was a SkyAngel P-47 Thunderbolt. The model is tiny, the wingspan is only 630mm (just under 25”) and it comes almost ready to go. Unusually the wings and fuselage are a one piece moulding and just the tailplane and fin need to be fitted.The motor is a 2825-1950kV, it’s fitted with a 20A esc, and it takes the usual 3 cell 1000mAh that most of us have for Spirits etc. I did the test flight on a pretty calm midweek morning and I was pleasantly surprised at how well it flew, no problems at all. After a couple of minutes I handed the transmitter over to The Squire but within a very short time the motor stopped. He landed it safely and the ensuing investigation revealed a burnt out esc.Unfortunately, being new to electric flight, Nick had packed it tightly in foam and it had overheated. He’s now replaced it with a Red Brick 30A unit and left it with plenty of airflow so there shouldn’t be any more problems. Obviously it will need to be flown in light winds but it seems like a great little model, I was really impressed by it.

The Squire’s second new model is an HK MXS. We’ve now seen several models with the same EPP skinning over a lite-ply frame construction and it seems to be very light but also strong, ideal for 3D in fact.1066 owns the same model so he was able to advise on motor choice etc. The MXS has a span of 1220mm and a finished weight of only around 1kg (without the 3 cell 3300mAh lipo) so the NTM 35-42 Series 1000KV/700W motor can provide more than enough power. Nick has fitted a Turnigy Trust 70A SBEC speed controller and a 13×6.5 prop. 4 metal gear digital servos provide the control of the oversized control surfaces. 1066 did the test flight which went very well. You can see some of it (and lots of other models) in this month’s video at the end of Patch News.

Catapult King also flew a raffle prize this month, a Speedy hotliner. President Don actually won the raffle but a few pounds changed hands and Catapult became the proud owner.

The 1600mm span model comes as an ARF with a fibreglass fuselage and a fully sheeted balsa and ply wing, leaving the builder to supply the motor, esc, and servos etc. 1066 has been flying one for a while now and found it a bit lacking on 3 cells but when he tried a 4 cell pack the whole nose ripped apart. So Catapult wisely made some changes to ensure his didn’t suffer the same fate.

He had to cut away some of the internal structure and add some strengthening pieces to fit the Turnigy SK3 GliderDrive motor. This motor is a 3858-1120kv outrunner in a can, so there are no rotating bits to worry about in the narrow nose of the glider. He also made up a battery mounting plate to take the 4 cell 2650mAh 40C lipo.With a 10×8 prop fitted (although 1066 uses a 12×8) I think we were all surprised by the performance, it turned out to be a fair bit quicker than 1066’s, no doubt 1066 will be prop shopping very soon!I’ve had a few flights with it and it’s a delight to fly, very smooth, loads of power when required and a pretty good glide although it’s certainly a hotliner, fast and fully aerobatic, not a floater. The Speedy features in this month’s video, along with both of Catapult’s F-22 Raptors.

Another new model was Dougal Entendre’s HobbyKing Edge 540T 3D. This is another one that uses the EPP skin over a lite-ply frame method of construction, although with a wingspan of 1430mm the Edge is larger than most.Dougal sent me some information on the hardware he used: The motor is a Turnigy Aerodrive SK3 4250-500kv, which is claimed to produce up to 1350W. The Edge instructions suggested 4s to 6s batteries, and a 14×7 propeller. I am using an APC-style 14×7, but when I tried 4s batteries in the workshop it didn’t feel powerful enough due to the low kV motor. I bought a couple of 5s packs instead (3000mAh, 20C), and they have proved to be fine for 6 and a half minute 3D flights. I also wired up a harness so I could use two 3S 2200mAh 40C packs in series, and these seem to give virtually identical performance for a similar duration. (Surely you should get much longer Dougal?). The ESC is a Turnigy Trust 70A, with built-in SBEC. It needs to be an SBEC because of using more than 4s packs. I used Corona DS238MG digital servos, which seem to be able to handle the enormous control surfaces despite their small size. They claim to give more than 4kg/cm, and weigh 22g.The first flight immediately showed the Edge’s potential, it has plenty of power and flies as if it’s on rails. The larger size certainly makes a difference in the air and this model is a superb performer. I know of at least one other club member that is putting one together, I think we’ll see a few more in the future. You can see some of the first flight in the video at the end of Patch News.

The last new model to feature this month is Captain Slow’s absolutely amazing Hummer. Why absolutely amazing I hear you ask? Because, after about a year, he’s finally finished it, so around 364 days longer than most take!I shouldn’t mock, it’s done now, just in time for those lovely calm summer days and evenings, and it flew well. No doubt Captain Slow will join the rest of us Hummer fliers before the Buriton meetings.

On the subject of Captain Slow, he snapped this photo of me flying in casual mode. I was flying my ASK-21 electric glider at the time, power off, in decent lift. Just look at that lovely Multiplex transmitter.

Desperate Dan made a welcome reappearance on a couple of occasions towards the end of April, the first time with his TopSky Disser DLG (Discus Launch Glider). We’ve seen the Disser before but not for a while and this time I paid a bit more attention to it, especially when he let me have a flight.It’s 1500mm span and according to the specs should weigh just under 10ozs although Dan thinks his is a bit overweight. But I was amazed at how light it felt, I would have guessed at much less than 10ozs, maybe I’m just used to heavier models. The wing has a 1K carbon fabric D-box , and Disser fabric. No I don’t really understand that either, maybe this will help: Disser fabric is carbon thread weaved into kevlar fabric, weight 51g/m2, carbon thread 1K, distance between carbon thread 2cm.No, I’m still not much wiser but basically it’s very light, very strong, and very expensive. On the day in question there was a light wind blowing up out of the valley so there was a little slope lift with an occasional thermal passing through. Dan did pretty well and got some reasonable flights but was wary of venturing too far out over the valley. He let me have a flight and gave me a great launch which enabled me to get into the lift and after a short while the Disser was spotted by a curious Kite. It followed the glider for a while before it got bored and drifted away.

Dan took some video of the flight with his mobile and I’ll include some of it in next month’s video.

The next day Dan brought along his HobbyKing Lancaster. It has a steerable tailwheel but no rudders which could make it interesting to get safely airborne. He had previously asked an experienced pilot friend (at another field) to test fly the model but it had veered offline on take-off and cartwheeled. Having repaired it Dan added asymmetric thrust on the rudder stick to help keep her straight on take-off. He decided to fly it himself from our field with a ‘do or die’ attitude.On the day the patch was badly hoof marked and there was no chance of the Lanc taking off so I hand launched it and it climbed away with plenty of power. But it was obviously a real handful, impossible to trim and frequently tip-stalling despite seemingly having enough speed. After a couple of minutes of struggling and very nearly crashing, Dan handed me the transmitter, but I was little better. One of the problems was that the elevator felt as if it wasn’t returning to neutral correctly and I wasn’t sure that the throttles were behaving correctly. So I soon decided to cut the throttles and attempt to glide it in to a wheels-up landing. It was horrible but, with more luck than judgement, I got it down undamaged although well away from the patch. Upon investigating we found that the elevator linkage was sticking so after giving up elevator the elevator stayed up a bit and after down elevator it stayed down a bit. Also the centre of gravity seemed to be too far rearward which made the elevator problem even worse. Dan says he’s going to hang it up in the shed where it can look pretty and not fly it again, but that would be a shame as I think if the elevator linkage is sorted and the CG moved forward it will fly ok. Unfortunately I had forgotten my mobile that day so I didn’t get any video but Dan provided the photo for me.

Following the usual pattern of ARTF (Almost Ready To Fail) undercarriages Chris P Bacon demonstrated the removal process beautifully with his Wot’s Wot’s. A little later he followed it up with a similar effort with his Wot4 but, being such a caring sort of chap, I didn’t take a photo.

Not to be outdone 1066, went to the trouble of breaking his latest PNF (Plug’n’Fly) before he’d even finished putting it together. The entire ‘construction’ from box to flight consisted of fitting seven screws but that obviously wasn’t enough meaningful work for him so 1066 smashed the rudder off!That’s quadrupled effort required to get it in the air, just think how satisfied you’ll feel when it eventually flies Steve.

I don’t have any workshop photos for you this month but Dwayne Pipe produced a ‘back to the workshop’ moment for me. He immediately owned up that the cause was pilot error and vowed to start the rebuild immediately.

Finally, a few nice photos provided by others using ‘proper’ cameras not mobiles. Thanks to all who have contributed to Patch News this month, please keep the photos and information coming. The first photo is the boss, Percy Vears.

Please watch the video full screen, it’s so much better with small models flying around. If the video above won’t play for you CLICK HERE

Control Tower: “BA337 contact Heathrow 135.60. …pause…

Control Tower: “BA337 contact Heathrow 135.60!”…pause…

Control Tower: “BA337 you’re just like my wife you never listen!”

Pilot: “Tower, this is BA377, maybe if you called her by the right name you’d get a better response!”

Colin Cowplain