Patch News – April 2017

After the pretty lousy weather we endured in March things were much better in April, the winds that had been so prevalent in March eased a lot and there was virtually no rain.. Unusually even Easter had good flying weather. Of course nothing is perfect and we had the joy of a herd of bullocks join us in the field for part of the month.They’ve gone again now although they will obviously return at some point, and I imagine some sheep will also make an appearance before too long. Don’t forget that the South Downs Green Fair is being held at the Sustainability Centre on Sunday 7^th May and our field will be used as a car park so there will be no flying that day.

Congratulations are due to Mike Creamer who took and passed his ‘A’ cert on Good Friday.Mike moved up a notch from flying his Pandora trainer to a Wot 4 and it took him a couple of months to get used it, otherwise I’m sure he would have passed earlier. Well done Mike, now you can learn to fly properly! I’m thinking that Mike needs a nickname so, as he passed the test over Easter and seems a good egg, how about Cream Egg? Other suggestions are welcome…

Several new models turned up at the patch in April, and we seem to have slipped into retro mode as both Dougal and I built models the 60’s and 70’s. First up is Dougal’s Ghost Rider 50, a David Boddington design from 1974.It was originally designed for galloping ghost radio systems and if you don’t know what that was you’d better Google it! This is what Dougal has to say about it: When I first joined Epsom Radio Flying Club in 1977, all the expert fliers seemed to have Ghost Rider 50s. The tricycle undercarriage certainly helped on the rough strip at the Boxhill field. I think the original David Boddington design was for 25-size engines, but the Epsom crowd seemed to favour flat foam wings and 40-size power plants, which made it very neutrally stable (if a bit overpowered). One of my instructors gave me a go on his when I was getting confident with my 3-channel trainer, and I found it a real handful, but it gave me a lot of confidence. I went on to build two of the smaller Ghost Rider 38s for my Enya 19BB, and they were a lot of fun, but I always wanted a ’50, and somehow never got round to it.So 40 years on, here I am with one at last. The wings are cut from white foam, with poplar veneer (obechi is getting hard to come by) attached using Gorilla Glue. They seem very strong. I enlarged the fin, rudder and elevator a bit, and also beefed up the fuselage with 1/32″ ply doublers at the front. I knew from my Fun 3 that a 35mm 1000kV motor on a 4s lipo would give similar power to a 40-size IC, so that’s what I used. However, the CopterX motor I found on Ebay seems a bit rough and noisy, so I may replace it with a Turnigy motor identical to the one I used in the Fun 3. It’s got tons of power though, and my 4s 3300mAh packs last about 5 and a half minutes.The model flies really well and you can see it in action in this month’s video at the end of this Patch News.

The other retro model first flown in April was my Sharkface that I pictured part built in last month’s edition.The original was a single channel (rudder only) model designed in 1965 by Eric Clutton and in those days many people fitted them with Cox .049 glow-plug engines, although the design says for up to 1.5cc so some modellers fitted one of the small diesel engines that were popular in the sixties. In March this year RCM&E re-issued the original plan along with an article by Shaun Garrity and also added a Mk2 version of the plan which updated it for modern radio by adding an elevator. To be honest I couldn’t spot any real differences between the two plans apart from a line indicating the elevator hinge point, the plan still shows an I/C engine even though the accompanying article features electric powered models. Mine is electric powered of course and I simply copied Shaun’s choice of motor and used a HobbyKing Donkey ST2004-1550Kv which costs less than a fiver and is suitable for 2 or 3 cells.I gather many people are flying their Sharkfaces on small 2 cell packs but I have lots of 3 cell 1000mAh lipos so I’m using those. I added a hatch to save having to remove the wings when swapping batteries, something that is shown in the article but not on the plan, but otherwise it’s built pretty much to the plan. I didn’t bother trying to save weight at all and it came out at 11.3 ounces (320 grams) including the lipo. The article mentions 9 ounces for modern ones and I would imagine mine would be around that if I used a smaller 2 cell lipo. The original single channel ones weighed around 15 ounces, the radio was bigger and heavier in the sixties despite only having one channel! To be properly retro it should be tissue and dope covered of course but I used Solarfilm instead. As the model is only 22” span, and pretty nippy with it, it makes sense to use bright colours so when I rummaged through my box of film and found some very garish pink and bright yellow that seemed ideal. There have been comments about it being a little bit gay; I have no idea how anyone could have got that idea!It’s very quick and simple to build, mine only took a week to complete and it flies extremely well. I don’t think anyone could tell it doesn’t have ailerons from the flying performance, it rolls pretty quickly on rudder alone although I must admit I struggle to fly it inverted as it constantly tries to roll itself back upright. I’m far too tight to buy the magazine so Basher Bob lent me the article and plan. On the day I returned it Dwayne Pipe promptly borrowed it again so I think there will soon be at least one more Sharkface in the club. I know I won’t get away without mentioning a small epilogue to the tale. I first flew mine on 2nd April and have already had many flights with it, but later in the month I got disorientated and performed a slightly heavy landing. OK, I admit it, I crashed! Fortunately the damage was easily repaired and I flew it again the following day but it does highlight the importance of making them brightly covered and keeping fairly close in when flying.

While I’m on the subject of retro models, I recently stumbled across a photo of ten PAM members holding their Top Dawg models. In the photo, from left to right, back row: Reg Street, Ian Hewlett, Viv Burgess, Ken Boucher, and Don Hoolahan. Front row: Dave Rice, Mike Upton, Don Eades, Andy Palmer, and Harold Bolwell.The Top Dawg was a 36” span Ken Willard design from 1966 and it was in the period when radio sets were changing quickly so it was capable of being flown with either single channel radio, galloping ghost, or multi-channel reed sets.It was intended for engines ranging from the little Cox .049 (0.8cc) up to .15cu in. (2.5cc) and PAM chose it for their Club Build model one year using .15 engines. If I remember correctly about fifteen were built, all three channel, rudder, elevator, and throttle, no ailerons, and they all flew well. Like the Sharkface they all rolled well and didn’t suffer from the lack of ailerons. Most were fitted with the cheap and ever reliable OS15 but a couple, including President Don’s, used a Taipan 15 rear exhaust engine that was more powerful although proved to be less reliable. Oddly, despite their Japanese sounding name Taipans were actually designed and manufactured in Australia.My Top Dawg was the last I/C powered model that I built, before building my first electric model in August 1991 so I would imagine the group photo was taken in 1990. Oddly enough my Top Dawg was the only plane I’ve had catch fire! I was starting the engine one day when it backfired and ignited some unburnt fuel in the silencer that promptly set fire to the film covering on the wing. Fortunately I was able to immediately throw a damp cloth onto the wing and the only damage was a small burnt patch of the wing covering. That’s not the best photo I’ve ever seen of me!

Basher Bob has been at it again. No, this time I mean balsa bashing, although there wouldn’t have been much of it to complete his latest model, a balsa built Wot 4-E Mk2 ARTF. This one is slightly smaller than original size Wot 4 at 47” span. Ripmax say it’s 80% scale but that would mean the original was 58.75” span, I thought it was 53”. Not sure, anyway this one is designed specifically for electric power using 3 cell batteries of around 2200mAh capacity. It uses a lighter wooden construction method than the larger one, a fibreglass cowl, an aluminium undercarriage and, being specifically for electric power, an easy access battery hatch. I’m not sure what motor Bob originally fitted but it didn’t sound very well so he’s now swapped it to an ex-Calmato motor and that seems much better. It pulls about 400 watts on 3 cells but, Basher being Basher, he sometimes uses 4 cells for a bit more fun!It goes very well, in fact it flies just as well as all the Wot 4s fly. I’d love to know how many Wot 4s have been made since Chris Foss designed the original in 1977, there are now more versions available than ever before so my guess would be in the tens of thousands. Hang on, 1977, does that mean Basher’s Wot 4 is yet another retro model?!

The next new one is definitely not a retro model, it’s Catapult King’s new FT-3D or as he calls it The Bug. The FT part of the name is Flite Test which is an American web-based company that produces a large range of models, either plans or kit form, mostly made of Depron or foam board. The website has lots of videos, articles on equipment etc, and as well as the models they also sell lots of the electronic parts we use, in fact almost everything you are likely to need to build a model. It’s well worth a look at their website: Flite Test

Back to the model; it’s virtually all Depron construction, with just a balsa spar to provide some strength to the wing.The motor is a Turnigy 2830-1000Kv, and Catapult drives it with a 3 cell 1300mAh Zippy battery and it spins a 10×4.7 prop. So that’s basically the same set-up as many of us use in our Hummers. The symmetrical wing is made using one piece of Depron that is folded over to form the leading edge and only glued at the spar position (there is no leading edge as such). Catapult added the packing tape covering before folding the Depron back on itself to prevent it from snapping. The whole model is covered in the same tape and the overlaps produce the stripes that look so good. I don’t imagine it was very easy to get the stripe pattern nice and even like that. The Bug is also unusual in that it uses a Flite Test Power Pod, a Depron structure that holds the motor, battery, and speed controller, which can slide out of the model and then slide straight into a different model. Look at the website, it will make more sense! Catapult decided it needed a bit more character so he added the eyes and mouth and transformed it into The Bug. I like it, it looks like something out of a Disney cartoon! 1066 did the initial flight tests and I’ve also flown it. The finished model is very light and needs fairly calm conditions but seems good so far. It is supposed to be capable of all the basic 3D manoeuvres so we shall soon be seeing great things from Catapult.

The last new model that I captured was The Squire’s new Wingnetic, the prize he won in the last big raffle.Not much to say about the Wingnetic, except they are a flying wing development of the Kinetic mini glider and, like the Kinetic, they fly extremely well. There are several in the club, including my own, and they are great to just chuck in the car and fly. In this month’s video you’ll see that 1066 did the initial trimming and The Squire happily flew it from then onwards. Would you like one? Well like so many other things the prices are going up but right now the Plug’n’Fly version is cheaper from Rapid RC Models than from HobbyKing.

The highlight of April occurred when Gentleman Jim turned up at the patch with a combined rucksack and seat. It’s actually called a Dunlop Fishing Stool and Rucksack but it suits our purposes as well as fishermen and costs just £19.99 from Argos. I liked it immediately and bought one for myself, then a few days later Basher Bob joined in.Since the photo was taken Woody has also succumbed, and then there were four! I see that online there are similar versions available from other manufacturers, so if you’d like to join the Stool Club search online and take your pick.

Catapult was good enough to send me several photos that he took during April, here’s a selection for you to enjoy:

OK, time for this month’s video: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

This month’s joke was provided by Dougal so any complaints should be directed to him please. If you don’t understand it either watch Top Gun or ask Woody:

“I got kicked out of karaoke night for singing “Danger Zone” six times in a row…

They said I exceeded my maximum number of Loggins attempts.”

Colin Cowplain