Patch News – April 2018

What a difference a month makes, in last month’s Patch News I included photos of several of us flying in a snow storm and exactly a month later I took this one of 1066 knife-edging across the patch in clear blue sky.April wasn’t all like that of course but it was an awful lot better than March and we managed to fly fairly frequently. Much of our time at the field was spent erecting and trying out the new electric fence, and then figuring out the best way of using it. 1066 had put in lots of work sourcing and buying all the necessary bits, making up a thief-proof system, and security etching everything. We thought we had everything sorted out ready for the bullocks…wrong!One day farmer George told Woody the bullocks would be put in the field on the following Monday so we removed the battery to charge it, but when we returned with it on Sunday the bullocks were already there and had wrecked the fence and the patch. The wire was torn to pieces and badly tangled and many posts were broken. Lots more work, and money later saw the fence working again but to say we weren’t happy would be an understatement! We then had to work out a system that would allow us to fly safely whilst still protecting the patch and the pits from the bullocks. We eventually worked out a system that seems to work well, with the pits enclosed in an electrified fenced pen adjoining the patch. Not ideal but workable, and we might refine it further over the next few months.The FAGS (Friday Afternoon Gardening Society) chaps have done a great job of rolling and mowing the patch for all PAM members to enjoy and it’s now in pretty good condition, ready for the serious summer flying. In the meantime the bullocks have gone again (not permanently but at least for a while) but the fence is staying up and live as we now know we can’t rely on the farmer informing us prior to their return.

In the March Patch News I included a photo of a Lancaster doing a low pass over our field on a wintry day. Some of you realised that Patch News was published on April Fools Day…but some didn’t and totally fell for it. The original photo was actually of Mick (Hapless) Harper’s electric powered Lanc. It was taken several years ago (by Stanley Knife I think) on a bright summers’ day and I did a bit of photo editing to make it look suitably wintry.As 1st April was the 100th anniversary of the RAF it seemed appropriate to use a Lancaster for my April Fools caper.

I’ve previously featured Woody’s gorgeous looking Ripmax Easy Street but now he has added an undercarriage to allow proper take-off and landings rather than having to hand launch and belly land the thing. It looks very smart, especially with the spats covering the wheels although I’m not sure they’ll last too long on our rather rough patch. The model takes-off well but it’s very slippery and is not easy to slow up enough for a decent landing on the patch. Practice Woody, more and more practice, that’s all it takes!

Chris P Bacon recently decided that he wanted more power in his Wot-4 as it didn’t seem to have enough oomph to satisfy his need for speed. His Wot-4 is the built up wood construction glow or electric power version and he had originally fitted one of those dirty noisy smelly things, a second-hand SC52 4-stroke. Fortunately he soon saw the light and swapped out the I/C engine for the Ripmax recommended electric motor. But now he’s upped the wattage and fitted a Turnigy L5055C 700Kv outrunner, a motor that’s maximum power is quoted as 1600W! Chris P has fitted a 15×8 prop which I reckon should pull it out of sight vertically with no problem at all.

Stanley Knife bought himself a new toy during April, a Durafly Excalibur. It’s a 63” (1600mm) span V-tail warm-liner electric glider, a model that I’ve had my eye on for a while, I think it looks great.This is what the HobbyKing says about it:

Forged for a King in a distant realm, the legendary Excalibur is here. The most anticipated Durafly release this year, the Excalibur must be flown to be truly appreciated. Innovative design features, such as the cantilever forward swept wing, V-tail tail surfaces, incredibly strong construction and stunning lines.  Just like the legendary sword, Excalibur’s strength is paramount. The engineers at Durafly were given their hardest challenge yet, to design a wing that is ultra-thin but incredibly strong in EPO foam! The wing has carefully positioned carbon fibre reinforcement and pre-tensioned glass fibre strips. The fuselage is feature packed with a square carbon fibre tube and glass fibre strips. The V-tail along with control surfaces are reinforced. All these features combine to make the Excalibur a weapon. Servos are all pre-installed with a whopping 3542 800kv Aerostar brushless outrunner motor up front. 60amp Aerostar brushless speed controller. Two piece removable wing makes assembly fast with wire-free PCB connection between the wing and fuse.  Rule the sky with the Excalibur.

No hype there then! Stanley bought the Plug N Fly version so had little more to do than add his own receiver and a 4s 2200mAh lipo He wasn’t feeling too good on the day and decided to let me test fly the Excalibur. I was impressed, very impressed, it flies beautifully, has loads of power, tracks extremely well and has a very satisfying whistle on low passes! The model is supplied with 13×7 folding prop blades but there are also optional 13×8 ‘Pro’ prop blades available for pilots requiring the maximum performance. It certainly doesn’t need them but it might be fun to try them sometime to see what difference they make.

Stanley Knife popped over to Australia a year or two ago to see ex-PAM member Alan Flux and visited Alan’s local model shop that also runs his club. He came back with a tee shirt that I thought was quite funny and worth sharing: I was rather surprised to receive quite a large box from HobbyKing a couple of weeks back as I didn’t remember ordering anything that would require a box of that size.When I opened it and removed all the padding I found six small boxes, each with a cardboard loop around it.Each box was very posh and, as well as the cardboard loop, had a couple of magnets to hold it closed. Inside each one was foam with a suitable cutout and a nice little cloth bag complete with a drawstring.Inside each bag I found a 3 cell 1300mAh lipo and of course its’ XT60 connector was wrapped in a foam tube!The batteries were Graphene lipos and I can’t help thinking some of the extra cost of them must be down to all that fancy packaging, surely it’s not strictly necessary? I notice that HobbyKing have just started using strong plastic bags rather than boxes for some items which gets over the small item in a large box issue but presumably the plastic bag is less environmentally friendly so I suppose they can’t win!

Still on the subject of batteries, I had an email from Smiffy (Andy Smith) asking if I wanted to buy a hardly used battery and speed controller. Think he’s had a bit of a problem!He didn’t say what had happened but it looks as if the speed controller overheated and that set the lipo on fire.

Norwegian Nick has been AWOL for a while but he returned in April and brought along a little model called Sprite.Nick built it from a free plan in the RCM&E magazine, where it’s described as a micro F3A pattern ship, designed by Tim Hooper. The model is built from balsa and the wings are covered in Solarfilm and fuselage tissued and doped. The motor is a Turnigy 1811 2900kv outrunner which is powered by a couple of 95mAh 2 cell lipos in parallel via a 10amp speed controller. Nick has fitted four 3.5gm servos and the all up weight is just over six ounces.On the day he brought it to the patch Nick was unable to fly as he discovered the motor mounts were loose but it’s all ready to go now and will fly as soon as the weather is suitable.

One more new model appeared in April, a 3D capable 1250mm wingspan SebArt Katana S 30E ARTF. This lovely looking model is the latest from Page Boy. Unfortunately I missed the first flights as I was away on the day but Captain Slow took some photos and video for me. Page Boy has fitted 4 Hitec HS65 metal geared servos and a Turnigy 3542 1000Kv motor connected to a Plush 60A speed controller. This is all powered by a Turnigy 2700mAh 3 cell lipo but using a 13×6 prop he’s only managing to get 4 min flights at the moment. The motor is pulling 600watts which should be more than enough considering the all up weight is just 2.2 pounds.Dougal Entendre did the first take-off and trimmed the model out before handing the transmitter over. It flew very well despite the winds being much stronger than was forecast and it looks as good in the air as it does on the ground. Dougal did the landing in the gusty conditions and Page Boy went away very happy.

We are seeing more and more kites around the field each year, usually out over the valley but sometimes right over the patch. They mostly ignore our models, especially ones under power, but they do appear to see Captain Slow’s Obelix as either a threat or simply something that intrigues them, it’s probably the most ‘bird-like’ of our models.I snapped this shot of four kites and the Obelix (at the top right) but shortly before I took the photo there were five of them in a tight formation, all following the model much more closely.

OK it’s video time:

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

This month’s tall tale was submitted by Norwegian Nick:

Years ago an old Irish ex-WW2 Spitfire pilot was speaking in a church and reminiscing about his wartime experiences “In 1942” he said ”the situation was really tough. The Germans had a very strong Air Force. I remember one day I was protecting the bombers and suddenly, out of the clouds, these Fokkers appeared.”

There are a few gasps from the parishioners and several of the children began to giggle.

“I looked up and realised that two of the Fokkers were directly above me. I aimed at the first one and shot him down. By then though, the other Fokker was right on my tail.”

At this point several of the elderly ladies of the church were blushing with embarrassment, the girls were giggling and the boys laughing loudly.

The Pastor finally stood up and said ”I think I should point out that “Fokker” was the name of a German-Dutch aircraft company who made many of the planes used by the Germans during the war”.

“Yes that’s true“ said the pilot ”but these Fokkers were flying Messerschmitts.”

Colin Cowplain