Patch News – April 2024

At last, the weather seems to be improving. It’s certainly still spring like and some days we have had all four seasons in one day but there have been quite a few good flying days.
The parking area that was very mucky has dried out a lot and the wood chippings that the farmer laid down for us last month have made the situation very much better. The farmer rolled the whole field (except our patch) while some  of us were flying on 18^th March.
The driver saw us arriving and kindly rolled our pits area as we were walking down from the car park so we didn’t need to move our stuff out of his way. We were able to fly as usual, just being careful to avoid the tractor on take-off and landing, it was bigger than us!
Captain Slow has been diligently looking after the fence batteries and changing them when required with the Woody’s help. Hopefully Captain Slow will be flying with us again soon. We mowed the patch several times in April, and despite the increase in size over the old one it only takes about 45 minutes using both mowers so it’s not too much of a problem. What was a problem was that the older mower decided it had mown enough and died.

We have had a few problems with it before which we’ve managed to sort out but this time the actual chassis broke. After a quick committee discussion it was decided to purchase a replacement, another of the same type as the newer mower which seems to do a good job. Mowing a field is asking rather a lot of any domestic mower so the old one hasn’t done us too badly. We also decided to buy a second storage box as we don’t want our shiny new mower left out in all weathers. The chosen new box is bright orange so we’ll need to paint it black but by the time you read this both the mower and the storage box should be in use.

Now look, I have no way of knowing how many people read Patch News each month and I don’t know how much attention readers pay to what they read. But I do know that not one person has queried my report in the last Patch News which was published on 1^st April of a Lancaster circling low over the field. There were several pointers to it being an April Fool, not least of which that WE were amazed to see it. So who else saw it with me? The report went on to say that the sighting was on the FIRST of the month, that the pilot was too ALOOF to respond to our waving, and that I took the photo on the FOURTH pass.
Lastly, in the photo I included it’s easy to see that it has two-bladed propellors. The plane is in fact ex-club member Mick Harper’s electric powered model, taken several years ago.

Several new models arrived at the patch and were successfully flown in April and I’ll begin with Mini-Mike’s Max Thrust Aggressor. Mini-Mike already owns an Extreme Aggressor which is the EDF version using the same fuselage as the glider Aggressor but with a streamlined 1.2m wing and the addition of a pylon mounted ducted fan unit on top.
The one he bought this month is not actually a new model, Mini-Mike spotted it for sale on Facebook Marketplace for £90 and snapped it up. I reckon it was real bargain at that price as it looks as good as new to me and apparently the seller said he’d only flown it a couple of times. Another plus is that it’s the Thermic version which is the same as the Sport one but also has a removeable 500mm wing centre section that takes the wingspan up to 2m.
When Mike flew it he was using it without the extension piece in place so it was 1.5m span. Several PAM members fly Aggressor Sports and they are really good all-rounders, they will fly in pretty much any wind condition and will either float around fairly gently or do all the aerobatics you want in true hotliner fashion. Well more warm liner but good anyway. Chas also has the Thermic version but I can’t remember if he usually flies his with or without the extension in place. Mike’s first flight was uneventful, it flew just like the all the others. I did say to him I thought it looked awful but I’d take it off his hands for £95 but he turned down my generous offer! You can see some of the first flight in this month’s video.

1066 also spent some of his hard earned(?) cash this month and I have to admit that I was slightly bemused when he told me he’d bought a Brio, had he suddenly got into toy trains?
So I was somewhat relieved to find out later that what he’d actually bought was an ARTF E-flite Brio 10 when he was on a recent excursion to the Modellbau UK shop in Medstead.
It’s 1040mm (40.9”) wingspan, 1015mm (40.0”) long and weighs around 965g with a 3 cell 2200mAh lipo battery. The Brio was discontinued by E-flite many years ago so the one at Modellbau was obviously old stock but, as a sweetener, they included a 1000kv motor and a 40A speed controller in the deal. They didn’t include any servos so 1066 had to supply his own. The heat-shrink film was a bit wrinkled on one wingtip but otherwise it was fine.
When he tried to reshrink the film 1066 found that he’d made it worse rather than better so is unsure what the film is but it looks fine to me anyway. For the first flight 1066 fitted a 10×5 prop but the Brio was underpowered so he switched to an 11×8 and that is perfect.
I haven’t been able to dig out much information online about the Brio 10 but did find this: If anybody knows what precision feels like, 3-time World Champion and 2-time US Champion Quique Somenzini certainly does. And he has poured all this experience into the design of the Brio 10, a 10-size replica that even flies the same as the F3A plane he used to win the 2005 US Nats. At the heart of its performance is a low aspect ratio wing that moves the center of lift closer to the fuselage. The result is an electric pattern plane with outstanding roll rates and a locked-in feel that will give you the confidence to fly artistic aerobatics with absolute precision. So the design has a good pedigree and 1066 reckons it’s really nice to fly, the knife-edge performance being especially good as there’s no coupling between the rudder and other surfaces so there’s no need to correct with ailerons or elevator. Judge for yourself, one of the April flights in is in this month’s video.

We hadn’t seen much of young Charlie for a few months but he did make it to the patch in April when he flew both his Durafly Excalibur and his tiny Volantex Spitfire. Despite not having flown for a while Charlie had no problems, he didn’t seem at all rusty…kids eh, pah! Part of the reason for his absence is that he’s been spending some of his time getting into full-size gliding at Lasham. His mum Nadine sent me some excellent photos and wrote about his experiences for us: Charlie was lucky enough to get a Trial Flight at Lasham Gliding as a Birthday present last year and he had his first flight in a glider in October.
Then he had a month’s free membership, but due to the weather at the end of the year they were kind enough to extend it, allowing him four sessions until the end of the year.
During these flights, Charlie was able to take the controls for the take-off which is done with a winch launch and do most of the gliding on his own with the instructor taking back the controls for the landings. Above: That’s a Schleicher ASK13 for initial training.

Below: For Charlie’s more advanced training he’s now progressed to an ASK21B.

At the beginning of the year Charlie joined Lasham Gliding as a Youth member and has now had over 20 flights and on the last visit was trusted to land the glider himself. Thanks for that Nadine, it’s good to hear about Charlie’s exploits away from the patch.
Well done Charlie, most full-size pilots say it’s easier than flying models so you’ll do well!

Bob the Builder bought himself a new model in April, an XFly Tasman that he got from the Kings Lynn Model Shop. The Tasman is an all-foam model that comes complete, ready fitted with a 3536 900kv motor, 40A speed controller, and six 9g digital servos.
This is what the website says this about it: The XFly 1500mm (59.1”) Tasman is a STOL-capable, high-wing airplane featuring sporty flight and aerobatic 3D performance. The Tasman’s impressive flight characteristics and large air-filled shock-absorbing tires make short take-offs and aggressive landings on any type of surface easy. The 4S-compatible brushless motor, 40A ESC, 2-blade propeller and a 4S Lipo battery proved to be the optimum setup for power and duration, allowing the plane to hover, roll, loop and fly inverted easily, which makes it highly recommended as an advanced trainer. Factory-installed LED navigation lights, plus operational flaps, are functional scale features that take your experience to another level. The Tasman comes equipped with a latch-type top hatch to fit 4S 2200-3300mah batteries for a wide range in performance and flight times. Personally I think it’s a very attractive model which should be ideal for flying off our sometimes less than perfect grass patch. The fuselage is massive so there’s absolutely loads of space for large batteries and with big wheels it’s not going to struggle getting off the grass. Sadly the first flight didn’t go to plan and repairs are now underway.
I happened to be filming at the time so I captured the crash and Bob has said he’s happy for me to include it in this month’s video. Bob explains what he thinks went wrong here: Having lost my trusty WOT4 I needed a new easy to fly go-to model for all conditions. The Xfly Tasman seemed to fit the bill. Good in all wind and terrain conditions. Also very trainer like, i.e. easy to fly, especially with a good working gyro. I need all the help I can get at my age. Well that was the plan anyway. All pre-flight checks seemed to be OK. First flight easy take off then suddenly full left aileron followed by the inevitable crash! What the hell happened? Here is a lesson for anybody planning to use gyros. I think the only way it would have banged full left ailerons on would be if it thought it was inverted and tried to correct itself. Setting up these gyros is quite complicated and as careful as I was I still made the mistake of not doing a re-calibration when installed in a new model. The receiver was installed the other way up in the previous model but I had changed the orientation on the transmitter for the Tasman and it was showing as the correct way up and everything appeared to be testing OK. Although the crash damage was quite extensive it is fairly clean breaks so it should be back in the air soon complete with a simple non gyro receiver. It was a great shame to see the Tasman crash, especially on the first flight, but I look forward to the next flight when I’m sure it will perform well.

On the subject of repairs, young Leo broke the ABS moulded fuselage of his Volantex Phoenix electric glider recently. Leo had asked Dougal Entendre to take the Phoenix up and trim it for him but when Dougal gave Leo the transmitter back Leo was looking at MacFly’s Phoenix which was in the air at the same time and the inevitable happened.
This is what Leo said: You can’t get a new fuzz without buying the whole plane again so I decided to fix mine. It took me about 2 weeks of on-off work to custom make new battery mounting racks and to fix the cracks with epoxy and fibreglass. The hardest part was doing the wing bit on the fuzz because there was a big crack along it and there was less then 2 inch’s of finger space to use. But I’m happy with the result and it flies well.
Well done Leo, you’ve made a good job of it. ABS isn’t the easiest to repair but the Phoenix is now pretty much as good as new and, as you’ll see in the video, it’s back flying again.

Here are a few more of Kryten’s excellent action shots that he took for us last month:

Video time now this month with footage taken by me, MacFly, and Dougal Entendre. 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

Shortly after VE day, 8 May 1945, an Avro Anson pilot was instructed to fly some high ranking officials, including ‘shinies’ of brigadier rank and above, to an airfield in Berlin.
He was flying from England, and as fuel was limited to the exact gallon, he made a careful note of the fuel required. In this case it required almost full tanks to get there and would allow for a straight in approach when they reached the airfield. So, flight planned, he checked the weather report, which indicated slight chance of fog, and set off for Berlin.

To conserve fuel, careful engine management was vital. Upon approaching the border of Germany he radioed to the airfield met office and asked for the weather report. The operator indicated he was covering for the officer in charge, and read out the airfield weather report. As the pilot approached Berlin airspace he could see fog but no airfield. So he descended with caution and asked the controller to talk him in. He wound down the landing gear, deployed landing flaps, and heard the ATC’s last comment, ‘good luck’.

The instructions however, were not precise enough and he spotted the airfield lights away at 10 o’clock position. Realising the fuel gauges needles were all on empty he slammed the throttle and pulled the Anson round hard. Under the sudden change of direction he heard the groans from the Anson’s airframe, and also from the ‘shinies’ in the back. The aircraft was pulled around – no time to line up – just plant the wheels and line up after. About ten feet before the wheels touched down both the engines cut out.

In his pilot’s log he wrote: ‘Engines cut on approach – shinies spilled soup on uniforms – had to be towed off runway…”

As soon the aircraft halted, the pilot and all the shinies stormed off to the met office, to interrogate the officer in charge. What they found was an erk covering, who had no knowledge of met operations, and who hadn’t even looked out of the window to warn aircraft of the fog, he was simply reading the weather report from the local newspaper.

The moral of the tale: Aways look out the window when reporting the local weather – never use the Berlin Times printed the day before.

Colin Cowplain