Patch News – August 2014

August was a pretty good flying month weather wise but the first Sunday saw us all gathered in the barn for some ‘will it/won’t it’ time until the rain moved on and we were able to fly.You may wonder why Steve Hastings (1066) has his back to the camera…believe me you don’t want to see the photo I took 10 seconds later!

We were all very pleased to welcome George Rose back to PAM after an 18 month absence, he said he realized he just couldn’t live without us. Or it may have been more like “Hopefully that Palmer bloke will keep his big gob shut this time”! What he actually said was that he can see way the club is going, partly because of the proximity of the new houses being built, and he has decided to make the switch to electric power. So George brought along couple of electric models, a Kinetic and a Devil 3D. The Kinetic is from HobbyKing and is almost identical to the Spirit mini glider that several of us are flying, little more than cosmetic changes and a slightly different spec motor. The first flight didn’t go too well, apparently George had inadvertently programmed in reversed exponential on the ailerons. It’s very easy to do, especially as on some transmitters you need positive expo but on others you need negative, you’d think the manufacturers would standardize such things but they haven’t. Personally whenever I set up expo I dial in about 80 or 90% and then check it’s the correct way, it’s easy to see if it’s soft or extreme around the centre with that much expo, then dial it back to around 30% or so to fly. Anyway after a little repair work the Kinetic is now flying perfectly, it appears to fly just as well as the Spirit.The Devil 3D is manufactured by Dynam and George got his from Sussex Model Centre. It’s an all EPO foam biplane that is billed as a 3D capable sport aerobatic bipe. It’s 1016mm span (40”) and is powered by a 3720 motor with a KV of 650 and a 4 cell pack. It flies really well and I think George will have a lot of fun with it.

Andy Smith also recently returned to us after a few months of being AWOL. Never one to do things by halves Smiffy came bearing an SU-35 twin 70mm EDF with vectored thrust and retracts! It’s a Freewing model and is pretty much a bolt together airframe, I think the nosecone is the only part that’s glued. He had done some taxiing trials with the model at the Guildford club and decided that it wouldn’t get off our patch so decided to bungee it off his ramp. He’s used the ramp successfully many times with his EDF Phantoms but the Sukhoi is much bigger and heavier than the Phantoms. It has a wingspan of 1080mm but is 1630mm long and weighs around 3kg.Smiffy tried three bungee launches, with increased tension each time. We put more pull on the bungee each time as well! I could mention trivial problems we discovered like one motor running reversed but I wouldn’t want to embarrass the plonker! It really didn’t seem to be even close to going off the ramp but felt as if there was lots of power so Smiffy decided I should hand launch it.In this picture Smiffy is in his favourite position, waiting for his mate 1066!It probably wasn’t the best chuck in the world but it didn’t seem too bad and the plane looked like it was going to get away but unfortunately all it achieved was enough height and speed to ensure lot of damage when it failed. Such a shame as it really was a lovely model. The good news is that a replacement airframe has been ordered. Not sure how Andy is going to overcome the launch problems so watch this space.

While I was messing around (helping?) with the SU-35 Nigel Baker was waiting to test his new ST Models MX2.I must have been engrossed as I missed it completely and Nigel later told me off and sent some photos, sorry Nigel! The MX2 is made from good old EPO foam, is 1210mm span (a tad under 48”) and weighs just 960g so it’s got a light wing loading and should be a good flier. It uses a ‘standard’ 3 cell pack of around 2200 capacity.I’ve missed a couple of Sundays this month so I still haven’t seen it fly. Does it fly ok? Does it still exist?!

Another new model I almost ignored was Phil ‘Wonky’ Wiltshire’s new Slick 360 3D, but I did at least take some photos.This one is yet another from HobbyKing and it has an all wood, very lightweight laser cut structure with iron on covering. It’s 1300mm span, weighs around 1400g and flies on a 4 cell lipo.

Dougal Entendre (Mark Agate) sent me some info and a photo of his Evil Pigeon, a ‘bitsa’ made from parts of four other aircraft. The fuselage is from the Easy Pigeon that he won in the club Christmas raffle, he didn’t say what happened to the rest of the model, he should be charged with failure to take due care & attention of a raffle prize I reckon.The wings are veneered blue foam and were made in 1982 for a slope soaring pylon racer, the tail is from Desperate Dan’s ill-fated Phoenix 2000, which he has beefed up with a carbon spar that came from the wings of his late Spad! Initially Dougal fitted a 35mm motor but it proved to be too much for the plastic fuselage so he swapped it for a 28mm one and it now flies very well.

Dan’s replacement Phoenix 2000 is a good flier, this one benefiting from a receiver that actually works! Last Sunday both he and John Wheeley were enjoying tremendous lift in the ideal conditions. Unfortunately I forgot to take any photos or details of John’s glider. There were lots of buzzards around to indicate where the thermals were and I tried to get some photos of both gliders circling amongst about eight buzzards but they were too high for my cheap old camera. These were the best two I got (on full zoom!), not sure but I think it’s Dan’s glider. As usual the buzzards treated the models with utter disdain and totally ignored them!

Norwegian Nick brought along a new/repaired model one midweek day.It’s a revamp of a small electric pylon racer Nick flew some time ago and this one has pink foam wing cores skinned in balsa and then glass-clothed. He’s made a lovely job of it and fitted a Mega motor.Sadly it was short lived, Nick said it was too twitchy on ailerons and result wasn’t pretty.

Steve 1066 has been flying another new model this month, an MXS from HobbyKing.It’s an unusual model in that it features a type of construction we’ve not seen before. We are used to seeing built up structures made from laser cut parts of light plywood which are then covered in conventional heat-shrink film. We are also used to seeing all foam models, often with a few pieces of stiffening ply where required. But this model has a built up structure that is then covered in printed EPP foam, and the result is very impressive, being ultra light yet strong. Unlike many EPP foam models the structure gives it the correct scale(ish) curves etc rather than being boxlike.

This picture is from the HK website, it shows the construction better than the photos I took. Personally I think we will see a lot more models using this type of construction in the future.

Steve says it went together better than any other ARTF he has assembled, everything just fitted perfectly. The flight performance is also very good and although he’s still getting used to it the potential is very definitely there. Fancy having one yourself? Well there aren’t any in the UK warehouse, and there are only a few in the European one.

A man is sitting in a plane which is about to takeoff, when another man with a dog occupies the empty seats alongside.  The dog is sat in the middle, and the first man is looking quizzically at the dog when the second man explains that they work for the airline. The airline rep said “Don’t mind Rover, he is a sniffer dog, the best there is, I’ll show you once we get airborne and I set him to work.”

The plane takes off and levels out when the handler says to the first man, “Watch this.” He tells the dog, “Rover, search.” The dog jumps down, walks along the aisle and sits next to a woman for a few seconds. It then returns to its seat and puts one paw on the handler’s arm. He says “Good boy.” He turns to the first man and says, “That woman is in possession of marijuana, so I’m making a note of this, and the seat number, for the police who will apprehend her upon arrival.” “Fantastic!” replies the first man.

Once again he sends the dog to search the aisles. The dog sniffs about, sits down beside a man for a few seconds, returns to its seat and places both paws on the handler’s arm. The airline rep says, “That man is carrying cocaine, so again, I’m making a note of this, and the seat number.” “I like it!” says the first man.

Once again he sends the dog to search the aisles. Rover goes up and down the plane aisle, and after a while sits down next to someone, and then comes racing back and jumps up onto the seat and craps all over the place. The first man is surprised and disgusted by this, and asks “What the heck is going on?” The handler nervously replies “He just found a bomb!”

Colin Cowplain