Patch News – August 2025

Well, we certainly can’t complain about the weather in August, it was almost entirely dry and sunny, near perfect conditions for flying in fact. Many of the flying days were well attended, especially the midweek sessions, and several new models were flown.
With the almost complete lack of rain the grass barely grew so there wasn’t enough for any farm animals to graze in the field and we only needed to mow the patch once.

Onto the new models now, although some are really just revamped or re-emerged models. First to fly in August was 1066’s new and rather swanky delta, an Angelwing Blink V2.
I first featured the Blink in the June Patch News, when it was almost finished, and I’d held it over from May so basically it took him three months to get the covering done on it!
I shouldn’t really complain, I’ve taken longer than that to open the box on some of mine, and the Blink covering does look amazing, not so much Blink, more Bling!
1066 has fitted a 2212 6T 2200kv motor, a 30A speed controller and he’s flying it on three cell 1500mAh lipos. As it’s a delta the Blink has elevons so only two servos are required, so all in all it’s a pretty basic set-up, nothing much to go wrong, and of course the maiden flight would go perfectly… except it didn’t. The power and radio set-ups were fine and the Blink flew sort of ok once 1066 had dialled in an awful lot of aileron trim. Once the Bling was safely back on terra firma we checked the wing for flatness and sure enough, there was a definite twist in the left-hand side of the wing. If you look back to the build info in the June Patch News you’ll see that all the parts are beautifully laser cut and the whole thing slots together making for a very rigid airframe so what could have gone wrong?
My initial thoughts were that the heat shrink covering hadn’t shrunk evenly and that had induced the twist, in which case a few minutes with a heat gun should correct the problem. But when 1066 tried this he found the twist very quickly returned and despite weighting the plane down overnight the wing refused to stay flat. He’s now taken to clamping the Bling down with packing pieces twisting the wing in the opposite direction overnight before every flying session and that has meant it will fly without needing lots of aileron trim although, even as the session wears on, the twist starts to return. But basically it’s fine now and it flies really well, fast and smooth, much as you would expect. You can see it in the video although small fast models aren’t easy to catch with a mobile phone camera.

The next model is not new but Dougal Entendre doesn’t bring his large scale Spad XIII out to fly very often and it’s well worth featuring. The reason it’s rarely flown is mostly due to its size, the Spad won’t fit in Dougal’s car when assembled and it takes quite a while to rig in the car park, and once rigged it’s heavy to carry down to the patch.
But it’s worth the effort as once the Spad is in the air it flies beautifully. The Spad is a 68” span fifth scale ARTF model produced by Maxford USA RC and is designed to be powered by either an I/C or electric motor. Dougal’s is electric powered of course and uses a pair of 4 cell Zippy Compact 5800mAh batteries connected in series to make an 8 cell pack.
This provides ample power and Dougal gets flights of around eight minutes while still leaving a safety margin. The fact that the Spad is large and relatively slow means that it’s easier to film than most models we see at the patch so of course it appears in the video.

Changing the subject slightly, here’s some info about an update to my HobbyKing MX2. There have been several of these in the club over the years and, although 3D flying isn’t my thing at all, I bought one a while ago after enjoying test flying Gordon Bennett’s for him.
The MX2 is a lightweight 955mm span EPP model that comes as ‘airframe only’ so buyers need to provide all the electronics themselves. Other than fitting a motor and radio there is very little to do to complete the model, basically glue the wings and tail feathers on. HobbyKing suggest using a 2217 950-1100KV outrunner motor although they don’t actually have any for sale. The manual suggests a range of motors to use, 2834, 2215, or 2217 with a Kv in the range of 950 to 1100 and, having discussed it with Dougal, I fitted a 2836 1120Kv Turnigy motor along with a 30A speed controller. The manual also says to use a 3 cell 11.1V 1100-1300mAh battery but I have some 1400mAh packs so I used those when I first flew it in February this year. They were ok but gave fairly short flights.
The MX2 flew well enough but I didn’t really enjoy flying it so I put it away for a while. But in August I felt I should give it another go and, knowing that others had sometimes used 2200mAh packs I decided to try those. But fitting a larger pack was tricky, especially as it would need to be further back in the fuselage to maintain the correct centre of gravity.
I didn’t want to cut out the cross-member that was in the way as there’s ply under the foam which is part of a ply stiffening plate that reinforces the whole front end of the fuselage. Then I realised the fuselage is really deep at that point so the pack would fit vertically, and after a few minutes of foam hacking I’d solved the problem! I added a small piece of thin ply to keep the wires within the fuselage width, without that it was tricky putting the canopy/top section on. Oddly I find it nicer to fly with the extra weight and I’m enjoying it much more. There’s a short piece in the video proving that I don’t really do 3D!

Back to totally new models now and Mini Mike’s E-flite Sportix, a model that, rather strangely, Mini Mike bought from Appliance Electronics, a company that specialises in household electrical goods but also has a model section. He bought from them as they were offering the best price/delivery at the time, and all went quickly and smoothly.
The Sportix is a very attractive 1100mm span sports aerobatic model that can be flown on either 3 or 4 cells. This is from the E-flite website: Whether you’re a low-time pilot looking for a “next step” model after mastering your trainer and you’re interested in learning to perform more advanced aerobatics, or you’re an experienced pilot looking for an all-around fun-to-fly sport model, the E-flite Sportix 1.1m is a perfect choice.
It’s designed to be capable of basic, precision, and aggressive aerobatics, while also being smooth, stable, and predictable in every phase of flight. It was also designed to include a variety of modern-day features and conveniences from LED navigation lights to a two-piece horizontal stabilizer and wings with hands-free servo connections that can be installed and removed without the use of tools or fasteners.
Yet it’s also conveniently sized to be easy to store and transport without disassembly – and so it can be flown at large parks and sports fields as well as RC flying fields. Factory-installed digital and metal-geared servos with ball-link equipped linkages provide precise and reliable control at every speed. The power system includes a Spektrum outrunner motor and an Avian 45-amp Smart Lite ESC that are compatible with popular 3S and 4S 2200-3200mAh batteries. The maiden flight went perfectly, no problems at all and the Sportix proved to be a nice flying plane. Mini Mike had several flights with it in August with no problems, and even the wheel spats survived undamaged.
So far Mini Mike has only flown his on 4 cells but is thinking of trying it on 3 cells as it has more than enough power. You can see it performing in the video but bear in mind that it’s a new model and Mini Mike was understandably being cautiously high!

When he feels the need, the need for speed, Mini Mike flies his ElectroStreak (another E-flite model) to which he’s fitted a GPS airspeed recorder. The E-flite website says the model will do 120-130mph when flown on 4 cells, and Mini Mike told me he was sure his would reach 125mph in a dive but he was wrong, it was really pathetic…
OK, so 124.59mph is pretty close to 125mph! Maybe we should change his name to Maverick Mike! I’m not sure about the 1048.0M/S reading, the plane certainly can’t have dived at 1048 metres per second. Maybe Mini Mike has figured it out and will let us know.

Another model that re-appeared in August was Catapult King’s Purple Piper. The model is actually a John Rutter design called the Pink Piper, but this one’s Purple so…
The Purple Piper first flew in August 2022 and was originally rather underpowered with a 7×4 prop. So Catapult changed it to a 9×5 which was much better but he didn’t like the folding prop tips being able to touch the front wing band dowel when it folded.
It’s not a major problem unless it eats the wing bands Catapult! Speaking of which, I hope you didn’t fly it with just the two bands that it has in the photos. It didn’t crash so you either got away with it or had added a couple more before flying! Anyway, Catapult is looking to fit a more powerful motor as the Purple Piper could still do with a bit more go.

In August Dot Cottam finally returned from umpteen holidays and family birthday events and brought along his latest purchase! He’d made an excellent choice and plumped for a Volantex Phoenix 2000 V2. There are several Phoenix electric gliders of various types and sizes in the club and they all perform well. I’m really pleased with my Phoenix 1600.
Dot’s turned out to be no different from all the others, as expected it flew beautifully and had no problems. Dot enjoyed flying the Phoenix and went home a very happy chappy.

The final new model flown in August was, as Bob the Builder put it “Not a new model, just a recycled one.” I like that, when I crash mine they tend to be recycled to the bin! But Bob isn’t known as The Builder for nothing and this model is a combination of two models that he’d built previously. The fuselage came from his Mini Tasman, his own design smaller version of his XFly Tasman. The Mini Tasman flew well but crashed with radio problems.
The wings were damaged beyond repair but the fuselage was too good to simply chuck in the bin so Bob modified it slightly and fitted the wings from a one metre span electric powered glider that he’d built during lockdown. He’s named the recycled combo TasLock.
The powertrain is exactly as it was in the Mini Tasman with a Propdrive 28-36 1400kv motor turning a 9×7 prop, a 40amp speed controller, and a three cell 1300mAh battery.
The all up weight is around one kilo which is fine for the size of the wing, but as the wing is slightly swept forward Bob was a little concerned where the centre of gravity should be.
He obviously got it right as the TasLock flew perfectly with no trims changes required. In Bob’s words “Looks strange but seems fly OK.” He’s right, check it out for in the video.

This month the rather poor quality action photos are all taken from the video:

Video time now, this month with footage shot by myself, Dougal Entendre, and MacFly.
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

The Final Funny:
A man in a hot air balloon is lost so he reduces height when he spots a man below.
He lowers the balloon further and shouts, “Excuse me! Can you tell me where I am?”
The man below says “You’re in a hot air balloon hovering 30 ft above this field.”
“You must be an engineer” says the balloonist. The man asked “How did you know?”
“Well”, says the balloonist, “What you have told me is 100% correct but of no use at all.”
The man says “You must be a manager.” The balloonist says “I am, how did you know?”
“Well” says the man “You don’t know where you are, or where you’re going, but you expect me to help. You are in the same position you were before but now it’s all my fault.”

Colin Cowplain