Patch News – December 2013

It’s January so Happy New Year to you all, and it must be time for another Patch News.

What awful weather we’ve had recently! Gales and torrential rain aren’t really compatible with model flying and like most of you I’ve hardly managed any flying at all so this edition will be fairly short. However, the Sunday morning after Christmas was actually quite nice and it seemed many members just wanted to escape for a while.  Some had received modelling presents, others had just taken the opportunity of the time off work to get new models ready to fly.

First up is Cyano Steve with his first new plane for a while. Well it’s actually only about two months but in Steve’s case that’s quite a while. This one is a Katana MX from Precision Aerobatics and it’s designed to have an extremely wide flight envelope, being capable of everything from precision aerobatics through high energy to graceful slow and low 3D manoeuvres. The first thing that struck me about it was the large wing area compared to similar models, that should certainly help with the slow and low stuff. It’s obviously a high quality model, all laser or CNC cut, lots of carbon reinforcement in the important places, and all beautifully put together. I think Steve must have also bought the Bling Package (no, seriously, that’s what it’s called!) as his has a carbon fibre spinner, wheel spats, and some neat little vortex generators on the wings. I assume Steve is using the recommended PA Thrust 50 outrunner motor and matching 70A esc, and they are powered by 2 x 2200maH 3 cell packs which should give flights of around 6 minutes. Early days yet for him to get used to the model but first impressions are very good, it looks to me as if it will be his best flier so far. I think it should be capable of matching the field long knife edge passes that 1066 is now doing about 4 feet off the ground! I hear that Steve has just completed on a new house which has several outbuildings…I reckon one of them must be destined to be a model room very soon. Good luck with Montague Mansions.

Desperate Dan arrived with two new models, the first being an FW-190. I’m not sure but I think I heard Dan say he bought it on eBay, but don’t know anything about it other than that. It looks like the Ultrafly one from a few years back to me, although it might be smaller than theirs. It felt pretty light, always a good thing for a warbird and, despite what all the ‘experts’ predicted, Dan took off, had a long flight, and landed back safely again with no problems at all.

Dan’s second model wasn’t such a success. It’s a Turnigy Tek Sumo or Teksumo (depends if you read it off the wing or off the HobbyKing website) and it’s a 900mm span EPP foam wing.I was interested to know what Teksumo meant so I put the word into translation software on the internet, apparently it’s Estonian and it means… Teksumo…hmmm. Anyway, EPP is a really strong foam but it’s not possible to get such a nice finish on it as you can with EPO or EPS. EPS is the best for moulding in scale details etc but it’s also the weakest, so manufacturers have to choose what they think is best for each particular aircraft. Although the Tek Sumo has a relatively rough surface texture it has a very loud paint finish applied, so it looks pretty good overall.  On the website it says it has a huge flight envelope and will fly full aerobatics or slow down to walking pace and the accompanying video shows it performing well. Sadly Dan’s didn’t…well not yet anyway. I’m sure it will be ok once he’s got it sorted out but on both the attempts I saw it failed to get far past the launch.  Dan has fitted his with FPV gear and it’s probably a good plane for FPV but it might be better to get it flying properly first and worry about FPV later.I think it would help a lot to ask a more experienced pilot get it up and trimmed for you Dan (that means I want a go with it Dan!).

The third pilot that had spent Christmas building instead of being a good family chap was John Wheeley. He brought along his new Multiplex Twinstar Mk 2. John had flown a Mk 1 very successfully a few years ago and decided to try the newer version.Apparently the construction is very different to the earlier one, the fuselage comes in two halves that have to be joined, and the wings are now two separate items rather than the one piece wing of the earlier version.  They use a GRP joiner but are not permanently glued together so can be separated for ease of transport. John wasn’t keen and said he preferred the simplicity of the Mk 1! I thought the Mk2 had come about because of the advances in electric power to outrunner motors and lipos but the basic model still comes with a pair of brushed Speed 400 6v motors which are intended to be used with a single brushed ESC and an 8 cell nicad or nimh pack. There is a conversion pack available from Multiplex which consists of 2 outrunner motors, 2 brushless speed controllers, the various necessary Y leads, props etc but it’s very expensive and a much cheaper option would be to buy the recommended motors and controllers from BRC or similar.Anyway John has stuck with the Speed 400’s and uses an 8 cell nimh pack which I would say provides ‘adequate’ power but personally I would like a bit more oomph to enjoy  looning the thing around a bit. But it flies fine will do loops and rolls and so on and it’s a very nice handling sport model. John hasn’t bothered fitting an undercarriage, in fact it’s not intended to have one although a float kit is available if you fancy a bit of fun from flying from a lake. If you Google the Twinstar you’ll find literally hundreds of versions of the model, some just fancy paint schemes but some quite heavily modified, even 4 engined ones!

OK so the last one isn’t anything special…there was just something about the picture that appealed… 

Andy Smith…remember him? He moved house a few months ago and his decorating chores mean he hasn’t been to the patch for a while but he’s threatening to return soon. But recently I stumbled across this video shot from a camera fitted alongside the cockpit of one of his F4 Phantoms. It was taken last July (not at 4am in August 2012 as the video clock shows!) and I hate to say it but it’s actually quite good. Watch carefully and you can spot Mike Smith’s Twinjet a few fleeting times. Click here If nothing else it will remind you of what our lovely patch is like in the summer.

As migration approached, two elderly vultures doubted they could make the trip south, so they decided to go by airplane.
When they checked their baggage, the attendant noticed that they were carrying two dead raccoons. “Do you wish to check the raccoons through as luggage?” she asked.
“No, thanks,” replied the vultures. “They’re carrion.”

Colin Cowplain