Patch News – December 2015

Well that’s Christmas over for another year, I hope you all had a good time and received lots of modelling related presents. December was a pretty awful month for flying, lots of wet and windy weather that seemed to make a point of being at its worst on Sunday mornings. Fortunately the Midweekers were able to fly on some of the better days but even so we didn’t go to the field as much as we would have liked. This means I don’t have a huge amount of material for Patch News so this edition will be rather shorter than usual, but I’m sure you’ll all be sending me lots of information about your modelling presents so the January Patch News should be back to normal even if the weather stays bad. THIS MONTH’S VIDEO is also shorter than usual but features the EFX Racers of Modelling Clay and Wonky Wiltshire, the Deltas of 1066 and Colin Cowplain, and a few other snippets.

In the last Patch News I pictured a large box that had arrived from Santa (HobbyKing) and on Christmas Day I was finally allowed to open it. Strangely enough it’s exactly what I had ordered, a Durafly Me163 Komet.It’s the Plug ‘n’ Play version so there isn’t much to do to ready it for flight, just glue in the fin, screw on the control horns, connect the linkages, and add my own receiver and battery.I’ve built a couple of Komets over the years, both of balsa construction and both powered by I/C engines so this one, being an electric powered foamie, will be a bit different. Of course the original was actually rocket powered and it would reach over 600mph after a 70 degree climb of up to 39000 feet in less than 3 minutes, unheard of performance in the 1940’s. It used a lethal combination of C-Stoff and T-Stoff for fuel, lethal because it would dissolve anything organic, which included the pilot. Despite wearing protective suits several pilots were literally eaten alive in accidents, while a luckier few were simply blown apart in explosions. The model has the option of fitting a rocket in the tail for a few seconds of boosted power! So far I’ve only had time for a quick examination of the model but it looks to be of excellent quality and nicely finished.Both of my previous Komets lacked an undercarriage and had to be hand launched but this one features a ‘drop off’ undercarriage, just like the full-size, and the release mechanism and servo are pre-installed. So it should take-off from the patch (I hope), drop the wheels, and then belly land after the flight. It should be ready to fly very soon so hopefully I’ll be able to give a report of it’s flying characteristics next month.

I pictured Basher Bob’s unfinished half size Splot in the November Patch News and Bob brought it along to a December club meeting where the general consensus was that it was too heavy! So Bob decided to fly it on a smaller battery pack than originally planned and all the flights so far have been with a 1000mAh lipo.It flies very well, better than I expected really. It just about manages to take off from the patch but the grass is very wet at the moment and longer than in the summer so some flights were from a hand launch. As expected it’s pretty twitchy but overall not too bad, and it doesn’t need to fly as quickly as I thought it would. It would benefit from being a bit lighter but with the control throws reduced a bit and some more expo I’m sure Basher will get on well with it, just remember to stay close Bob!

The highlight of December had to be father and son JP and Monty both passing their ‘A’ tests . They had flown a little with Elmbridge Model Club before moving to Petersfield and discovering PAM in August so they weren’t complete beginners when they joined us. They shared an ST Models Discovery and had a buddy box set-up, and it was immediately obvious that neither was going to take long before being ready for the test. Dougal Entendre and I decided it would be best if we each took one them and Monty drew the short straw and got Dougal!Of course JP had the advantage of being able to get in some extra practice mid-week while poor Monty was at school. JP assures us that he is a freelance photographer but personally I have my doubts, he never seems to do any work and is always keen to fly.They both flew through the test (groan) and answered the questions with no problems and were duly awarded their certificates at the last meeting of 2015. Well done Monty and JP.

With the winter weather giving him more time for building Captain Slows’ thoughts turned to storage systems. Like me, he uses a spare bedroom for modelling but lacked storage space, and apparently his wife Anne failed to see the beauty of a dining room table covered in models. So, having spotted a rack system on the RCM&E forum, he set to with a hacksaw and lots of plastic pipe and produced this:John can now store his models out of harms way in the garage, giving him both room to build more modes and a happy wife, a double bonus. I think it’s rather impressive, although I don’t think I need one as obviously my own model room is always clean, tidy, and uncluttered:OK, maybe I should start building my own model rack…! I should point out that my model room had turned into the Christmas present store when I took this photo.

We spent one Sunday morning dodging showers and retreating to the barn while they passed. During one of the dry spells Captain Slow was unlucky enough to lose the small foam battery hatch from his MX2 out over the valley and set off to search for it. A few minutes later we spotted a looming deluge sneaking up behind Modelling Clay.A minute later we were hit by very heavy rain and dashed back to the barn where we discussed Captain Slow’s predicament. We decided that, being an ex-military man, he would have constructed a bivouac, lit a fire, and would be tucking into rabbit stew while plotting the coordinates of the hatch search. Sadly we were wrong and a very wet, bedraggled, miserable, and hatchless Captain Slow eventually returned to the barn.

But not to be defeated, Captain Slow made a replacement hatch and he and Dougal sneaked off to the field between Christmas and New Year where the MX2 behaved itself and didn’t eject the new hatch!Dougal took the opportunity to test fly his new HK Wingnetic  which, I think, he bought in the recent HobbyKing sale.  Apparently it performed well, more on this one later.He didn’t do quite so well with his own MX2 unfortunately, it suffered a little in what he describes as ‘a heavy landing’. Never mind, it looks as if the repair should be fairly straightforward.

Several people sent me photos this month so included are some from Graham Swan, JP, Dougal Entendre, and Captain Slow, thanks guys.

I’ll finish with a couple of links, first one for all those who think they are good modellers: CLICK HERE  And secondly one for anyone looking for an electric trainer with a difference: CLICK HERE  Don’t forget to take a look at THIS MONTH’S VIDEO.

A Happy New Year and safe flying to you all.

On a transatlantic flight the turbulence was vicious, and things went from bad to worse when a wing was struck by lightning. One woman in particular lost control. Screaming, she stood up at the front of the plane. “I’m too young to die!” she wailed. “If I’m going to die, is there anyone on this plane who can make me feel like a WOMAN?” For a moment there was stunned silence. All the other passengers had forgotten their own peril, and were riveted by the sight of the desperate woman. Then a gorgeous man stood up at the rear of the plane. Tall, well-built, brown hair and hazel eyes, he started to walk slowly up the aisle. As he did so, he began to unbutton his shirt one button at a time. All eyes were on the man as he neared the woman, who by this time was breathing heavily in anticipation as the god-like stranger approached her. He removed his shirt. Muscles rippled across his chest and back as he reached her. He lifted his arm, holding his shirt, and extended it to the trembling woman. Intense, his gaze never left her eyes, as he whispered, “Here, iron this…then get me a beer”

Colin Cowplain