Patch News – February 2013

Despite some pretty snowy, wet, and windy weather in the last month there has still been lots of activity at the patch and lots of new models have been flown.

Multiple Models Montague & I ventured up to the field one snowy day and had all kinds of fun with our cars along with another guy who thought the track would be driveable… it wasn’t! It was very very slippery and we spent a couple of hours getting the three vehicles back to the road.  Fortunately Steve’s truck is 4WD and he had a towrope but even so we had a lot of problems. We never did get to fly!

 
Ron (all bow to our new Chairman) Vears found Hobby King sell a model of the actual Hurricane he flew alongside for his 70^th birthday gift experience and couldn’t resist it.

The model is PNF (Plug’N’Fly) so comes complete with motor, servos, esc, and retracts.  It’s 1m span and uses a three cell lipo; it turns out to be the Art Tech one although HK don’t say that.  The model takes off from our grass patch ok and looks a treat once she has the wheels retracted.  I’m sure we’ll see a lot of this model when the weather becomes a bit kinder. I hear it’s soon to be accompanied by a matching Parkzone Spitfire, they’ll looks lovely flying together (hint hint Ron!)
 
I let Monty have a fly of my Sport Jet a few weeks ago; he must have liked it as by the following week he had his own!  But not content with it as standard he added a Vectored Thrust unit to the tailpipe.

This made things a lot more ‘interesting’… it pivoted the jet pipe using rudder and elevator controls to enable a whole new set of manoeuvres to be performed. We both flew it without crashing but it wasn’t nearly as nice to fly and even after making the elevator part switchable Steve still didn’t like it so he has now removed it and reverted to standard.  I understand that Steve H (1066) has purchased a Sport Jet for himself and another for the raffle so we could soon have a display team of four. Maybe not…

 
To combat frozen fingers in the winter weather some of us have invested in transmitter muffs. Here’s mine, a Turnigy Tx Glove.

Hobby King list two types and Monty has bought the other type but I think the one I have is probably more suitable for most people.  It was only just over £8, the other type is nearer £9. Not to be outdone Smiffy splashed out £44 on one!  Needless to say we haven’t even seen it at the patch yet but it’s obviously made from gold plated titanium! Who said “All the gear, no idea”? Me? Never!
 
Speaking of Smiffy he has started a new trend by fitting a gyro to his F4 Phantom. As you know  I never miss a chance of taking the mickey so the words ‘Wuss’ and ‘Crap Control Correction’ may have passed my lips but I have to admit it does smooth out the flight a lot, especially in blustery conditions. It is not a plane saver in any way but it basically adds inputs to keep the plane steady in whatever attitude it has been placed by the pilot, so wing rocking in gusts gets smoothed out.  Bob Hill has followed suit by fitting a gyro in his trainer and has been flying it recently in conditions that would normally chuck a trainer all over the place without any problems at all, a very definite improvement.
 
1066 turned up with a Yak 55 the other week, it’s made of EPP, has a profile fuselage, carbon reinforcing in lots of places, and is reckoned to be unbreakable.  Not bad for around £36.

Its very light of course and his first flight was in pretty rough weather but after only a couple of minutes he was knife-edging across the patch at low level and doing lots of 3D manoeuvres. It certainly performs a lot better than it looks; even Steve said it’s a Yuk not a Yak! Not to be outdone Bob Hill turned up with one a few days later and got me to trim it out. It’s one of those models that just feels right immediately and puts the pilot at ease.  On the second flight Bob decided to test the ‘unbreakable’ claim…it failed!  Damage was pretty minimal however and I expect its back in flying trim by now. Never one to miss out on a trend MMM also has one on the way…!
 
I got home from the field the other lunchtime and promptly received a text from Wonky Wiltshire saying he was going up to test fly his new E-Flight Hurricane at 2.30. Well I couldn’t let him down could I, so after a bite to eat I went back up.

The E-Flight Hurricane is larger than Ron’s version at 1320mm span and has split flaps and is retract ready. It’s seemed to be a typical E-Flight model; everything was properly sorted, looked great and flew beautifully.  We had 3 flights without incident and Wonky had a big grin on his face. The only thing wrong was those wheels hanging down… I reckon next time we see it the E-Flight retracts will have been fitted, then it will be perfect.
 
Finally, my own new model, a Durafly Sea Vixen from Hobby King.

I had intended to buy the ARF version that consists of the airframe and the fan, but the price difference between that and the all-inclusive PNF version made it sensible to go for the PNF. So a large box arrived containing the airframe, fan, motor, esc, ubec, 4 servos, and retracts.  I was going to fly with no undercarriage but as the PNF version includes retracts I decided to try them and see how they handle our patch.  The only work I had to do was to glue on the wing panels, booms, and tailplane, then add a receiver and battery.  I have read on the forums that people have got them ready to fly in about an hour but it takes me longer than that to set the transmitter up! I spent best part of a week getting it all as I wanted it so hardly PNF but at under £120 including delivery I was very happy!
I tried a take-off for the first flight but it has tiny wheels, especially the nose-wheel, and it just couldn’t get up enough speed. I think in the summer on newly mown dry grass it will probably make it but in the meantime it has to be hand launched.

With the wheels down the wheel wells make good hand holds and it goes away easily from a throw. Then it’s up with the wheels for the rest of the flight until I lower them again for a nice slow and hopefully gentle landing.  To date it’s had eight flights and I’m still getting used to it but it seems like a good ‘un…  It does have a noticeable tendency to rock its wings in any sort of wind so I might have to swallow my pride and fit a gyro.
Whatever you do don’t tell Smiffy!
 
Recently I stumbled across a website that might be of interest to some of you, it has scanned copies of old Aeromodeller magazines and Annuals, Model Aircraft mags and several others. The range covers 1939 through to 1979. So if you fancy some nostalgia on a wet and windy day check out: Magazines
 
I hear that just before Christmas Newbie Nigel mentioned to his wife that most of the electric fliers use kitchen timers to time their flight so they don’t run out of power. So on Christmas Day Nigel unwrapped his pressies…I’m not sure she quite understood the concept…
 
 
What do you call a pregnant flight attendant? Pilot error!
Colin Cowplain