Patch News – February 2014

Hooray, finally there are signs of improvement in the weather! Most of February was pretty rubbish but towards the end of the month things gradually started to change. Even at the start of the month we managed a bit of flying, between the gales and horizontal rain, and several new models were flown. I’m writing this in the first week of March and right now the weather is glorious, long may it last.

In the January Patch News I mentioned that John Warren had damaged his Albatross during a take-off attempt. A slow flying WW1 biplane is never going to be the easiest model to get off the ground, it’s vital to be quick on the rudder to keep it heading straight into wind as once the wind gets under one side of those draggy wings there will only be one outcome. The good news is that John soon completed the repairs and the Albatross has flown successfully several times in February. He’s also added a spinner and a few other details; the pilot’s new white scarf can be seen streaming in the wind on low passes.

This photo is a bit odd, there seems to be a low wing monoplane flying over, and there’s a contrail… that can’t be right, Biggles would turn in his grave!

Gentleman Jim brought his high quality camera along one day and snapped my rather beaten up Sportjet on a low pass. There were several better photos than this one but I wanted to show that Harpers Oak is still alive and well.

While we are looking at Sportjets here is Mark’s that he’s now fitted with the undercarriage. They all come supplied with clip on legs and wheels but most pilots don’t bother with them as a jet looks odd flying around with the wheels hanging down. But Mark fancied some take-offs and landings so he clipped them in and had a morning enjoying circuits and bumps.

Jim also took this photo of Burly Turley posing with his ex-Cyano Steve 42” AJ Slick. At the time Peter was telling Jim where to set his F stop… I’m sure I heard Jim say he knew exactly where he wanted to put his F stop!  Peter resurrected the Slick from a bag of wreckage after Steve ‘modified’ it.  It now looks as good as new and flies just like it did before the mishap.

Jim was kind enough to send me some pics of his new Grumman Wildcat. I posted a photo of Jim holding the then unflown model in the November blog and it remained unflown until February. It’s only had a couple of flights so far and they went very well, the Wildcat flew beautifully. It’s powered by a Hacker motor and has considerably more power than the standard Parkzone one (Jim bought an ‘airframe only’ kit). The motor must be pulling the maximum current the speed controller can handle as the motor cut briefly a couple of times at full throttle. A quick closing and reopening of the throttle got it started again and it wasn’t really a problem as the plane flew happily on half throttle anyway. Next time out Jim will try some smaller props to reduce the current draw a little.

Well, it has finally happened; Norwegian Nick has got a foamie! It’s one of the little EPP Mustangs that many of us are enjoying but being a ‘real modeller’ Nick had to do a bit more than just glue it together, so amongst other things his features concealed control links and a snazzy paint job.How does it fly? Just like all the rest really, they can be tame or wild and they’ll do pretty much anything the pilot can.

Another ‘real modeller’ is Keith Evans and following on from his success with his home grown Spitfire he has produced an ME109.It’s an all built up balsa and ply model built from Keith’s own plans. He made it 37” span so it’ll fit in the car in one piece, seems as good a starting point as any! At about 3-1/2lbs it’s not light but it has plenty of power and flies extremely well on its 3 cell lipo. Well done Keith.

The last big raffle prize was a Multiplex Xeno, a flying wing that can be flown either as a glider or with electric power. The lucky winner was Bob Hill, although at the time he looked rather dubious about it! However, he put it all together and test flew it on one of the few sunny days in February.I think Bob was pleasantly surprised when it actually flew, and in fact it flew very well indeed. It’s slightly odd in that (in Bob’s words) it ‘wobbles’ in flight, I imagine that’s something to do with having two fairly small fins and that is probably also the reason it tends to stay in turns rather than level out .  But that’s no bad thing if you are trying to keep turning in a thermal and from what we’ve seen so far the Xeno really performs well on the glide.  It’s also aerobatic and I did a few loops and rolls etc including one outside loop. When it was safely back on the ground Bob demonstrated how the whole thing folds in half, it’s hinged on the centerline and folds in half downwards to pack neatly away for easy transport. The only thing that holds the wing flat for flight is the clip on canopy and I felt rather relieved that I only did one outside loop before being told about its folding capabilities! The other fairly unusual feature is that the motor is mounted centrally in the wing, rather than at the trailing edge, and there is an extension shaft to drive the rear mounted prop. I didn’t get any photos of Bob’s in the folded position but this Multiplex one shows the motor position and hingeing well.

I took some video snippets on 19th Feb and stitched the decent bits together. It’s under two minutes long and you’ll see Nick’s Fantrainer, Jim’s Pulse & Wildcat, Keith’s Advance & ME109, and finally Chairman Ron showing how to land an edf: PAM Patch
If you can spare ten minutes check out James May taking a flight to 70,000ft in a Lockheed U2 spy plane. It’s been on TV but even if you’ve seen it already it’s well worth another look: U2 flight

Mark Agate tested his new MX2 one Sunday morning. Both Steve 1066 Hastings and Phil Wonky Wiltshire own one of these but neither of them are very impressed by its handling so we were interested to see how Mark’s performed. All seemed to be going well and Mark was certainly gave it a good testing over a number of flights, but he emailed this comment and photo later in the day:“As several people commented, the MX2 seems to have a vicious tendency to tip-stall when you least expect it. A full-size Tiger Moth started pulling aerobatics right over our heads (and quite low!) while I was having the 5th flight, which distracted me quite a bit. Then the buzzer sounded for me to land, and I thought I had plenty of airspeed, but she flicked and spun into the valley, about 20ft the other side of the road. Damage seems to be confined to broken prop and spinner, cracked cowl and bent motor shaft. Hobby King have spares, so I’m placing an order. I think heavy wings and lack of lateral balance (forgot to check it…) may have been contributory factors.”

The good news is that the spares have now arrived so we should see the MX2 back in the air soon.

Andy ‘Anything you can buy I can buy better’ Smith showed up with a new toy the other day. No not a new plane, or radio, or trolley, or even an uprated heater for his tx muff… it’s a prop cover! It’s a Xoar genuine leather cover that comes in two pieces that are held together with Velcro. Now I can understand that if you’ve got some big scale plane with an expensive scale type wooden prop you might want some protection for it, but why would you need a condom for a spare prop for an electric powered WOT4?
They come in various sizes; obviously Smiffy only needed a small one… 

Gary Houghton has recently repaired his Yak 54 after an engine cut caused a rather abrupt arrival. During the repair process he switched the type of silencer to one that is a little less obtrusive. Unfortunately although it looks less obtrusive it doesn’t sound it and Gary has to think again to meet the noise regulations. 

Gary’s Yak is looking a little sad after its repairs so I thought you might like to see one with a gorgeous finish.Look closely and you may be able to spot a couple of outstanding points. The debate following the December blog proved that The ‘Pipe & Camouflaged Trousers model’ wasn’t nearly as popular as the ‘Underslung Totty model’ so hopefully you’ll approve.

A blonde is going on her first plane trip and she’s very excited. As soon as she boards the 747 she starts running up and down the aisles shouting ‘Boeing, Boeing, Boeing’. The crew and other passengers get more and more agitated and eventually the pilot emerges from the cockpit and at the top of his voice shouts ‘BE SILENT!’  You could have heard a pin drop, the passengers are stunned, the blonde stops in her tracks for a moment, thinking. Then she runs up and down again shouting ‘Oeing, Oeing, Oeing’…

Colin Cowplain