Patch News – December 2025
But on Sunday 21st December only myself, Captain Slow, Snoopy, and Woody came to fly. I think most of the regular fliers had Christmas commitments. There was an easterly breeze blowing and we could see there was mist/low cloud down in the valley between us and Butser. We had to keep a careful eye out, as every so often it blew up over the flying site. 
There were a couple of times while we were flying that the next bank of cloud blew in and precautionary landings were quickly made. Snoopy almost got caught out on one flight!
Woody was still recovering from flu and arrived a bit late, when the cloud was at its worst. 
He wasn’t feeling well enough to fly so he didn’t bring any models, but he did bring cakes!
New models now, I’ll begin with an early Christmas gift I bought myself, an Airbus A380. 
OK, I know it’s really just a toy but I spotted it on the AliExpress website and was intrigued to see how well it would fly. Sadly, it’s not a four engine EDF, it’s powered by a pair of motors with pusher props at the back of the wings. It has a gyro that cannot be adjusted or switched off, it just does its’ thing. The A380 is available in either two or three channel versions, the two channel one relying on variable thrust from the motors to both steer and also control the altitude, but the three channel one has the addition of an elevator servo.
I went for the three channel version and splashed out £21.96 for the model, transmitter, one battery, and delivery from China. The ‘building’ consists of plugging the elevator servo into the board in the wing, screwing the wing on, and applying the cockpit window decals.
An undercarriage was included but I didn’t rate the chances of taking off from grass with 10mm diameter wheels so I didn’t fit it. The instruction leaflet is mostly good but does have some Chinglish such as ‘It adopts high efficient pneumatic contour design to ensure good flying feature and stability, better gliding performance’ and ‘wind less than 4 outdoor environmental flight.’ I was lucky that the day after the A380 arrived the weather was lovely although the wind was probably higher than 4 outdoor environmental flight!
For the first flight I pressed the ‘High and low speed’ switch that I think actually means Rates and it was a bit erratic, so for subsequent flights I’ve kept it on low. At the time of writing I’ve had nine flights, it takes a bit of getting used to but overall it flies well. It’s in this month’s video so take a look. For me, I think it was worth the money for a little fun.
Last month I wrote about Dwayne Pipe’s P51B Mustang that he’d built from the Flite Test plan, and I explained that the first flight hadn’t gone well. After completing some repairs Dwayne tried again in December but the second attempt was similar to the first and more repairs were needed. But the third attempt was different and the finicky flier finally flew. 
Dwayne explains: The Flight Test P51B had two memorable but short maiden flights. The first one flew about 15 feet and dived in. The second made it about 30 feet. In both cases the plane pitched up and rolled to the left before crashing. In addition, the plane felt underpowered. What I did to correct these faults was to replace the 1000 Kv motor with a 2200 Kv one, and reduce the prop size from 9×6” to 7×4”. The C of G on the Flite test plan was ambiguous, so I moved it forward by about 5mm. Lastly, I reset and trimmed the ailerons to ensure that they were symmetrical. The resulting third flight was much improved and landed safely but showed that I needed to increase the motor downthrust and trim the ailerons to the right. All part of the joy of building your own plane.
As Dwayne says, the third flight was successful, but sadly the cameraman (me) wasn’t!
So in the video this month you can see all three attempts but only the first couple of seconds of the Mustang getting away for its proper flight. Hopefully I’ll do better next month and I’ll have some footage of it flying nicely, it’ll be worth the wait I’m sure!
Next up we have Bob the Builder’s F-803 Skylark S that he purchased from AliExpress. 
The AliExpress website says this: The Skylark is a high-quality EPO foam RC plane designed for intermediate pilots, offering F3A aerobatic performance, durable construction, and reliable flight characteristics, making it a top choice among similar models on AliExpress. The Skylark is available from various sources and can be purchased as a fully kitted out ARTF or just a basic kit which comes without a motor, esc, servos etc. 
This is what Bob’s says about it: Felt like a change and something different and a bit more challenging than my Tasman. I also gave up on my Mini Tasman that never seemed to
fly quite right so I had a spare set of electronics, receiver, motor, ESC etc. to use. The Skylark from AliExpress at £42 for the kit version,seemed to fit the bill. It took about 5 weeks to arrive but everything fitted OK except the motor which was a Hobbyking PropDrive 28-36 1400KV. The mounting holes were 90 degrees offset from the mounting holes in the model so instead of the ESC wires being at the bottom they were at the side. Luckily there is an air intake hole where the wires exit the motor and after a small modification to the motor mounting bracket all was well. Have since replaced the motor because everybody complained about the noise from the old motor. New one is the same except it is a 1200KV so I have upped the prop to a 10 x 7 instead of a 10 x 6 and it
still gives me 150watts per pound on 3 cells. Quite challenging to fly but that’s what I wanted. Just need some good flying weather to practice the F3A aerobatics! Ha Ha. 
Thanks for that Bob. A few years ago Dougal Entendre had bought an earlier version of the Skylark which flew well so he was the obvious candidate to do the maiden flight. As you can see in the video the Skylark flew very well but you might be able to hear that the motor sounds like a bag of nails! As Bob says he has since bought a new motor and the Skylark now flies just the same but sounds a whole lot better while it’s doing it!
Woody’s latest is a Great Planes Electro Streak, the same as the one 1066 built recently. 
Captain Slow had two of the long-discontinued kits for sale along with several other kits, all of which came from the wife of a modeller who had passed away. Having seen 1066’s Electro Streak fly Woody decided to build the second kit and set about balsa bashing.
Woody had a few problems along the way and 1066 helped him greatly. He says 1066 was a vital part of the build. That’s odd as I’ve never found a 1066 included with any of my kits!
Woody fitted a Ripmax Power 25 1000 Kv motor, a 40A speed controller, a Multiplex 5 channel receiver, and some servos recycled from a previous model. 1066 flies his Electro Streak on four cell lipos but Woody is using three cell packs as he doesn’t want it going as quickly as 1066’s! Despite his trials and tribulations with the build the finished model looks great in its red heat-shrink film covering, I especially like the chequered underside.
The first flight was undertaken with 1066 on the transmitter and all went well although it was a little underpowered, mostly down to the 7×6 propeller being a bit too small for the 1000KV motor. 1066 has provided Woody with an 11×7 folding prop for the next flight which should make a big difference. The first flight can be seen in this month’s video.
Dwayne Pipe has sent me some information on how to work out the Kv of an unmarked motor: I was looking for a brushless outrunner motor for the P51 I was building and found one the right size in my spares box. The motor had no markings on it and no indication of its Kv which is important for sizing the propeller. After some internet research I came across this simple way of measuring the motors Kv which I pass on for any other PAM member who needs it.
If you apply voltage across a motors terminal it spins, similarly if you spin a motor, it will generate a voltage. Fit the shaft of the motor you want to find the Kv of into the chuck of a power drill with a known maximum speed. (Its normally specified on the body of the drill.)
Secure the base of the motor so that it won’t rotate, and turn on the drill.
Measure the voltage across any two of the three motor leads in turn so that you have measured all possible combinations. You will have three separate values. Take the average of these values. We will call it Vac
Plug this value into the equation below to get the Kv of the motor
Kv = (1/((Vac x 1.414)x(1000/power drill rpm))/1000)/0.95
Looks complicated but take it step by step. If you’re not sure check it out against a motor you know the Kv of already. In my case the unknown motor had a Kv of 2588 (approximately). Thanks for that Dwayne, it could prove very useful.
Having completed a couple of minor repairs to the wings and tail of his Weston Cougar 2000, Mini Mike decided to completely refurbish it. He stripped off the original covering and re-covered the whole model in orange Ripmax Aero Film and added some white trim.
Mini Mike rated the film highly but he thought the Cougar looked a little plain with none of the original lettering, so he treated himself to a Loklik iCraft Vinyl Cutting Machine and used some Cricut Smart Vinyl to produce the lettering you see applied to the model here.
Having paid a lot of money for the machine I’m sure Mini Mike would be happy to cut any decals, lettering etc that any of us might want and any cash donations would be very welcome. The Cougar looks great in its new clothes and as he had changed nothing else Mike expected it to fly exactly as before but oddly it didn’t. Some of the first flight after the refurb can be seen in this month’s video and you’ll see it was a bit erratic after the take-off.
The trim seems to have altered quite a lot and Mike is gradually sorting it out but hasn’t really found a definitive reason for the change. I wonder if the new film is heavier than the original and the centre of gravity has moved rearward. Anyway, after a few tweaks and several more test flights the Cougar is now flying as well as ever again.
This month the action pics are taken from various videos shot over the last few months:
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 wealthy jeweller boarded a plane to fly home for Christmas and when he took his seat up in the First Class section he was sat next to a very elegant and wealthy looking lady.
He immediately spotted that she was wearing a large 20-carat diamond wedding ring.
He turned to the lady and said “Merry Christmas. Excuse me, I don’t wish to intrude, but I’ve been a jeweller for forty years and couldn’t help noticing your very impressive ring.”
”Merry Christmas” she replied, smiling gracefully “It’s actually the Schmidt’s diamond.”
“The Schmidt’s diamond?” the jeweller queried “I’ve not heard of the Schmidt diamond”
“Yes, it’s like the Hope diamond, and just like the Hope diamond it comes with a curse.” Intrigued, the jeweller said “Well, now I have to know, please tell me, what’s the curse?”
“Mr Schmidt”
Colin Cowplain
Patch News – November 2025
The November weather was pretty much what we expect for the south of England. The first couple of weeks were mostly wet and windy and flying was rather limited, but things improved a little in the second half of the month. We had occasional days that were perfect for flying with clear blue skies and light winds although rather cold on pilots’ hands.
Captain Slow has done a great job for us all year, consistently keeping the fence batteries charged and changed so the sheep and bullocks have been kept off the patch which is in excellent condition. We didn’t need to mow at all in November but I suspect there will need to be a cut in December, probably before Christmas, something to look forward to!
Regular fliers will have realised that our chairman Gordon (Paul Bennett) has rarely been flying in the last few months. For some time now Gordon has been volunteering a couple of days a week at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard in Boathouse 4 and earlier this year the chap in charge resigned. Gordon was offered the position and he took it on without realising that there were some big regulation changes looming which would require an initial massive amount a work. The regulations primarily affect the running of the High Speed Launch 102 and Motor Gun Boat 81, a bit like trying to keep a Spitfire flying under regulations designed for modern aircraft. (Did I ever mention my flight in a Spitfire?)!
This has meant Gordon has had to work full-time to get everything sorted out, but the end is in sight, he hasn’t lost interest in the club or flying and he will return. There is an excellent video of Gordon skippering the Motor Gun Boat, which you can see below:
It’s well worth watching and shows the more enjoyable side, away from all the paperwork! 
Incidentally, it’s worth visiting Boathouse 4 in the dockyard, it’s a very interesting place and it’s FREE to enter. When you go to the dockyard main entrance ticket area just say you want to visit Boathouse 4 and you’ll be given free access. Obviously that doesn’t include access to HMS Victory, Warrior, Mary Rose etc but there’s still plenty to see. In the summer months you can do a harbour tour on an ex-Falklands Landing Craft F8.
Check the website for Boathouse 4 opening times as they are very limited in winter.
Unsurprisingly not many new models arrived at the patch in November, but Dot Cottam brought along what can only be described as a reborn model, I’ll let him explain:
After an over enthusiastic full tilt dive, my WOT 4 Foam-e never pulled out and subsequently expired. In my defence it was a bit blowy! I must have looked at least a little bit perturbed as 1066, managing to control his laughter, immediately offered me one of his older models to “get me back in the sky”. After a tour of his vast modelling empire, I think his house was in there somewhere too, Steve emerged with a HobbyKing MXS. “First electric 3D machine I had,” he said, “don’t worry if you crash it, just bring back the RC gear”… I was extremely grateful as, right at that moment, I had nothing but a bin liner full of broken up foam, half a propeller and some reconfigured electrics.
Back home I took a closer look at the MXS. The first thing I did was put my finger through the thin foam that covers a lite ply framework – Oops! After removing most of the grass cuttings, I realised Steve had left all the servos, ESC and Motor in situ! There was an additional and therefore somewhat conspicuous component that I couldn’t identify. It was a small PCB with one wire soldered into the LiPo battery connector and the other wire terminating in a receiver/servo style connector. Must be a gyro or something I thought and disconnected it. I put it carefully into a box of bits I’d managed to salvage from the WOT 4, taking out the old Spektrum AR610 receiver. Amazingly it still worked even after it’s high speed foray with the flying field. At least it was nothing that a bit of T-Cut wouldn’t polish out. Eager to see what worked, I randomly plugged the MXS servos into the WOT4 Spektrum receiver including the lead from the ESC which I duly plugged into the ‘thro’ skt. Can’t help but think servo, pushrod & carb but – Hey Ho…. Connecting up a 3s LiPo, still modelling a bit of patch mud, the expectation was high – very high. Sadly there was nothing. No lights, sound or smoke other than possibly a few bleats from the ESC. Back in the box it went whilst I gave it a good thinking! 
Several weeks passed until one day I went down to the patch, model less but looking for a chat and some inspiration. The wise owls sat down, drank coffee and thought about it then Steve said – that ESC doesn’t have a BEC, it’s separate. At least I think that’s what he said. Later on Google translated that and I realised the ‘gyro’ I’d put in the box was probably the standalone BEC (S/UBEC). Simples! With the Gyro, now BEC, reinstated and providing power to the receiver, everything burst into life. ‘My what big throws you’ve got’ I thought, even with the WOT 4 setup. This gave some of the servos something new to think about but otherwise progress – at last! I just needed to add a new model to my RadioMaster TX16S transmitter and configure it specifically for the MXS. Just a quick job then I can get flying again….. The ‘add a new model button’ had gone into hiding on my transmitter. No matter, I’ll do it long hand and go through the menus I thought. No chance, I tried everything including using Companion and even overwriting the WOT 4 profile. Then one day that profile disappeared too, leaving me with what the internet delightfully seemed to describe as a ‘bricked’ transmitter. When I first learned about computers back in the dark ages, I used to create hex bytes and words from binary switches set using jumpers. One of those pointless academic activities that we all think we’ll never have to use again. Well what do you know, it turns out to be jolly useful when you try to ‘de-brick’ an Edge TX transmitter. Several weeks and many pause/rewind YouTube videos later I managed to reload the latest brains into my RadioMaster TX. Hurrah and lashings of Ginger Beer! I have to say though, it’s since performed perfectly without even a hint of a hiccup. A new model was added, suitably called – 1066MXSwithGyro. The config includes Rates – 3 levels and 50% Expo. Steve kindly ‘maidened’ it with a 3S 2200 LiPo as that was all I had. It was like it recognised it’s owner and behaved impeccably. It was wheezing a bit – don’t we all. So I’ve since upgraded to a 4S 5000 LiPo which has changed things – quite a lot!
Good job I have 3 levels or rates and all that Expo to enjoy over 6 minutes of squeaky bum flying time. The wheels also squeak during the few feet it takes to get airborne. I did oil them, must be some grass in there somewhere! Thanks Steve and all the wise owls for getting me “back in the air” after the demise of my WOT 4. Thanks for that Dot, excellent stuff, and it’s good to know that 1066 does have some uses after all! I couldn’t help noticing that when you flew the MXS it seems to have come complete with ‘1066 throttle’…it appeared to be stuck fully open for most of the flight! Some of Dot’s first flight using the 5000mAh 4 cell pack can be seen in this month’s video.
One of just two completely new models that were brought out in November was an Arrows Bigfoot that had been purchased by Captain Slow several weeks ago but he hadn’t brought it out earlier as he was waiting for a day with good weather. The Bigfoot is a 1300mm span foamie that comes fitted with a 3536 850KV motor, a 30A speed controller, and 6 servos. 
This is what Captain Slow says about it: I wanted a model that could cope with the grass as we don’t, for understandable reasons, keep the Patch that short much of the time and most of my models have smallish wheels and struggle to take-off and land without tripping over. The answer was a “Bush Plane”. There are a number on the market: the XFly Tasman Bob has; the XFly Glastar Woody and Bob have; FMS Kingfisher; Durafly Tundra that Mini Mike has; Top RC S Cub and the Arrows Bigfoot; there are also some others that are silly money. I looked at lots of YouTube videos: the Glastar doesn’t have flaps; at 1500mm I felt the Tasman was a tad large; the Tundra didn’t appeal and the S Cub was, at the time £30 – 40 more, it also had a tow hook that I doubted I’d use.
So, based on this and the reviews plus price I opted for the Bigfoot and I knew the lights would just annoy Woody; I did remove the sequencer that flashed the nav lights.
The only confusion in the instructions was the control throw setting; one page advised one set whilst another page offered a different set; in the end I put both sets on as different phases. The gyro was very sensitive and I don’t think it can be adjusted so I didn’t use it after a brief trial. If you add flaps at too high a speed it balloons and I will correct that by adding a down elevator mix. It flies very slowly which is good because if you land without flaps the tyres are really solid and it does bounce.
Overall I’m very pleased with it. Thanks for that Captain Slow, it certainly looked to be flying very well and incredibly slowly when required. We’re going to have to consider changing your name to Captain Sloth! Of course the first flight is in this month’s video.
The other completely new model to fly this month was a P51B Mustang that Dwayne Pipe has built from a plan that is available as a free download from the Flite Test website.
Dwayne explains: The Mustang is designed for all the parts to be cut from two A1 sheets of 5mm foam board. By foam board designs this is quite complex, but there is a set of photos and guides to building the plane included with the plans. In this case I had all the components, so it didn’t cost me anything extra. (Apart from some silver spray paint).
All the external control surfaces are covered in clear packing tape, and the fuselage was sprayed silver and then covered in tape before assembly. My version deviated a little from the original design and ended up heavier than the prototype.
The main specifications are: Wingspan 762mm, dry weight 425 grams, all up weight 550 grams, motor 1000Kv, ESC 30A, battery 3 cell 1600mAh, and a 9″x6″ folding prop.
After the first flight there are some modifications to be made. Changing the prop size and adding extra side thrust for a start, this is still work in progress! Yes, the first flight was brief as the Mustang torque rolled hard left from the launch and ‘arrived’ rather heavily!
Next up is some battery information from Dougal Entendre, something to think about next time you are thinking of buying some lipo packs at what seems to be good prices:
When I got my Wasp E2K racer at the Popham show in May, I needed some 4S packs with XT60 connectors to power it. I found some Nihewo 2200mAh packs rated as 100C on Amazon, and parted with about £42 for a pair of them. These proved to be very capable batteries, though I had to limit flight times of the Wasp to about 3 minutes if I really opened the taps for much of the flight.
Soon afterwards I got the HobbyKing Rare Bear, which also required 4S packs. The Nihewo ones proved ideal, but I really wanted more than just two, so I looked on Amazon once again. This time I found a pair of Zop Power 2800mAh 4S packs rated as 60C, at only £27.71 for the pair. I thought the extra capacity would be useful for the Wasp, but they were also small enough to fit the Rare Bear, so an order was duly placed.
Using the new packs in the Wasp, the plane seemed to perform just the same as with the smaller packs, so the 60C rating wasn’t a problem. However, I was disappointed to find that the Zop 2800 packs consistently came down with less capacity remaining than the Nihewo 2200 ones. It was the same story using them in the Rare Bear. Setting a 3 mins 30 second flight time, the Nihewo packs would come down with typically 53% remaining, but the Zop Power ones only showed about 20% or less on the tester.
When I charge from storage voltage to full, my chargers normally report putting at least 1300mAh into the Nihewo packs, but only 850mAh or so into the Zop Power ones. On Sunday I discharged one of the Zop packs from 97% down to 47% on the charger, and it reported that it only took 611mAh to do so! I don’t know how accurate these measurements are, but they certainly suggest the capacity of the Zop Power “2800” packs is a good deal less than that of the Nihewo 2200 ones.
These observations are borne out elsewhere. I found a buggy racing site with lots of negative comments, notably that the cells had been puffing up after only a few uses – often a sign of the packs getting discharged too low. I suppose the message is that “you get what you pay for”, so I won’t be buying any Zop Power packs again. Thanks Dougal.
This month the action shots are all screenshots from FPV videos by myself and Dougal:
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 (provided by Dougal this month)
On reaching his plane seat a man is surprised to see a parrot strapped in next to him.
He asks the flight attendant for a coffee whereupon the parrot squawks, ‘And get me a coke, you cow!’ The attendant, upset, brings a coke for the parrot but forgets the coffee.
When this omission is pointed out to her, the parrot drains its glass and bawls ‘And get me another coke dogface!’
Now, really upset, the girl comes back shaking with another coke but still no coffee.
Unaccustomed to such slackness from an attendant the man tries the parrot’s approach.
‘I’ve asked you twice for a coffee! Go and get it now, you old goat!’
The next moment both he and the parrot have been wrenched up and thrown out of the emergency exit by two burly stewards.
Plunging downwards the parrot turns to him and says:
‘For someone who can’t fly, you’ve got guts!’
Colin Cowplain
Patch News – October 2025
We are now in mid-autumn and the clocks have gone back, so we expect the British weather to take a downturn. We lost a few flying days in October and some days were ‘less than optimal.’ One such day was Sunday 5th when a few of us turned up with various models as usual, but mostly with mowing in mind and the vague possibility of flying if the weather improved through the morning. Sadly, it didn’t, and the wind continued to blow ferociously, but Dougal Entendre decided to fly his Wasp E2K pylon racer anyway.
It was a good choice of plane for someone who was determined to fly despite the gale and Dougal flew before we got down to mowing and then flew again when we had finished. 
Well done Dougal for showing the rest of us how to do it! Some of Dougal’s in-gale flying can be seen at the start of this month’s video. The patch looked much better once mown that day and better still when 1066 and Woody went up and cut it again on Friday 17th.
Speaking of Woody, it’s hard to believe but he reached the big 70 on Saturday 25th Oct.
He was kind enough to do the right thing and brought cakes along for everyone on Sunday.
On the last Sunday of the month there was quite a brisk north west wind blowing but despite that, Snoopy (aka Patrick Beagles) took the decision to take his BMFA ‘A’ test. Snoopy has been practising hard for the test with his Durafly Tundra in recent months and that is the model he used on the day. He had already asked club examiner Dougal to bring along the necessary paperwork so there was no backing out just because it was windy!
Dougal said this about Snoopy’s flight: Patrick put up a very good flight performance given the wind conditions. His simulated deadstick was no problem at all despite the wind and his plane’s rubbish glide angle! I had no hesitation in awarding him a pass. 
Congratulations Snoopy, a good flight and an excellent result on a less than ideal day.
Several new or revived models were flown in October and I’ll begin with Woody’s Delta. 
The model is a later version of one originally built by 1066 for the club’s Delta competition way back in 2015 when club members built deltas of their own design but they had to have a flat plate wing of a specified size and outline. They then competed in a series of tasks over the following few months, great fun. Some flew better than others but they all flew.
Oh look, ten years on and Dougal is still wearing that same coat! Back to the models now… 1066’s was a good flier and he enjoyed it so much that he built a Mark 2 version that used a Kline Fogleman wing section and it flew even better than the first one pictured below.
Eventually 1066 got a bit bored with flying the Mark 2 and it was discarded, just cluttering up his workshop, so this month he removed the running gear and passed it on to Woody.
1066 used to fly it with a fairly high KV motor and it was quite fast, but now, Woody has fitted a Tornado Thumper 3536/08 motor powered by a three cell 2200mAh lipo battery.
It flies very well, slower than previously of course which is just what Woody wanted and, as you can see in the video, is an excellent, steady flier. It’s good to see it back in use again.
Sticking with Woody, he had a bit of a mishap with his foamboard Typhoon in October.
He was flying it really well and did a lovely low pass over the patch, pulled up vertically, and promptly stalled! The Typhoon’s fall was halted by a large bush alongside the track. 
Fortunately, the damage was not too bad, less fortunately (for us) although I was filming at the time I missed the bush entry! Here’s a couple of screenshots from the video I took.
Not wishing to hurt Woody’s feelings I haven’t included the Moggie mishap in this month’s video, instead I have included Woody flying his foamboard F-16 with rather more success!
At one flying session in October I was flying my FMS Futura but was struggling to take-off with the slightly long grass wet with autumn dew and eventually I snapped the nose-leg.
Although the EDF jets look nicer in the air with the undercarriage removed I had left mine on as I was rather enjoying landing on wheels and taxiing back, plus I was unsure how well the Futura would go from a hand launch. Having snapped the nose-leg it was time to find out so I removed the main undercarriage legs as well and asked 1066 to try launching it.
No problems at all, it went away perfectly and had an increase in performance as well as looking better. While all this was going on 1066 mentioned that there was an Arrows Hobby Avanti for sale on Facebook for a sensible price and someone reckoned the seller was PAM member Page Boy. I have always liked the Avanti so I contacted Page Boy via WhatsApp and we discussed the Avanti between Futura flights. But during one flight there was a sudden bang as the Futura and John Warren’s Tasman clipped each other! John’s Tasman carried on flying perfectly but the Futura spun in, and on examination afterwards, it seems that one of the Tasman’s wheels had removed a large part of the Futura’s fin. 
Fortunately, the Futura damage was not nearly as bad as I had expected and I will soon have it flying again. So then it was back to chatting with Page Boy as now I really needed the Avanti! The deal was done and Page Boy even delivered the plane to me that evening.
Despite me featuring the Avanti in the March Patch News I had forgotten Page Boy even had one but he had only flown it two or three times as he is currently bogged down with other things and hasn’t been able to come flying. He decided to do a bit of a thinning out of his models and as the Avanti is in ‘as new’ condition he thought it would be an easy sell.
The EPO foam Avanti comes almost finished with an 11 blade fan, 2627 4500kv motor, 30A esc, 6 axis gyro, and 3 x 9g servos all pre-installed. All I had to do was replace Page Boy’s Spektrum receiver with a Multiplex one and it was ready for the next flying session.
The specs say to use a three cell lipo with a capacity of 1300mAh to 16oomAh so of course I promptly fitted a 2200mAh pack! This is my first Arrows EDF so I had asked other club members what they use and most seem to use 2200mAh packs, hence my decision.
1066 gave it a chuck and I’m happy to report that it flies beautifully. It’s slightly nose heavy with the 2200mAh lipo but it’s fine. You can see the Avanti flying in this month’s video.
Mini Mike’s latest E-flite Electro Streak flies extremely well, and he has proved that it will reach 125mph. 1066 got jealous and decided that he wanted some of that action so he set about building an Electro Streak from the long discontinued Great Planes kit.
I pictured it last month, built but awaiting it’s covering, and it’s now finished and flying.
Here’s a little of the Electro Streak history that I gleaned from the Outer Zone website:
The Electro Streak was originally designed by Tom Stryker and featured in November 1987 Model Aviation… it was kitted the next year by Great Planes. A 44 in span aerobatic model designed for 550 motors and 7 cells (Great Planes own Goldfire motor was included with the kit, the equivalent of a 7.2V speed 600 or the Simprop power speed 660) the Electro Streak is a fine exercise in minimal design, the lightweight air-frame offsetting the heavy motors and batteries of the day to give excellent performance.
Things have moved on a lot since 1987 of course and we now use brushless motors and lipo batteries. In his Electro Streak 1066 is using four cell 3300mAh packs for power.
For the first flights 1066 fitted an old Propdrive 3542 1250KV motor along with a 70A speed controller, but has since changed to an E-Power D3542 1450KV motor and an 80A speed controller. He says he’s not sure that there is much more power but it certainly sounds better. You can see it flying in this month’s video with the Propdrive motor and it appears to have reasonable speed and plenty of power for vertical climbs but the motor does sound a bit rough. If you fancy building an Electro Streak for yourself you can find out more and download the free plan from the Outer Zone website by clicking HERE
This month the action shots are all ones that Kryten has taken over the last few years:
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This month’s video is a little different as I’ve made it with Microsoft Clipchamp rather than the old Windows Movie Maker that I’d always used previously. Movie Maker was originally released in September 2000(!) and was officially discontinued by Microsoft in January 2017 so it’s not really surprising that I was having lots of problems and crashes running it on Windows 11 in 2025. I was reluctant to change as I’d grown to know Movie Maker really well over the years and it had all the basic editing functions that I needed. But it ran very slowly and I had to save my work every few minutes under two different filenames as I knew it would randomly crash and I’d lose whichever filename I was on at the time.
I discussed the problem with my son who understands these things and he talked about 32-bit/64-bit etc and suggested I try Clipchamp. So I bit the bullet and after an awful lot of faffing about I seem to have got the hang of it, and it did not lock up or crash once.
I don’t think any of you will notice anything very different in the video, I’ve tried to make it much the same as before but there will be a few small differences. This month the clips were filmed by me, MacFly, Dougal, and Captain Slow, thanks for all your efforts guys.
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:
For homework, a teacher told his students to ask their parents for a story with a moral. The next day, each of the kids told their stories, until only one little girl, Katie, was left.
“Katie, did your parents tell you a story with a moral?” asked the teacher.
‘Yes Sir…my mum told me a story about my dad.”
“OK Katie, go ahead, let’s hear the story then.” said the teacher.
“Well, my dad was an RAF pilot in Iraq and his plane got hit by enemy fire.”
“He had to bail out over enemy territory and all he had was a bottle of whisky, a pistol, and a survival knife. He drank the whisky on the way down in case the bottle broke, and then his parachute landed him right in the middle of twenty enemy fighters.”
“He shot fifteen of them with the pistol but then he ran out of bullets. He killed four more with the knife, then the blade broke, and then he killed the last one with his bare hands.”
”OMG!” said the horrified teacher. “What did your mum say was the moral of this?”
“Stay away from Daddy when he’s drunk!!!”
Colin Cowplain
Patch News – September 2025
I was away for two weeks near the start of the month and from what I hear most of what I missed was rain. The UK summer had been incredibly dry with record lows of rainfall so I suppose more rain than usual in September was not unexpected. Since I returned the weather had been good, many days have been dry with lots of clear skies and sunshine, but rain stopped play on the last Sunday of the month so it was time for beverages in the barn.
It’s now officially autumn so, as we head towards winter, our flying opportunities will decrease but no doubt many PAM members will still make the effort to fly regularly.
With the rain, the grass greened up nicely but of course it also grew a lot. As the patch grass became too long for many models Woody and 1066 took it upon themselves to go up one morning to mow and found it took two cuts as it had grown so long. Cutting the entire patch twice is a lot of work for two people and is something that we must ensure doesn’t need doing again. Huge thanks to them both for the hard work, we are very grateful.
There seems to have been a lack of new models flown in September, the only completely new model I spotted was Woody’s foamboard F-16 Fighting Falcon that he’s decorated very nicely in the colour scheme of the USAF Thunderbirds aerobatic team.
The model was built from a plan published on rc.tomhe.net, a site that has plans for several similar foamboard models including the Eurofighter Typhoon that Woody has already built and which flies very well. The F-16 has a wingspan of 720mm, is 1180mm long, and Woody has fitted a 2212 2450KV motor controlled by a 40A speed controller. The F-16 differs from most of the foamboards that have been built by club members in that it has a rear mounted pusher motor rather than the usual mid-mounted motor. For Woody the F-16 has been a very radical departure from his usual builds, no, not because of the rear mounted motor, but because on this one he hasn’t fitted any lights, not a single one!
The original construction is for the model to be built from Depron but, as is much more usual for PAM members, Woody has built his using Hobbycraft foamboard. This is 5mm thick and consists of a dense foam core sandwiched between sheets of white paper and comes in A1 size (841mmx594mm). At just £12 for four sheets it’s a very economical building material. If required the paper can be removed by soaking in warm water which has the advantage of making the board lighter (but also weaker) but this also highlights a problem. If the paper covering is left in place there’s a tendency for it to lift if the model is left on wet grass for too long, a waterproof mat is required! As the Thunderbirds colour scheme is largely white Woody has left the paper in place but has taped the cut edges of the board to seal them and hopefully prevent any peeling. The designer says that the F-16 can be flown using tailerons only but the ailerons are also marked on the plan and Woody originally built his with two servos, with each servo driving one elevator and one aileron.
This seems a strange set-up but lots of foamboard models use this method and it works well. Unfortunately, in a rush to finish the plane, Woody’s linkages weren’t running freely enough and we didn’t want to risk a test flight with them like that. After a general discussion the consensus amongst those present was to disconnect the ailerons and rely solely on the tailerons, something that Woody was able to do at the field.
The first flight attempt showed there wasn’t enough movement so changes were made. The next try was much better and the F-16 flew reasonably well for a couple of minutes. After more adjustments the third flight was much more successful and the plane flew well and looked good in the air but needed more roll control, so Woody took it home and added two servos and aileron linkages so it now has separate controls for the elevators and ailerons.
Next time out the F-16 flew beautifully, a great improvement and fully under control. Dougal filmed the first three flights goes so you can see them in this month’s video. At the moment I don’t have any footage of it flying with the ailerons connected, hopefully I can include some next month. Well done Woody, after a few hiccups Thunderbirds Are Go! Yes, I know that expression was the puppet Thunderbirds not the aerobatic team but…!
Sticking with TV for a minute, here’s a Star Trek quote: It’s building Jim, but not as we know it… it’s 1066 building a building board. Following his build of the twisted Blink that featured last month 1066 realised that he needed a building board that was actually flat:
My wife has never been in our loft, but is adamant she knows everything that is up there so I often find myself crawling around, looking for things that have been thrown away years ago. On one such occasion recently I came across a large piece of chipboard, and an old piece of flat pack furniture which must have been there since we moved in, some 26 years ago. You’re probably thinking, what has this got to do with toy planes? Well, with my newly discovered enjoyment of building, I had been thinking of making a building board for some time, so, by chance I had found some of the material needed.
The construction was straightforward, the sheet material from the loft was squared up leaving as much useable area as possible, the frame and cross bracing (parts from an old airing cupboard shelf I was given) was then glued and screwed to the chipboard.
Because the chipboard was not moisture resistant, and because it will be stored in the garage, all the internal parts were coated with some old varnish.
The piece of Conti board (that’s Melamine faced chipboard to us non-woodworkers) was left slightly longer and screwed to the framework, this would be the bottom of the board and also create the bottom of a small trough at one end. I took a lot of care to make a flat building surface, clamping the board down when gluing and screwing, however when it was all dry, and I put it on the bench, building surface face down, the whole thing was rocking, very disappointing. Further investigation found the chipboard had got wet at some time in its life and had a swollen in the middle, something I hadn’t noticed. 
Fortunately the fix was straightforward utilising a belt sander and spirit levels. The trough at the end is used to store my glue bottle, and it’s also very handy for catching offcuts of balsa etc. Up to now I hadn’t spent any money, but I needed something on the building surface able to take a pin, traditionally this would be cork, but that would mean spending money! So I eventually used some Hobbycraft art card that I already had, so still no money spent :-). Next, a small piece of sacrificial ply was added to use as a cutting area, this is only pinned on, so it can easily be replaced as and when necessary.
Finally, a handle was made from an old handbag shoulder strap, so it will be easier to carry indoors to continue building when it’s too cold out in the shed. I get a lot of pleasure making things from stuff that would often have been thrown away and, as I mentioned at the start, some of the materials used will be over 26 years old. They have now been used to make something that should be flat and useable long after I’m gone.
Having built the board 1066 thought he’d better build a plane, so here’s a preview of his latest model, an Electro Streak that he’s building from the Great Planes discontinued kit.
It’s looking good so far, let’s hope it’s not twisted! More on the Electro Streak next month.
Mini Mike has repaired his Arrows Hobby Albatros after an ‘unexpected arrival’ last year.
Fortunately he was able to purchase a new nose and it looks as good as new again now.
Mike says the Albatros isn’t as nice to fly as either his Arrows Hawk or Avanti and thinks he needs to keep the speed up more than with the others but maybe he just needs a bit more stick time. It was a windy day when he flew it in early September which probably didn’t help and Mike has since found that that the gyro that came with the Albatros doesn’t seem to be working correctly so he’s removed it and will see how it handles without a gyro.
It appeared to go well on three cells though he’s contemplating trying it on four cells.
One day at the end of August Dougal Entendre was flying his Durafly Rare Bear when it suddenly started making a rather nasty noise. Dougal got it down safely and discovered that the motor was obviously far from well, so there was no more flying that day.
Back in the workshop he removed the 3536 1700kv motor, disassembled it, and discovered that at least two of the magnets had come loose. The Rare Bear is very fast when running the stock set-up of four cells with an 8×5 propeller but HobbyKing say that it can handle six cells if the propeller is swapped to a 6×4.5. As Dougal’s motor didn’t last for too many flights on the supplied set-up I would be wary of trying it on six cells. I reckon it’s plenty quick enough on four cells anyway, and Dougal tends to only go to full throttle for short bursts during a flight, but maybe that’s because we are all getting older!
This is what Dougal did to solve the problem: I re-motored my Rare Bear with a cheap 3536 1450kv unit that I found on eBay. The shaft is different from the old motor so I couldn’t use the spinner originally supplied, but at least you can see more of the dummy radial motor now! Plenty of torque, as I found out when I launched it with a little too much throttle. On the second flight I flick-rolled it fast enough for the canopy to fly off. I landed OK, and fortunately the canopy came down in our field. I am now trying to devise something a bit stronger than just the one magnet fixing. Dougal thinks it’s not quite as fast as before but it still looks crazily quick to me and it’s definitely a little quieter now.
Back to 1066 now, who recently broke the wire undercarriage on his Night Visionaire. 
Dwayne Pipe kindly picked up a length of 10g wire for 1066 on a recent trip to SMC so all 1066 had to do was bend it to shape, not an easy task with tight ninety degree bends close together. But fortunately 1066 remembered that he had saved a useful wire bending jig from the sale of the late Chris P Bacon’s (also known as Nigel Baker) modelling goods.
The jig turned out to be excellent and 1066 soon had the wire bent to the correct shape.
Having the jig helped enormously and the Visionaire is now ready for another outing.
This month the action shots 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:
It was the student pilot’s first cross country solo and the nerves were kicking in:
Control tower: Can you give me your position?
Student: I am next to a cloud that looks like a lion.
Control tower: Can you be more specific?
Student: Er…Simba…
Colin Cowplain
