Patch News History

September was an interesting and active month for the club, the grass on the patch recovered from the lack of rain incredibly quickly, we enjoyed the first club meeting that we had held for ages, and we gained a new member, with a second one looking quite likely.

The speed of the grass recovery took us all by surprise, the drought ended with some steady rain over a few days but not a massive storm or floods, and the dead looking brown shrivelled remains on the patch suddenly sprouted like mad and very quickly became lush and green. In fact, the whole field quickly recovered enough for the farmers to put sheep out to graze. One of the sheep seemed to enjoy watching 1066 working on his plane! The patch was mown twice and it’s growing so quickly that we needed it to be cut shorter.

The club meeting I mentioned was held at the Hampshire Hog on Wednesday 23^rd with the main event being a talk that was given by Dougal Entendre about the many changes in radio control gear in general but mostly focussing on the various RadioMaster sets. It was good to meet up away from the patch for a change and have a good natter as well as learning quite a lot about the way RC gear has changed lately and is heading in the future.

The new member who has joined PAM is Jono Robertson, an ex-PADMAC member who was looking for a new club after PADMAC have lost their field in exactly the same way as we lost our previous one. Their site, just off the A272, was rented from the White family by the Atkinsons and the Whites suddenly told the Atkinsons that they wanted it back for their own use. We know just how that felt when it happened to PAM but we were fortunate that the Atkinsons were able to offer us the field we currently use as a replacement. Jono is an experienced builder and flier and, having completed his three visits within only a couple of weeks, he paid his subs and became a welcome new Petersfield club member.

I’ll begin the new models that I spotted in September with two models flown by Jono. OK so they aren’t actually new models but this was the first time they’ve flown from our patch so we haven’t seen them before! The first plane Jono flew was an OMP Challenger. It’s not a model I had been aware of before but apparently some Petersfield Aero Modellers members had seen them on sale at various models shows. The Challenger is available in two sizes, you can choose either a 49” (1250mm) span or a 59” (1500mm) span model. Jono’s is the 49” ARTF version (Almost Ready to Fly or Almost Ready to Fail as 1066 likes to say!) so comes with everything already fitted except a receiver and battery. The motor is a SunnySky 2820 which is coupled to a 40A speed controller and spins a 12×6.5E prop. All four of the ready fitted servos are OMPHOBBY SG5 17g. Jono uses Radiomaster gear and has fitted the Mini Bird with a Radiomaster ER5A 5CH ELRS receiver which has a built voltage sensor and sends the info back to the transmitter (those of you who saw Dougal’s talk on RC gear will know exactly what the ELRS bit means)! Jono is using three cell GNB 3500mAh lipos rated at 70C continuous and 140C burst. The Challenger is also available built and covered but without any of the electrical equipment so the purchaser needs to provide and fit their own power system and radio set-up.  I found this on the Model Shop Leeds website: The 49” Challenger, an aerobatic high-wing sportster, is an ideal model for skilled pilots who just want to have a little bit of fun; it would make a perfect first truly aerobatic plane for a weekend flyer as well. The fuselage is of light balsa and plywood “box” design covered by the Oracover® iron-on film. It is prepared for installation of 500-600W brushless motor using a radial mount with 40-60A ESC featuring powerful SBEC. Detachable hatches on the top and bottom of the fuselage are giving perfect access to the entire power system and RC gear. The elevator and rudder micro servos are to be installed into the tail end of the fuselage. The two-piece all-balsa wing with a semi symmetrical airfoil uses a carbon tube joiner; the wing halves are secured with screws to the fuselage. The full span ailerons are controlled by a single servo each. The empennage is a light all-balsa work. The main undercarriage features aluminium legs and lightweight large diameter wheels; the tail wheel with a carbon bracket is coupled with the rudder. Obviously Jono had flown the model many times before at the PADMAC field so I can’t report on the maiden flight but it appeared to fly well on it’s first outing at the PAM patch.

The second ‘new’ model that Jono brought to the patch and flew several times was his Mini Bird that he built from a plan, but he cheated and used laser cut parts from Cloud Models. The plan can be downloaded from the Outerzone website for free and their website says this: Mini Bird. Radio control sport model. Wingspan 770 mm. For .049 engine and 2 channels. Plan file includes full build instructions. Quote: “Before starting building: For a better finish and flight performance, take time in reading building instruction and referring to the plans, and assemble in good order and correctly and carefully”. Jono has fitted his with a Scorpion 2208 1280Kv motor but is thinking about replacing it with a T-Motor for a bit more performance. The motor spins an APC 7x6E prop and is fed by a three cell GNB 1350mAh lipo via a ZTW Mantis Slim 15A speed controller. He has fitted a Radiomaster ER4 4CH ELRS receiver (which like the ER5A in his Challenger has voltage sensing) and Hitec servos on the ailerons and elevator. Incidentally, although Jono bought the laser cut parts for his Mini Bird, he tells me he has since bought his own laser cutting machine, so I suspect he might be looking to recover some of his costs by cutting parts for other modellers…just saying! Form an orderly queue. Jono says the Mini Bird flies very smoothly and you can judge for yourselves as both the Challenger and Mini Bird can be seen in action in this month’s video.

The bromance continues between myself and Woody! Note the matching glasses, they are ones that Woody found on Temu that fit over normal glasses and have an amber tint that somehow makes planes stand out better. I think they are really sold as driving glasses to improve vision at night by removing the glare, but they also work well for model flying. Also in the photo, note the cans. One of the birthday presents that I received from my daughter a few weeks ago was a pack of alcohol-free beers. I’m not sure what she is trying to tell me by buying alcohol-free ones, I honestly don’t drink very much alcohol at all! Anyway, amongst the beer assortment were a couple of Brewdog Wingman cans so it seemed only right that I should share them with Woody and of course, being alcohol free, they were the perfect drink to enjoy at a flying session. Cheers Woody!

The only other new model that I spotted in September was a HobbyKing J3 Piper Cub. It was brought along by Snoopy and looks very nice in its Swiss colour scheme. The plane is an updated version of the previous Cub that HobbyKing sold in a camouflage scheme. Here’s what the HobbyKing website says about it: This version of the popular Piper J-3 Cub is in a striking new Swiss colour scheme which is a must for all scale pilots. This colour scheme uses a lot less paint so there is a bit of a saving in weight which further reduces the already low wing loading. The attention to detail makes it an extremely realistic model, and it comes with a nice, generous size 1400mm wingspan. Like all Cub’s with its large wingspan, and stable flying characteristics it is very easy to fly, perfect for low-hour pilots and experts alike. The Swiss Cub also has a new all-metal landing gear which is virtually indestructible, this will survive the hardest of landings. Further weight saving has been achieved by the removal of the metal tail bracing wires, these have been replaced with scale-looking, easy to fit, lightweight elasticated white shock chord. Fellow PAM member 1066 had (has?) one of the previous camouflage versions and said the undercarriage was always a problem with it so hopefully this version with a newly redesigned undercarriage will prove to be far less troublesome. The Cub is a PNP (Plug’N’Play) EPO foam model that comes with a 45A ESC and powerful 3648-700Kv brushless motor pre-installed as are the 9g servos. It can be flown using either a three or a four cell lipo with no need to change the 12×6 propellor. So, now the important bit, how did it fly? It looked good to me, the Cub took-off with no problems (none of the ground looping that 1066’s was prone to do} and flew very nicely. Snoopy was being rather wary with it and kept the Cub about five mistakes high for most of the flight but when the transmitter timer announced that time was up he landed the Cub back on the patch with no problems at all. That first flight can be viewed in this month’s video.

I don’t think it was related to Snoopy buying the Piper Cub, perhaps it was just a happy (?) coincidence, but Snoopy recently had a “minor incident” with his Durafly Ugly Stick… I reckon it was just an excuse for him to tell the missus “I think I need a new one dear”!

This month the action photos are an excellent assortment that were actually taken in August by Kryten plus a couple of less excellent screenshots from this month’s video:

This month’s video includes footage by MacFly, Dougal Entendre, and me. 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: Some wise words from a light aircraft pilot: Stay out of clouds. The silver lining that everyone keeps talking about might be another aeroplane going in the opposite direction. Reliable sources also report that mountains have been known to hide out in clouds.

Colin Cowplain

I must begin Patch News this month with an apology. As most club members with be aware, the club website has been out of action for several weeks. It wasn’t the fault of anyone in the club, the problem lay with the BMFA who host our website, apparently they had a major server problem in mid-August and all the various BMFA sites went down. They managed to restore the main BMFA parts reasonably quickly but getting the hosted club sites back up took a very long time. As you can see the site is back up again now and hopefully BMFA will have put measures in place to prevent the problem reoccurring.

On with the more interesting stuff now. The crazily hot and dry weather continued through most of August although in the last week the temperatures dropped somewhat, it got pretty windy, and we did have a small amount of rain. We had scrubbed a few flying sessions at the beginning of the month when it was just too hot to go and stand in a field that has very little shelter, but, as always, the old faithfuls still turned out regularly.
Dougal Entendre flew his SonicModell Binary FPV (First Person View) plane on August 9^th and you can see just how dry and scorched the whole of the area had become.
Dougal complained that looking at the landscape via his goggles it was much more difficult than usual to spot the patch from the air and this photo demonstrates the problem well:
Normally the patch stands out well from the air as the mown grass looks greener than the rest of the field but that was not the case in August. It demonstrates why a spotter is vital!

Nothing especially exciting happened at the field in August but there was one very notable achievement when young Tom passed his BMFA ‘A’ certificate. That means he can now fly unaccompanied. Tom has only been a regular at the field for a couple of months and it was clear from his first visit that he was quickly going to become a very capable pilot. So much so that the older members moaned he was too good! He has always been brought to the field by his grandad Dom who has been very supportive of his thirteen-year-old grandson.
For the test Tom flew the Durafly Ugly Stick V2 that he had bought from Woody a few weeks earlier and had used to practise extensively for the test. I was the examiner for the test and Tom flew well throughout as I was sure he would. I did ask him to repeat the figure eight as he lost a bit of height the first time, and the second one was much better. His landings (including the required deadstick one) were good, but this was no surprise as his landings are always good and have been since his very first visit to the field.
The questions were the part Tom was most worried about but Dom had coached him and had even been testing him on their drive to the field each visit. Before they joined the club Tom has passed the online CAA test but that one is slightly different to the BMFA RCC online test so I had to ask him five questions from the Mandatory Questions list and Tom rattled off the answers with no problem. A few days later, having passed his test, Dom and Tom took the online BMFA RCC and passed so all bases are covered now. Well-done Tom!

Following his test success, the next time he came to the patch Tom brought along his Arrows Hobby P-51 Mustang. Arrows produce Mustangs in two sizes, an 850mm wingspan one with a fixed undercarriage, and an 1100mm span one that is fitted with retracts.
Tom’s is one of the smaller ones and he had brought it along to the field when he first joined the club and sensibly sought advice as until then he had only flown his 512mm wingspan Qidi Moore M7. The M7 is one of the very light, single cell, gyro assisted small foamies that come complete with transmitter. It flies well but obviously has it’s limitations.
Tom could fly that very well but figured the Mustang was going to be a step too far so he got me to take it up for him. I flew the Mustang two or three times and Tom took control briefly each flight once it I had trimmed it out but it was a bit of a handful for him and he gave it back to me to land each time. But at the end of August, having passed his test and brimming with confidence, Tom flew it by himself with no problems at all. It was a very windy day and I had a few misgivings when he took the Mustang out to the patch, fearing a cartwheel if the wind got under one wing. I fully expected him to ask for help but he didn’t. Once he had safely taken off I offered to land it if he was struggling but I wasn’t needed at all. Tom flew the whole flight and then made an excellent landing. To prove it wasn’t just luck he flew again a little later and that flight was even better and finished with another great landing. You can see Tom flying the Ugly Stick and Mustang in this month’s video.

There was only one new model that I spotted in August, 1066’s new Arrows Hobby Viper.
I say his new Arrows Hobby Viper as this is actually his second one. No, he didn’t crash the first one (well not properly anyway), but the airframe had got rather knocked about and tatty, but more seriously, after a great many flights it had become quite noisy.
The noise was probably caused by the various bits of grass and other muck ingested by the fan after scores of landings on the patch (and a few off it!) but 1066 liked the Viper so much that he just went out and bought another one. Arrows Hobby have updated things a little since the Viper was first sold and the new one came pre-fitted with a Vector stabiliser but 1066 is old school and doesn’t like them so he removed it before flying the new model.
I overheard him muttering something about not trusting them and being perfectly capable of crashing without the help one of those new-fangled gyro things! If anybody wants a cheap and unused Vector stabiliser have a chat with 1066, I know he’s had it up for sale, although with the delay of Patch News this month it may have already been sold.
So, how does it fly? Unsurprisingly it’s much the same as his first one, although 1066 thinks maybe it’s a tad down on power compared with the first one. Perhaps you need to run it in, check the tappets, and then change the Duckhams? LOL.  It looks to go about the same as my own pre-stabiliser one, which I reckon goes better than my Arrows Avanti. Both 1066’s and mine are in this month’s video so take a look and see if you can see a difference in performance. Obviously, one is being flown rather better than the other…

After quite a long absence from flying, towards the end of August Kryten came along to see us all at the patch. He didn’t bring a model with him this time but he did bring his camera and he captured some great action shots, some of which you can see below. But, much more importantly, Kryten brought cake! I think we had made him feel guilty when lots of us sent him birthday wishes on the club WhatsApp group so he made a rather lovely lemon drizzle cake and brought it along to share between all the pilots present on the day.
It was great to you Kryten, come again very soon and bring some of your planes with you!

The last Sunday of the month was only a couple of days before my own birthday so, not wishing to be outdone by Kryten, I also provided cakes. Sadly nothing special that I’d made, just some Tunnock’s Tea Cakes but they seemed to go down well anyway.

In August Dougal Entendre was invited to give a talk to Rowlands Castle u3a Science and Technology Group. He went along one evening, taking with him his 1/5th scale Maxford Spad III, his SonicModell Binary FRV equipped twin, and one of his drones.
The talk went down very well and received a good write-up on the group’s website:
The group spent an exciting evening hearing from Mark Agate, Vice President of Petersfield Aero Modellers, about his passion for power models, gliders, helicopters and drones. This had all started in his youth and developed when he designed and built a working model for his degree at university in Sussex, using the Downs for test flights. He showed and explained a wide variety of radio control equipment which has improved over the years from AM to FM to PCM. He demonstrated a drone in the garden and we were able to use goggles to get a first-person view [FPV] of the drone’s flight. It was interesting to hear the wide range of use of drones for commercial and industrial use.
They promoted Dougal from Vice Chairman to Vice President but we can forgive that!
Well done to Dougal for promoting the hobby to a local group, it’s all good publicity.

This month I have the luxury of including some action shots taken by two members, Kryten and Tom. Here are six, I’ll use more from both of them over the next few months:

This month’s video includes footage by MacFly, Dougal Entendre, and me.
Please watch the video full-screen, it’s so much better with small models flying around:

The Final Funny:
An air traffic controller at the Nashville, Tennessee airport related an incident from several years ago when he cleared a Cessna 172 (4-seater small aircraft) for landing.
As the Cessna turned to final approach, an airliner called in ‘over the marker’ (5 miles from the airport). At this point the Cessna was only about a half mile from the runway, and the controller knew he could land and clear the runway well before the airliner would land, so he cleared the airliner to land as well.
A few seconds later, the Cessna pilot radioed “How far behind me is that 737?”
Before the controller could respond, the airline pilot, in a deep bass voice, boomed
“Don’t look back!…”

Colin Cowplain

Last month I said in Patch News that the weather was utterly bonkers and it has continued to be much the same right through July, with many days that were too hot for comfort and almost no rain. As I write this at the end of the month, we are in yet another heatwave, the fourth one this year, and it’s only July, although fortunately it isn’t quite as hot as before.
But the whole of the country desperately needs some rain, and lots of it. The patch is just brown now, but at least there isn’t anything much to cut! I was away for a week in July but didn’t miss much flying as many members felt it was too hot to stand out in the sun. Some of us flew on the slightly cooler days including 1066, Windshy, and MacFly, pictured here.

In July Woody flew the latest foamboard plane that he’s built and guess what, it has lights! It’s a Sukhoi SU-57 and Woody downloaded the PDF plan from Parkjets.com where you can find over 100 park jet plans to download for free. This is the second SU-57 that he’s had and he built this one because he liked the first one so much and it flew really well.
The Sukhoi has a large wing area which is probably what makes it such a great flier as a foamboard model. If I remember correctly the first one was a foamboard kit from Ali Express, but this one is made from a sheet of white 6mm Depron that Woody bought from Sarik Hobbies, so he had to do all the cutting out and decorating himself. He has fitted his standard foamboard power set-up consisting of a 2212/06 2450Kv motor, a 40amp speed controller, and a pair of Etronix servos, all powered by a three cell 2200mAh battery.
Oh, and of course the lights, which came from Amazon. To finish the Sukhoi Woody hand painted it with Decoart acrylic paints that he bought from a local art shop, and I must say that he’s made a good job of it, it looks great. I did the initial test flight which went well and after a few rate and trim adjustments Woody took over and he’s flown it a lot in July.
You can judge for yourselves how it flies as it’s in this month’s video.

As most members will have seen on the PAM WhatsApp group, ex-member Gorgeous Gary (Houghton) has been having a clear out of his model shed. He has already sold his Wot4 Foam-E to Catapult King, along with some speed controllers etc. MacFly has bought Gary’s Weston Cougar 2000, and I have his Multiplex FunJet Ultra and Arrows Hobby Viper.
Gary still has some motors to sell, including some top quality new in box OS motors, and an assortment of servos (some new in box digitals), speed controllers, and receivers. Give Gary a call if you are interested, he isn’t looking for lots of money, and would ideally like all of his stuff to go to PAM members. Message me if you need Gary’s phone number.

Towards the end of the month, I fitted out both the Multiplex FunJet Ultra and Arrows Hobby Viper with my Multiplex receivers and was very happy with how they both flew.
Apparently Gary had previously flown the FunJet but I don’t remember it myself so I was a little unsure of how it would fly. Several years ago I used to fly a Multiplex Micro-Jet (still got it) and I was never very happy with it, I think the thrust line was incorrect. Having just dug it out I see I have a fair chunk of lead on the back, just in front of the motor so maybe the centre of gravity was wrong. It has a 2212 1400Kv motor fitted with a 7”x 4” prop.
I’ll have to get it flying again and see if I can make it fly better. Anyway, back to the Ultra, the thrust line is adjustable and at the moment it looks to be set to zero., as recommended.
I can’t see what motor is fitted although I can see that it’s a Multiplex Himax motor so it’s probably the recommended C3514-2900. Likewise, I can’t see which speed controller is fitted but the recommended one is a MULTIcont BL-70 S-BEC speed controller so it will be that or something very similar. The manual says to use a 6″ x 5.5″ propeller but mine is fitted with a 5.5” x 4.5”. So, does it fly ok? Yes! The first flight was rather interesting as there was far too much aileron movement, making it very twitchy but I’ve been gradually reducing the movement and increasing the expo on every flight and it’s about right now.
It’s an amazing flier, very fast flat out but it will also slow up nicely and it glides really well. Presumably if I were to swap to the larger recommended prop it would be even faster.
I won’t be doing that, I’ve barely used full throttle as it is, I’m too old for it! I am using a 2200mAh 3 cell battery fitted as far forward as it will go to achieve the correct C of G and I was surprised to see that Gary had obviously been fitting the battery further back.
Then I noticed the manual recommends a 3300mAh pack so that must be what Gary had been using. I’ll stick with 2200’s, the flight is plenty long enough for my aged nerves!

Next to try was the Arrows Hobby Viper which I don’t think Gary had ever flown.
I wasn’t too concerned about the Viper as there are already several owned by other PAM members and they all fly well, plus for a while now I have been flying an Arrows Hobby Avanti which is from the same range and very similar. The Viper is 773mm wingspan and comes fitted with an 11 bladed 50mm fan, a 2627 4500Kv motor, 30A speed controller, and three 9g servos. The newer versions of the Viper come with a gyro installed but mine is an early version without the gyro. My Avanti came with a gyro but I wasn’t expecting any major difference when flying the Viper without one and that proved to be correct.
The plane went away from a hand launch with no problems at all and just flew beautifully, very similar to the Avanti as expected. I think it possibly goes slightly better than the Avanti but it’s difficult to tell. There was a very strong wind blowing the next time out but the Viper handled it with no problems although the lack of a gyro showed up a little as it wasn’t quite as smooth as the Avanti in the windy conditions.
I use 3 cell 2200mAh batteries in both the Viper and Avanti, as do other PAM members with these 50mm fan models, but the specs say 1300 to 2200mAh packs and the 2200 packs need to be as far back as they will go to obtain the correct centre of gravity.
All in all, I’m very happy with the Viper and look forward to lots of flying with it. Both the FunJet Ultra and the Viper can be seen in this month’s video, but be aware, that part of the video was being recorded when I was flying on a day that had ridiculously strong winds!

On 22^nd July the PAM Competition Secretary Dwayne Pipe ran the annual Chuck Glider competition for us. The competition was initially planned for the evening of 15^th July which I was unable to make, but fortunately for me Dwayne had an issue that meant he couldn’t make the 15^th either so the comp was switched to Wed 22^nd. Here is Dwayne’s report: Despite being deferred for a week, the annual chuck glider competition was held at the Buriton village hall field and as usual in the middle of July the conditions were perfect.
We had eight people turn up and all took part in both of the competitions. In the standard Chuck glider category, it will come as no surprise to learn that Colin Cowplain won.  His plane gets more beaten up every year but still outperforms all comers. His consistent times are part of the key to his success, but his overall time of 40.9 seconds this year was rather less than his time last year of 58 seconds. Second place was won by MacFly who built two new planes for this competition and gave Colin a close competition with a creditable time of 37 seconds.  Dougal Entendre came third.
We also had the Catapult glider competition as well. For this the results were completely different with Dwayne Pipe coming first with a time of 67.4 seconds, and Colin Cowplain second with a time of 57.9 seconds and Dougal Entendre third. Everyone seemed to have a good time.  I would recommend for next year that you get lots of practise in trimming your aircraft and consistent launching before you turn up on the night.
Thanks for that Dwayne, it was indeed a good evening that everybody seemed to enjoy. MacFly made a very short video of some of us trying to fly which you can watch here:

Captain Slow bought himself a rather nice second-hand model in July, a Horizon ArtiZan. The ArtiZan is an all-foam aerobatic model with a wingspan of 1080mm and it flies on a three cell 1800-2200mAh battery. Rather strangely, when I looked the model up on the Horizon Hobby website it’s listed (discontinued) as a ParkZone ArtiZan even though on the model itself it says Horizon with no mention of ParkZone. So, this is from the website: The distinctive ParkZone® ArtiZan® park flyer is a nimble, grab-and-go sport plane that’s perfect for exploring aerobatics. Its sleek lines, light wing loading and powerful motor provide a superb balance of slow speed stability and high-speed agility.
Even the high-visibility trim scheme by Mirco Pecorari of Aircraft Studio Design contributes to its sharp appearance. Anyone with experience flying 4-channel park flyers will feel right at home the first time on the sticks. Vortex generators on the leading edges of the wings enhance aileron control particularly when flying at slow speeds. Specially designed air inlets and strategically placed vents in the fuselage keep air flowing around critical electric components. A high-output 480-Size, 960Kv power system delivers plenty of speed and vertical performance for exploring a wide range of aerobatic manoeuvres. An E-flite® 30-amp ESC with a switch-mode BEC cleanly channels power from the battery to the motor. I was surprised when I read the specifications that it’s smaller and lighter than I thought, to me, it seems bigger when you see it at the field.
This is what Captain Slow told me about it: I was looking for a (temporary) replacement for my WotsWot that decided to eject its motor and mount whilst in the circuit.  I saw the ArtiZan advertised on Facebook in Worthing at £80. it was claimed to be as new – it wasn’t – though to be fair it hadn’t been crashed, there was just some hangar rash.
When I researched the model it’s still shown as available on the Horizon US website, although it appears to have first surfaced some 10 years ago.  It’s very similar in shape to MacFly’s and Mini Mike’s E-flite Sportix; there are slight changes to the cockpit shape and it has tip ailerons rather than full span ones; as sold it didn’t come with spats either.  I’m very pleased with it as it flies very nicely. As Captain Slow says the ArtiZan does fly extremely nicely, he let me have a fly and I found it to be a smooth, responsive, and pleasant model to fly. You can of course see it flying in this month’s video.

Ex-PAM member young Leo came along to fly as a guest at the patch one Sunday in July. He flew a FW190 that he had bought at the Popham Model Show for around £40. That had to be a bargain as it even has retracts and, as you can see in the video, it flew very well.
He also flew a large ASW28 which also flew well, and his Volantex Phoenix which is in the video. Unfortunately I don’t have any further information about any of the models.

This month the action photos were all taken at the club Chuck Glider competition:

Video time now, this month with footage by me, MacFly, Dougal, and Captain Slow.
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:
Last month at Heathrow, as I queued to check-in for my Virgin Atlantic flight to New York, I overheard an American chap ask for window seats for both himself and his wife.
The check-in girl politely pointed out that this would prevent them from sitting together.
“Listen love” the man replied quietly, “I’ve just spent the last three weeks on holiday here, touring all of England, Scotland, and Wales in a compact rental car with this woman.”
“Believe me, I know EXACTLY what I’m requesting!”

Colin Cowplain

Utterly bonkers! No, not the club members, this time I’m talking about the June weather. As I begin writing this edition of Patch News it’s mid-morning on June 25^th and the temperature in the shade is 31 degrees and climbing. We called off our usual Wednesday morning flying session on 24^th June as it was just too hot, dangerously so for us oldies, but Friday was a little cooler so a few of us flew. The last Sunday of the month was still hot but much more pleasant because there was a really blustery wind blowing. Utterly bonkers! Earlier in the month we had more normal weather so we flew a lot and in the pleasant sunny period before the heatwave hit the farmers cut the whole field (leaving our patch of course, and a 5metre border all around to encourage wildlife) and were able to get the grass turned and then baled before the rain came along. We are fortunate to have a great relationship with our farmers, George, Oliver, and Will of Meonside Farm, (click the link for more information) and they do a lot for the good of the countryside and local people. As well as allowing Petersfield Aero Modellers to fly on their land they also have MVSA (Meon Valley Soaring Association) flying slope soarers and the Sky Surfing Club who fly hang gliders and paragliders from Wether Down when the wind direction is suitable.
As part of their diversification efforts they do regular educational trips for local school children, exploring the farm in a tractor towed trailer and explaining about the various aspects of farming. The trailer often stops at the top of ‘our’ field where there is a great view over lots of their farmland while George tells the kids all about farming, and then he’ll do a slow drive-by near our patch so they can see a little of our flying. The kids all seem to love it and who knows, we might even gain some young members from it!

Several new models were flown in June, as well as some older planes that we hadn’t seen for a while, including Catapult King with his Wingnetic and his Sunbird electric glider.
Lots of PAM members had Wingnetics several years ago so it was good to see one in the air again. I’ve still got one of those tucked away somewhere, I really must dig it out and fly it!
Both Catapult’s Wingnetic and Sunbird can be seen flying in this month’s video.

First up of the genuinely new models was MacFly with his rather lovely E-flite Sportix.
The Sportix was a new one to me and I must say I rather like it. Here’s what the Wheelspin Models website says about it: The E-flite Sportix 1.1m PNP (EFL10775) is a modern sport aeroplane designed to be the ideal next step after a trainer and a no‑hassle everyday aerobat for experienced pilots. With a 1100 mm wingspan, it remains compact for transport and storage yet large enough for excellent visibility and confident handling in typical flying conditions. A factory‑installed brushless power system, four digital metal‑geared servos and a Spektrum Avian 45A Smart Lite ESC deliver precise control and strong performance on both 3S and 4S LiPo batteries. Assembly is fast and straightforward thanks to a snap‑plus‑bolt design requiring no glue or special tools. A two‑piece wing with hands‑free servo connections simplifies field setup, while the top‑mounted hatch offers easy battery access. Functional LED navigation lights enhance visibility and orientation, and durable aluminium landing gear with wheel pants completes the clean, modern look. MacFly got a good deal on his PNP E-flite Sportix from Wheelspin Models and everything went together as it should, with no problems.
The only change he made was to ditch the spats and fit larger wheels that are more suited to our grass patch. I did the trimming flight which went perfectly with virtually no trim changes required so MacFly has been happily getting used to flying the Sportix himself.
The plane flies beautifully but MacFly has had one problem, I’ll let him explain: After the first morning of flying, I tried to set up the brake on the motor to lessen the chance to damage the prop on take-off and landing, when tipping forward.  But being a Spektrum ESC it needed the Spektrum ESC programmer device to alter the settings and after purchasing this unit I found that it did not work.  When connecting the plane’s battery, it went into manual set up mode with all the bleeping sounds and it would not stop.
I was unable to find the manual method for programming online for this Spektrum ESC.  Following the process of elimination, the system would work correctly again after changing the ESC and the receiver.  I changed the ESC to the Ripmax Quantum which brakes fine at home, but not when flying! Very strange MacFly, I can’t imagine why both the ESC and the receiver had to be changed but Spektrum does have a few oddities sometimes. Anyway, you can all see the Sportix performing in this month’s video.

Last month I included some photos and information about Dougal Entendre’s latest model, a Freewing Flightline Velocity. At the time Dougal hadn’t had a chance to fly the model but he brought it to the field in June and it’s now had lots of very successful flights.
This is what Dougal told me: A few thoughts on the Velocity, now that I’ve flown it. First, my worries about torque on launch were completely unfounded – I can go off at full throttle without it rolling to the left. Second, it’s fast! (but I think we guessed it would be). Third, I can get a good 5 minutes duration and come down with at least 30% in the pack.
This is way better than the Rare Bear or my E2K racer, which only get 3 to 3-and-a-half minutes from the same packs. It’s pretty good at smooth aerobatics for a model of its size, but can do the flicky stuff as well. It normally comes out of inverted spins reasonably quickly, but not always, as I found out the other day! (fortunately I had enough height, and it stopped spinning when I put a bit of power on).
The wings look like they flex a bit, particularly when doing a fast low pass in turbulent air, but they haven’t snapped yet. All in all I love it! Thanks Dougal, yes it flies really well, and yes, those wings certainly do flex a lot! It’s in this month’s video so take a look.

In the May Patch News I wrote that Comp Sec Dwayne Pipe had confirmed the Chuck Glider comp will take place at Buriton Recreation Ground on Wednesday 15^th July at 7.30pm. There will be two classes, hand launched, and catapult launched (catapult provided). If the weather is bad it will be delayed to the following Wednesday, the 22^nd.
But what I hadn’t realised was that I’ll be away on 15^th July…doh! So the comp will go ahead without me unless the weather is bad and it has to be postponed until the 22^nd when I’ll be back. Guess who’ll be doing a rain dance on the evening of 15^th July!

Of course Dwayne is also in charge of the various fun-fly tasks that are open to all PAM members and can be attempted at any time during normal flying sessions. Each task has two classes, one for BMFA ‘A’ certificate holders, the other for ‘B’ cert holders. The tasks include Spot Landing, Max Loops, Max Glide, and several others, all the info you need is on the club website. So please have a go at some or all of the tasks, it’s all just a bit of fun.
I managed to hit the spot with my Max Thrust Riot in June and at the moment that’s the only score that’s been recorded in any of the tasks! So have a go, just ask someone to witness/measure/time/count and let Dwayne know your score. Good luck to all.

When 1066 broke the foam nosecone off his Arrows Hobby Viper at the field one day he just carried on flying without and said he’d probably just tidy up the break and not bother trying to refit the nosecone. I half-jokingly suggested he found a suitable sized spinner and glued that on instead, it would be much sturdier than the original nosecone.
A few days later he sent me a couple of photos showing that he’d done exactly that! I can’t help thinking that he could have made a rather neater job of filling in the redundant propellor cut-outs but 1066 says it’s an old model and he had his hot-melt gun to hand! Fair point, The Viper flies as well as ever although it’s a tad nose heavy now, I wonder why!

New member young Tom is now the proud owner of a Durafly Ugly Stick. It’s not a new one, Tom (no doubt helped by grandad Dom) bought the plane from Woody who had decided to sell it as it was surplus to requirements, plus he needed the space!
The Ugly Stick is an ideal next model for Tom, the Arrows Hobby Mustang that he also owns is a big step up from the little QIDI-560 Maule M7 that he can fly really well.
This month Tom had lots of flights with the Ugly Stick and he’s flown it superbly with no problems at all. On the last flying day in June there was a strong and gusty wind that was challenging for all the fliers, but Tom had several successful flights with the Ugly Stick.
On every flight he took off, flew around, did some touch and go’s, and finished with great landings back on the patch. Despite only starting to fly very recently he coped with the conditions much better than many of the established pilots! I filmed Tom flying in the blustery conditions so you can see how good he is at the end of this month’s video.

In June Bob the Builder turned up at the patch with another new creation that he’s built.
This is what he told me about it: My BobScout is based on the Flite Test Simple Scout. Wing span is 800mm, the maximum I could get from a single sheet of Hobbycraft 5mm foamboard. The whole thing is made from 2 sheets of foamboard.
I just wanted something that I can play around with, so it has fairly large control surfaces and a low wing just be different. What could possibly go wrong?
SunnySky 2216 1400Kv motor, 30amp ESC, 1300 3s lipo, 4 11gram servos. Currently using a Fly Sky S8R stabilised receiver. Spray paint finished to protect foamboard paper covering and to make it look better. All up flying weight 640 grams, about 150 watts/lb.
Cheap and easy to make and repair, fun to fly, room for variations, uses parts most of us have laying around. Would make a good club build. Thanks Bob, it looks like a nice all-rounder. I don’t have any video of it flying yet, hopefully I’ll be able to shoot some in July.

Bob also sent me some information about a new giro he’s been trying out: I have purchased an FMS Reflex3 giro and fitted it to my Skylark. I am hoping that the FMS name will ensure some quality and it has a useful feature that allows the gain to be adjusted from a phone app. Seems OK so far and it makes the Skylark a lot easier to fly. I’m not sure what giro  Bob was using in the Skylark previously but it did seem to give him a lot of problems so hopefully this one will prove to be better.

This month, as last month, the action photos were all taken by young Tom:

Video time now, this month with footage by me, MacFly, Dougal, and Captain Slow:
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:
Many years in the future a young pilot is flying around in his spaceship, and after flying for quite a while he lands at a convenient fuel station to refuel his spaceship’s tanks.
Once he’s filled up he asks the cashier where the nearest bar is. The cashier responds with “Pop over to the next moon, there’s one called The Keyboard, you’ll find it easily enough.”
The astronaut thanks the cashier and flies off to the next moon. Once he’s landed he finds The Keyboard easily enough, just as the cashier had said, so he goes in and sits down.
The bartender asks him what he would like “Just a drink or something to eat as well?”
“I’ll just a beer for now please. Oh, and tell me, why is this place called The Keyboard?”
The bartender says “Because it’s a space bar…”

Colin Cowplain