Patch News History

Hoorah, the weather is improving at last! It’s far from perfect but at least March did see lots of rain free days and even several days of sunshine. There were some misty starts early in the month which either prevented flying altogether or delayed flying by an hour or so. A couple of times during the month we switched flying from Sunday to Saturday to take advantage of better weather, which suited some more than others. Things went downhill again slightly towards the end of the month but overall March was pretty good. The warmer, drier weather meant that the grass started growing quickly again so on 11^th March 1066, Woody, and I (the Trimming Trio?) went along and cut the patch. Woody and 1066 did a further cut on the last day of the month so the patch is in tip-top condition, Several new models made the most of the improved weather and achieved their maiden flights. The first was Woody’s Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird that I featured in last month’s Patch News but at the time the bad weather had prevented Woody from flying it. That changed in March and the Blackbird finally flew, and it flew very well indeed. We knew from the Blackbird that Norwegian Nick built a couple of years ago that the Laddie Mikulasko design was good and Woody’s flew just as well as Nick’s, smooth and steady. It has loads of power and will climb almost vertically on full power but it’s easy to get disorientated at any sort of distance so it’s much more pleasant to throttle back and fly tightish circuits at low level. Good one Woody, it’s definitely one of your nicer models. The building bug is still afflicting 1066 and over the past few weeks he’s built a Bitsa. A what I hear you ask? I’ll let him explain: If you read my article on the MX2 from last month, you will already have an impression that I have no shame in taking advantage of people’s generosity. This is nothing new, if you have been in the club long enough you will remember Steve Montague, Steve was one of those people who would throw everything at a new hobby. He also liked quality with most of his models being either 3D Hobby Shop, or Precision Aerobatics, and they were always fitted out with high quality electrics. So I’m sure you’re wondering what all this has to do with me? Well, I think Steve is one of those guys who gets bored easily and is often looking for the next challenge, he is also very generous, just like our Mr Woody, so when he hinted he was thinking of selling anything, I was always the first sniffing around his shed, with the aim of making the most of his generosity, and hopefully separating him from his champagne models at lemonade prices. One of those models was a 48 inch 3DHS Extra. The Extra was a fantastic model to fly with no bad habits, as you would expect from this manufacturer, but such models can lead you to believe you are a better flyer than you actually are, so you start pushing things just a bit too much, which always ends in that inevitable crash. In the case of the Extra the fuz was destroyed, but the wings, tail, and rudder hardly had a scratch, so they were salvaged and put in the back of the shed. After a couple of years I decided to make a profile fuz out of Art Card, I decided to base the outline on the Hobby king foam MX2 I had at the time (the same as Colin is currently flying). Unfortunately, between the time of the original crash and building the new fuz I lost the carbon wing joiner, so the project went on the back burner for another couple of years until I found a wing joiner. Sadly, my shed is just a bit damp in winter, and we all know what happens when paper gets damp! The next fuz I built, once again used Art Card, and the same outline, but this time the batteries, electrics etc would be housed inside. On this occasion I really wasn’t happy with the finished structure and put it to one side, only for history to repeat itself over the next winter. By the start of 2026 I decided the second fuz was only fit for the bin, but I didn’t want to bin the perfectly serviceable wings and tail parts, so fuz number three was born, still using the same outline, but this time it would be a balsa and ply construction, and revert to the original profile design. There isn’t a lot to say about the construction, I think the photos are self-explanatory. I came across a few problems, like how to make a simple wing retaining system which allowed easy removal of the wings for storage. I also wanted a sturdy undercarriage, none of the flimsy ARTF types we all moan about. As the build progressed I felt it was going to be tail heavy, so I mounted the wing about an inch further back than I had originally intended, which proved to be the correct decision, as it still needed the larger battery to balance. The model was finished with a red iron on film that I had already purchased, and luckily it was a good match for the original covering. The electrics were again sourced from AliExpress for under £50.00, this was a 3536 1250 KV motor, 2 x 17g, 2 x 9g metal gear digital servos, and a 60A Esc. The battery slot was made to take a 3 cell 3300mAh battery, mainly to get the CG in the correct position, finally a 10 x 5.5 prop seems to work perfectly keeping the current draw under 60A. I have now built and test flown three models this year, and all have been on mornings with poor visibility, but this one was the worst of all. Luckily the first flight was a non-event with almost no trim required, further flights showed some down and right thrust would improve things, and a bit of nose weight for the lighter batteries, but that was all. So to summarise, before COVID I broke a great model, I then failed to build two fuselages, but I didn’t give up on those wings and tail feathers, and six years later I have a very practical model that fits in the car fully assembled, has a lot of the doner models characteristics, and cost very little money, win, win, win. I can vouch for the fact that the Bitsa is an excellent flier and you can judge for yourselves in this month’s video. In March Bob the Builder strapped an old Runcam video camera to the nose of his twin. Bob says the camera is an old 4k Runcam2 that has been very troublesome. He was about to chuck it away but decided to take it apart. He put the battery in while it was apart and it seemed to work ok, so he carefully reassembled it and it is still working. When Bob sent me the footage I was surprised by the quality so I’ve included some in this month’s video. Dougal Entendre splashed out on a new EDF model in March, an F-16 Fighting Falcon. Here’s what Dougal says about it: My HobbyKing Sportjet is getting old and battered now, so I thought I’d treat myself to a brand new EDF. AliExpress seems like a good place to go for this kind of thing, and I soon found a 70mm F16 for 4 cell 2200 packs. It was available as a PNP (just add Rx and battery) for less than £150 delivered but it’s gone up slightly now. It was advertised as having 6 servos, which seemed a bit excessive, but turned out to be 2 for the ailerons, 2 for the elevators, 1 for the rudder and 1 for the steerable fixed gear nosewheel. The undercarriage looked really ugly, so I decided to dispense with it, and removed the nosewheel servo to keep as a spare. Colin has the old HK F16 for 3S packs, which looks like it came out of the same mould. His has all-moving tailerons (and no ailerons) where mine has fixed tailplane halves. The fuselage on mine has painted plywood alignment plates stuck on at the tail root, to ensure you get the right amount of negative incidence on the tail. It seemed like an excessive angle, but I figured it was to counteract the extra weight of the 4S pack up front. The plane failed to get away from the first hand launch due to insufficient up elevator, but came down flat with no damage. Clearly all that tail incidence wasn’t quite enough! After dialling in full up trim it got away successfully, and handled really well once trimmed. The 4S pack gives it quite a turn of speed, but it can take a 2200 pack down to less than 30% in 3 minutes, so I’ve ordered some more packs to make sure I get plenty of airtime! For details on the AliExpress website click here: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005009290799312.html?spm=a2g0o.order_list.order_list_main.10.24af1802JFnxYa The demo video of it is good, but I guess you get less than 2 minutes if you fly it like that! Click on the link above to watch the short demo video, it’s well worth a look, and then see Dougal’s flying in this month’s video. Incidentally the video is almost all maiden flights! At my house we’re keen on recycling and Havant Council won’t accept many types of plastic in the green recycling bin, basically only plastic bottles.  We have to take yoghurt pots, margarine tubs, and plastic trays etc from the fridge to a special bin at Asda in Waterlooville. Every time we have a load to take I think about trying to make a plane out of it, and this month I actually tested a glimmer of an idea, a delta type that I called Polar Fly. The fuselage would be easy but the delta wing requires more thought, I haven’t yet figured out how to make it rigid enough without using lots of wood to brace it which rather defeats the object of the thing. So now it’s all gone to the bin, maybe next month… Adios Polar Fly! Following some struggles with the P-51B Mustang that he had constructed from foamboard using the Flite Test plans Dwayne Pipe decided to build a balsa version. Here’s what Dwayne has to say about it: Having built and attempted to fly the foamboard P-51B (with not much success), I decided I liked the plane but not the foam design. When the foamboard model had its last flight, I decided to redesign the plane using the traditional balsa and plywood method, recycling the hardware from the previous model. I have designed and built a few models now, so it was out with the set square, paper and pencil (not forgetting the eraser).  I designed the P-51D bubble canopy version, which I think looks better anyway, basing the shape on the Airfix model I have, but increased the wing area by about 30% to keep the wing loading down. The wings also have a small amount of washout, and the air foil section is based on a Tony Nijhuis Spitfire I built years ago with good glide and low speed performance. The design was finished by early January, and the build took from then until March. The first flight was better than all the flights of the previous model and apart from some tweaking of the down thrust and side thrust on the motor it needed little trimming out. Specification Wingspan 31.6 ins All up weight 24 oz 30A speed controller pulling a 6×4 prop with max current of 19.8A Battery 3s 1600mAh Thanks Keith, it was good to see it flying so well. It is, of course, in the video. Having recently ‘retired’ his JP F38 Hornet Delta Racer a slightly bruised MacFly bought himself a Durafly Tundra V3 “Inspire” which should suit him very well, a good all-rounder. There are already a couple of Tundras in the club but MacFly’s is the first of the V3s. Here what HobbyKing say about it: After the incredible success of the Tundra V1 and V2, Durafly has decided to produce yet another version with even more improvements to bring the Tundra series bang up to date. The V3 is now a pure 4S set-up so it has power in abundance to make your flying even more fun than it was before (if that is at all possible!). Other changes and improvements include daylight bright LEDs (so bright they are suitable for true dawn-to-dusk flying), a reinforced nylon prop that is more efficient, and better balanced, a return to the classic EPO foam wheels which are lighter, and stronger, pre-installed pushrods, hex-head bolts and screws throughout. The V3 is available in the classic Tundra green and white scheme, or a red and silver colour scheme Durafly has called the “Inspire”. The reason is that the original Tundra was “Inspired” by the “Highlander” full-size SuperStol experimental airplane. The Tundra V3 also includes the revolutionary Aerostar RVS (reverse function system) G2 ESC, this ESC offers instantaneous reversing, so there is now no need to stop the prop before reversing. This makes it perfect when using the Tundra V3 on the water as a floatplane, but it is also great fun in the air, and really good for short landings, just ensure the prop is on nice and tight!! The tough EPO foam construction is beautifully finished, and being “Plug N Fly” the Tundra V3 is supplied with the powerful, and reliable Aerostar 3636-900KV brushless motor, the Aerostar RVS G2 40A ESC, and 6 high quality 9g servos. Retained from the V2 are the upgraded landing gear and fixings, vortex generators, improved wing connectors, and battery tray. MacFly asked me to do the test flight and all went well. The only slightly strange thing I found was that it needs rudder input as well as ailerons to turn nicely, maybe some differential aileron would help. But overall it’s a very nice easy flier and ideal for our field. Mini Mike brought his new HobbyKing Viper 64 to the field for it’s first flight. Mike bought the model a couple of month’s ago but has been saving it (plucking up courage?). He also bought a couple of Turnigy BoltX LiHV 6S 2400mAh 22.8V 80C LiPo batteries to power the Viper. This is from the HobbyKing website: The H-King Viper 64 is affordable, very stable, and has predictable handling qualities, making it the ideal choice for your first venture into flying EDF jets. It has stunning looks, and the performance on its 6S set-up gives it a fantastic turn of speed and the ability to perform big, jet-style manoeuvres, this makes it also the perfect sports jet for the more experienced RC pilot. The H-King Viper 64 is based on a small two-seater homebuilt jet airplane designed by the Viper Aircraft Corporation in the States during the late 1990s. The durable, lightweight EPO airframe of the H-King Viper 64 combines strength with durability. This plus the powerful 6S set-up allows the Viper 64 to perform nice big loops, rolls, hesitation rolls, Immelmann’s, Cobras, Cuban-eights, and much, much more. At the other end of the scale, the low-speed handling is equally impressive, making the Viper as mentioned before the perfect choice for beginners to EDF flying. The included flaps and stylish winglets provide lift right down to very slow speeds allowing for perfectly controlled high alpha landings. The supplied sprung fixed landing gear is also simple, rugged, and uncomplicated, making it ideal for operating from grass-flying strips. This quick-to-assemble “Plug N Fly” version of the H-King Viper 64 EDF jet comes complete with a 6S compatible 2840-2300KV brushless motor, matched to a 64mm 12-blade fan unit, and a 45A LiPo/LiHV compatible brushless ESC, this gives an abundance of speed, thrust, and a realistic turbine-like sound. Then there are 8 x 9g servos pre-installed at the factory, two on ailerons, two on flaps, two on the separate elevators, one for the rudder, and one for the steerable nose-gear. The H-King Viper 64 is a great flying, great sounding, fast EDF jet with incredible stability that gives it that locked-in, rock-solid feel, it is the perfect choice for first-timers at EDF flying, or as a sport jet for the more experienced RC pilots. The Viper 64 also looks great as well, both in the air and on the ground, it’s guaranteed to turn the heads of all the pilots down at your local patch. I think I can safely say that everybody who watched the maiden flight was impressed, the Viper went very well, looked and sounded great, and Mini Mike obviously enjoyed flying it. Take a look at some of the action shots from this month’s flying, all are from the video: Video time now, with footage shot by me, Dot Cottam, 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: What’s the difference between a flying pig and a politician? The letter F… (Other politicians are available)! Colin Cowplain

OK this is getting very boring now, rainy day after rainy day after rainy day. Never mind, looking on the bright side March 1^st  is officially the start of spring, things should improve. There were a few decent days in February but only a few. One of better ones was on Saturday 14^th Valentines Day: Roses were red, Violets were blue, so were the skies and lots of us flew. Who said romance is dead for us load of old codgers! The morning was cold with a north wind blowing but nothing we couldn’t cope with, and we had a good session.
We had sensibly decided to switch flying to the Saturday (despite it being Valentines Day) as all the forecasts correctly predicted strong winds and heavy rain on the Sunday.

At the end of the month, on a day that was much too windy to fly, Woody and 1066 took it upon themselves to go up to the field and mow the patch. As this was the first cut since December it was no mean feat so well done and massive thank you to Woody and 1066.

As the field is on the top of the South Downs it’s difficult to predict whether there will be mist/fog/low cloud, sometimes it’s foggy at lower levels where we live but clear at the field, and sometimes it’s the other way round. A few of us turned up, hoping to fly, on Sunday February 8^th but found the field enveloped in thick fog. There was very little wind to clear the fog and it looked as if we’d had a wasted trip other than enjoying a sociable morning.
But Dougal Entendre wasn’t going to be put off by a lack of visibility, he’d brought the correct model for the conditions, a Hummer that he can prop hang endlessly! I wasn’t as bright and had taken two EDFs, so with no chance of flying I filmed Dougal enjoying himself instead. Dougal had no problems; he didn’t lose sight of the plane at all and landed safely after several minutes of happy hanging. You can see it in this month’s video.

I have kept myself busy by building twenty new models, none of which will ever fly!
One of my Christmas presents was a book of twenty press out and build vintage paper planes, all of which are ‘scale’ planes…very rough scale. So, as I was unable to get out and fly much, I spent quite a lot of hours pressing, folding, and glueing my own mini air-force.
As well as the usual suspects there are a few fairly unusual types so I feel a competition coming on, a suitable prize will go to whoever correctly identifies the most planes in the comments below. If more than one person names them all correctly the prize will go to whoever does it first. Having completed all twenty I now have a dilemma, what on earth am I going to do with them all? If anyone wants one, several, or all of them please shout!

A few new models appeared in February but, at the time of writing, not all have been flown yet, mostly due to the abysmal weather. First up is one that has managed quite a few flights already, the Hacker MX2 that Woody had won in the raffle at the club AGM.
I’ll let 1066 explain: As you will all be very aware the AGM raffle was fixed so that I wouldn’t win anything, but that’s OK because first prize went to one of the nicest men I know. Jealousy is not my most attractive attribute, but it’s not as bad as my ability to take advantage of people like Woody, and I didn’t miss a second in offering to help him out by taking the kit home. To my disappointment Woody decided to keep the kit and give it a go himself. However this was short lived because to my surprise Woody decided the model wasn’t for him after all, so a deal was done (in reality I stole it from him).
At the time I was midway through building my Christmas present, so I had no intention of putting the MX2 together, but I made the mistake of opening the box just to have a look, and three hours later I had made a good start. I’m not sure how old the kit is but, being a Hacker model, it was always going to be good quality, however as ARTF models go there was a bit more work than I would have expected on this type of construction. There were also some unusual design features. The most obvious was the laser cut kit of ply parts that made up the wing centre section to which the foam wing halves were butt glued, this also included the undercarriage mount, and wing retainer, but no main spar. That evening I hit the AliExpress website and found a 35-36 1250 KV motor, 50 Amp ESC, and four 17g digital metal gear servos for just over £40.00 delivered. The model went together over the next few days, and the electrics arrived at 2pm on the day previous to the next flying day. By 8pm everything was installed ready for flying the next day, something I never normally do. The next day the weather wasn’t great for a maiden flight, but the first flight was undertaken, and although everything went well the model was far from right, I just hadn’t taken enough time setting things up correctly.
Over subsequent flights things were sorted out, and having flown the model for a few weeks now it’s fast becoming a real favourite. In summary, thanks to Woody’s generosity and a bit of time on the internet, I now have a fantastic one-piece model that seems to cope with a wide wind speed range, is docile and aerobatic and cost me just £63.
Thanks for that 1066. BTW, if the raffle had been fixed I would have won the MX2 myself! As 1066 says the MX flies extremely well, check it out for yourselves in this month’s video.

Sticking with 1066, he sent me a meme that he’d spotted online and felt was good for us:
Every take-off begins with belief.
Every crash builds experience.
Every flight makes you better than yesterday.

The next new model to arrive at the flying field was one that Woody has built, an SR-71. There’s a bit of history behind this one as Norwegian Nick had built and flown an SR-71 Blackbird back in February 2024 which flew very well indeed and looked great in the air.
Inspired by Nick’s success Woody ordered the same kit from Sarik Hobbies. They offer three different deals, you can buy the plan and magazine article for £14.03, or a laser cut Depron pack for £11, or a short kit containing the plan, the magazine article, and the laser cut pack for £23. This is the description from the Sarik Hobbies website: Designed by Laddie Mikulasko, this is a quick and easy 693 mm span electric profile sport-scale build from the CAD drawn large single sheet plan. All Depron construction with some balsa and spruce strip, and uses an economical BL2212/06 2200KV motor, 40 Amp ESC and 3S 3000 Lipo with a 6″x4″ in. APC-E prop. So Woody built the model from the Sarik supplied laser cut parts and then fitted a 2212/5T 2450KV brushless motor along with a Quantum 40A speed controller. The Blackbird only uses two servos as it’s controlled by elevons and it doesn’t have a rudder, so Woody fitted two he had in his spares box.
Power is supplied by a 2200mAh 3 cell lipo. Woody brought the Blackbird to the field on February 8^th, the day of the really thick fog, so he couldn’t fly it but the damp air showed up a problem even without flying, the black tape he had used started lifting. Maybe Nick has the answer as the tape appeared to stay stuck down ok on his Blackbird. The other problem Woody found is that the model appears to be very weak where the battery mounts, there’s very little support in that area and some strengthening is required. I’m looking forward to seeing it in the air and hope that it performs as well as Nick’s.

The final new model to arrive at the field in February was Snoopy’s new Radjet 800.
He had spotted the Radjet at a much reduced price on the HobbyKing website and decided it was too good to pass up. I forget what Snoopy told me he had paid but I’ve just checked and today they are in stock at the UK warehouse and selling for £70.43, which can’t be bad for a plug and play model. The only things you need to add are a receiver and a three cell 30C lipo battery with a capacity of 1300-1600mAh. As the postage is free from HobbyKing on orders over $99 you’d only need to spend about another £5 to qualify for that.
The Radjet comes already fitted with a 2010 1800KV motor, a 20A speed controller, and two digital 9g servos. Assembly requires you to fit the carbon wing tube and glue on the wings, fins, and plastic undertray. This is what the website says: Are you looking for extreme speed right out of the box? If so, we’ve got you covered. There is plenty of rad in the Radjet 800! With its amazing price, EPO foam, and being Plug and Fly, this brilliant model has no trouble earning the Radjet name. The Radjet 800 has been tested and flown to within an inch of its life and it performed flawlessly, not only in terms of flight performance but also reliability, and believe me, we tried hard to kill the test version!
It’s a simple build with the motor, ESC and servos pre-installed, even the decals are pre-applied! It has several impressively simple and practical features such as the plastic skid on the length of the underside of the fuselage that will protect your Radjet from the usual tears and gouges, effective cooling for the ESC and lipoly. But, it doesn’t stop there, oh no! What’s it like to fly? Utterly brilliant! The light flying weight means that the outrunner motor gives tons of performance, the Radjet will pull massive loops and is capable of some pretty precise aerobatics, it’s quick, no doubt about it but throttle back and it becomes a total pussycat, fly it like you stole it or glide around, either way, it’s a hoot! So to sum up, it looks great, it’s easy to assemble, flies brilliantly, is reliable, fast, and cheap…Radjet? You better believe it!  I must admit that I’m quite tempted… No, I mustn’t, I don’t need any more models…! The only problem Snoopy has found so far is that those rather lovely pre-applied decals had started to lift before he even brought the Radjet to the field. So, now the all important part, how does it fly, is it as good as they say?
Well so far it hasn’t flown. Snoopy brought it along on Valentines Day, one of the few decent flying days in the month, and was all set for the maiden flight but when he connected the battery the plane did nothing, dead as a Dodo. After much fiddling about with no joy at all he gave up and took it back to his car and collected a different model to fly. It was only when got back to the patch that he realised what had been the problem, his transmitter had the wrong model selected! By that time he couldn’t be bothered to walk back to the car again to retrieve the Radjet. Fancy inadvertently having the transmitter set on the wrong model, that’s not something any of us has ever done…ahem…! Never mind Snoopy, at least the transmitter prevented you from trying it and finding out the hard way.

Take a look at some of the action shots from this month’s flying, all are from the video.
I think the first pic is especially interesting, someone was definitely going the wrong way!

Video time now, this month with footage shot by me, 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 woman called the airline customer-services department asking how she should go about taking her dog on board, realising it would have to be in the hold for the flight.
She was told “You can take it, as long as you provide your own kennel, which must be quite large as your dog must be able to stand up, sit down, turn around, and rollover.”
The confused the customer replied, “I’ll never be able to teach him all that by tomorrow!”

Colin Cowplain

January was a very wet month for most of the UK, and the south wasn’t spared at all. Several flying days were lost due to wind and/or rain, but we also had a few good days when the biggest problem at the field was often mist blowing up from the valley.
We shouldn’t really complain, it is mid-winter after all and we are certainly luckier with the weather than the clubs further north. I know some clubs stop all flying in the winter.
There was a small amount of snow at home on January 5^th and I imagine there would have been much more at the flying field but I’m afraid I wasn’t going to venture out to check!

The Petersfield Aero Modellers AGM was held in January at the Hampshire Hog in Clanfield. I won’t bore you with all the details, suffice to say that the main points were the committee elections (no changes at all), agreeing to the new, slightly increased subscriptions, and review and acceptance of the accounts. I was pleased to note that, despite the rumours that had been circulating, treasurer Nick was present and not laying on a sun-drenched beach in the Bahamas! There was an excellent turnout of members and all went smoothly with no major issues. Everyone seemed to enjoy the evening, it was good to catch up with some of the members who are unable to make it to the field very regularly. The evening ended with the drawing of an absolutely amazingly brilliant raffle (guess who ran it!) and the major prize of a Hacker MX2 ARTF was won by the club secretary and ever popular Woody who also won the members vote for Clubman of the Year trophy.

Club members should all have received an email about the memorial service on 26th January for ex-member Ken Knox who sadly passed away just before Christmas. Unfortunately I was away but Chas and his wife Dawn attended so PAM was represented. This is what Chas said about the service: Dawn and I attended Ken Knox’s memorial service on Monday. We sat with Tony Butterworth and Peter Turley in what was a pretty full church. There was a eulogy from Declan Cousins and a dual one by Ken’s two sisters. It’s sometimes surprising what you learn from these presentations. Ken went to the same school as John Lennon and although Ken was a bit younger than John he was often teased by him. Ken also took his younger sisters to a local venue where the Quarrymen were playing in their early days. Thanks Chas, I’m glad that you went along.

With the wintry weather limiting flying somewhat there weren’t many new models flown in January. Never mind, I’ll start with 1066’s newly completed and rather nice Flair Attila. Remember those? Flair RC models were primarily produced from the early 1980s through the mid-2000s, with the company undergoing a major restructuring in 2005. Known for their high-quality “Classic Scale” and “Scout” series, the kits were a staple of the British modelling scene, with many designs dating back to roughly forty plus years ago.
The Attila is a 46” (1168mm) sports scale model originally designed for small IC engines, either two or four stroke, but obviously 1066 has made his electric. Here’s what 1066 has to say about his journey to the Attila: Back in the mid-eighties I built a Flair Magnattila, it was fitted with a worn out Irvine 40 that barely had enough power to get it off the ground, but I loved it,  flying very slow low level aerobatics, it was so stable with no vices. A few years ago I had the privilege of flying Nick Squire’s late father’s Magnattila, probably the most emotional flight I’ve ever undertaken, but it was everything I remembered from my own model. Having recently fallen back in love with building I started looking for a Magnattila kit, but they are very rare, and when they do appear they are ridiculously expensive. Move to a Friday morning in late 2025 when John, Andy and I made the mistake of believing a weather forecast and tried to go flying. After about half an hour we realised the mist wasn’t going to lift so John invited us to his man cave for a coffee. While snooping around his cave I saw, what I originally thought was the sought after Magnattila, but turned out to be its’ smaller, almost identical brother, Attila. An offer was quickly made, and accepted, so I was now the owner of an Attila kit, for a great price. They say the nicest things come in small parcels; the Attila proves the point. Easy to transport with very forgiving flying characteristics, the Attila provides economical fun flying. The kit provides all materials for the 3-channel version but aileron conversion is detailed on the plan, so I decided to build mine with ailerons, using two small servos instead of the central servo with bellcranks as shown on the plan.
This is one of the earlier types of kit and as such it should be remembered that the instructions require the builder to interpret the full-size plan more so than more modern kits. This is where building from a kit comes into its own because you can incorporate any modifications as you build the model. With a bit of thought it was fairly easy to come up with a mod that made getting the battery in and out very practical, and with the generous proportions of the fuz a 3700mAh three cell fits with ease.
Because the original was designed for IC, using a relatively large battery helps with CG, especially as I wanted to fit the Rudder and Elevator servos at the rear of the fuz. This type of model just has to be covered in fabric, and not film. Checking the internet for Antique Oracover I was shocked by the cost, to cover the Attila I calculated I would need about 2.75 metres, so would need two rolls at a total cost of £75, ouch, almost twice what I paid for the kit. However after further investigation I found a product being sold by Sarik Hobbies called Diacov 1000. The material is 10 cm wider than the normal hobby products, so I calculated that if I was careful I would only need 2 metres, which came too £ 29.00 delivered. The only drawback is that it only comes in translucent white. I watched a couple of YouTube videos demonstrating the product and it looked to be really good, so decided to try it, and I can confirm it is a great product for this type of model.
To complete the set up an old HobbyKing 35/42 1250 KV motor, 50 Amp Esc, and 11 x 5 prop was fitted. The Maiden flight was done on a very misty morning, so things had to be kept low and slow, but I did learn that the motor was very noisy and worn out, the motor thrust line was way out, and the control movements were probably a bit too large. Before the next flights a new motor of the same spec was obtained from AliExpress for just £11.00, downthrust was added, and a smaller 10 x 5 wooden prop was fitted. These changes improved things a lot, but the prop still didn’t feel right, and the CG felt a little rearward. Next a bit of lead was added, the prop was changed for an APC type 10 x 5, everything felt about right now so I started to fly her a bit more adventurously, but I soon learned the smaller model was not as vice free as the larger Magnattila, probably due to the higher wing loading, however, by simply reducing the control throws, the bad manners were tamed. I’m very happy with my little Attila, something that looks a bit different from my normal fare, is reasonably aerobatic, and fits in my car in one piece.
Thanks for that 1066, I really like the look of the Attila, both on the ground and in the air. It’s more agile than I expected, a good all-rounder, and that covering is exactly right for it. You can of course see the Attila flying in this month’s video.

I should point out that the kit came from a stash of kits and other modelling goods that Captain Slow has been selling for an old friend who is no longer able to fly. All the money he receives will go to a charity. So far, as well as the Attila, he has sold two Electro Streaks, one to Woody and the other to 1066. He still has a couple of kits to sell, a Cambrian Southern Dragon and two Great Planes ElectriCubs, along with a selection of canopies.
If either of the kits appeals, or if you need a canopy, have a word with Captain Slow.

When I’m scouring the internet for information about models etc for Patch News I often stumble across other aviation items that might be of interest, and I tend to save them for quiet months when there hasn’t been a lot of flying to write about. One such snippet is about a chap called David Williams who lived close to a new by-pass that was being built around Hinstock, Shropshire in 1983. He saw a bridge had been built to carry Pixley Lane over the new by-pass and, after some careful measuring, decided to fly under it the day before the road was opened to traffic. His plane was a Saab 91D Safir, a four seat, single engined light aircraft that was built in Holland. The Swedish Air Force had used Saab 91s in the fifties and sixties and David’s had previously been used for radio equipment testing. David asked his dad stand on top of the bridge to take a photo (this was pre-digital days) but his dad was too quick on the shutter and missed the shot. Fortunately a friend was positioned further along the by-pass and he managed to successfully capture the moment.
Nothing unusual to see here officer, it’s just a Saab going along a by-pass!

Confession time now, I managed to fly my little A380 ‘toy’ plane into Dougal’s Dogwood!
I could come out with a long tale of what happened and explain that it wasn’t my fault at all (that should be perfectly obvious!) but I’ll just say that it’s not the most controllable little model and things went slightly awry. Fortunately 1066 came to the rescue when he decided he needed to show off his tree climbing abilities and he quickly retrieved it for me.
Presumably the extremely light weight (of the plane, not 1066!) helped the A380 and it survived with barely a scratch and was soon back flying again.

Early on in the month Snoopy, spurred on by passing his ‘A’ certificate, flew his new Max Thrust Aggressor. The Aggressor has proved to be a popular model with PAM members and there are several in the club. They are excellent aerobatic gliders which can be flown gently if the control rates are low and the throttle usage restrained, but can also be reasonably ‘hot’ with bigger control throws and full throttle. They certainly aren’t the best gliders for thermal hunting but are still capable of good long flights when required.
Here’s what Snoopy has to say about his: It’s a nicely put together model, it took me about 20 minutes to construct, I had to install some Velcro to make sure the battery didn’t move, that was the most difficult part of the build. The first flight was uneventful with the rates turned down, full throttle, a nice straight hand launch, and off it went at a slight up angle. The plane was quite quick and responded to inputs quickly even at low rates. The first flight was over quite quickly, and the landing was interesting as it was quite slick and didn’t want to slow down, unlike my Tundra which is a great plane but a bit of a brick. I over flew the runway a few times before I got the measure of the landing glide. The second flight was much the same as the first, but I flew it for a little longer, I changed the rates to medium and did a few hard turns which it seemed to do without any problems, a loop and a few rolls later I brought it back to earth safely. The only thing I did find was that if the conditions are not great it can disappear in the sky.
Other than that it is a nice model, quite fast with my 3 cell lipos, I might try some 4 cells. Thanks for that Snoopy. You can see Snoopy flying his Aggressor in this month’s video.

This month the action photos are all taken from this month’s video:

Video time now, this month with footage shot by me, 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.
This month it’s a little something that Dougal Entendre sent me.
 Colin Cowplain

Happy New Year everybody! That’s 2025 done and dusted, another successful year for the club with no real problems. I hope you’ve all had a great Christmas and Santa brought you lots of modelling goodies. I’d like to thank all who contributed to Patch News over the last twelve months, it makes my job so much easier when you write about your models for me.

December was of course rather wintry and some flying days were lost to wind and rain but we also had some almost perfect days with a good number of members turning out to fly. But on Sunday 21^st 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