Patch News History

What a difference a month makes, in the February Patch News I wrote about storms and 80mph winds but in March we had a long dry spell with sunshine and light winds. The field stayed free from cattle and sheep for most of the month and the patch was mown a couple of times and remains in excellent condition. Several new models were successfully flown although Woody’s latest own design foamie F-15 caused lots of hilarity when it did a javelin impersonation from its’ first launch. It did eventually fly (just), more of that later.

Juniors are a bit of a rarity nowadays so we are pleased to welcome Leo as a member. At just thirteen Leo has already got a fair bit of modelling experience and owns a variety of planes as he enjoys buying used/damaged models and making them fit for purpose. Gordon Bennett has passed his first Valiant over to Leo as it will make an excellent trainer. Dougal Entendre is looking after Leo and tells me that it’s going well and that Leo is confident enough to do take-offs and landings with the Valiant and is now honing his skills and learning all the regulations so he can take his BMFA ‘A’ Certificate before too long.

1066 test flew his latest 3D machine, a HobbyKing MX2 at the end of February. It’s the same type as Dougal had a while ago and is made from almost destructible EPP foam. The MX2 is 955mm wingspan and weighs around 550g without the required 3 cell lipo. This is from the HobbyKing website: Its fuselage is torsionally very stiff yet light with loads of space beneath the long top hatch for your radio and power system. The wing is a one-piece affair featuring EPP construction, a very accurate symmetrical aerofoil with 2 additional spars to minimize flex and twist. The control surfaces are something else – the elevator, rudder, and ailerons feature a 3 layer construction (EPP-Depron-EPP) making for stiff surfaces and NO flex at extreme throws! Snap rolls “Snap” and the control response is instantaneous. The light – yet rigid – airframe adds up to one great flying 3D “foamy”. Waterfalls, harriers, flat spins, rolling circles, this model has the precision to perform these and any other moves you can think of! Assembly of the airframe is a quick 10-15 minute process with the help of a little medium CA. The radio and power system layouts are very straightforward, the long top hatch making for easy access. This is a great model for general park flying and hardcore 3D. You will be hard-pressed to break this model, it will take hard knocks and just keep bouncing back every time! Before the test flight Dougal told 1066 it wouldn’t fly very well so 1066 promptly took-off and immediately threw the model into all kinds of weird and wonderful manoeuvres just to prove him wrong! You can see some of that first flight in this month’s video.

Back now for the full story of Woody’s F-15 which is his own design, based on the other foamboard models that lots of us fly. He constructed it mostly from Hobbycraft foam with the paper covering left on but also added wood reinforcements where he saw fit. He also added a piece of foamboard across the back between the fuselage sides as extra bracing. Actually I think it was just an excuse for somewhere to mount more LED lights! The power set-up is a fairly standard Turnigy D2826/6 motor and a 3 cell lipo battery. Woody was unsure where the centre of gravity should be so plumped for a safe forward position. As can be seen in the earlier photo the initial 45 degree upwards launch resulted in an immediate near vertical dive into the deck. The following two launches had the same result despite moving the battery further back and the application of full up elevator. The ‘experts’ decided the reinforcing piece across the back was effectively adding full down elevator so Woody cut it out and we tried again. This time the F-15 got away from the launch and flew although it was way out of trim and the centre of gravity was probably too far back now. Woody was rather disheartened and has removed all the gear from the model but I think with a little more effort it could be made to fly successfully.

When he took the gear out of the F-15 Woody fitted it to a Sukhoi SU-27 from Banggood. Woody has painted it in the colours of Col. Oksanchenko of the Ukrainian Air Force who he and Chas saw displaying the Sukhoi at a Royal International Air Tattoo one year. Sadly Col. Oksanchenko was shot down near Kyiv in the first few days of the Russian invasion. Woody had struggled to get the delta configuration set up correctly on his Multiplex transmitter and without having the manual to hand none of us could remember how to do it either. After much head scratching we bound the Sukhoi to Captain Slow’s later version Mpx transmitter which happened to have my Sukhoi in its’ model memory. Don’t ask why! It then worked correctly so I flew the model but found it was incredibly twitchy so I landed after just one circuit. I tried again after dialling back the movements a lot and it was much better. Woody brought his transmitter manual along to the next flying session and we were soon able to set everything up on his transmitter and the model is now flying beautifully.

I spotted the photograph below on the internet, it’s one of the Ukrainian SU-27s that supposedly hit a road sign while flying extremely low to avoid Russian radar. I can’t help thinking it probably hit the sign when it landed on a road but I might be wrong.

As I mentioned in Patch News last month several of us have bought very cheap and small video cameras to add to planes to get some airborne footage. Gordon Bennett was one of the purchasers and he attached his camera to his Mig-29 facing rearward and I tried to fly my Mig in formation behind Gordon’s, hoping for some Mig on Mig action. The camera did record some footage of my plane but I think the term ‘flying in formation’ would be stretching the truth too far even for me! However, before he made his billions and retired at the age of 17 from his position as CEO Lord Bennett of ITV Gordon had worked his way up from floor sweeping via make-up, costume design, make-up, sound recording, make-up, filming, make-up, stunt coordinating, make-up, producing, make-up, and directing. So using the Mig footage and his TV experience Gordon has made a video for us all to enjoy.Even if you never bother watching the Patch News videos I urge you to turn the sound up loud and watch this video, it’s only 1 minute 20 secs long and it’s brilliant!

Wow, I need a lie down now after all that action, back to a little gentility with a photo that Dougal snapped when he was able to get his FPV model up amongst the clouds one day. In this excellent shot you can just make out the Solent and the Isle of Wight in the distance. I was spotting and the model was at the limit of my vision when I saw a full-size plane approaching so I told him which direction to head and to descend Rapidly Also Of course.

Back in October last year 1066 built a foamboard version of a Mirus that he used to fly in his youth (yes the Mirus design really is that old!). He had used Hobbycraft foamboard and added a wooden spar but not much else and called it Cirus the Mirus. The plane flew really well but suffered with poor structural integrity, especially when landing on wet grass. Yes, it kept falling apart. So in March 1066 produced Cirus the Mirus Mk2. Dougal keeps calling it the Miley Cyrus but I think his mind is drifting back to his youth as well! Apparently it’s identical to the Mk1 in outline but 1066 says he’s made it much stronger. Unlike the first version it has a Kline-Fogleman wing section which obviously provides more lift as well as being stronger. All the powertrain and electronics were simply swapped straight over from the Mk1, it worked well before so there was no need to change anything. The colour scheme is interesting, I really like the multi-coloured lozenge-like panel and assumed it was a piece of stick on plastic film he’d found but apparently it was painted by his grandson. It’s quite telling that the best bit of the model is the part that was done by a three year old! It flies really well, better than the earlier version in fact so maybe that’s due in part to the Kline-Fogleman section and so far it hasn’t fallen apart.

We hadn’t seen much of Catapult King for a while but in March he appeared with a Ripmax Jive that Gorgeous Gary had given him. We haven’t seen Gary for a while either, hope he’s ok. The Jive was originally powered by an IC engine but Catapult has converted it to electric power by fitting a Propdrive V2 3536 910Kv (max 40A) motor and a 60A ESC. He’s using a 4 cell lipo which takes the weight to 2Kg (4lb 6oz) so there is plenty of power. The weight includes 300g of lead that Catapult needed to add to the nose in order to attain the correct centre of gravity. It’s a shame it needs so much but that’s a result of the Jive having such a short nose when it was designed for an IC engine. The battery is a very tight fit and Catapult reckons if it swells at all in flight he won’t be able to get it out again! The conversion has obviously worked exactly as intended as the Jive flies well, it just needs Catapult to get up the nerve to start chucking in some 3D stuff now.

Dougal needed some new batteries in March and with the HobbyKing UK warehouse seemingly now shut for good he decided to try some he spotted on eBay. The 4 cell Zeee Power 3700mAh packs are 60C rated and Dougal is happy with their performance so far. They were on eBay with a Buy-It-Now price of £30 per pack but there was a Make Offer button so Dougal made an offer of £55.00 for two packs which was accepted and that including the delivery. I’ve just checked a couple of other well-known battery suppliers and their equivalent packs are at least twice the price so it will be interesting to see how the Zeee Power packs last. They came with a pretty comprehensive User Manual with some good advice on storage charging etc. to ensure the packs have a long and safe life.

Since he joined the club new member Geoff Hill has been flying a HobbyKing Bixler, mostly looked after by Dougal and using a Futaba radio and buddy box system. But on one of the nicer weather days in March Geoff also brought along a Nebula 2000E electric glider. The 3 channel Nebula is two metre span with rudder, elevator, and throttle controls, no ailerons. The wings and tail are built-up and the fuselage is moulded plastic. I think it’s an old Ripmax model that is no longer produced but it looks to be in perfect condition and it flew well enough, probably a good model to learn with on calm days.

Photos now, some were taken from the ground and some are screenshots from FPV video:

Video time now with footage shot by myself, Captain Slow, and Dougal Entendre. 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

Co-Pilot to Captain (looking down): “Sir, can you explain to me what these buttons do” Captain to Co-Pilot: “They keep your shirt closed”

Colin Cowplain

Well what a month February turned out to be, it began with some pretty good weather but then deteriorated into a series of storms with extremely strong winds. The weather station on the mast opposite our field (Holfuy – Mercury) recorded wind speeds of over 80mph. When Captain Slow and Woody went to change the battery they found that some branches had come down in our parking area so four of us then went and cleared everything away. We also cut some of the undergrowth back to give all the cars space to park more easily. We cleared both areas so there is room for everybody as long as people park sensibly. Please think of others when you park, don’t just dump your car in the middle of the area, park up close to one end of the area or close to any cars that are already there.
Despite the terrible weather stopping all flying for twelve days in a row the regular fliers actually managed to get airborne quite a few times, mostly near the start of February, and we were also able cut the patch again. The sheep came and went a few times but were never a problem to us and they soon had the grass reasonably short over the whole field.

On 4th February Gordon Bennett snivelled round our Chairman Captain Slow who’s birthday it was the previous day and flew his Mig-29 with a Happy Birthday banner in tow. He was obviously hoping for special privileges but all he got was a cake like the rest of us. Actually the only person who got any sort of special treatment was 1066, he wasn’t able to be there on the day so Captain Slow saved him a cake and a few days later the rest of us had to stand and watch longingly while 1066 munched his slightly stale cake alone.

In the good weather at the start of the month I was able to take my Volantex Ranger up to some light and fluffy clouds whilst flying it FPV and I recorded some nice video footage.
That’s East Meon on the right of the picture. The following day Dougal Entendre also managed to get some FPV cloud footage but sadly the day was more overcast and the cloud was the nasty plane enveloping type that Dougal and I have learnt to fear and avoid!

Two new EDF models were flown in the month, the first being Woody’s rather nice T-7A Red Hawk which is produced by XFly, a manufacturer I’ve not come across before.
Woody bought the model from Wheelspin Models, this is how their website describes it: The Boeing-Saab T-7 Red Hawk, originally known as the Boeing T-X, is an American/Swedish advanced jet trainer produced by Boeing in partnership with Saab. It was selected on 27 September 2018 by the United States Air Force (USAF) as the winner of the T-X program to replace the Northrop T-38 Talon. The shape of the T-7A is similar to the reduced version of the F/A-18 because they are designed with a large leading edge root extension surface and a V-shaped double vertical tail design. Not only does this design provide dexterous control at low speeds but it also has better flying capabilities at high angles of attack, so that its flight performance can be closer to the fighters in active service. It is also equipped with an embedded training system and remote connection, which can be combined with the most advanced ground training exercises. The pilots who have completed T-7A exercises can easily get hands on the F-22, F-35 and other 5th Generation fighters which shortens the intermediate adaption period. The XFly Model T-7A Red Hawk 64mm EDF jet is an easy-to-fly and versatile trainer jet for a wider variety of experienced pilots to enjoy – including those with limited EDF experience. The 4S compatible brushless motor and 40-amp ESC that are matched to a 12 blade 64mm fan deliver an abundance of speed, thrust and a turbine-like sound compared to other models in its class. The model arrived pretty much finished with the motor/fan unit and five 9g digital servos already fitted but Woody felt the need for speed… no sorry, not speed, lights! He bought an Afterburner light set from George Worley at 4-Max and fitted it to the end of the tailpipe. It’s a ring of LEDs which is connected to the throttle outlet of the receiver so the higher the throttle setting the brighter the LEDs glow. I have to say that it’s pretty impressive and shows up quite well especially on duller days. Woody asked me to do the test flight and all went well although it only just lifted off the newly mown grass in time.
I think Woody will probably end up removing the optional undercarriage in favour of hand launching and belly landing. Other than that all was good, the model handled nicely, sounded great, and had plenty of power. Dougal Entendre filmed the flight so some of it can be seen in this month’s video and you should be able to see the afterburner in action. Woody has since fitted the XFly gyro to the T-7 which should help smooth out the flying.

When I was flying my little Mustang and Raptor models last month I struggled to check the battery voltages. The tiny Eachine models use single cell lipos that are charged from a USB port but there’s no way of knowing the state of charge other than by an LED. Most of the lipo testers we use at the field can’t check single cells so they are of no use. But Chas showed me a Turnigy gizmo that he was using for the lipos he uses in his Eachine Trojan.
It can be powered by any 3 cell lipo with an XT60 connector, will charge up to six single cell lipos at once, and reads of the voltage of each one sequentially whilst it is charging. When a lipo is fully charged it beeps and the LED for that outlet turns from red to green. The current supplied can be adjusted between 0.1A and 1.0A and it can be switched for either LIPO or LIHV batteries. It has 3 different types of connector at each of the 6 ports so can charge a variety of single cell lipos and it also has a USB socket so you can charge a phone etc. It was perfect, just what I needed, but HobbyKing no longer sells them, typical!
Searching the internet I found the same device is sold with a variety of different names but almost all were around the £25 mark (some up to £35). Chas thought his had cost him around £15 and after much searching I found one just over £16 including postage. Mine is an Ultra Power UP-6S and is identical to Chas’s Turnigy in everything but the name.
So now I can easily check the voltage of all my cells at the field and charge them if necessary and I could even charge my transmitter from the USB socket in an emergency. There is also a cheaper version that looks almost identical but has a fixed current output of 1A so check the specifications carefully if you are in the market for one.

On the subject of the Eachine models I lost the propeller from my Raptor in the long grass one day. The props are just a push fit and it came off when I landed and I didn’t notice it was missing when I picked up the plane. It came with a spare so I have been able to continue flying but it seemed sensible to get some spares. The Banggood website has lots of tiny drone props that would fit so I ordered some Gemfan 65mm red ones (I think they’ll be easier to find in the grass!). I’ve not had a chance to fly one yet but the reviews say they give more thrust and longer flight times than the original paddle style propeller. The pack I bought is for a Toothpick drone and consists of four pairs, four tractor props and four pushers. As all eight only cost me £2.49 I figured I could cope with having four pushers I don’t need. Anyone want to buy some 65mm pusher props, only £1.50 each?!

Basher Bob has behaved himself recently and hasn’t collided with anyone for quite a while so he can revert to his Bob the Builder name…for now. So, in February Bob the Builder built and flew a new foamboard model which he describes as an F22/SU57 hybrid.
This is what Bob says about it: The design is a mishmash of both aircraft including RCpowers.com F22 Version 5 models. There are several videos on YouTube about building and flying F22 foamies, I tried to pick the best features and combine them with my own experience. The result is a much stiffer airframe with very flexible controls. My plan is to start with 6 servos providing all possible control options which I can experiment with to find which combination performs best. Elevons alone, elevons and ailerons. Separate elevators and ailerons, flaps, spoilerons, Rudders, etc.
I intend to use a standard 3s 2200kv motor but am currently running an 1800kv one. The extra stiffness comes from the 3 layers of foam on the KF wing and the fact that I left the paper on all the foam board aft of the KF aerofoil. I needed to seal the paper otherwise it would have all fallen off the first time it got wet and noticed a cheap spray can of finishing varnish in Lidl which I have used, seems to be OK so far.
It’s a bit heavy at 700 grams AUW but lift seems to be better than a totally flat board as it is easy to land properly rather than dropping the last few feet as with most other foam boards. The art work is painted by hand with acrylic paint from the art shop. Battery is 3s 1300 to 2200 with a 30ESC. Well done Bob, it looks great and flies as well as it looks. At the field some members said the colour scheme reminded them of the Dazzle camouflage sometime known as Razzle Dazzle used on warships mostly in WW1.
This is the Mersey ferry Snowdrop in Dazzle camouflage. It seems odd to use a camouflage ship scheme on an aircraft but it shows up really well in the air. So is it a Bobby Dazzler?

We were joined by a prospective new member this month, Glyn Morden. Glyn has been a modeller for some time and likes old-timer type RC models which might struggle in the rather breezy conditions we tend to get at our field but on his first visit he flew his Phoenix 2000 electric glider which is ideal, in fact there are already several of them in the club.
Glyn also brought along a Mercury Matador that he built from a Ben Buckle kit during lockdown and has covered in film. I remember the Matador from my youth, I built and flew a diesel powered free-flight one in around 1963-64. Mine was nylon covered, heat shrink film hadn’t been invented back then. Obviously I was only 2 years old at the time…
Glyn’s Matador is bang up to date with electric power and three channel radio control.
The motor in an Overlander 1000kv which swings an 8×4 propeller and he is using a 2200mAh 3 cell lipo which also runs the radio with just rudder, elevator, and throttle control via a Turnigy 20A speed controller. Welcome to Petersfield Aero Modellers Glyn.

One day when I was trawling the Banggood website I spotted a mini cube camera with built in video recorder that was reduced to just £10.51. I’m not really sure why I needed it but it seemed rude not to, plus I seem to get loads of discount vouchers on the Banggood site so I used one and got the camera delivered for £9.14.  According to the specs it will record at 1920 x 1080P /1280 x 720P at 30fps which is pretty good but not top spec.
It comes with quite a variety of straps and mounting brackets so to test it out during the storms I tried it as a dash cam a few times and it provided pretty good quality recordings.
On the first flyable day I used it as a dash cam driving up to the field where I turned it off and put it in my pocket before taping it to my Ranger for a couple of flights. Back home I downloaded the videos and found I had an hour of video of the inside of my pocket…! But next time out I captured some nice video although the grass colours are a bit off.
Then I saw that the price has been reduced again and it’s now just £7.48. I mentioned this at the field and promptly got orders  from Dougal, Captain Slow, and Gordon Bennett. While placing their orders I added another one for myself and all four arrived in two days.

Chas has been happily using JR radio gear for a while but has now bought a RadioMaster TX16S MAX transmitter. Here he explains why he’s making the switch: I was considering purchasing new JR receivers for two models I’m either building or about to commence building. I was in for a bit of a shock as the price of a six channel receiver had risen from just under £80 to £96 and the eight channel was now £110. I’ve always been happy with the reliability of this brand but the functionality of JR equipment is rather dated.
Having seen Bob and Mark using RadioMaster transmitters I decided to find out more. They have an internal multi-protocol module and the facility to use an external JR type module. It just so happens that I bought a JR 2.4 GHz module (no longer available) some years ago for my old PCM9X transmitter. Having quizzed Bob on several occasions and downloaded the TX Open Companion software I was gradually being won over. This software allows the user to update the transmitter’s firmware, set up models and check these setups on the inbuilt simulator.
Having viewed several YouTube videos it became clear that I could use the transmitter for my Eachine T28 Trojan and E-Flite UMX Yak 54 and the fact that I could buy an FrSky eight channel receiver, with a built in vario for £38, swayed me into purchasing one of these units.
Having taken delivery of my transmitter I’ve played around with it and the Companion software to become familiar with its many functions. An example of these functions is an instant trim. When you’re testing a new model you may have to hold in some up elevator and maybe some aileron to keep the model flying straight and level so then, all you need to do is, flick a switch and the respective trims are set to the stick positions allowing the sticks to be returned to their neutral positions.
Unfortunately since obtaining this new toy the weather has been at its worst with rain and high winds for the last couple of weeks I’ve not been able to try it out yet so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that next week’s weather may be more favourable.

While Gordon Bennett was unwell recently he decided he needed to cheer himself up with a little retail therapy. He must have needed a lot of cheering up as he bought an E-flite Viper 70mm EDF. The Viper is a model I’ve always drooled over but jealous…me? Never! This is from the Horizon Hobby website: The Viper 70mm EDF offers smooth, sport airplane-like handling plus incredible performance and aerobatic capability that makes it the perfect choice for experienced and first-time jet pilots alike. At its core is a 6S-compatible brushless motor and 70-amp ESC that are matched to a 12-blade fan to deliver an abundance of speed, thrust and a turbine-like sound. Functional, factory-installed flaps and electric retracts are included to provide the best jet experience and the widest flight envelope possible. Assembly is fast and simple with a one-piece wing and stabilizers that bolt into place–no glue required. The detailed cockpit is integrated with the large top-mounted hatch that makes flight battery access as easy and convenient as possible. Digital, metal-geared servos and ball-link equipped linkages provide precise control, and the lightweight yet strong EPO airframe adds to the durability and precision. But what truly sets the Viper 70mm EDF apart, and helps make it the BEST choice for a first jet model, is how easy it is to take off, fly and land. It’s a scale jet that flies smooth and handles like a sport airplane, with stability that makes it feel rock-solid so all you have to do to make your jet pilot dreams come true is advance the throttle.
As the 1100mm span Viper uses 6 cell lipos Gordon also had to buy some batteries so being unwell was a pretty expensive experience! The model feels quite heavy so we were a little concerned about it getting off our small patch but with the thrust provided by the 6 cell set up it was no problem at all and with the application of half-flap the Viper lifted off by the halfway point. Gordon uses Spektrum radio so was able to use the AS3X stabilisation the model comes provided with but he had the SAFE mode turned off. After a couple of circuits Gordon had the wheels and flaps up and we could see that the Viper is a very smooth flier and is also very quiet. Gordon didn’t try any aerobatics on the first flight, he just wanted to get the feel for flying what is his first EDF. He did a couple of practice approaches with wheels down and full-flap and as you can see in the video it all looked good. When he actually came to land the model dropped the last couple of feet too fast, bounced, and turned turtle. Fortunately the damage was very minor, was easily repaired, and it has since flown again. It’s all part of the learning curve Gordon!

Here are a few airborne shots taken in February, all are screenshots from videos:

Video time now with footage shot by myself, Captain Slow, and Dougal Entendre. 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

Apparently British Airways flights are really fast, when I called to check the flight time from Heathrow to New York the girl said “Just a minute…”

Colin Cowplain

It’s the first Patch News of 2022 and I’m pleased to report there has been a lot of flying going on. The weather was very mild with record breaking January temperatures and also the lowest January rainfall for 25 years apparently. Although the warm dry weather was good for flying it also made the grass grow, so much so that we had to mow the patch, something we don’t normally need to do during the winter months. A plus point is that cutting it made the patch much easier for Dougal Entendre and I to see when flying FPV.
The mowing went well, we told Gordon Bennett to get on with it while the rest of us stood around and let Woody explain just how good his spot landings are to anyone who’d listen.

Later in the month we were joined in the field by a couple of hundred sheep for about ten days. Fortunately sheep are much less of a problem to us than the bullocks can be although some of them did start to show some interest in the models in the pits one day.
Chas reckoned they just wanted to have a fly. Farmer George said they were all pregnant ewes and asked that we didn’t fly low over them and scare them.

We had light winds for much of the month which gave us perfect conditions for the tiny models some of us have. I’ve been really impressed by the little Eachine Mustang that I’ve been flying for a couple of months and at the beginning of January I spotted the Eachine F22 Mini Raptor with three batteries on sale for just £55.09 on the BangGood UK website. I had a discount voucher which brought price down to £47.92 including tracked delivery and insurance. If you buy an item from the UK website there are no worries about getting stung for import duties and the associated collection fees plus the delivery is very fast, I ordered late afternoon on a Wednesday and it arrived on Friday morning, excellent.
With a wingspan of just 260mm the Raptor really is tiny but it’s fitted with a receiver, two servos, an esc, a six axis gyro, and a motor spinning a 63mm pusher propeller.
It comes with the same transmitter as the others in the range and has three settings for the gyro and a button for an automatic roll or loop that works even when it’s in Beginner mode. Flying the Raptor is ‘interesting’! Unlike the Mustang which with no stick input will simply fly straight and level I think the Raptor would crash if left alone for more than a few seconds. The gyro seems to act in a slightly different way and the elevator is very sensitive resulting in an undulating flight which can be seen in this month’s video.
Obviously these tiny models disappear into the distance very quickly and being fast, grey, and a slightly unusual shape makes the Raptor a bit tricky but overall it’s a lot of fun to fly. For Christmas Ian Daniels treated himself to another in the range, the Eachine Spitfire, but as he is unwell at the moment he hasn’t been able to fly it yet. We wish you all the best Ian and look forward to seeing you back at the patch and flying the Spitfire before too long.

Having mashed the nose of his Sukhoi a few too many times Woody grafted on the nose from his defunct Mig and now calls it his Smig!

Not many new models appeared in January but Gordon Bennett came along with a rather nice Ripmax Mini Bolero that he’d put together. Things turned into a bit of a tale which I’ll let Gordon tell: Why a Mini Bolero you ask? Well, OK you didn’t but Colin Cowplain did, so now you’ve all got to suffer my reply. He said you’d like to know about the ‘power train’ but I’m not sure I know what that is, so I’ll write something else instead.

I’ve always been a massive aircraft fan but haven’t had anything to do with models since I was a kid. Actually, that’s not quite true, I did dabble with a Concept 30 Helicopter 20 years ago but never got to a very good standard. I could hover and fly a basic circuit but anything ‘nose in’ tended to rapidly turn to ‘crash-in’. After a while the gloss wore off.
Undaunted, around 10 years ago, I bought a Kiel Kraft Stearman kit (modern technology, rubber power). I had aspirations of being a builder. I’ve cracked on with it during the dark nights and I’m pleased to tell you I’ve nearly finished the fuselage. It’s not covered or anything, I don’t want to rush it, and quite a few of the longerons need repair after I accidently sat on it, but one day it will be gracing the skies and you can marvel at the ‘build quality’.
Along came Covid. Keen to get out of doors and DO something I bought a Mini Sport Cub S. This was tossed around like a leaf in anything but a dead calm and had virtually zero battery life. Pretty annoyed with the advice a certain model shop have given me I called in to give them a piece of my mind and exact some restorative justice. Well, it couldn’t have gone any better and they sold me a Valiant while not resolving any of the issues with the Cub.
The Valiant did turn out to be a pretty good trainer. I flew it in my local park but wanted to do more which is where PAM came in. (I have to be careful here as Pam is my wife’s name and I don’t want to stray into touch and go stories of the marital kind.) Here was a group of like-minded people I could learn from. Eh – hem.  As you all had at least 15 aircraft each I decided I needed something more sporty and upgraded to my Acrowot.
The Acrowot turned out to be a much more interesting platform and I still love to fly it. I’m normally trying to imitate either the big graceful stuff that Chas does or some the inverted stuff Dougal Entendre does. I’ve managed to combine the two and fly jerky routines, inverted momentarily.
But still I wanted more. Enter the Mini Bolero. This would allow me to (and I quote) ‘excel in 3D flight and fast agile manoeuvres’, also you can dial down the throws making it ‘docile enough to learn aeros’. So with hazy balletic images of Torville and Dean (or was it that great scene with Dudley Moore in 10) I bought the ARTF kit.
Ripmax make the kit (not everyone knows that Ripmax is derived from our hobbies ability to rip through your available cash at maximum speed) and it’s a really pretty model. Thoughtfully they’ve made the cut-outs slightly too small for the servos so you get the chance to stab yourself with the modelling knife while you enlarge them. Fitting the control surface hinges involve gluing yourself to the model with low viscosity cyano but thankfully A&E is getting really quite good at ungluing people from things like roads since the protests.
On the upside, if the authorities ever need a full set of my fingerprints they’ll be able to find my actual skin, let alone the prints, on my model.
Maiden day. The ESC went straight into LVC surging as someone had programmed it incorrectly. The first few minutes were erratic to say the least but as things improved, I was smitten. I’m not experienced enough to tell you what’s good about it or why I like it but it just ‘feels right’. Subsequent flights improved even further and I began to feel I was almost keeping up with it.
Day two, Friday gardening and flying. Things went well on all flights. Confidence grew and with the sun setting and love hearts in my eyes I tried an inverted circuit. All was well until the turn onto base leg which was sloppy and losing height. At which point I lost her into the sun. Last seen silhouetted near the hedge pointing vertically down around 3’ of altitude.
The wreckage indicated she’d gone in on the nose and right wing. Fuselage reduced to Swan Vestas and the wings main spar now repositioned as the trailing edge. The bell at Lloyd’s was rung and a crow cawed above the patch.
Still, plenty more Boleros in the sea so I’ve bought another one. The second build is going much better than the first and if things continue like this, after my next few Boleros, Mr Ripmax will probably want to engage my building services.
I have to modify the battery compartment to get the c of g right but other than that she’s nearly finished so Bolero II, The Sequel, will be on the patch soon.
Oh yes, Colin. It’s got a 2217-1100Kv spinning thing with a 10×5 flymo part on the front. 30A esc and the superior ‘best money can buy’ Spektrum tx/rx. You’re only jealous. Thanks Gordon, that’s excellent, apart from the rubbish bit about Spektrum!

Dougal and I have been flying our FPV models for a while now and overall seem to manage well with just the occasional problem to upset things. In January Dougal took off with his Sonic-Modell Binary twin motored plane only to have both motors stop when he was less than a couple of hundred feet high. Had he been flying normal ‘line of sight’ he might have been able to crank it round back to the patch but flying FPV the only option was to use the full-size mantra ‘If the motor(s) cut on take-off never attempt to turn back to the runway’. So he glided straight ahead, cleared the lower track, and landed safely in the lower field. The most dangerous part was retrieval when the bullocks seemed unusually aggressive at the model’s intrusion. Maybe they knew it should have been in our field not theirs!
During the subsequent investigation Dougal found the digital video camera was running (but not recording) and wouldn’t turn off, and that the navigation lights weren’t working correctly. The camera was quickly sorted by removing and replacing the battery and the problem with the lights turned out to be a loose connection between the light control unit and the receiver. Dougal thinks the loose connection must have caused an electronic spike that upset the camera and shut down the speed controller. Fortunately the FPV camera kept running so he still had the picture on the goggles. The short flight was recorded by the DVR in Dougal’s goggles and you can see exactly what Dougal saw in this month’s video.

While I’m talking about FPV I’ll show you this screenshot taken from one of my January FPV videos . Why am I showing you this? Just because I think it’s a really good photo!
I flew my Ranger at fairly high altitude as far as I dared towards the masts until my spotter said I was just about at the limit of his vision. By then I was getting some break-up on my goggles so it was definitely time to turn round and head back to the safety of our field.

Towards the end of last year Geoff Hill came along to see us about joining the club and I’m pleased to say that he is now a member. Geoff has lots of full-size experience but is new to radio controlled models. He has a Bixler with a buddy box set-up, perfect for learning.

So far Geoff has mostly been looked after by Dougal but is coming along well despite that!

I know 1066 gets upset if I don’t mention him in Patch News, he doesn’t like feeling left out. So purely in an effort to keep him happy here’s some photos of his Cirus the Mirus. I’m not sure what happened but 1066 says it wasn’t him! No worries, it’ll soon buff out!

Back to Gordon now for tales of a Spitfire. Have I ever mentioned that I’ve had a flight in one? Oh alright, I’ll shut up… over to Gordon: Spitfire Scramble: I was gifted a Spitfire a while back. It’s a vintage Parkzone complete with the latest 27 MHz radio system. It’s not in a bad state for its age but the nickel battery showed no sign of life with no free electrons willing to jump around. I think I’m right in saying an atom without an electron is an ion, yes I’m positive. Ho ho. Some of these jokes are like meeting an old friend.
The airframe is made from a foam that resembles the interior of a Crunchie bar, covered in a type of cling film with a motif similar to Captain Slow’s trousers. The cling has started to delaminate so it was out with the cyano again.
Anyway, I stuffed a Lipo in it, did some rudimentary checks and bought it up to the field last week. Running up the engine on my final pre-flight test something big fell off and the level of vibration made two of my fillings fall out. Various senior members gave helpful advice without me even asking for it and the Spitfire was returned to the hanger.
Receiver and ESC combo were stripped out and replaced by more modern equipment (I’m now able to use it with the previously mentioned superior Spektrum Tx). A shiny new GF prop replaced the old nylon one that Dougal had laughed at and the big thing that fell off was thrown in the bin.
Take two. Things looked a lot better so Colin Cowplain kindly launched it skyward even though there were general crowd murmurings about a perceived shortage of take-off ummph. Despite the C of G and control surfaces having been carefully set by the pre-flight engineers using laser levelling and a theodolite, it was hopelessly out of trim and required plenty of ‘nose down’.
With the first circuit just about completed things seemed to be settling down and the test flight continued. Downwind, two things happened. Firstly, I started to lose sight of it against the murky background and secondly, the engine stopped.
Even though I’m a newly certified ‘A’ (where dead stick landings had to be demonstrated) I immediately froze while the model bucked and stalled. In the spirit of ‘aviate, navigate, communicate’ Colin shouted ‘Keep the speed up’ which turned out to be good advice. People often proffer handy hints and compliments while I’m flying. Only last week Dougal bounded over yelling ‘What the hell are you doing?’ as my Acrowot disappeared over the horizon in the direction of Basingstoke. It’s not my fault the earth is curved.
Luckily, control of the Spitfire was regained and I just managed to limp it back into the corner of the field where its landing was cushioned by a generously sized sheep turd. Model intact, pilot in therapy.
Post flight examination assisted by Woody showed the ‘good value’ Lemon rx I’d bought of EBay, sportingly chops the motor power at any Tx/Rx distance over 15 feet. Dwain Pipe also pointed out that the aircraft colour scheme was in fact called ‘camouflage’, which makes things have a habit of disappearing and should never be flown near Captain Slows trousers in case the two become confused with clearly dangerous repercussions. Back to the hanger for more fettling. Take three imminent.
Thanks Gordon. Since writing the above Gordon has replaced the Lemon receiver with a genuine Spektrum and has now had several successful flights with no further problems,

Dougal Entendre is well known for his low inverted passes, so we were of course very disappointed when Dougal got one wrong. None of us shrieked with laughter obviously…! He was flying his Mini Blitz and inexplicably pulled up elevator instead of pushing down. Fortunately the damage wasn’t too bad although there is certainly some work to be done. Dougal had cleaned most of the mud from the motor by the time the photos were taken.

Kryten was able to take some more of his excellent flying shots for us during January:

Video time now, this one with footage shot by myself, Dougal, Captain Slow, and Gordon. 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 airline Captain introduced himself to the passengers as usual and then continued:
“British Airways are proud to have some of the best Flight Attendants in the business.”
“Sadly none of them are on this flight…”

Colin Cowplain

Happy New Year! In last year’s December Patch News I said “We’ve finally reached the end of an awful 2020, surely 2021 can only be better can’t it?” Hmm… I’m not sure I got that right but at least we were allowed to fly from the end of March onwards so fingers are firmly crossed for this year. Wishing you all good health and happy flying in 2022.

Several of us managed to fly regularly during December and Dougal Entendre and I both had lots of FPV flights. Typically, with the field being at a high altitude, there were several days when it was foggy first thing and sometimes the murk barely lifted at all. On one occasion a group of us had a few flights in reasonable conditions but as the morning progressed the fog blew up out of the valleys and enveloped us forcing us to stop flying.

I flew FPV one morning once the mist had begun to lift and quickly discovered that damp air fogs up the camera lens. Captain Slow was spotting for me and when I said I needed to land because of the poor visibility he said it wasn’t a problem as he could still see the model quite clearly. But the view on my goggles could best be described as suboptimal!

I was able to land safely and made the decision to not fly FPV again that morning!

So what did Santa bring you all for Christmas, any exciting new models/motors/radio gear/accessories? I didn’t get any of those but was very pleased to receive three vintage model books, Aero Modeller Annual 1957-8, and Radio Control Manuals 2 & 3 (1967 & 9). There is some fascinating stuff in all three books, I particularly enjoy reading the adverts. Would you have paid £363 for a 7 channel Simprop set in 1967? Maybe you’d have settled for the 4 channel set at just £282! Strangely, according to the ad the 4 channel receiver weighs 5 1/2oz but the 7 channel one only weighs 4oz. The servos were a mere 2oz each. Things have certainly changed in 55 years, the micro models that some of us have been flying recently (Mustang, Corsair, Trojan etc) weigh a tad over 2oz complete with battery! Their main electronics board which includes the 4 channel receiver, 2 servos, speed controller, and the 6 axis gyro can be purchased from Banggood for just £15.03.

I also received a pair of socks, but these aren’t just any socks, these are Vulcan socks!

Unusually no new models were flown in December, or if they were I missed them, but there has been a fair bit of building going on and also a lot of I/C to electric conversions. On one of the murky mornings while we waited in vain for the skies to clear Ian Daniels showed us a couple of models that he’s converting currently (pun intended!).
The first one is a Dara Club 20 racer which Ian has already fitted with a suitable motor and is now wondering quite how he’s going to fit a 3 cell 2200mAh lipo inside as there’s not much room under the wing. Ian also showed us his Mole, a 49” span low wing sports model he built from a 1987 Dave Richardson plan that was published in RC Model World.
This is what Dave Richardson says about it: The Mole is a sturdy, scalish aeroplane designed around a 25-size engine, well within the building and flying capabilities of a low-time solo R/C pilot and fully aerobatic in the right hands. It features a foam or built-up wing with optional flaps, which add considerably to the fun of flying. Certainly not a first or second model, but third to umpteenth, yes indeed!  The Mole looks to be ideal for conversion to electric power. Ian has already got most of his Mole sorted, it should be a much easier conversion than the Dara and fitting the battery is straightforward.
Note the Dougal Entendre motor mounting method, why use nice aluminium stand-offs when you have a lump of 4”x 2” knocking around, enhanced in Ian’s case with some ½” ply! Bizarrely 1066 flew a Mole at a Sandown Symposium back in the late 80’s. He didn’t build it but was asked to fly it and show it off to the crowd, speak to 1066 for the full story. If you fancy building one for yourself the plan can be downloaded from Outerzone.

Dwayne Pipe has been busy building and sent me this: The KF mini Splot is my latest attempt to home build an indoor flyer. The previous five models have all failed due either to instability or lack of power. Weight is everything with indoor aircraft.
The KF mini Splot is based on a scaled down Splot design with a 15 inch wingspan. My previous design had been a mini SU 27 foam board, this had been unflyable. I reverted to the old fashioned elevator and rudder design. To provide the required lift I have used a Kline Fogleman wing section with a large dihedral, the results are much better.
The wings, rudder and horizontal stabiliser are made of 3mm Depron. The body is light 6mm square balsa reinforced with a CF rod.
The electronics have been assembled from all over the place. The receiver compatible with my old Spektrum transmitter is a Banggood 2.4G Micro DSM2, this has a built in brushed ESC and comes with four servo micro sockets. Only Hobbyking make 2.2 gram servos to fit these. The coreless brushed motor is from Micro Aces and pulls a 5 inch prop. The battery is a 1S 600mah located to balance the plane on its C of G. The whole assembly with battery weighs about 40 grams. Tested on a calm day at the local rec. it has so far flown the best of the lot. That’s excellent Dwayne, at 40 grams the complete model is less than three quarters of one of the 1967 Simprop servos mentioned above!

Chas Butler always keeps himself busy and in December he completed a conversion. Chas says: Here are the details of another model I’ve converted from i.c. to electric power.
The model is a Katana (Chinese built I believe) which I won in a club raffle whilst I was waiting for my first hip replacement (2004). Initially it had an ASP 46 2 stroke fitted but now it has a 4-max 5055-595kV motor, driving a 13 x 8E ASP propeller, with a 60 amp ESC and a 5 amp UBEC. JR standard size servos are used and the receiver is also JR.
I’m trying 4S 3350mAh to begin with. The model has a wingspan of 55 1/2″, it is 51.2” long and weighs in, with battery, at 6lb 6oz giving a wing loading of approximately 26oz /sq. ft. Will have to see how it performs on this set up. It looks very nice Chas and I think it should go well with that set-up, I look forward to seeing it at the patch very soon.

Page Boy has been splashing out again. He told me he needed cheering up whilst recovering from his recent bout of Covid so he treated himself to a Freewing L-39 Albatros. This is from the Freewing website: Developed originally by Aero Vodochody in the 1960s in what is now the Czech Republic, the Aero L-39 Albatros excelled as a jet trainer platform with its powerful turbofan and overall reliability. The L-39 and its successive variants continues in service throughout the world in militaries as trainers and light attack platforms, and in civil aviation including aerial demo teams and racing.
The Freewing L-39 Albatros is the largest and most capable production PNP L-39 in the world. Optimized for high manoeuvrability and precision flying, the L-39 truly is a “Sport jet wearing Scale jet clothing”. The PNP version uses a powerful 3530-1850kv brushless motor and 100A ESC to power the 12 blade 80mm EDF.
The Freewing L-39 Albatros includes grass capable suspension landing gear, a full coverage nose door, scale wingtip lights, and easily removable tip tanks, ordnance, belly gun pod, and wings. Only one glue joint is required to complete the model’s general assembly. A plastic lined cockpit also resists deformation under sunlight, and optional 3D Printed cockpit detail upgrade parts are also sold separately.
Oh dear, Page Boy has to do one glue joint, I hope he can cope with that! Judging by the photos he sent me he has already glued the joint which I imagine was fitting the fin to the fuselage and it looks ok to me, I can’t see any blobs of epoxy or dribbles of cyano.
At 1054mm span and 1351mm long the Albatros is quite big compared to many EDFs and is considerably larger than Page Boy’s Hawk. The weight is 2.2kg without the required 6 cell lipo in the 4000-6000mAh range. The model looks superb especially with the lights on although I have to confess that I’m slightly concerned about the gnome!
The other concern I have is the nose-leg door that looks is if it would last about five minutes on our patch which brings me to the sad news that Page Boy won’t be renewing his PAM membership for 2022. He is moving to another club that has a much larger area of near bowling green quality grass that is much more suited to EDF models. It will be a great shame to lose him but is totally understandable with his wish to fly larger and more scale EDF models for which our patch really isn’t suitable. Page Boy has been a PAM member for quite a few years and he’s also taking much newer member Richard Osborn along with him. Between the two of them they lowered the average age of the members by about 20 years! You’ll be missed guys, I hope you’ll drop in to see us sometimes.

On the last Sunday before Christmas just four of us turned up, Captain Slow, Gordon Bennett, Woody and me. I snapped this atmospheric photo of Captain Slow arriving…late!
We thought the mist would quickly burn off and proceeded to fly but we had to keep the models very close especially as the mist was blowing through in banks. Gordon and I both flew our Migs and Captain Slow flew his Hummer and we managed ok but when Woody flew his Sukhoi he lost sight of the model as a particularly thick bank of fog blew in. We could all hear the Sukhoi was still flying but not see and it sounded as if it was drifting off over the lower field so Woody shut the throttle and let it come down. We all trudged off the find the wreckage and spread out over the field and soon found the Sukhoi, safe and sound and completely undamaged. You can see some of the morning’s fun in this month’s video.

I don’t have any photos from Kryten this month I’m afraid so I’ll show you some screenshots captured from some of the FPV videos Dougal and I shot in December.

Video time now which this month includes footage taken by myself, Captain Slow, Dougal Entendre, and Gordon Bennett. 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 newlyweds were opening their presents on Christmas morning and the groom expressed his disappointment when he didn’t receive any modelling gifts.
His bride said “We’re married now, you don’t need to play with toy planes anymore”.
He replied “You’re beginning to sound like my ex-wife”.
“What?! I didn’t know you been married before!” she exclaimed.
“I haven’t…”

Colin Cowplain