Patch News History

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

Merry Christmas everybody! Yes I know it’s a little early but the next Patch News won’t be published until 1^st Jan 2022. If you have any modelling Christmas presents on the way please let me know so I can share the joy. In November we were mostly quite lucky with the fairly mild weather and had several flying opportunities when the winds were light.
But several of us flew on the last Sunday in the month when it was bright and sunny but absolutely freezing in the brisk northerly wind, unsurprisingly we didn’t last all morning.
The bullocks joined us in the middle of the month and sometimes needed gently herding away by two or three pilots while the others flew but overall they weren’t too much of a nuisance. Happily they only stayed for a couple of weeks and the field is now bullock free. New member Gordon (Paul) Bennett passed his BMFA ‘A’ certificate on 3^rd November and turned out to be one of the best candidates I’ve taken. Gordon hasn’t been flying models for long but with a history of full-size aviation he has picked up RC flying very quickly.
Straight after passing the test he had a go at the club Climb & Glide competition and had the cheek to beat my score with his first attempt. Gordon could be the only member so far to be awarded an ‘A’ cert and then have it withdrawn on the same morning!

The competition entries are growing in number now and lots of members have had a go at one or more of the disciplines. You can have as many tries as you like so why not give it a go, just chose a timer and/or counter, do your best, and let Dwayne Pipe know your score.

Not too many new models were flown in November but I know of several that are being built ready for next season. Page Boy was on his sick bed for a while but was somehow able to drag himself to his building board despite not being well enough to return to work.
He’s getting on well with this 39” span Wasp E2K electric pylon racer that he’s building. It looks to be coming along nicely although I don’t think the green go faster stripes are quite up to Page Boy’s usual standard! It’s the same model as 1066 has been flying for a few months so I imagine we’ll see the pair of them screaming around the sky early next year.

Dougal Entendre seemed to spend most of November struggling with his Skyartec Mini Skyfun, it flies well enough but for some reason the motor keeps cutting out at full throttle.
Here’s Dougal’s account of it: I bought the Mini Skyfun from a guy in Emsworth for £30, complete with Rx, servos, ESC, motor and a 2s battery, but no fins! I cut a new pair of fins from Depron, using my bigger Skyfun as a pattern. Binding my RadioMaster Tx to the Skyartec Rx was no problem, but whenever I throttled up, the motor ran for a few seconds then cut out. Long story short: I’ve tried 2 different 2s packs, 4 different ESCs, 5 different motors (even running without the propeller), replacing the JST lipo connector with XT60, and powering the ESC from a bench supply with a servo tester providing the throttle pulses. The problem persisted. My final solution involves shoe-horning a 3s battery in, with a lower KV motor and a 5-inch propeller instead of the previous 4-inch. It’s better, but the motor still occasionally cuts out if I overcook the throttle.
This is strange, as the powertrain is almost identical to the one in my Mini Blitz, which has no problems. I’m sure there’s a rational explanation, such as the airframe being possessed by a malevolent spirit. I think I’m going to give up with it for the moment, as even when I’ve had it flying, I’ve found the elevator trim is inconsistent, and it tends to skew out of loops. One day I may replace the entire avionics, but that’ll be a pain because the current rx uses the tiny JST connectors, so I’ll even have to replace the servos. For now it’s just going to adorn a shelf in the workshop. Yes, it’s a malevolent spirit! Perhaps Dougal has discovered why it was up for sale, not all second-hand items are a bargain.

I’m hoping the second-hand purchase I made in November was a bargain. I hadn’t flown FPV (First Person View) for a while and decided it was time to get back into it. Last year my Volantex Ranger had crashed twice while flying a reasonable distance away but range checks didn’t show a problem. After the second crash I took the gear to Mike Ridley (Multiplex service agent) who found the aerial wire had broken inside the insulation. He fitted a new aerial and everything was fine for quite a while but one day the Ranger suffered radio failure and crashed twice in the same morning, both times within a couple of hundred metres of the patch. I couldn’t find a reason and abandoned the model until this month when I completed the relatively minor repairs and fitted a different receiver.
A test flight showed no problems so I then flew it FPV and everything was fine except that the digital recorder built into the video transmitter didn’t work. It makes no difference to the flying but part of the fun of FPV flying is watching the flight back on a computer later.
So I decided to buy an action camera as last Christmas one of Dougal’s presents was an Apeman 4K action camera which he fitted alongside his FPV camera and he is getting some excellent results. Action cameras have a much higher quality picture than the little FPV cameras but they have a time lag so aren’t suitable for providing the picture that’s transmitted back to the goggles. I found the Apeman was about £42 in Black Friday sales but then spotted a similar spec second-hand Dragon Touch for sale at £25 and only about a mile from my house. The camera came with a huge bundle of mounts, straps, tripod etc. that I didn’t need so I advertised them on Facebook Marketplace and quickly sold them for £15. So the camera with mount, two batteries, an underwater housing, 32GB micro SD card with adaptor, and a couple of Velcro straps cost me just £10, that has to be a bargain! Action cameras are very bulky and heavy compared to FPV cameras so I needed to mount it as close to the centre of gravity as possible and I basically copied the method Dougal has used on his Sonic Modell Binary with the two cameras mounted alongside each other.
I’ve only had a few flights so far with this set-up but the results are looking good and it provides much better quality videos than with the recorder built into the video transmitter ever did. In this month’s video the FPV footage with a date & time is from the new camera.

Chas rather liked the look of the tiny Mustangs and Corsairs that several of us have been flying recently and kept his eyes open for one at a sale price. One day he spotted the T-28 Trojan from the same range in a Banggood Flash Sale at just over £50 with three batteries and took the plunge. Like the others the model comes complete with a transmitter and is totally finished, all that is required is to charge the single cell lipos using the USB charging lead provided and fit 4 x AA batteries in the transmitter.
It has a built-in gyro which works very well and can be switched between three modes, beginner, intermediate, and expert. Expert mode switches the gyro off completely and whilst the model is flyable it is quite a handful, intermediate mode is much more pleasant.
Chas chose a reasonably calm day for the first flight and soon got the feel of the Trojan, finding like the rest of us that keeping the tiny model close enough and in sight was the hardest part. On the first landing Chas hit the spot landing spot but the little Trojan bounced off a couple of feet! The same models are being sold under various manufacturers names, I’ve seen Eachine, Volantex, Sonik and WLTech so far. The ranges are expanding and now also include a P-40 Kittyhawk, a P-47 Thunderbolt, a BF109, and a Spitfire. I’ve just noticed that Wish.com have the Corsair for just £40.72, who’s next to take the plunge? There’s footage in this month’s video of the Trojan and also Ian’s Corsair and my Mustang.

On the subject of the tiny models, Basher Bob’s been up to his old tricks again and cruelly smashed my little Mustang out of the sky one day. There I was flying along, minding my own business straight and level over the patch when Bob’s Sea Vixen suddenly smashed right through me. Bob’s version of the incident may be different but I write Patch News…!
Luckily the damage was fairly minor and by using cyano applied with a pin I was able to glue the detached piece of the nose and a small piece of the wing trailing edge back in place. The biggest problem was the detached aileron which was originally hinged by the foam itself. I cut a couple of tiny pieces of Mylar hinge material, made small slots in the wing and aileron with a pointed scalpel blade, and glued them in with thin cyano.
The repairs worked out well and aren’t really noticeable and now the Mustang is flying again as well as ever. Ian and I flew his Corsair and my Mustang together one day while Dougal videoed. It’s not easy to fly them close together or to film them but Dougal was able to get some pretty good footage which you can see in this month’s video.

Having passed his ‘A’ test Gordon Bennett decided he needed some fun so he joined the foamboard fairies. He bought a Mig-29 from Banggood along with a 2212 2450Kv motor which he’s fitted with a 6 x 4.5 propeller and runs from a 3 cell 2200mAh battery.
He made a nice job of putting it together and very quickly had it ready for flight. Gordon had never previously flown a foamboard model so I thought he was quite brave doing the test flight himself but all went well. The Mig appeared to be a bit too sensitive on elevator at first but Gordon got it all sorted out and was soon confidently flying low passes etc. After a few minutes he called landing and dropped the model right at his feet. Well done Gordon, now you just need to learn how to take out Captain Slow’s Mig-29!

Sadly I think my SU-27 will finally have to be retired after hundreds of flights. I bought it in a HobbyKing sale for just £7.64 back in October 2018 and have flown it regularly ever since. For more than three years it’s been my ‘go to’ plane and despite many crashes (mostly due to my lunatic flying) it’s always bounced back and flown as well as ever.
It even survived being the first plane I used for FPV. But in November it had several ‘arrivals’ when the battery came loose so I treated it to a new Velcro strap but on the very next flight it suddenly dived straight in. I’m not sure of the cause, possibly structural failure after so many bodged repairs, or maybe the receiver has had one too many crashes to cope with, but  I’m leaning towards a total battery failure, more checks are required.
Fortunately I have a replacement SU-27 tucked away from the time when I bought six at once, five for club raffles and one for me. At the time HobbyKing must have been having a massive warehouse clear out as they were only £2.50 each! It’s time to put it together.

I snapped this rather unflattering shot of Woody one morning. Perhaps I’m being a little cruel using this photo as he was actually retrieving my SU-27 from the lower field for me.
Here’s a marginally better one when he’s posing with his latest win from RC Aircraft Online, a Logic RC flight box. That’s his second win in two months, well done Woody.

Not at the patch but fairly close by at Boscombe Down some electric records have been broken. Some of you may have seen the news about the development of the Rolls Royce Spirit of Innovation, an electric powered plane that has already smashed several records.  This is from the ExtremeTech website: Rolls-Royce has been working on an all-electric plane, called “Spirit of Innovation,” and the automaker reports that the aircraft absolutely clobbered at least three world records in their latest test flights. For an aircraft that’s only been in the air for a few hours total, that’s pretty impressive — this report comes not quite two months after the aircraft took off for its maiden flight.
After the flights, the company announced: “We have submitted data to the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) – the World Air Sports Federation who control and certify world aeronautical and astronautical records – that at 15:45 (GMT) on 16 November 2021, the aircraft reached a top speed of 555.9 km/h (345.4 mph) over 3 kilometres, smashing the existing record by 213.04 km/h (132mph).”
They go on to say that the day’s later test flights also belong in the record books. While they didn’t push the rest of the later flights quite as fast, at least one still hit 330mph. They also report breaking the fastest time to climb to 3km altitude by an entire minute, clocking in at a final 202 seconds, as well as breaking two other speed records over distances of three and fifteen km, respectively. The flights took place at the UK Ministry of Defence’s Boscombe Downs aerodrome: an airfield not unlike Edwards AFB, used for testing new and experimental aircraft.
Spirit of Ingenuity uses liquid-cooled Li-ion batteries, and a 400kW power train developed with partners Electroflight and YASA, also of the UK. The single-seat aircraft has an ultralight carbon-fibre hull, and while it boasts the ability to put forth 500+ hp, it can land with two of its three batteries disabled.

Kryten was able to take some excellent flying shots of our models in November including several of my tiny Mustang, that can’t have been an easy model to snap:

Video time now which this month includes both some ground and some  aerial FPV footage by both myself and Dougal. 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

Did you hear about the lady who left her job as an air traffic controller to date a monk? She got out of the flying plans and into the friar…

Colin Cowplain