Patch News History

In the last Patch News I said the grass in ‘our’ field was getting very long and we were expecting the farmer to cut it before too long. Right on time it was cut and when we flew on 1st July it was being turned to help it dry.The following day it was baled and taken to be stored in the barn. The farmer was unable to safely cut right up to our fence so a border of long grass remained right around the patch but Chas attacked it with his petrol strimmer and then took away all the cuttings. It was a major job for one person to do and it must have taken him several hours to complete so a big ‘thank you & well done’ to Chas. Now about all the nettles alongside the parking area…The farmer was also busy in July muck spreading in the lower field and then later raking it all in. This was mainly noticed by Dougal when he flew FPV and was impressed by the pretty patterns that were visible from the air.Dougal seemed to think it was done to help him locate the patch. The patch was regularly cut during July and has remained in excellent condition. The latest herd of young bullocks put in an appearance on 26th July and proved to be inquisitive at first but I expect they’ll soon get used to us and be less bothersome. They tested out the fence!Rather unusually we were also visited by a small brood of chickens, something I’ve never seen in the field before. Presumably they had strolled over from the bungalow and would have eventually wandered back home again.The July weather was as strange as we’ve come to expect these days, we had quite a long spell of record breaking heatwave conditions when it was too hot to fly and also some pretty wet and stormy days. One day we alternated between flying, running for shelter in the barn, back to flying, and then getting drenched!

First of the new models to fly in July was Captain Slow’s second-hand Multiplex Pilatus PC-6 Turbo Porter. This is what he says about it: Believe it or not I bought the model in October 2019 through the BMFA Classifieds for £75. Not sure how old it is but it has had one plastic part of a main u/c leg replaced with an aluminium tube as oddly it seems to be one of the spare parts that isn’t available; otherwise it was in pristine condition complete with instructions and spare decals. It’s the RR (Ready to Run) version and so has factory fitted servos x 6, a 40 amp speed controller and 3530-1100 motor. I’m using a MPX 7 channel Light (non-telemetry) receiver. The wingspan is 1250mm and MPX quote the weight as 1100g and a flight time of 7 mins with a 3S 2200Ah battery. Less than two years from purchase to flight, that’s pretty quick for Slow! The Pilatus flew very nicely and as you would expect from a STOL (Short Take Off & Landing) plane it will fly very slowly. Captain Slow is still experimenting with flap settings and getting used to the flying characteristics but is overall very pleased with his purchase.He was good enough to let me have a flight with the Pilatus and I discovered that it’s capable of mild aerobatics although I’m sure the full-size didn’t do them. You can see the Pilatus performing in this month’s video.

Dougal Entendre has also been splashing the cash on a second-hand model, his being a Hyperion Edge 540T 25e.The 25e part refers to the Hyperion power set-up, they produce ranges of models in various sizes and give them an internal combustion engine equivalent number. So the Edge would be suitable for an electric motor equivalent to a 0.25cu.in (4cc) engine. Dougal paid the princely sum of £40 for the Edge which came fitted with a motor, speed controller, four Hitec servos, a Spektrum receiver, and three 3 cell 3600mAh lipos. The batteries might well be useless as the seller had discharged them to 3.3v per cell, 3.8v being the recommended storage voltage. Dougal says: The model is very smart, and though it’s clearly had a few repairs, they’ve been done very well.The seller told me he’d knocked the U/C off (who hasn’t with a model like this?), so he’d added a couple of thick piano wire struts, as you can see in the photo of the underside. I’ll probably bind my Radiomaster Tx to the Spektrum Rx it has installed, and give it a go soon. However I don’t expect it to be particularly 3D-capable. Its empty weight is about the same as my Slick, but the Slick has a 4s pack and a span of about 51″, where the edge uses 3s, and is about 45″ span. Also the tail is fairly thin, and probably not up to the kind of loads we put on it with 3D manoeuvres (I’ve read on the forums that the tail strength has been a problem for some flyers).It might make a good first aerobat for someone, so if anyone would be interested in buying it, please let me know! Sounds like a good prospect so if you fancy an Edge 540 ready to go have a word with Dougal.

While I’m talking about Dougal, some unkind person (not me for once!) has said that he’s a one trick pony with his very low inverted passes. Well in July Dougal answered that criticism and proved that he’s actually a no trick pony!Oops, never mind Dougal it should repair easily enough. My only regret is that nobody was videoing at the time.

That same unkind person had his own problems one day. Having replaced the servos at the tail end of his Katana with some more powerful but heavier ones he failed to adjust the centre of gravity to allow for the extra weight. This resulted in an ‘interesting’ flight and a heavy landing and the removal of the undercarriage.Well unlike Dougal’s ‘inadvertent landing’ 1066’s Katana was the right way up, although probably harder to repair!

Basher Bob also had a moment whilst flying his own design twin motored model. He was using his new RadioMaster radio gear in the model which was also fitted with a Multiplex gyro and all was well until he switched the gyro on or off, not sure which. Something was obviously not right in the set-up and the twin dived straight in with no control.Sounds to me like a repeat of when Dougal uttered those immortal words “Well there’s a knob on the transmitter…”!

Woody treated himself to a Chance Vought F4U Corsair during one of the lockdown periods and he brought it along for its test flight in early July. The Corsair is the little 30” (750mm) wingspan foam model from HobbyKing that comes ready to fly complete with a 2408 1200kv motor, 20A esc, 4 servos and a 6 axis Orx flight stabiliser. The Corsair will fly using either a 2 or 3 cell lipo and the undercarriage can be removed if the pilot prefers to hand-launch and belly land. Woody asked me to do the test flight which went well, better than I expected in fact.Woody was using a 2 cell lipo and the undercarriage was fitted so I tried a take-off and was rather surprised when it went off with no problems despite the very small wheels. The gyro worked well and kept the flight smooth whilst restricting the model to fairly gentle turns and no aerobatics. After a couple of minutes I switched the gyro off and had to trim for straight and level flight but once done everything was fine and certainly more responsive allowing me roll and just about loop. I was at full throttle for most of the flight and although there was enough power I felt a bit more would have been nice so I think 3 cells would be a better choice. The landing was uneventful and I was surprised when it managed a nice rolling landing until the last second when it tipped onto its nose.Unfortunately when we tried to fly it again the gyro didn’t seem to arm correctly and as the model lifted off the left wing dropped and the resulting cartwheel broke the 3 bladed prop. Reading the manual later I discovered that there is a certain arming procedure to follow to arm the gyro properly. Read the instructions Woody! Sadly spare props are unavailable at the moment so Woody is trying to sort out a suitable 2 bladed one to try. I’m sure it will be a great little flier once the teething troubles are sorted. You can see how well it performed in this month’s video.

July is always the month that the club holds the annual Chuck Glider competition and this year it was once again run by the club Competition Secretary Keith Evans (otherwise known as Dwayne Pipe). Before the competition started Kryten snapped this photo of an Auster that was carrying new PAM member Ian Daniels giving us a private airshow.Here are some photos I took during the evening, the first showing Captain Slow in one of his weirder moments! Dwayne says: The chuck glider competition on Wednesday 21st July was held under perfect weather conditions. There were two separate classes one for hand launched gliders and the other for catapult launched gliders. In the hand launched class there were ten entries flying six rounds each, the winner having the highest cumulative score. The highest time of 85.6 secs went to Andy Palmer. Second with 66.1 secs went to Chas Butler and third with 50.1 secs went to Graham Swan. In the junior section Charlie Standen made a creditable score of 26.3 secs. In the catapult launch section there were 6 entries. First was Keith Evans with 69.5 seconds, second was Mark Agate with 32.2 seconds and third was Alan Wood with 26.8 seconds. A good evening was had by all.

Once the Chuck Glider comp has finished Captain Slow took advantage of the calm conditions to test fly his latest new model, a paper plane! Captain Slow explains: The model, a Christmas present from my son in NYC, is a PowerUp 4.0. I didn’t use the paper in the kit because I wasn’t sure if it would survive and so scanned and printed onto a gash sheet. On returning home I found that the firmware needed to be updated, which I have now done.It is also possible to adjust all the control settings which I will do next time I fly it as I found it rather insensitive to turn commands. My one reservation is the throttle control which relies on you sliding your thumb up and down on the phone screen and which I found too easy to lose the setting because if it senses that you’ve taken your thumb away will shut down the motors and hence all control. More practice needed!! It certainly seemed like a lot of fun and actually flew better than I expected. It is controlled by a mobile phone using Bluetooth and has a range of around 70m which should be enough considering the plane is only 220mm (8.6”) long. I think it would only be suitable for near calm conditions although the website says it’s ok in ‘less than perfect’ weather. Take a look at this video, it’s funny and good to see just what these paper planes are capable of doing:

Last month I mentioned Captain Slow’s wild aggressiveness when flying his Mig-29 at the same time as I’m flying my SU-27. Unsurprisingly he disagreed with my version of events and pointed out some of the battle scars on his Mig that he’s very unfairly (in my opinion) marked as attributable to me. Surely not all those, I’m just an innocent party with an occasional bout of misfortune…

Oddly a similar misfortune occurred while Chas was flying his Wot4 and I was flying my Max Thrust Riot this month. We were both flying circuits with touch & goes and I don’t think either of us thought we were especially close but suddenly we heard the models touch although both carried on with no obvious problems.When we landed we checked over both planes thoroughly and it seems that Chas had backed his Wot4 tailplane onto the propeller of my Riot. How careless Chas, you really must take more care…!

The Max Thrust Aggressor is proving to be a popular model in the club, both Chas and Captain Slow have the electric glider versions and now Mini-Mike has bought the Extreme version that is powered by a ducted fan mounted on a pylon above the wing. Captain Slow’s Aggressor is the Sport version and Chas’s is the larger wingspan Thermic.The fuselage and tail are the same as used on the Sport version but the 1200mm span Extreme wing is more streamlined than on the Sport. The Extreme comes ready fitted with a 3850kv motor and four digital servos.All the purchaser need to supply is a receiver and a 4 cell lipo of around 2200mAh. Mini-Mike discovered that the launch requires so up elevator as the high mounted EDF unit tries to push the nose down but once safely away the model really performs well being a fast, agile, and smooth performer. It’s in the video, take a look for yourself.

The last new model this month is Chas’s Mini Wot4. I’ve not actually seen the model yet but Chas sent through some photos and this report: The Mini Wot4 comes with four servos, the motor and the ESC pre-installed. The horizontal and vertical stabilisers need to be glued in place and the control rods fitted and adjusted for length. I’ve used a 6 channel JR park flyer receiver and power is provided by an 850mAh 2s LiPo which brings the C of G to the recommended position. This gives a motor run time of 6′ 30″ with over 30% charge remaining. The wingspan is 26.4 inches and the all up weight is 7.8oz giving a wing loading of approximately 8.34oz/sq. ft. The first flight was interesting as the model was very sensitive to elevator and aileron movement. With the rates reduced it is very comfortable to fly and hand launches are a piece of cake. It will handle quite blustery conditions and landings are best made with a bit of power on. I have tried spinning the model a couple of times which is quite interesting as it completes a couple of turns in about a second. I have read that the servos on these models don’t centre properly but, touch wood, I’ve not yet encountered this problem and have completed 18 x 6 minute plus flights. Chas took the model with him to fly on holiday recently and snapped this photo of it on Bodmin Moor, nice.

Kryten captured some more excellent flying shots for us this month including some superb ones of Chas’s Cub:

Video time now which this month includes footage taken by myself, Dougal Entendre, and Captain Slow. Please watch the video full-screen, it’s so much better with small models flying around:If the video won’t play for you please click HERE

I tried to sue the airline for losing my luggage. I lost my case…

Colin Cowplain

Well that’s it then, the longest day has passed, the nights are drawing in, and winter’s on its way. Ok, that’s possibly a little pessimistic but the June weather really hasn’t been what we’d hoped for. I think ’variable’ describes it best, we had some lovely days but also a lot of wet and windy ones. With the mix of sunshine and rain the grass has grown quickly and the patch is in excellent condition. It has been mown every week, mostly on Friday afternoons.Captain Slow would like you think that he did all the mowing alone but actually all the usual workers were there as well. The grass on the rest of the field has been getting extremely long and as I write Woody has just said that it’s being cut at this very moment. Presumably Farmer George will soon be baling it ready to use as winter feed.This is a herd of inquisitive young bullocks in the lower field which I imagine will arrive in our field before too long.

I’ll begin this edition with congratulations to Richard Osborn who passed his BMFA ‘A’ test so can now fly without the need to have someone supervising him. Although the flying part of the test hasn’t changed for several years the theory part has recently got much more complicated as all unmanned aircraft operations in the UK must now adhere to the eighth edition of the CAA CAP 722 Unmanned Aircraft System Operations in UK Airspace.It’s all very simple, just download the 238 page document and learn it! Fortunately BMFA members can choose to conform to the CAA Article 16 Authorisation instead, a mere 14 pages. So next time you are wondering what the BMFA does for you remember that it saved you having to read 224 extra pages of stuff that is mostly irrelevant to what we do! Fortunately Richard had previously taken and passed the online BMFA Registration Competency Test.This meant he didn’t have to answer the Mandatory Questions as part of his ‘A’ test, just a minimum of 5 questions from the BMFA Safety Codes and PAM club rules. Although not mandatory it’s a good idea for all members to take the online test and register it alongside their BMFA membership. You’ll find it at https://rcc.bmfa.uk/rcc  All fliers are required to display their Operator ID on all their models but of course you have all done that already haven’t you?

Club members managed a lot of flying during the month and several new models made it up to the patch to be test flown, many of which belonged to Chas Butler, he successfully test flew no less than five new models in June!So I’ll kick off with one of his, a US Navy Cub, this is what Chas says about it: The HobbyKing US Navy Cub comes pre-fitted with a 3648 700Kv motor with a 45amp ESC and four servos. The landing gear assembly instructions were a bit vague and I have reservations about its durability. After four flights two of the tensioning springs have broken.Suggested batteries are either 3s or 4s with a 2200mAh capacity. I’ve only tried 4s batteries so far and there is plenty of thrust from the 12 x 6 scale’ish propeller. There was a tendency for the model to try to ground loop on the first attempt to take off but using a lower rate on the rudder/tailwheel makes this easier to avoid.It flies very well and turns nicely with a little rudder added to the aileron and flight times of seven minutes have only used about 60% of battery capacity. Thanks for that Chas. If I remember correctly the HobbyKing US Navy Cub is the same model as 1066’s US Army Cub with only the colour scheme being different. I know 1066 also had trouble with the undercarriage, both assembly and durability, and I think he replaced it completely eventually. Of course to stop needing the undercarriage at all Chas could rig up a model of the Brodie System that the Americans used for launching and recovering Cubs and Stinsons at sea. It’s one of those mad things you’d think would never work:

 

Woody has built himself an F-22 Raptor from an RC Factory kit that he purchased from Align Trex. When I checked the website it was out of stock but is available from RobotBirds although I don’t think I’d pay £54.41 for one. It’s very much along the lines of the foamboard jets that many of us are flying but this one is made from EPP not foamboard. I did the initial test flight at which point the model was fitted with a 1400Kv motor and although it flew fairly well once I’d trimmed it out it definitely needed a higher Kv motor to provide more power. So Woody later swapped the motor for a Turnigy 2826/6 2200Kv and now it performs as it should, just like all the foamboard jets in fact. Woody is using a Turnigy Plush 30A speed controller, two Turnigy 6g servos and lots and lots of lights that were sourced from HobbyKing. He says it now flies much like his Sukhoi SU-57.Woody uses 2200mAh 3 cell lipos to power the Raptor and you would expect them to give pretty long flights but he was spotted trying to sneak a bit of extra capacity using the fence solar panel…

1066 has now flown the Weston Models Mini-Capiche that I featured in Patch News a few months ago. He had spotted it for sale on Facebook Marketplace and paid £100 for the untouched ARTF kit. 1066 has fitted a 4248 850kv motor that swings a 15×6 propeller. The speed controller is an 80A Turnigy Plush and it’s all powered by a 4 cell lipo. It flies well but 1066 says he’s not sure about it. No doubt he’ll get it sorted to his liking before long.

Dougal Entendre made a substantial change to his Skylark mini pattern ship during June, can you see what he did? Yes that’s right, he’s added a strip of white tape across the top of the canopy… Wow, what a transformation!

Back to Chas now and the second of the new models he flew in June, an electric glider from Max-Thrust. I’d tell you what it’s called but it seems the plane changes its name depending on which way you configure the wing! Chas explains all: The Max-Thrust Aggressor glider is pre-fitted with a 2415 1150Kv motor controlled by a 40amp ESC and four servos. The suggested battery is a 3s 2200mAh but I have used it with a 2900mAh example. This version has a centre wing panel that extends the 1.5 meter Aggressor into a 2.1 meter model called a Thermic.I’ve only flown this glider as the extended wing version. The rate of climb with the 10 x 6 folding propeller is fairly rapid and flying is very pleasant. Landing is smooth but care needs to be taken as the model picks up lift very easily from the slightest little hump, bump or ridge. You can see the Thermic performing in this month’s video where you can see what Chas means about the humps, bumps, and ridges. Captain Slow also has an Aggressor but he didn’t buy the additional centre section extension wing panel so he can’t turn his into a Thermic. He only bought it around eighteen months ago so don’t hold your breath, we won’t see it at the field for a few years yet!

On one of sunnier June days Jeremy Stuttard brought along his E-flite Pulse to fly. As well as being a member of Petersfield Aero Modellers Jeremy is also a member of CADMAC (Chichester & District Model Aero Club) and usually flies with them down at Thorney Island but likes to pay occasional visits to the PAM patch to see what we’re up to.Like all E-Flite models his Pulse flies well and must have had lots of flights, it’s been around for quite a while now.

June saw the arrival of new member Ian Daniels. Ian started his aeromodelling career with control-line models when he was a child and moved on to radio control at the age of 16 with the Esher & District Model Flying Club. After leaving college Ian got into full-size aircraft working on restoring vintage aircraft for 10 years before moving to work for British Airways at Heathrow for 25 years. He gained and held a PPL for many years but eventually let it lapse. Ian half-heartedly dabbled in slope-soaring until recently but has now decided to swap to fixed-wing power models.Ian has bought himself a Wot4 Foam-E which, from what I hear, he flew well after 1066 had test flown it for him.Ian has made the obligatory three visits and paid his subs so is now a fully-fledged member. Welcome to PAM Ian.

The third of Chas’s new models is a HobbyKing Walrus: The HobbyKing Walrus comes with a pre-fitted 2212 1350Kv motor with a 20amp ESC. There are also six pre-fitted servos as the glider has flaps fitted as standard.The vertical and horizontal stabilisers should be glued to the fuselage but I’ve modified them so that they are removable for transport purposes. I took this photo to show how Chas has made his Walrus tail removable:The included instructions state a 3s 1300mAh battery is required whereas the website suggests a 3s 2200mAh item. I went with the 2200mAh option and the C of G has come out spot on with the battery almost as far forward as it will go. Although the fuselage looks spacious the amount of room for the receiver is fairly limited. For this reason I’ve fitted the seven channel JR receiver inside the canopy base. I’ve also re-routed the wing servo leads as it took me about 15 minutes to assemble the two piece wing to the fuselage with a carbon fibre wing joiner whilst feeding the leads through a barely accessible aperture in the fuselage. They now run forwards to the wing leading edge within the fuselage mounting area. The model flies on the 9 x 5 folding propeller without any serious issues although the ailerons are a bit sluggish. I’m going to play around with differential and may use the spare receiver channel to allow the flaps to be programmed to act as inboard ailerons. Excellent Chas, it should make a great holiday model.

The foamboard jets that many of us fly are pretty much indestructible as well as being extremely manoeuvrable and capable of flying both quite quickly and very slowly. So there is a temptation to attempt to fly in close formation and occasionally the models inadvertently touch. Fortunately because the motors are centrally mounted these generally result in nothing more than a small nick or two in the foamboard. But there seems to be a disproportionately high number of these touches between Captain Slow’s Mig and my Sukhoi which I can only attribute to the Captain’s wild aggressiveness. One recent touch ended with the models becoming locked together and ending up like this!Of course certain elements of what I’ve written above might be open to debate by others… especially Captain Slow!

Back to Chas again now for his fourth new model, his Wot4 Classic that I featured in Patch News last month.Chas’s Wot4 Classic is actually eleven years old but it has barely flown and Chas has now swapped out the original IC engine for an electric motor so it’s now quiet and clean. His fifth new model to fly was yet another Wot4 but this one’s the Mini version. No pictures or info this month, you’ll have to read the July Patch News to find out about it.

Unfortunately I don’t have any new flying shots from Kryten this month but here are some of his great photos from previous months, some of which I haven’t used before:

Video time now which this month includes some taken by me, Dougal, and Captain Slow. Please watch the video full-screen, it’s so much better with small models flying around.If the video won’t play for you please click HERE

A Lufthansa pilot landed his Airbus A320 at London’s Heathrow Airport. Later an Operations Manager spoke to him and asked if he’d had any trouble landing the plane since there was a strong crosswind.
“Nein,” the pilot answered, “I let Otto land the plane.”
“Otto? Is that your co-pilot?”
“Nein, my co-pilot was Frederick, and I would not trust my life with him, or my passengers.”
Startled, the Ops guy asked, “So, then who is Otto?”
“Otto-pilot, perfect landing every time.”

 Colin Cowplain 

Fortunately the month of May came and went without any further Covid-19 restrictions being brought in to prevent us from flying. At the start of the month the committee decided to raise the number of pilots allowed at each session from six to ten so as we rarely get more than ten pilots anyway that means it’s virtually back to normal.Of course Covid-19 hasn’t completely gone away so we still need to be careful with social distancing and hand sanitizing as necessary. The booking system remains in place to comply with government rules, we are required to record who attended and when. It’s easy enough, just email John if you intend to fly.  Sadly much of the May weather was more like March which limited the amount of flying but I think all the regulars managed to get airborne although some also got wet! At the start of the month the bullocks were moved out and although they did return mid-month they didn’t stay long. They are well used to us now and rarely bothered us, their presence just means somebody always has to stay grounded to keep an eye open in case they wander too close to the pits or patch.The often wet and warm(ish) weather meant the grass grew a lot so members of the Friday Afternoon Rural Trimming Society (FARTS) were kept busy.  On a couple of occasions the weather caused the mowing to be delayed to the following Sunday morning so the team became SMARTS (Sunday Morning Alternative etc). That’s the first time some of them have been called smart! The last week of the month finally saw some sunnier and drier weather which lots of members took full advantage of. Sometimes they were even having to queue up to take-off.

First of the new models to feature this month is Mini-Mike’s Marlin. The Marlin is produced by Arrows Hobby and is a 910mm span EPO foam moulded ducted fan model that comes ready fitted with an 11 bladed 64mm fan.The brushless motor is a 2840 3150kv unit which is fed by a 40A esc. The model requires a 35C or greater 4 cell lipo of 2200-2700mAh capacity. A fixed undercarriage with a steerable nose-leg is supplied but is easily removed if the pilot prefers the cleaner lines. Apparently the model hand launches easily and belly landings shouldn’t be a problem. A few months ago I test flew Bob the Builder’s Marlin which went very well and Mini-Mike’s was no different. I was away at the time of the first flight but others filmed the event so you can see it in this month’s video. It appeared to need very little in the way of trim and was pretty quick with the flaps raised. Once the flaps were lowered the jet slowed up well although a little practice is required to get it down neatly on our relatively small patch. I believe its Mini Mike’s first EDF model and I’m sure he’s going to have a lot of fun with it.

Next up is 1066’s new Wasp e2k pylon racer that he’s built from a kit produced and sold by Cloud Models. The Wasp is designed for the E2K electric pylon race class which has strict limits on both the model and the powertrain in order to make the racing close and ensure the winner is the best pilot and not simply the richest. 1066 doesn’t intend to race it, it’s just for fun, but it certainly shifts around the sky and is much quicker than most models we’ve seen at the patch. The Wasp is 39” span and has aileron, elevator, and throttle controls, no rudder.1066 has fitted a 1400kv 3536 motor and an 80A speed controller. The prop is an 8×6 Master Airscrew and the battery is a 4 cell lipo with a capacity of 3300mAh and a 30C rating. I wonder if it would be even quicker with an APC prop but it’s quite quick enough as it is. Judge for yourself, you can see it performing in this month’s video.

At the beginning of May Page Boy test flew the lovely Skywriter that he’s been building over the last few months.This is what Page Boy has to say about it: The plan was free in the RCM&E magazine in 2013 so quite a while ago but I knew as soon as I saw it I had to build it one day. It’s a Lindsay Todd design. I got the CNC kit from SLEC for £69 which to be honest would have been a good price except I had to alter the parts here and there quite a bit.The most challenging parts of the build for me was to make all the aluminium parts from aluminium strip etc. and to get all wing incidences correct. I decided to give glass-clothing a go using light weight matting and Deluxe Materials resin which was then given two coats of primer and two coats of colour. The covering is the usual Hobbyking stuff that actually gave me a headache this time round. Normally I don’t have any issues but this one well @#*…! I believe silver covering is notoriously difficult to apply Page Boy although I’m not sure why. Anyway the finished result looks excellent to me. Page Boy is planning on completing the instrument panel now the model has flown. The Skywriter has a wingspan of 48″ and Page Boy’s weighs exactly 5lb. He has fitted an EMAX 2820/07 brushless motor coupled to a Hobbywing 60A esc. He’s currently using a 12×6 prop and a Turnigy Graphene 3000mAh 4 cell lipo. All the servos are from 4-Max. Page Boy was very happy after the first flight which you can see in this month’s video.

Captain Slow brought along a new model to show us but, never one to be rushed, he hasn’t actually flown it yet.It’s a Multiplex Mini Solius, a 600mm span foam chuck glider that weighs just 45g. But Captain Slow has fitted his out with a micro RC system retrieved from a retired (broken) E-Flite indoor model. The receiver is a ‘brick’ type that includes two linear servos one of which Captain Slow is using for the elevator but it was simply too tricky to make a rudder linkage so the second servo is unused. Two further linear servos control the ailerons so what was originally a free-flight Mini Solius chuck glider is now a three channel RC glider that Captain Slow is intending to aerotow!There is no servo operated towline release and the plan is to use a small piece of Velcro to hold the line onto the glider and release it by pulling hard using either up or down elevator, depending on the final choice of Velcro location. It sounds a bit odd but Captain Slow has read about the apparently tried and tested system somewhere and it’s supposed to work well. I look forward to trying it, possibly towing it with my Max Thrust Riot.

A few months ago Patch News included a photo of a small P51 Mustang that Catapult King had received as a Christmas present but at the time it hadn’t flown. But in May not only did it fly, it flew surprisingly well!The Mustang is made by Eachine although an online search shows an identical model marketed under the Volantex name. The package includes a completed model with a 6 axis gyro, a 400mAh single cell lipo, and a transmitter.The transmitter has a 3 position switch for the gyro modes, the modes being beginner, intermediate, and expert. There is also an Aerobatics push button which enables the pilot to do a roll or a loop even when the gyro is in beginner mode. It’s rather like a flip button that lots of drones have, press the button once and the Mustang will roll once or loop once depending on which way the pilot moves the stick. The wingspan is 400mm, length is 317mm and it has a flying weight of just 60g. The lipo gives flight times of around 10 minutes and is charged from a USB socket just like your mobile phone. The only thing not in the box are 4 AA batteries for the transmitter. Catapult flew his with the undercarriage fitted but it’s easily removable if you’d rather fly without it.The first flight can be seen in this month’s video and I think you’ll agree that it’s pretty impressive for such a tiny model. The P-51 Mustang is sold by Banggood (and others) and if you like it you may also like the F4U Corsair or T-28 Trojan in the same range. At the time of writing the Corsair has to be ordered from China but the Trojan is available from the Banggood UK warehouse for just £67.77 with 3 batteries and free shipping…I’m tempted!

Dougal Entendre started using his FPV gear again during May, I must get my FPV model out again. He was flying his Sonic Modell Binary twin motored model that he’s flown a few times before but never using FPV.Note the balance lead sticking out out the back of Dougal’s head. It stops him falling over… As well as the FPV gear Dougal has added a 4K action camera alongside the Foxeer FPV camera to record better quality in-flight video. Dougal says: The FPV camera is right next to the action camera, and they both seem to get a similar field of view. Although the action camera is 4K, I only run it in 1080p mode (at 60Hz frame rate). This is because 4K video files are huge and unwieldy, and the camera drops the frame rate right down to get 4K, which is no good at all, whereas the 1080p quality seems pretty good. I got comments about how long it took me to prep the plane for each flight. This is because I have to power up about 6 systems. In order, I go: Transmitter, plane (including lights), video Tx (from separate 1000mAh 3s battery), goggles, action cam, then set goggles and action cam recording.When I power up the action cam it’s very difficult to see the video screen, even if I do remember to take my sunglasses off! I have to listen to the chimes as it powers up, and then different chimes when I press the button to start it recording. The latter nearly always seems to coincide with someone loudly saying “that’s a right faff to set up”, or “why has it got two cameras”, so it’s a miracle we have any video material at all. Well we do have video material and very good quality it is too. On one flight Dougal homed in on a red kite that didn’t seem bothered by the model at all. You can see it all in the video but here are a couple of stills from it:

I caused lots of hilarity at one midweek flying session when I discovered that my beloved Multiplex transmitter was as dead as a dodo. As you can imagine there was great delight and lots of “bl**dy Multiplex” type comments, especially from the Spektrum pilots! I must admit I was rather concerned until I remembered that the previous flying session had been ended by a heavy rain shower and I had packed up very quickly and had obviously left my tx switched on…operator error! Fortunately fellow Multiplex flier Captain Slow allowed me to set up my Sukhoi on his transmitter and with a quick bind I was up and flying. When I returned home and charged my transmitter the screen showed the last model flight time as 99 mins & 59 seconds, thus proving I had forgotten to switch it off.Nowadays all cars have USB charge points so if I’d had a charging lead in the car I would have been alright. I’ve put a lead in there now, that will ensure I’m never stupid enough to leave the transmitter on again!

Dwayne Pipe was recently given a voucher to go indoor skydiving at iFly in Basingstoke, something I did myself a couple of years ago. Basically the set-up is a transparent vertical 14ft diameter wind tunnel with a mesh ‘floor’ to stop you falling to the bottom if the fans stop. The average height that you ‘fly’ at is about 6ft above the mesh but you can go up to a max 39ft. An instructor is in the tunnel the whole flight to keep the student in the right place and stable. The air speed is controlled by an operator who is watching what’s happening the whole time and they adjust the speed from between 90mph and 180mph. The experience begins with a pre-flight briefing where you’re taught what to expect, what to do, and basic hand signals. Then it’s time to get kitted up, all the necessary gear is included in the price of the flights. The controller raises the air speed when signalled by the instructor and up you go, weird!Dwayne said that it was over too quickly but as you can see he really enjoyed the flights. To see a short video of Dwayne Pipe flying in a drainpipe click HERE He gets better when he swaps his blue flying suit for a red one…

Chas has various building projects underway at the moment including a Westland Lysander but one that he has just finished was converting an eleven year old Wot 4 Classic to electric power. What’s a Wot 4 Classic I hear you ask?From the net: The Classic uses a 52’’ span parallel chord wing similar to the Wot 4 Mk2 but with the Mk3 fuselage, especially suited to slow fun type flying. The rakish swept vertical tail surfaces, underfin and increased lower rudder area greatly enhance flick manoeuvres and knife edge looping capability. Structurally the fuselage has undergone a major redesign, incorporating die-cut ply doublers, formers and integral servo tray, all slotted for ease of assembly. The front bulkhead can be installed in a choice of positions to accommodate any engine within the specified range. Chas’s plane started life with an OS46FX fitted but only had a couple flights in that guise and fortunately he hadn’t got round to cutting holes in the cowl to fit the I/C engine. So the old engine has now been replaced by a 595kv brushless motor spinning a 13 x 8 propeller. Power will be provided by a 4 cell 3300mAh lipo connected to a 60A speed controller and Chas has also fitted a 5A UBEC to power the JR receiver and four standard size digital servos.He has made the top of the old tank bay removable so he can swap batteries without having to remove the wings.It all looks very smart and should go well with that power set-up. I can’t wait to see Chas doing knife edge loops.

A Wot 4 that’s also seen a transformation but for a different reason belongs to Bob the Builder. I’ve no idea what version his is (there are so many nowadays) but it’s now got a new fuselage. Bob’s alter ego Basher Bob ‘modified’ the original one rather badly so he’s built his own version replacement fuselage.It looks fine and seems to fly just as well as the others although I doubt we’ll be seeing it doing knife edge loops!

Kryten took som excellent flying shots in May including an absolutely superb one of Dougal’s inverted Sport Jet:

This month’s video was shot by myself, Dougal Entendre, Captain Slow, and Bob the Builder. 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

My skydiving instructor would always take the time to answer any of our stupid first-timer questions.
One chap asked, “If my chute doesn’t open, and my reserve doesn’t open, how long before I hit the ground?”
The instructor looked at him and, in perfect deadpan, answered…
“The rest of your life.”

 Colin Cowplain

After so many months of little or no flying due to various lockdowns we were able to fly for a full month in April. I think it’s fair to say that we made the most of the decent weather and lots of members flew, some for the first time in many months. Fortunately the bullocks were moved out of the field on 4th April which made things easier for us.Less fortunately they returned on 20th April while we were flying but took little notice of us as they know we won’t feed them! Thanks to the maintenance work that was continued by several members (when it was allowed) the patch is now in great condition and ready for what will hopefully be a long and busy summer with lots of flying.

In the February Patch News I featured the launch ramp and bungee system that Dwayne Pipe had constructed to provide a safe and reliable way of launching his edf models and this month he was finally able to test the system. Somewhat appropriately Dwayne Pipe has made the ramp from several pieces of small diameter drain pipe. There was much frivolity and mickey taking as he put all the pieces together and it seemed to take an age but eventually it was set up and ready to go. Dwayne’s TSR2 was chosen as the guinea pig and mounted on the ramp.A great cheer went up when it was safely launched on the first attempt. The tension was increased slightly for the second launch and that time it went away even better. You can see both launches in this months’ video.No doubt Dwayne will get quicker at setting the system up as he gets used to it and it was noticeable that the hilarity stopped and congratulations started when the system turned out to be such a resounding success.A few days later Dwayne launched his Vampire from the ramp, again with perfect results. Well done Dwayne.

While I’m on the subject of bungees, I’ve had an email from Catapult King. OK I know that was a terrible link but it’s the best I could do! Anyway Catapult wrote with a tale of woe regarding his F14 Tomcat, here’s what he said:  If I ever mention an F14 again shoot me. As you can see by the picture it’s in the bin. Knowing that almost everything was going to be fixed and unreachable when completed everything was tested before gluing the final pieces of Depron in place. Having eventually put it all together and covered it was time to finish the programming. Unfortunately more issues. One of the elevator carbon fibre tubes decided to split rendering it useless. I thought fixing this was major surgery but I did it anyway. Then the rudders went juddery as if glue had dried on the hinges or the links had got dirty. Having finally finished the build the wings failed to go all the way back as easily as they had when originally tested as the Depron had warped in addition the servo now struggled.OK a bit of sanding more or less sorted that out but a meatier servo would not have gone a miss. Then the moment that finally broke the proverbial camel’s back, time for another current check (as in amps). I throttled up gently to 50% and there was enough thrust from both motors it started to slide of the workbench not bad when you think it didn’t have wheels. Then one of the motors spluttered and failed. As this was one area I could get too, I noticed one of the connections had broken but even after soldering another connector on, this motor was not going to spin. After checking the wiring, trying the ESC on the other motor successfully and various other things there was no joy. Replacing this was going to require rebuilding the entire nacelle and half the plane as there was no way just to cut it out so I’m afraid I gave up and in the bin it went. An awful lot of effort and materials gone.That’s very sad Catapult, it was looking so promising, but don’t be disheartened, just move on to the next project.

Young Charlie has been very unlucky to have his flying training interrupted by the various lockdowns but hopefully the worst is over now and he’ll be able to fly more regularly. He started flying with an FMS Easy Trainer which served him well for his initial training before moving on to a wooden Wot-4 that he was given by John Warren. Charlie had his 12th birthday in April and the following day he celebrated with several excellent flights with both models.Charlie flew on several days in April and is now almost ready to take his BMFA ‘A’ test. He is competent with both models but will have to use the Wot-4 for his ‘A’ test flight as the Easy Trainer does not meet the regulations. It is too light and doesn’t have any wheels to perform the mandatory take-off but the Wot-4 is ideal.

Sadly Bob the Builder returned to his Basher Bob roots this month and managed to write off his electric twin.I wasn’t present at the time but Dougal Entendre tells me Basher suddenly shouted that he’d lost control but the model crashed before anyone could help. Basher had an on-board video camera running at the time and listening to the footage later Basher thinks one motor was playing up. That would obviously cause problems with asymmetric thrust and make control very difficult. I know that Basher had been trying to set up the asymmetric throttle control on his new RadioMaster transmitter so maybe that was a factor, he should have stuck with Multiplex!

During one midweek flying session Dougal and I had a little impromptu low inverted pass competition. We all know that low inverted passes are Dougal’s signature move but quite obviously I was the winner this time. Why obviously I hear you ask… because I write Patch News of course! Fortunately Kryten was on hand and has been able to provide photographic evidence so you can decide for yourselves who really won. Some of the more devious members said I would simply doctor the photos to make it look as if I’d won whatever the truth really was…Well really, it would never cross my mind, I’ve no idea how they could even think such a thing, I am truly shocked!

Last month I featured Norwegian Nick’s SIG Decathlon that he’d got finished but hadn’t yet flown. Well it still hasn’t!Nick brought the model to the field for it’s inaugural flight, got everything assembled, fitted the wing struts, and then test ran the motor prior to attempting the first flight. There was a sudden ‘pop’ and the motor stopped. Upon investigation Nick found that the safety isolation link plug he’d fitted had burnt out so a flight wasn’t possible.At least it’s a much easier fix than having to change the motor and or speed controller but that didn’t seem much of a consolation at the time. Everything else worked perfectly so no doubt it will fly successfully next time out.

A few of the older PAM members will remember Mike Upton who passed away fifteen years ago. Mike was a modeller who enjoyed building large models and could best be described as a bit of a character. One April morning Mike’s widow Sue came to the patch to say she’d found some plans that she wanted to pass on rather than simply throw away. Sue thought the plans were for a Lysander but they are actually for a large Fairey Swordfish and were drawn by another late PAM member Frank White. So does anyone want some free complete & detailed plans? They’re right up Norwegian Nick’s street I reckon. The day I collected the plans Sue also gave me a painting that had been used as the club glider competition trophy for a number of years. Mike was the last winner so he’d retained the trophy.It was painted by another ex-Petersfield member Jim De’ath who left the club several years ago because his failing health meant he couldn’t walk up to the patch. Coincidentally a few years later Jim became a member of Dwayne Pipe’s art class and on the same day that Sue gave me the painting Dwayne broke the sad news that Jim had passed away. The painting is actually better than I remembered, the committee will need to decide what to do with it.

One April Sunday afternoon Chas’s wife Dawn joined him at the field when he flew his venerable Wot4 Foam-E. Dawn thought the Wot4 was looking very tatty (that’s when they fly best Dawn!) and decided to buy him a new model as an early birthday present. In due course the new model arrived and it’s a…drum roll…Wot4 Foam-E! But it’s not just a smart new one, it’s a different colour, the old one was white with blue and black trim whilst the new one is white with yellow, orange, and red trim. Chas reports that the stated 30 minute assembly time turned out to be 3-1/2 hours but he must have got it right as the new model flew perfectly. Just like the old one in fact.

I’ve realised the best way to figure out how windy it will be at the patch is much simpler than poring over lots of different forecasts and calculating the average speed. Now I just look at the Patch Booking Sheet and see if Kryten is down to fly! I don’t know how he does it but he’s pretty much infallible, Kryten flying equals light winds. In April Kryten came out several times and I took this action shot of Chas launching Kryten’s Phoenix electric glider:Kryten also brought along his beautifully built and finished Swannee, an updated vintage single-channel model. He built a single-channel one back in the sixties but it never flew successfully. When he and I were at school together Kryten (AKA Graham Swan) was always known as Swannee so maybe he should have called it Graham? The 1966 design called for a 0.8cc diesel engine and had ‘rudder only’ control but Kryten has brought it bang up to date with four channel radio and electric power whilst still retaining the looks of the original design.

While he was at the patch in April Kryten was able to capture some more of his excellent action photos for us:

This month the video footage was captured by myself, Dougal Entendre, and Captain Slow. Dougal has just treated himself to a camcorder, a Sony HDR-CX240E. It’s early days but it looks to produce good results so far. If you’d like to follow suit it’s available at Argos, where you can get a 6.5% discount if you use the BMFA Vectis card.
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

In April one hundred and eighteen years ago two brothers insisted that it was possible to fly …
It turned out they were Wright.

Colin Cowplain