Patch News History

At last, we’re flying again! As of Monday 29th March we are allowed to fly but the booking system remains in place and there are still some restrictions on numbers. Chairman John Wheeley has completed a risk assessment and emailed all members explaining that up to six fliers are allowed along with four non-fliers. Social distancing remains important of course and mask wearing is certainly a good idea, especially when assisting others. The use of hand sanitiser is also recommended when handling other people’s models and transmitters. Anyone without a BMFA ‘A’ certificate must be supervised by an NFC. In practise the numbers are unlikely to be a problem but workers (do we still have any?!) will be given priority at weekends. Please email John to book a slot, preferably with plenty of notice.The patch is in excellent condition thanks to the efforts of several members who have changed the battery regularly and completed three mowing sessions. At the time of writing the bullocks are in the field but they are the same ones as last year so they are used to us and shouldn’t be a problem. They seemed to enjoy watching Chas mowing.Utilising his military background Captain Slow took command, assumed his rightful place, and supervised everybody.

When Dougal and I arrived to fly on 29th March we were surprised to see a deer in the field. It seemed happy to be with the bullocks but was rather wary of us. At first I thought it was trapped in the field but that wasn’t the case. After a few minutes it hopped into the lower track and then across into the bottom field and on into the woods.The next day it returned whilst flying was underway and came close to the patch. After watching the flying for a while it got bored and went off in the same direction as before. I hoped to see it on Wednesday but it didn’t show.

Many of you will have seen that the website has been offline at times recently and as webmaster I should explain what’s been happening. For many years the site has been hosted at zero cost by Steve (Cyano Steve) Montague’s company and although Steve retired a few years ago the company very kindly continued to host the site for free and Steve has always been on hand to help if there have been any problems. But recently the company requested we find another host so there were some decisions to be made. I am reasonably proficient at doing the day to day site updates, adding new stuff, Patch News and so on but anything major is beyond me. Knowing that Dougal Entendre is an expert in such things and had recently retired so had nothing to do (if only!) I passed the project over to him.

The initial idea was to simply switch the hosting to BMFA who offer free hosting to member clubs but following the initial approach nothing happened for a couple of months. To be fair this was largely because BMFA have been extremely busy with all the CAA Article 16 regulations and the Covid-19 restrictions but the delay meant we were in danger of being left without a host and hence no website. So the committee authorised Dougal to look for a commercial host which would cost around £60 per annum and following consultation with Steve a company was chosen and the switch was started. Then BMFA came back with the information required to switch to them!

As is so often the case with these things nothing went smoothly and at the moment the site is being hosted by a commercial company but the switch to BMFA will be made gradually over several months, ironing out problems and giving the site a fresh new look before going live. The last few weeks have seen literally hundreds of emails between Steve and Dougal trying to get everything sorted and I am extremely grateful to them both. Passing the buck was certainly the best decision I’ve made!

Back to actual modelling now and news that Percy Vears has kept himself busy during lockdown. The first of his models that I’ll feature is his new Mig 15. This is what Percy says about it: This is one of the Tony Nijhuis series of mini jets which first appeared in the RCM&E 2018 special issue. I’d discussed these models with an aero modelling friend, and shortly afterwards he turned up and presented me with an FMS 50mm EDF assembly. I had little option then but to agree to construct one of these models – I chose the Mig 15 and he opted for the F86 Sabre. The kit was purchased late 2018, but I was unable to contemplate building it at that time. The present lockdown gave me ample time to start construction and this has now been completed, so ready for test flights.Construction largely followed the build photos supplied by Tony Nijhuis but I did change the thrust tube. This was supposed to be constructed from acetate sheet – a method I used when building the Avro Vulcan, but then I had turned up a wood mandrel on the lathe which helped form the acetate into the conical shape required. I decided a better approach might be to 3D print the thrust tube, so it was designed with 0.5mm wall thickness using FreeCAD.Having printed the thrust tube, the next problem was fitting it, since lack of flexibility prevented the larger end being folded and squeezed through the smaller holes in the rear formers. The only solution was to slice the formers and open up the fuselage to install the thrust tube (building a Folland Gnat now, I slid on the formers before gluing to the fuselage sides). The resulting tube weighed in at 28g –  slightly heavier than one formed from acetate sheet.A couple of further items were 3D printed. The ‘cheat’ air scoops and the pilot. Pilots for the mini jet series are available for purchase from Tony Nijhuis at £10 each. Research showed me that .STL files for these pilots are available (free) on https://www.thingiverse.com (these may be scaled to required size in the Cura slicer). So I printed my own! Note from editor: Cura is an open source slicing application for 3D printers.The model was finished with lightweight iron-on film in the Soviet Red Falcon display team colours. The weight of the airframe with servos esc and receiver (but without battery) is 436g.  Tony specifies an AUW (All Up Weight) of 450g (16oz). Technically I believe that AUW includes the fuel source, but since a 3s 2200mAh battery weighs typically 150g – 180g, this would imply that the airframe should be  270g – 300g (unlikely to reduce the weight by this much without sanding away much of the wood, so perhaps the term AUW is being misused). The AUW of my model (with 3s 2200mAh battery) is 616g – the thrust from the EDF fan is 620g, so hopefully that will be enough. Thanks for that very comprehensive write-up Percy, the Mig looks great and I’m sure it will fly well.

Having now retired Dougal used some of his spare time and money to buy some bling for his RadioMaster TX16s in the form of some leather side grips. Dougal purchased brown ones but they are also available in light tan or black.I reckon he’s made the right choice, the brown ones won’t show the cow poo nearly as much as light tan would…  The transmitter doesn’t come with a battery so he’s also bought a 5Ah 2s lipo for it. I would imagine a 5Ah battery will last for several flying sessions before needing a charge. Both items came from https://www.hobbyrc.co.uk/

Meanwhile Bob the Builder has set-up and flown some of his many models using the RadioMaster transmitter he purchased during lockdown. He says OpenTx was quite a steep learning curve but lots of YouTube videos helped.

Kryten has also bought a new transmitter which he tested out on 31st March. Unlike the Radiomaster it’s a very up market transmitter, a Spektrum ix12, and it has an excellent screen with very clear graphics and controls.

The next new build from Percy Vears is a lovely Keil Kraft Pixie: As a 10 year old boy, walking home from school, I would gaze longingly in the window of the local model shop where a built-up Keil Kraft Pixie was suspended. This was a 23” wingspan, rubber powered semi-scale plane based upon the Auster light aircraft. Of course, the rather high price of 4/11d (or about 25p) was out of reach for a schoolboy with his rather meagre pocket money.However, one day (I don’t remember how) my dream came true and I found myself in possession of this KK kit.  Whether it was successfully built, or whether it flew is beyond my power of recall. However in more recent times, and with better skills at my fingertips, I had a hankering to relive those days and build another Pixie.

However a scaled up version of the Pixie by Tim Hooper featured in the December 2010 edition of RCM&E.This was a 43in wingspan version featuring an electric motor and I decided that perhaps this was a better option than the original, but at the time never got around to thinking about building it. However, two or three years ago I went to the LMA show at RAF Cosford, and whilst rummaging through the SLEC stand I happened to see a set of CNC cut parts for the Pix-E Major. I purchased these parts which then languished in my garage until seizing the opportunity to use time during the present lockdown to do a bit of modelling.This is a very lightweight model, weighing in at about 320g (excluding the 2s battery), and the fuselage is mainly constructed with 1/8in square balsa (which frequently broke during construction). The most difficult part lay in all the cabin glazing needed! Needless to say, this plane will not provide an adrenaline rush – so forget aerobatics.It is for leisurely flying on those very calm summer evenings, when it will probably fly for ages on its 2s battery.

Norwegian Nick has always been a prolific builder and he has sent me some information and photos of three models he’s been working on recently. First up is his Fantrainer which now just needs the colour scheme applying. Nick has fitted an Overlander 2845 2100kv motor running on 4S lipo using 35amp speed controller.I’m not sure if it’s classed as an edf or a shrouded prop model but whichever it is I’m looking forward to seeing it fly.

Next is Nick’s SIG Decathlon that he started building in the late 80s and he’s recently dug out to finish.It’s powered by an Overlander Thumper 3548/05 900kv which is good for 710watts and is controlled by 60amp esc. Nick will be using a 4s lipo. Do you think the pilot is a model of Norwegian Nick in the eighties? Many years ago the club had an evening of full-size gliding with the Royal Naval Gliding Club down at Daedalus (Lee-on-Solent). For a small fee members were able to have flights either being winch launched to around 1000’ or aero towed to a greater height. I had one of each and the tug plane was a Decathlon, I wonder if it’s the one that Nick has modelled.

Back to Percy now and the latest news on his lovely Lancaster that many of us have seen at club meetings at various stages of the build: This project was started about two years ago, and was a major undertaking, having many breaks in progress.  It has reached the stage of being 99.5% finished, requiring battery connectors to be soldered and a few minor things before ground testing.The balsa and ply construction was fairly straightforward except for the engine nacelles where a change in type of retracts over the years made some of the balsa shaping difficult (and different to the plan).  It was intended to have servo operated bomb doors, but due to the length of the doors, two servos would be required (one at each end of the doors).  Whilst some success was achieved, the problem arose with two servos operating in tandem at opposite ends of the door. This led to the servos fighting each other so there was always one or other of the servos “buzzing” and drawing excess current.  This was holding up the project so it was eventually decided to use thumbscrews to hold the bomb bay doors closed, access being required to connect the removable wings and to install the battery.  I may revisit this problem at a later date.The complete airframe was covered with 18g glass cloth and resin before being finished for painting (quite a mammoth undertaking!).  High build primer was applied and thoroughly rubbed down, followed by grey primer. The underside of the aircraft was spray painted with black satin finish. The upper surfaces were painted with acrylic matt brown and dark green using a standard camouflage pattern (wartime Lancasters were hand painted using rubber mats as stencils – this meant that all planes were identical, preventing the enemy from determining the total number of planes available to the RAF). I decided to give the plane markings of 619 Squadron – PG-S (serial No LM742) which was lost on the night of 6-7 November 1944 at Gravenhorst – chosen because I had spent time with the individual who was the pilot of the plane on that fateful night.  Unfortunately, I have no idea if the plane carried any nose artwork (still researching but a difficult task).  Unfortunately the pilot is no longer with us and I had yet to take up aero modelling on the occasion I met him. Finishing touches involved a lot of 3D printing (plus hand painting of the aircrew). This included: Propeller spinners and Engine exhaust stacksBrowning guns Aircrew (6 in total – wireless operator is hidden from view)Another great project almost completed Percy, one that is going to look superb doing low passes over the patch.

The last new model is a little unusual for an aeromodelling club and it shouldn’t really feature as it’s a tug boat!It’s another model from Norwegian Nick and I’ve included it just because it looks simply superb bobbing on the water on a sunny day. Nick took the photos of the 36lbs and 3’ 6” long model on Canoe Lake in Southsea.

Sadly there are no flying photos this month but Dougal and I did manage to take some video of the first post lockdown flights. Then the following day Dwayne Pipe shot the deer…  No, he shot some video not the deer! 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

You do not need a parachute to skydive. You only need a parachute to skydive twice.

Colin Cowplain

Here we are at the start of March having had zero flying in February. Fortunately things seem to be improving now with the vaccine rollout going well and Covid-19 cases dropping steadily so let’s hope flying is allowed soon. At the time of writing it looks as if from 8th March two members will be allowed to fly and then from 29th March it will be up to six members, but that’s not definite. Members must email Captain Slow to book a slot before flying. Captain Slow, assisted by Woody, has changed the fence battery regularly and reports that the patch will need cutting when we start flying again. Just as they finished the battery swap on 26th Feb the bullocks were moved into the field.

Some of you may have seen the feature on Don Eades, our late President, on BBC South Today on 17th February. There was no mention of his love of aeromodelling, it was about his life working as a photographer in the Petersfield area and him leaving a legacy of 120,000 photos to the Petersfield Museum. Don’s daughter Sandra was interviewed and spoke of some of his exploits while trying to get the best photographs. A good and fitting feature I thought. On Thursday 25th February at 2.30pm some club members attended Don’s funeral at Buriton church. Through his work Don met a great many people and in normal circumstances I’m sure his funeral would have been packed but due to the limit of thirty attendees the funeral had to be by invitation only. Funerals can never be happy occasions but I felt Don’s was about as good as it could be. The club was mentioned several times in the various tributes and its importance in Don’s life was stressed. During the Time for Reflection a slideshow of Don’s life was shown which included many photos of club activities, models, and club members. The final photo of the slideshow was Don waving goodbye. A very touching and poignant moment for everyone present.

At least this latest lockdown has been over the winter period when the weather is frequently unsuitable for flying but Sunday 21st February was a perfect flying day with light winds and even a little sunshine. Catapult King wrote to say it would have been the ideal day for test flying his little P51 Mustang but of course that couldn’t happen.He also reports that his F-14 Tomcat ‘keeps dishing out problems’ as he’s trying to get it ready for it first flight.The latest problem is that his radio has all but died and will need repairing. (I can recommend Mike Ridley of Model Radio Workshop in Southampton, he’s very good). Apparently Catapult has been spaced out during lockdown! No he’s not got a drug habit, he had received and model of the International Space Station for his birthday.He’s now got it finished and I must say it looks good Catapult but I’m not sure it will fly.

I was rather surprised when Jeremy Stuttard (Jezza? No I bet he’d hate that!) emailed on 3rd February saying that he’d been flying that day. Does he live on a farm or have a large enough back garden to fly in, or was he blatantly breaking the rules? None of those actually, it turned out he meant he’d been ‘flying’ on Google and discovered that the aerial mapping of the patch has been updated. Jeremy said that not only were several fliers clearly visible but also it was possible to see a model in the air and the shadow it was casting. So I opened up Google to check it out and when I first looked at the field in 2D I wasn’t convinced he was correct about the dot being a model at all, let along actually in the air, but then I went to 3D mode, zoomed right in, and rotated the view. He’s correct, it’s definitely a model and the shadow shows the shape more clearly than the model itself. I don’t know when the photos were taken, I thought Google used to give a time and date but I can’t see it now. I think it must have been pre-Covid as there doesn’t seem to be any social distancing in the pits. Click on the pics to enlarge them.Further over most of the cars are hidden by the trees but three are visible next to the barn which I belong to me, Captain Slow, and Dougal Entendre. Good spot Jeremy, if we can’t fly we can at least look longingly at the field!

Last month I showed you some photos of an Eek mini pylon racer that Matt Takhar has been building for Nick Weatherley. Matt has now finished and covered the Eek and it’s looking extremely smart. Matt’s been experimenting with vinyl cutting recently but I don’t think he did the ones for the Eek, I assume they were bought online. It seems likely that Nick will ask Matt to do the test flight, I hope his eyesight and reactions are up to it, at just 575mm span it’s going to be a hairy little thing but should be great fun if it survives.

Matt has also been refurbishing a Madness 3D machine. He owned one around 10 years ago and had a hankering for another (nostalgia becomes more common as you get older Matt!). He bought a slightly tatty I/C one on the BMFA sale site and has converted it to electric power and done some general tidying up especially of the covering. He used his vinyl cutter to produce some of the graphics which look to have turned out well. I’m sure Matt needs more practice at cutting vinyl so if you need any graphics for your latest pride and joy you know who to go to! The power is now supplied by a Turnigy 670Kv motor, much nicer than the previous dirty smelly noisy I/C engine!

Shock news, Bob the Builder has sold his Multiplex radio gear, the traitor! He’s got a Radio Master Tx16s on order which should arrive sometime in March. It’s the same transmitter as Dougal’s latest that I featured in December.Bob explains that the reason for the change was that he wanted to experiment with flight controllers, specifically a ZOHD one, and for that he needs a multi-protocol radio that can handle PWM and SBus. It means he’ll be able to use the Hitec receivers that he was using before buying the Multiplex gear. Bob has spent this lockdown learning as much as he can about Open Tx programming, mostly by watching the many YouTube videos that are available online. It will be interesting to see how Bob gets on with it. He should be alright for loads of help and advice from Dougal as Dougal has just retired after a lifetime of work developing software. Incidentally Bob still has two of the little Multiplex 5 channel Light receivers that several of us use, contact him directly if you could use a couple more receivers. Bob has also done a bit of building and says: In a particularly bored moment looking at my Lockdown2 model I wondered if I could use the wing in a DLG glider so I have built a prototype fuselage, see attached. Had to learn how to spring load the rudder and elevator to save weight, which will be about 350grms, nowhere near an Alula at 200grms though. Hmm, interesting, I hope the wing is strong enough for discus launching.

I heard from Gorgeous Gary the other day saying he has now got his Multiplex Funjet Ultra finished and ready for the test flight, he reckons it could be his fastest ever crash! Multiplex say it will do 125mph so it might be the fastest crash any of us! Gary has fitted a Himax c3514-2900 motor, a 60A esc, and will be using a 3 cell 2200mAh lipo. A couple of months ago I showed you a photo of Gary’s wrist that had been operated on, putting him out of action for a while. With the various restrictions and lockdowns he really hasn’t missed much flying but he says it’s on the mend now so he should be alright to fly once we are allowed. So what did the surgeons do to him? This:Ouch! That just had to be very painful, still it could have been worse, it could have been one of us instead of Gary!

John Warren has now finished his Albatross No.2 and has sent through some photos of some of the finer details. He says that on the old model the bottom wing was held in place by a ball and socket on the bottom of the strut. It was the failure of this joint that caused the wing to come off. He has changed the ball and socket to a hook and eye, and added a link joining both bottom wings. Let’s hope that does the job, I was unimpressed when the last one failed while I was flying it! The elevator and rudder controls are both closed loop using Gold-N-Rod snakes. The undercarriage is bungee sprung in guides, and the wheels are toed in about 5mm to hopefully improve the ground handling. John has made a dummy inline 6 cylinder Mercedes engine from balsa wood, and also a pair of twin 7.9mm Spandau machine guns. John reckons the AUW is around 6lbs which he says rather worries him. I don’t know what John’s first Albatross weighed but 6lbs doesn’t sound too bad to me for a model of that size.

Dwayne Pipe has kept busy during lockdown by building a bungee launch system for a couple of his EDF models. He says: EDF jets, either bought or made, usually have no undercarriage for the reason that their scale wheels are too small and almost useless for grass runways. This means that they have to be hand launched, which depending on who is doing the launching is a hit and miss affair. I have a pair of home built EDFs, the TSR2 and the Folland Gnat, where only one person in the club consistently launches them successfully. When Colin isn’t there I am stuck. As a result the TSR2 hasn’t been flown for a long time. My lockdown 3 project was not to build a new plane, but to build a bungee based launch system designed around these two planes, so that Colin could have a rest once in a while. (Quite right too Dwayne!) There are loads of videos on YouTube on building a bungee launcher, but almost all of these are for flying wings. It’s a lot easier to launch a plane if you don’t have a separate tail to get in the way!The best article I found was by Dave Royds from RCME and I used a lot of his ideas when planning my design. The launcher is constructed from 32mm PVC overflow pipe with push fit T’s and elbows to connect them together. The 1.5 metre ramp is inclined at 12 degrees with 20 feet of 6mm bungee and 10 feet of 3mm nylon cord providing the power. The foot trigger mechanism is a wooden seesaw which releases a split ring from a coach bolt. The bungee should be tensioned between three to five times the mass of the aircraft, so in my case 4.5 to 7kg pull. The whole system comes apart and is designed to be fitted into a sports bag.When the powers to be let us out to play again, I can test it out, and fine tune the system. The photos give a better idea of the arrangement. Thanks Keith, that looks excellent, I look forward to seeing it in action. Norwegian Nick made a similar looking one some time ago to launch some of his smaller EDFs. I don’t have any details of Nick’s but I remember that it was made from PVC pipe and it launched his little Sea Vixen with no problems.

Woody has added a Chance Vought Corsair and Hawker Hurricane to his collection that he calls Woody’s Warbirds! The Corsair is the HobbyKing PNF 30″ span one that comes fitted with 6 Axis ORX Flight Stabiliser. Woody has got it all set up with the stabiliser linked to his Multiplex radio gear and just needs the restrictions on flying lifted so he can test it. His Hurricane is the Dynam one and he’s added a sound system which is being demonstrated here:

Kryten snapped a couple of photos this month but not his usual flying shots, these are very firmly on the ground. I bet Dougal is dribbling into his breakfast now at the sight of a vintage Acoms 27MHz transmitter! However, all is not as it first seems as the transmitter and tools are scaled up to fit on a plinth that usually displays a real car. The second photo includes the Lanzante Tamiya Sand Scorcher, a real car that was scaled up from the Tamiya RC model.It’s very unusual to see something full-size that’s been modelled on an RC model, especially when it includes the transmitter. Here it is at Goodwood where, driven by a full-size driver, it took part in the hill-climb event. Amazing!

With no flying this month there is no video from the patch but John Warren sent me a link to one on YouTube that I think is worth sharing. It was filmed seven years ago and things have moved on a bit since then but it shows just the sort of flying skills that we all regularly demonstrate at the field…

 

Do you ever wake up, kiss the person sleeping next to you, and feel glad to be alive?
I just did.
Apparently I’ll never be allowed to fly with this airline again…

Colin Cowplain

Sadly I must start this edition with the news that Don Eades our club President has passed away at the age of 84.Don was a founder member of Petersfield Aero Modellers in 1972 but he had been an aero-modeller for many years before that. When I first met Don in around 1963 he was flying control-line models, all built and finished to an extremely high standard, a standard he maintained throughout his modelling lifetime. In 1978 I returned to modelling after a break and found Don was club Chairman, a position he continued to hold for many years during which the club flourished under his leadership. In around 1979 Don became one of the first Area Chief Examiners in the country and, leading by example, he encouraged PAM members to take their A & B certificates, and conducted a large number of tests for many other clubs right across the BMFA Southern Area.When the Southern Area was close to collapse with the lack of a leader he stepped in and served as Area Chairman for many years. During that time he encouraged and participated in inter-club competitions, including the Southern Area Galas, two day events that were held at Beaulieu, and the Balsa Brain quiz that is still held annually to this day.At the BMFA Annual Dinner in 2003 Ron Moulton presented Don with a Certificate of Merit for his efforts. Don was a keen competitor in club competitions and was always at or close to the top of the scoreboard. The photo below was taken at the 1987 Nationals when Don competed in the Fun Fly event, winning the Touch’n’Go event in Class 2.In the latter years, with failing health, Don was unable to manage the flying sessions but attended the fortnightly club meetings for as long as he could. Eventually he had to move into a care home where he spent his remaining years, passing away on 26th January. Fortunately both of Don’s children, Sandra and David, were able to be with him at that time. The club has lost a founder, a leader, a superb modeller, and an inspiration to so many of us.

Now onto slightly happier things: Another year, another lockdown. As last year ended the situation was that just two people at a time were allowed to meet up and fly. The club booking system remained in place in order to control the numbers and keep a record of attendees. So on New Years’ Day 1066 and Mini-Mike (obviously neither of whom had overdone the revelling the previous evening) ventured out and discovered that it was very, very frosty at the field. Despite the extreme cold they both managed a few flights in the rather murky conditions, with 1066 flying his Edge 540T  and SU-27 and Mini-Mike his Durafly Tundra. It must have been cold, Mike is wearing more than a T-shirt! On Sunday 3rd January Dougal Entendre and I took our turns and flew in chilly and blustery conditions. It was warmer than on the 1st but we both needed our transmitter muffs and I found the heater in mine was a great boon. Both 1066 and Mini-Mike had booked the afternoon session that day so they were able to fly again. But later that day Lockdown 3 was announced, starting at midnight on the 4th. This time the rules meant that no flying at all was allowed and the BMFA said clubs must close their sites. So that was the end of January flying, just the four of us got some flying in, something for which we were very grateful. We have no idea when flying will be allowed again and the terrible situation of the NHS struggling with the new Covid variants doesn’t make the future look very promising.

When Dougal and I flew on January 3rd I took my foamboard SU-27 and MPX FunGlider and Dougal flew both his Skylark and Slick using his new Radiomaster TX16S for the first time. He had managed to sort the programming enough to be confident of flying the models without any disasters although there still seemed to be a few ‘oddities’ that he was working on, mostly to do with arming the speed controller and throttle locking. Both models needed trimming and some of the features in the set-up were a little different to previously, particularly with the Skylark.On the first flight the elevator was much too sensitive although that may have been caused by a rather rearward centre of gravity (put the battery in the right place Dougal!). In this month’s video you’ll see that the Skylark started off rather erratically but Dougal gradually sorted it out and by the second flight it was flying much better. The Slick was also over-sensitive on elevator at first but less so than with the Skylark and it was soon trimmed out and flying well. In the air the radio was faultless and Dougal was pleased to have voice announcements for the first time on any of his many many transmitters. I must say it was pleasant to hear a different voice speaking the flight time etc., So many of us now use Multiplex radio the most common sound is a pilot saying “Was that 2 minutes me or you?”

When 1066 arrived at the field on the afternoon of 3rd January he discovered he’d unknowingly previously damaged the fuselage side where the wing tube is mounted. Unusually he’d only taken one model with him so it was a case of fix it or give up and go home. With a bit of ingenuity and using available materials 1066 did a masterful repair. Well ok, he stole some club property (one of the electric fence warning signs) and with a bit of cyano he cobbled together a right old bodge job! But it worked perfectly and enabled him to have six flights with no problems.As it turned out to be the last flying session for at least two months I’d call that a very worthwhile job well done. 

Now for a bit of news about a PAM member rather than actual flying. As those of you in the PAM WhatsApp group may have seen Chas Butler had some hospital time in January. Back in September 2004 Chas had a hip replaced having worn it out with too much walking (that’s just my opinion not a medical fact!). I can remember him being in a lot of pain for ages but the doctors refused to operate because he was only in his early fifties and they thought a new hip wouldn’t last his lifetime. They were right! Here’s what happened this month, straight from Chas: The day after the storm on Boxing Day I was tidying up the garden. Having swept the deck I was using a dust pan and brush to pick up the leaves, twigs and other garden rubbish. On straightening up there was a strange noise coming from my waist area. Initially I thought it came from the phone in my pocket. After removing the phone the noise sounded again. I then thought it may have been my belt creaking. At this time I was starting to feel a bit of discomfort that rapidly became more painful. Initially I thought I might have pulled a muscle or trapped a nerve. I phoned my Surgery the next day. They advised me to go to A & E preferably at St Richards as levels of Covid were very high in Portsmouth hospitals at that time. Five hours and two x-rays later the problem was no clearer. They advised me to go home with a view to return for a CT scan. Eight days later I received a phone call asking me to go in the following afternoon for a scan. The scan was on the Friday followed by another call on the following Monday to go in for a pre-op in the afternoon and then to return at 7:30 the following morning to replace the prosthetic hip. Needless to say, in the end, things happened very quickly. I think I was fortunate that a consultant from the orthopaedic department who had nothing to do, apart from emergency procedures, was checking back through recently undiagnosed cases. He noticed something amiss on my x-rays hence the reason for me being called at short notice for a scan. Apparently the ceramic material was crazed with the possibility of shards coming off and ending up, who knows where? This may not have occurred under normal circumstances. Chas’s operation took 4 ½ hours and left him with a 20” scar but the outcome was good and he’s now hobbling around on crutches, doing his daily exercises, and working his way back to normal fitness. Looking on the bright side at least he’s not missing any flying and should be fit enough to return to the field when we are allowed. All the best Chas, we hope you’re back to 100% again soon.

Both 1066 and Dougal Entendre spotted a piece on one of the Facebook groups about Team Mirus flying at various model shows back in the 1980’s. There was a photo of the team that included our very own 1066!There was also some information about each team member and a video taken at one of the shows. This is what 1066 says about it: I am the young guy (now 61) top left of the group picture TEAM MIRUS, standing next to me is my great friend Dave Richardson, sadly now passed. It was Dave who introduced me to Ken via the youngest of the group, (bottom right) whose name escapes me. We spent a year traveling the country displaying the Mirus, often arriving expecting to get in as a trader but having to pay as no one knew we were attending, we even had to buy the plan pack, but it was worth every penny, nothing beats picking up the model at the end of a good flight and turning to face an appreciative crowd. Great Plane, Great Guy, Great Times.

The video appears to be taken by someone filming the original video on their laptop so it’s not the best quality. I’ve edited the video down to four minutes to include the parts with 1066. You’ll notice that at around the 45 seconds mark he appears to take a swig of methanol to calm his nerves! At 2 mins 20 secs he’s interviewed by the legendary Dave Bishop, and at the end he does what Dave describes at an ‘emergency landing’! I think the engine must have been stuck on full throttle, maybe it was a throttle servo failure, but whatever the cause he got away with it.

Three years ago, remembering the good times he had with the Mirus team, 1066 built another one. The kit is no longer available but he made an electric powered version using his own construction methods. He’s barely changed! After a few teething troubles the new one goes really well and is a great flier, especially suited to poor weather.

I spotted a couple of things on the internet that made me smile in January. The first was posted on Facebook:If only it were true! It’s not fake news, not trying to fool anyone, it’s just a joke and it cheered up my January a bit.

The other thing was a Banggood advert that keeps coming up. I was intrigued with what appears to be pair of electrically heated underpants! Eventually my curiosity got the better of me and I clicked on it for more info.I was almost disappointed to discover that it’s actually a heated pad that goes on your back and the picture is (to my mind at least) upside down. Scrolling through the info revealed another photo that made a lot more sense. I totally blame Dwayne Pipe. A couple of months ago I searched Banggood for details of the heater pad he is using in his transmitter muff and now they keep trying to flog me all sorts of heat pads!

Always one who’s on the lookout for a bargain 1066 spotted a Weston Models Mini-Capiche for sale on Facebook Marketplace. It seems to be an untouched ARTF and he secured it for just £100. 1066 says it’s not as flimsy as most of the later models of this type, some of them seem to take the ‘add lightness’ theory a bit too far these days.The Capiche is unusual in having push-pull cable linkages on the two elevator servos as well as the rudder. Personally I’m not a fan of push-pull linkages, they often seem to be a problem and I don’t see any advantage over having the servos mounted close to the tail and a direct short linkage, other than to help the CG maybe.  Anyway, 1066 has done them as designed and they appear to work perfectly. I don’t have any details of the powertrain other than that it’s all bits that 1066 had kicking around but I believe he’s fitted a 650Kv motor and will be using a 4 cell lipo. Presumably it will need at least a 50A speed controller. The Capiche is around 1200mm span. It’s all ready to go now and looks very smart indeed, well done 1066. We just need to be allowed to fly again now!

Matt Takhar emailed me, mostly to explain that he and Nick Weatherley are now Lee Bees members because the flying site at Daedalus is much more suitable to the large models that they both than ours. Can’t argue with that. But now, to go along with their large models, Matt is putting together a micro pylon racer for Nick!It’s called Eek and was designed by Andy Whitehead and IAD Model Designs produce a CNC cut kit. It has a wingspan of 575mm (just over 22 ½”) and uses three 6g servos on the ailerons and elevator. The motor is 2300Kv and is controlled by an 18A esc. It uses a 500mAH lipo of either 3 or 4 cells and either a 4.7 x 4.7 or 4.1 x 4.1 prop.Just one comment: Are you mad? That thing is really going to shift, especially on 4 cells, good eyesight and reactions required! But both Nick & Matt are rather younger than most PAM members so maybe they’re up to it.

Sadly Lockdown 3 meant Kryten couldn’t take any flying shots this month so here are some blasts from the past:

Video time now which this month is rather limited as the lockdown meant that Dougal and I were only able to film on one day. 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

Son “Mummy, when I grow up I want to be a pilot.”
Mum “Make your mind up son, you can’t do both.”

Colin Cowplain

Happy New Year everybody! I hope you all had a good Christmas and made the best of it despite the restrictions. We’ve finally reached the end of an awful 2020, surely 2021 can only be better can’t it? It will obviously be several months yet before the vaccine roll-out has much effect on the virus and I suspect we won’t be flying normally again for quite a while. December was a strange month, when Lockdown 2 ended on 3rd December the whole of the local area was placed in Tier 2 and flying was allowed, albeit with social distancing and the rule of six. Some of us flew on the 3rd and several times after that whenever the weather was reasonable.  On the 4th we saw a lovely sunset.But on the 19th Portsmouth, Gosport and the Havant Council areas were switched into Tier 3 and just 24 hours later into Tier 4. This meant that members in those areas were not allowed to fly but members in Tier 2 could carry on as before, effectively cutting the club in half. Then on Boxing Day the whole of Hampshire was moved into Tier 4 so none of us could fly except with just one other. Those in the WhatsApp group will have seen that Iven booked a slot and went flying after lunch on Christmas Day! He reported back that it well and despite not having flown for six months he didn’t break anything. He also said the patch seemed to have shrunk somewhat…yes Iven that’s what happens after a six month break! Captain Slow has continued to regularly change the fence battery throughout the various restrictions and some of us were able to mow the patch at the start of December so it shouldn’t need much attention for a while now. I was especially upset by the new restrictions as I’d been looking forward to impressing you all at the field with my classy new Christmas jumper. Never mind. You’ll just have to make do with a photo:

During the lockdown Bob the Builder spent some time knocking up a new model that he’s named Lockdown Two.Bob says it draws inspiration from the new Eachine Razor and the Dream-Flight Alula from about 10 years ago.I can see where he’s going with that. The wing is made from two layers of 5mm Depron with a flat bottomed aerofoil and an Alula style plan shape. An 8mm square section carbon tube is combined with a fuselage front section built from balsa. All the materials were bits Bob already had kicking around. The motor from Banggood is an 1800kv 2 or 3 cell one, the same as Bob uses in his small yellow basher. He has fitted aileron and elevator control only, no rudder and has managed to keep the flying weight to 520 grams using either a 1300mAh 3s battery or an 850mAh 2s with 50 grams nose weight. Bob said he built it to be a slow flier that he can fly in a small area. I did the test flight and I’m pleased to report that apart from being too twitchy on elevator it flew brilliantly. You can see it in this month’s video. The first flight was using a 2 cell battery a later Bob flew it on a 3 cell one which proved to also be good. Bob added a bit of colour after the first outing to aid visibility. I’m not sure quite why but on the second outing Bob had a bit of trouble with it and did a little damage but once 1066 had trimmed it out again all seemed well.

During December Chas flew his ex-Gentleman Jim Wildcat a couple of times and seemed to be enjoying it a lot.But back in the workshop Chas has been busy working on his Lysander which is coming along well now. With the aid of his lathe he’s sorted out the motor mount and spinner and has managed to mount a Top Flite Pratt & Witney engine moulding in the cowl. It’s an interesting choice of engine as Lysanders were all powered by Bristol engines but needs must! The engine will be fitted with a home-made aluminium exhaust system in due course. Chas has also been working on the woodwork and the tail feathers look to be pretty much complete now. The fin is laminated from two pieces of 6mm sheet balsa whilst the rudder has a core of sheet balsa with riblets on either side. The elevators are built in the same method as the rudder whilst the tail plane is all built up with obechi spars, ribs, leading and trailing edges and then sheeted with 1.5mm balsa and laminated tips added to both the tail plane and elevators. It is built upside down so that when turned over it has a flat top surface and dihedral on the underside. The wing struts are made from two laminations of lite ply and one of balsa with a stud at the lower end and two aluminium plates at the upper ends. The struts are there just to hold the wings against the fuselage. As Chas has now fully retired I expect work on the Lysander will move on swiftly although there is still an awful lot to do.  There’s no hurry anyway as it’s unsure when he’ll be able to test fly it with the Covid restrictions.

We haven’t seen Gorgeous Gary for a while and he emailed to explain it’s because he’s had an operation on his wrist. That sounds like a pathetic excuse to me, just fly full throttle out and ignore the rudder, same as always! Gary’s been having trouble with his wrist for some time and he’s hoping that the operation will have resolved the problem. He says he has very little movement in his thumb but that’s it’s a lot better than it was a few weeks ago. He’s still managing to work though and hopes to be back flying with us quite soon. All the best from PAM Gary.

You’ll no doubt be amused to hear that I managed to knock the tail off the Max Thrust Riot that I purchased in the sale of Gentleman Jim’s goods. Yes I know it’s just a reasonably aerobatic trainer but it was a windy and very turbulent morning and I was practising touch & go’s, doing very tight turns at low level when I got caught out.That’s my excuse anyway. Captain Slow was kind enough to snap a photo of the damage and insisted that I include it for your viewing pleasure (swine!). Gluing the tail back on was barely a few minutes work but both the rudder and elevator control horns had snapped and it took me much longer to find some suitable replacements from my stocks and get them fitted. Never mind, it was ready for the next flying session when it performed perfectly once again.Young Charlie was flying his Wot-4 in exactly the same conditions that morning and managed four flights, including all the take-offs and landings, with no problem at all. He’s continuing to progress well and once the restrictions are over and the weather improves it won’t be long before he’s ready for his ‘A’ test. On a different December morning Charlie’s mum Nadine filmed him taking-off and landing which I’ll include in this month’s video. The landing was the worst one he did that particular morning but it was just on the patch and in one piece so all was well.

New member Ben (well he will be in January) brought along an FW190 one morning but was unable to fly it as he discovered there was a problem with some of the controls interacting. Ben uses a Taranis transmitter and the problem might have been down to something in the very capable but also very complicated open source software.I expect he’s got it sorted now and we’ll see the FW in action soon. But he was able to fly his Gee Bee R3 which he’s fitted with FPV gear. Ben uses a very neat looking FrSky gamer style transmitter for the Gee Bee, I bet Dougal wants one of those! Ben flew normal LOS (line of sight) first and trimmed it out before trying the FPV on the next flight.All seemed ok at first but then the model started drifting away downwind and Ben was struggling to bring it back so he removed his goggles to fly LOS again. Both Bob and Dougal were helping with the spotting and giving directions (no further explanation required then!) but Ben was obviously in trouble as the Gee Bee was getting further and further away. Eventually the Gee Bee came down a long way off over the bottom fields. I was busy in the pits at the time and couldn’t figure out why Ben was struggling but Dougal told me later that the lipo had coming out and was swinging around beneath the model. A constantly varying centre of gravity would explain a lot!After a bit of searching the model was found to have landed safely almost 900 metres away. Fortunately it had cleared a small wooded area and was just sitting completely undamaged in an open field waiting to be retrieved. 

Back to Chas’s workshop now and some information he sent me about his battery driven power tools: Something a little different. What can be done to your old power tools when the NiCads no longer function?The mini drill, scissors and screwdriver are all now fitted with a 1s 1000mAh lipo. The Skil drill has a 2s 2000 mAh lipo and the vacuum cleaner has a 4s 1350mAh lipo. I’m sure the vacuum works better now than it ever did.The screwdriver’s epicyclic gearbox and locks fell apart when the unit was stripped down. Very fiddly to reassemble!! When not in use the lipos are put into storage mode and then charged when a building session is anticipated. Thanks for that Chas.

The saga of Dougal’s Jumper T16 transmitter continues, or rather it ends with his latest news: My Jumper T16 had one final insult for me – even having changed all the ribbon cables for the gold-plated ones, the USB charging didn’t work. I may sell it, or I might keep it for doing my own software experiments without buggering up the transmitter which (I hope) I’ll be using for regular flying sessions. What transmitter is that I hear you ask? I’ve lost count of the number in his collection now but it is somewhere in the mid-thirties I believe. Well now it’s plus one as he’s bought a shiny new RadioMaster TX16S. I’m very confused about the links between Jumper, RadioMaster, and RadioKing transmitters, Jumper appeared first and the others seem to be further developed copies of the Jumper transmitter. Dougal’s initial reaction on opening the box was that the transmitter was a little smaller than he’d expected.But delving deeper he found the real thing, so how’s he getting along with his new one:  I’ve only played with the hardware so far – I intend to get the software updated over Xmas & get some planes configured. I changed it from Mode 1 to Mode 2 by swapping the stick units over, which was quite a straightforward operation.The connectors seem a lot better than the flimsy ribbon cables in the Jumper T16, so I hope the reliability will be a lot better. The Hall sensor sticks feel a bit weird as the pivot point is a bit higher than I’m used to. I felt I wanted to make the sticks longer, which was a bit of a shame as they are not really adjustable. I solved this problem by unscrewing the stick ends, adding a bit of plastic tube as a spacer, then screwing them back on.Old school modellers will recognise the plastic tube as Sullivan Gold-n-rod outer! Curiously I found a YouTube video by someone who details a modification for making the sticks shorter! He also used a 3D-printed spacer to lower the stick units in the case. Sounds promising Dougal, just a RadioKing transmitter required now to complete the set!

Catapult King has also been busy during the lockdown and he sent me information and photos of his latest creation. Catapult has never been one to go for an easy option and his new F14 proves that! I started to build the F14 years ago but I never finished it before the Depron had dried out. So this year I decided to give it another go only this time with some modifications from the original Steve Shumate plans and using the original model as a template. The original plans will make a perfectly good flyable representation of the aircraft but as usual my goal was to go a little further on an already good design. Having found out a lot more about the flying surfaces it had to have the front looking ‘Gull wing’ shape, I just had to change ailerons for flaps and spoilers (front slats and glove veins were out due to not enough radio channels) and it just had to have EDF’s. Other than that there was nothing to it, Ha Ha!How do you turn a square engine intake to a round exhaust, whilst flaps were straight forward spoilers are not especially as they’re just in front of said flaps and then creating the ‘Gull wing’. I started with the motors and had two 50mm 10 blade 4s EDF’s which supposedly produce 650g of thrust each (should be enough I thought) and created the nacelles by setting up formers on a square length of wood and using strips of Depron strips to form the shape making sure there was enough room to put the motors and a long thrust tube taking the FSA to circa 90%.The wings were next and were made from two layers of 6mm. The general shape cut, I removed the area for the flaps then cut a section out of the top half for the spoilers (needless to say I made two right wings here) but how do you hinge spoilers and then and how to move them when the you need the mechanism to slip (up and no down can be programmed in the radio)? Sorted in the end by filing out all the holes in a control horn so that when the arm moves up it pushes the surface up but the wire slides back in the slot. This might not have a lot to do with the actual flying but the aesthetics should look good. The bulk of the flying controls will be done by the elevons.The ‘Gull wing’ effect was created by lowering where the wing root meets the fuselage. Having put the various parts together in principal and all appearing to work as planned (swing wings work, flaps and spoilers work, rudders work and elevons work and an awful lot of air comes out the back (Is that merely wind or thrust)? I then had to start the covering. Heat shrink on Depron is without a doubt a pain (Me thinks a lesson from Norwegian Nick would be useful here as the photos look good but close up??). The covering pulls the foam out of shape. Subsequently the nearer I get to finishing this thing the more unforeseen problems there are to solve. Close but no cigar.The power train is as previously mentioned two HK 50mm 10 blade EDF’s, two good old Hobby King 40 amp ECS’ and the flight weight, close at 1190g as I would like it to go vertical. Four 5g servos in the wings the rest are HK900’s so I hope the swing wing survives. Even when I do finish it how am I going to launch it? Throwing it doesn’t appear to be an option so I might need to create a trolley dolly (oops, launch dolly it is Xmas).In the meantime I got the P51 for Xmas, 400mm wing span and an absolutely horrid radio but it does look fun and looks like it should go like a little pocket rocket, just as well it has a gyro. Thanks Catapult, that F14 is quite a build!

The last new model to feature this month is another one that’s been pretty much completed but not flown yet, and this one is Captain Slow’s: It’s a Multiples Mini-Solius chuck glider that I bought at least 3 years ago to play with at the Club’s chuck glider competition; in which it was useless achieving the lowest score. (Workman & tools maybe?!)It has a wing span of 655mm, is 490mm long and with its 1S 150Mah battery, weights 80g. The radio brick is 4 channel and came from an E-Flight UMX AS3Xtra that died after too many indoor collisions at Havant.This works with my – whisper it – Spectrum Tx and has stabilisation. I plan to use the Velcro method of tow release as the spare (rudder) servo doesn’t really have enough throw or grunt. It’s intended as a proof of concept before converting my Lidl glider to RC. Captain Slow is thinking about using a Hummer for an aero-tow launch. My first thoughts were that a larger tow plane with a bit more power would be needed but reading the size and weight of the Mini-Solius I think he’s right. I’m really looking forward to seeing how this little model will perform with radio fitted.

Kryten didn’t manage to take any flying shots this month but here’s some of his that I haven’t used previously:

Video time now, this month with extra contributions from 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

This month’s ‘joke’ is a Christmas cracker special:
Why don’t aeroplanes ever study for exams?
Because they just like to wing it…
Colin Cowplain
Stay safe