Patch News History

Happy New Year everybody, I hope you enjoyed Christmas and saw in the New Year safely.

I’ll begin this Patch News with an important question: Have you completed your response to the BMFA Call to Action email yet? This concerns the CAA Consultation on the CAA Review of UK Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Regulations and it is extremely important as it will affect the future of model flying for all of us. There may not be a future for model flying unless we make our voices heard. All PAM members will have received various emails about this, please be sure to submit your response before 10th January.

Did you all see the Christmas Greetings post on the website? There haven’t been any comments left so I’m wondering if most of you missed it. If you did you can see it here:

Did Santa has bring you any modelling goodies to play with in 2024? I recently received a HobbyKing MX2, the same as the one Gordon Bennett bought a couple of months ago. And now I hear that Gordon has received an Avios BushMule from Father Christmas, the same as the one I’ve had for a few years. Seems to be a bit of a trend developing there…!

As many of you will know Woody is a diehard fan of the Top Gun movies, he believes he’s the British version of Maverick and this Christmas Santa left him an appropriate T-shirt. Woody even has a nasty gash on his nose, obviously an injury sustained when he ejected!

December was one of the worst months for flying that I can remember, the weather being pretty miserable, pretty often. It was warmer than most Decembers but there was a lot of rain, often accompanied by strong winds. Some of the hardier members still managed to get some flying in but I have to admit that at times it seemed like a chore not a pleasure. The Boxing Day weather was ok but only Dougal Entendre and Mini-Mike could make it: We’d planned to get one final mowing session completed but with a lack of enthusiasm and helpers it got put off several times, but we did eventually get it done on 15^th December. The patch is now in good condition and should be fine with no more work required until the spring. Meanwhile the sheep that had been in the field have grazed the rest of the grass down nicely so the whole field is now quite short. The sheep have now been moved on to pastures new which provided some of us with a little light entertainment one morning when they were herded up the track and off along the road just as we were arriving to fly. I imagine the field will now be free of animals for at least a couple of months so hopefully the very muddy areas around the field entrance and parking areas will gradually recover.

I spotted this Old Farts Club beer gift pack in a garden centre recently and thought it was very apt for our mowing team, the Friday Afternoon Rural Trimming Society. Is it just me or does the Boring Old Fart bear a certain resemblance to Dwayne Pipe? The Daft Old Fart is very definitely Bob the Builder, and let’s face it, the Grumpy Old Fart could be any or all of us. I’m afraid I was too parsimonious (tight) to actually buy the pack!

Unsurprisingly with the poor weather there was a distinct lack of new models appearing in December but there were several that re-emerged having been upgraded or re-owned. Mini-Mike brought along two models to test out that he’d changed a few things on, the first being an old Acro Wot that he’d first put together back around 2005/06. It’s one of the original ‘proper’ wood ones with a built-up fuselage and veneer covered foam wings and Mike had fitted an OS70 4-stroke to power it. But after many years of it laying in the loft unloved and unused Mike removed the OS70 and replaced it with a Turnigy SK3 Aerodrive 3548 840kv motor coupled to a Plush 60A speed controller. The fuel tank was replaced by a 3300mAh 4 cell lipo which is fitted through a hatch cut in the top of the fuselage and the old analogue servos were replaced with 3 Spektrum digital servos. Mike also fitted a Spektrum receiver which he bound to his new Radiomaster tx. It was at this point that he realised he was going to need a lot of lead in the nose to achieve the correct centre of gravity because the old OS70 had been much heavier than the new Turnigy motor. He ended up having to add 240g despite mounting the battery as far forward as he could get it. The overall weight of the Acro Wot must have ended up about the same as the IC version, it just seems a shame to add all that dead weight. When it came to the test flight everything was fine and the model flew beautifully, there was plenty of power and it was every bit as good as when it had the OS70 fitted. I captured some of the first flight on video so you can see it for yourselves in this month’s video.

Prospective new member Rod Ashton brought along his E-Flite Timber to fly. Rod has completed the required 3 visits and will probably have joined by the time you read this. The Timber flew fine although Rod doesn’t look very happy about it in the photo! He’s been adjusting the throttle/elevator coupling and had got it sorted by the third flight. Rod’s having a bit of trouble landing on our small patch but he’ll get used to it after a few more flights. As he hasn’t yet got a BMFA ‘A’ certificate Rod has to have one of the club’s NFCs stood with him for every flight so that’s a priority for the start of 2024.

I’ve been struggling with watery eyes when flying for a while now, especially in cold windy weather when the wind just makes them stream. I wear varifocal glasses and have both clear and sunglasses with the same prescription but they give little protection from the wind. I mentioned it to the optician last time I had my eyes tested and his rather unhelpful reply was “Yes, it’s an age thing, there’s nothing I can do.”  It seems to affect several other members as well and some have tried a few different types of goggles with varying success. As I’ve usually been the first to take the mickey when others have tried them (doesn’t sound like me does it!) I was rather reluctant to go down that route but having almost crashed a few times I decided I’d have to try something. I spotted some cheap ski goggles on the Temu website that said they were windproof and anti-fog and would fit over normal glasses. They were available with various tints (but not clear) and were only about £3 a pair so I ordered a couple to try. When they arrived they fitted over my normal glasses very well and would certainly be windproof but even the pair with the lightest tint looked a bit too dark . I tried flying with them and found that they were definitely too tinted, might be ok in the summer when the wind is less of a problem anyway but definitely a bit too dark for winter use. So then I ordered a different type that was clear but seemed to be more for eye protection (a bit like safety goggles) and although they weren’t tinted they also weren’t clear, it was like being out on a foggy day. At under £2 it seems you get what you pay for. So after a bit more searching on Temu I found some moto-cross goggles that said windproof and anti-fog and were also tint free. I splashed out almost £5 for a pair and they seemed to be just what I needed. I wore them for a few flights last time out and they certainly stopped my eyes watering and didn’t mist up although my varifocals did a bit. Needless to say I took a bit of stick for wearing them but as the saying goes “Don’t give it if you can’t take it” so I ignored it. But then I discovered an added benefit while having my after flight coffee, the goggles trap a flask cup perfectly so now I can drink hands-free! Gordon decided it was a photo that simply had to be taken.

When he wasn’t busy taking embarrassing photos of me Gordon was flying his new  SU27. It was originally built by Woody but he didn’t get on with it so he passed it over to Gordon to try. Gordon didn’t like the way the hinges were done (as supplied, not something Woody had done) so he cut off the ailerons and elevators and re-hinged them with tape. Woody hadn’t fitted a rudder but Gordon knew foamboards are better with one so he added a servo but left the rudder hinged as supplied. He also removed Woody’s lighting system (yes Woody, planes will actually fly without lights!) and tidied up the linkages a bit. Gordon was unsure of the correct centre of gravity position after the changes he’d made but it flew fine although the CG seemed to be a little too far forward. So before the next flight Gordon will move the CG back a little and will also increase the rudder movement as it wasn’t very effective but overall the flight was good as you’ll see in the video.

The battery packs used in electric cars have dropped massively in price recently and surprisingly they are the same cells as we use for flying. So in theory our packs should also get cheaper but we’ll have to wait and see about that! Also, several electric car manufacturers are gradually switching from LiPo (Lithium Polymer) batteries to LFP batteries. Some electric bike packs also use LFP cells, this is a Bosch electric bike pack: LFP are what modellers know as LiFe batteries (actually LiFePO4) and many transmitters already use them, including my Multiplex Cockpit SX9 transmitter. When I started flying electric models 32 years ago people were using NiCad and later NiMH packs. I found this photo of me with my first electric model on 24^th August 1991. It’s a Proof and it used 6 NiCad cells but gradually Lipos began to take over although in the early days they were very expensive, couldn’t deliver high currents, and didn’t last long. But they were much more energy dense and therefore lighter than NiCad and NiMH packs. The LFP batteries were around in those days but with a variety of different names and like NiCads were round cells and were (and still are) used in many power tools because they could deliver high currents. They have a nominal cell voltage of around 3.3v against the LiPo 3.7v and aren’t as energy dense as LiPos so are heavier for the same capacity but still much better than NiCads. I used them for a few years until LiPos got better and cheaper. Some of you may remember that when I used them I would bring a 12v lead acid leisure battery to the field and charge the used pack after each flight, often still in the plane, rather than swap multiple packs as we do nowadays. I used them in my SportJet with the pack of 5 cells seen below rather than a 4 cell lipo to make up for the lower voltage. Car manufacturers are now switching to LPF because they last longer, can be discharged further without damage, don’t use rare earth materials such as cobalt, manganese or nickel, and are safer. I remember that to prove how safe they were the cell manufacturers used to hammer a nail through the cells and show that they didn’t go up in flames. Now the car manufacturers are doing exactly the same demonstrations with LFP batteries. Incidentally, despite what you read in newspapers and on social media, statistics show that electric cars are much less likely to catch fire than petrol or diesel, Google it for yourselves. I think there are some interesting, and hopefully better/cheaper times ahead for all of us.

The other of Mini-Mike’s models that he flew after making some changes to was his electric ducted fan Phase 3 Squall which he hadn’t flown for a while. Having bought himself a new Radiomaster transmitter Mini-Mike fitted the Squall out with a Spektrum receiver so it needed binding and the plane re-trimming. Mike flies the Squall on 2650mAh 3 cell lipo which seems to suit it perfectly, the plane goes really well and, as you can see in this month’s video, it looks good in the air.

Unsurprisingly, with the awful weather this month Kryten wasn’t able to take any action shots but here are some of his from last month plus a couple of my non-action ones:

Video time now, this month with footage shot by MacFly, Dougal Entendre and me. 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

How did the two aeroplanes decide which party to go to on New Years Eve? They just winged it…

Colin Cowplain

As is to be expected at this time of year the weather varied greatly in November, we had some very pleasant days with little wind but also some truly awful wet and windy days.
The midweekers were fortunate that the nicer days seemed to be mostly during the working week, some Sundays were not good at all. I took this screenshot from Holfoy on Sunday 19^th showing that at 11am the wind speed was 27.3 mph gusting 40.3mph.

As far as I know not a single club member bothered going. Wimps, the lot of them!
The grass on the patch is hardly growing now but the Friday Afternoon Rural Trimming Society (FARTS) did their bit and mowed the patch a couple of times in November.

On some of the nicer days several new models were successfully flown the first one being a beautifully built electric glider belonging to Dwayne Pipe, I’ll let him tell you about it: Those of you who went to the EGM at the Hampshire Hog will remember the excitement of the auction of the planes donated by the widow of an ex-PAM member. I bought an elderly but beautifully made thermal glider, 6 ft wingspan and likely hand built from an unknown plan. The fuselage on investigation had had a number of evolutions, starting off as a catapult launch pure glider, then a huge brushed motor had been added powered by NiCad batteries. The wings were held on by rubber bands as was custom in the past. My upgrade was to remove the supplied motor and fit a 1000Kv brushless motor, 9”x6” folding prop, ESC and 3S 2200mAh Lipo battery. The wing mounting was upgraded to bolt the wing onto the fuselage and a new battery cover was made. The plane flies beautifully in still air but with any wind will float motionless above the patch.
Thanks for that Dwayne, as you can see in the video the model also looks great in the air.  The items sold at the auction actually came from two different sources, some were given to the club by the widow of ex-member Chris Davies who passed away twenty years ago, but most of the lots came from ex-member John Bourne who, along with his wife Kay, sadly now has to live in a care home. Their children are clearing the family home and John very kindly asked that Petersfield Aero Modellers be given first refusal on all of his modelling goods. John has always been a ‘character’, a slightly eccentric chap who could turn his hand to anything and always made a good job of whatever it was. The glider was one of John’s and, as Dwayne says, presumably it was built from a plan but neither of us know what it is. Does anyone have any ideas which model it might be?

The next new model is another of Dwayne’s, an updated version of his Sea Vixen.
Dwayne explains what is different on this version: The design of the foamboard Sea Vixen has been resurrected in the shape of the Mk IV. This is similar to the other three, but the design has evolved as a result of the experience gained in flying its predecessors.
The planform is identical to the original, but the paper covering on the foamboard is now retained and both sides are laminated with clear parcel tape. The tail booms are now fabricated from Correx as this was the weak spot in the original design.
As the model is now heavier than the original the prop has been upgraded to a 7”x4” with the original 2200Kv motor. The final change was the addition of a rudder so that the agile little plane can now do wingovers and stall turns when I get the hang of them!!
This latest version is definitely the most successful yet and you can see it flying in the video. There’s even video of Dwayne and Bob the Builder flying their Sea Vixens together.

In November several of us noticed that Woody’s piloting skills had improved considerably, something we all found a little puzzling initially. But then he explained that he’d recently got some new glasses. “It much better now, I can actually see the model while it’s flying.”
Yes, Woody, that would make a difference! And you look more like Tom Cruise…possibly!

Last month I said that the batteries I’d ordered in the HobbyKing backorder sale hadn’t arrived. I was a little disappointed as the site had said they were expected at the end of October, but then in the first week of November the order was processed and they arrived.
The order was for three 3 cell 2200mAh packs and three 4 cell 2200mAh packs, all 60C rated. As I always do with new batteries the first thing I did was check the cell voltages on a meter only to find that one of the 4 cell packs had a cell that was very low on voltage.
I followed the website instructions to submit a claim (just a few words and a couple of photos of the pack on the meter) and within a couple of hours I had a message saying my claim was agreed and they’d send a replacement pack, with no need to return the bad one.
Sure enough a few days later the new pack arrived and they also gave me an account credit of £2.21, not sure why! In the meantime I tried to charge the duff pack at 2.2A (1C) but it wouldn’t accept a charge so I tried 0.5A and that worked. After several hours all 4 cells had charged to the correct voltage and the pack was balanced perfectly. I expected the dodgy cell to quickly lose its charge but it stayed up so I flew it and it appeared to be fine. I’ve only used it for a couple of flights so far but it seems good so if it lasts I actually got seven packs for the price of six and they were already a very good price so I’m very happy.

Cream Egg appeared with a new model in November and this one is quite a beauty.
It’s a 1.5m span E-Flite Cirrus SR22T that Cream Egg had been threatening to bring along for a couple of weeks before he finally made it to the patch, I’ll let him explain all:
What a beautiful model. I’m really pleased with it. Construction is superb. And it was a pleasure putting it together. The only setback I experienced was a slight oversight when ordering the product. I ordered the model without the receiver. The alternative model comes with the receiver fully programmed for the Cirrus, which now requires me to program the receiver I subsequently ordered from Sussex Models, (presumably at higher cost than that supplied with the model), this requiring a special USB programming cable, which is not available anywhere, other than via a couple of the club members. Cable is 25 quid! Great that it incorporates flaps and excellent navigation / landing lights. The flaps should prove useful, given its wide wing span, yet quite slim wings.
As is usual, it has quite small wheels and on the 3^rd landing, it set down well and then dug in the nose wheel, causing it to flip over. This only bent the nose leg 4.5mm rod, which I’ve now fixed. Dougal Entendre kindly undertook the responsibility of the maiden flight, trimming the model for me. Minor adjustments were needed. It seems to need reasonably high minimum speed to remain airborne, and so flaps on landing might be a real bonus. I can set the flaps to around 20% and 100%, and so we will experiment carefully with this to avoid stalling! I need some guidance here. I’ve set three levels of Expo and throw on the surfaces. Dougal suggested having a differential on the ailerons to avoid tip stall, but the Spektrum DX7 transmitter does not appear to have this option. All in all, I’m really pleased with the model and the first flight session.
Thanks Cream Egg, the Cirrus looks good in this month’s video but I wasn’t at the patch when it flew so I look forward to seeing it for myself. Cream Egg is struggling to find a larger nose-wheel for the Cirrus so please contact him if you have a spare one that’s 65mm diameter x 20mm wide (2.5” x 0.79″). The axle diameter is 4.5mm (0.177”).

Gordon Bennett took a trip to a table top sale at Mountbatten School in Romsey recently, here’s his report and photos: On the 19th November the Hampshire Model Flying Association held the Southern Counties Autumn Auction Swapmeet. In fact, they had one last year but I got the timing wrong and arrived at midday, just as it was closing.. This year I thought I wouldn’t be able to attend as my mother-in-law was visiting and we had a trip out to Winchester planned. This was a shame. No, not the mother-in-law visit, I had wanted to go to the swapmeet as I wanted to flog my old Valiant trainer. However, prospective new member Rod Ashton was having a clear-out and had booked a table so offered to flog the Valiant for me. As it transpired my mother-in-law (Minette or Min for short) was only too happy to drop in at Romsey while on the way to Winchester. What a good egg she is. Arriving at the school hall I was greeted by the news that Rod had already flogged the Valiant for 75 quid and promptly put the cash into my hand.
The event was well stocked with about 40 tables and lots of lovely goodies.
I didn’t particularly want anything but remembered I needed a Y lead for my aileron servos on my Jet Provost build. Finding a table with tons of servos and cables I asked the chap if he had any and, after a short rummage, he came up with three for a quid.
Excellent! Next was a heavy-duty soldering iron for a fiver and then I found a table with a Stearman on it. This was a gorgeous little model, balsa frame and film covering, it was calling me… Sense prevailed as I remembered the last balsa frame and film model I bought (a Mini Bolero) which hit a tree and came out ‘worse for wear’. I didn’t think the Stearman’s small undercarriage would do well on the patch, so I gave it a miss.
In retrospect I kind of wish I had bought it as it was just so nice to look at. As you can see in the photo my wife (Pam) also liked the model, I really should have bought it for her as a Christmas present. Moving on I then came across a Multiplex Extra 330. I’ve been having great fun with my AcroWot and thought this would be a good progression. A tiny bit larger but heavier, more powerful and much more aerobatic. Some haggling was done and I got it with the money I’d received for the Valiant so felt pretty pleased with my swap. It’s resting in the garage at the moment, I need a bit of time to go carefully through it and make sure everything is as it should be. (It’s Multiplex, it’ll be perfect!)
So, all in all the swapmeet was pretty successful. It was well stocked and attended, you could get a cup of tea and it’s ‘mother-in –law friendly’. I think I’ll go again next year and see if the Stearman reappears. In the meantime there’s a swapmeet at Chobham on 10th of Feb, I’ll post some details nearer the date. Thanks Paul, actually HMFA run two swapmeets in Romsey every year and the next one is on Sunday 24^th March 2024.
I flew a Stearman for a while before selling it on the Page Boy who presumably still has it.
Kryten snapped me flying it three years ago and captured the pilot’s ‘salute’ very well!

Woody has built a foam Eurofighter Typhoon that was designed by Tomas Hellberg. Tomas has published the plans for seven different foam board models on the internet and they can be found HERE  The plan says to build the Typhoon from 6mm Depron but Woody used foam board from Hobby Craft which has a paper covering. He removed the paper from the wings for lightness but left it on the rest of the plane for strength.
Woody has fitted the Eurofighter with the usual set-up, a 2212 2200kv motor, 30A speed controller, and two 9g servos all powered by a three cell lipo. Woody has finished the Eurofighter in the colours of RAF Display Team and I must say it looks very smart.
The recommended prop size for this set-up is 6“ dia and the plan says a 6” prop will fit but because Woody has run the cables for his lights (yes, this Woody we’re talking about, lights are compulsory!) along the inside of the fuselage he had to fit a smaller diameter prop.
This became obvious on the test flight when the Eurofighter staggered round, distinctly underpowered. Other than the lack of power it seemed fine so Woody has gone away to re-route the lighting cable and fit a bigger prop. I’m sure it will be fine with more thrust.

The selection of action shots this month are nearly all taken from this month’s videos and are mostly of my Bush Mule dropping parachutes (my blog, my privilege)! The last, much better quality photo, is one of Captain Slow’s Wots Wot, snapped by Kryten last month.

Video time now with footage shot by me, MacFly, Gordon Bennett 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

How does Santa’s sleigh navigate through foggy weather?
With “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Radar”

Merry Christmas everyone
Colin Cowplain

October has come and gone and by the time you read this the clocks will have gone back an hour, winter is certainly on its way. I was away for part of the month and it seems I missed one very nice Sunday morning but overall October has been pretty miserable, especially the last week of the month. Some mornings were rather foggy and, as you’ll see in the video later, I found out just how thick the fog was when I flew FPV one day, it wasn’t good!
One of the few good things about the onset of winter is that the grass has almost stopped growing so little mowing is required. The bullocks came and went but mostly ignored us and they seemed unimpressed even when Gordon Bennett tried to make friends with one.
It showed no interest at all, maybe the jar of horseradish sauce he was holding didn’t help.

The first new model I’ll feature is MacFly’s very nice Ripmax Wots Wot Foam-E biplane. This is what the Ripmax website says about it: The Wots Wot Foam-E makes for a perfect all round sports foam aircraft. The Wots Wot Foam-E combines the slow speed characteristics of the Wot4 Foam-E and the precision and ‘locked in feel’ of the Acrowot Foam-E. The Wots Wot Foam-E has been specifically designed to suit a popular 3S 2200mAh Li-Po battery resulting in a model that will fit in a hatchback car boot fully assembled! For a little more flight time, try the Hi-Energy 2700mAh pack instead. The power system consists of a higher power 920kv outrunner brushless motor with 40A brushless ESC that really packs a punch giving the airframe over 1:1 power to weight ratio! Using a popular 2200mAh battery the duration is approximately 8 minutes. Supplied in RX ready format the four 9 gram micro servos, outrunner brushless motor and 40A ESC come pre-installed ready to connect up to your choice of receiver and li-Po battery. Using the latest in foam moulding technology you will notice the edges are very crisp and sharp without the weight penalty of a denser foam. The control surfaces use ‘live’ style moulded foam hinges but they also have plastic hinges moulded into the foam for extra security. Assembly is easy and requires only a cross head screwdriver. It’s so quick it takes longer to fit the decals than to assemble the airframe! In the air biplanes are associated with slow scale flight but not the WotsWot, thanks to four large ailerons the roll rate is fast and authoritive and the short moment of the design gives great elevator and rudder power. The Wots Wot really excels during slow speed flight and can be really docile with low rates on. Up the rates and open the throttle for flicks, spins and knife edge loops are more! The stall is benign and thanks to the biplane configuration it really slows down nicely for landing.
This Wots Wot is not actually a new model, MacFly bought it from 1066 when he was selling off the models and equipment of the late Nigel Baker (Chris P Bacon) on behalf of Ursula, Nigel’s widow. I had done the original first flight of the model for Nigel and was immediately impressed, I really liked how it handled and felt at home with it right away.
Nigel had only flown it a few times so when MacFly bought the plane it was almost unused and in pristine condition so he decided to lavish some extra care and attention on it.
He added red and blue sunburst style trim to the upper surfaces of both wings, the tailplane and also the fin and rudder. But this isn’t just any sunburst, this is MacFly’s gently curved sunburst! He has made a superb job of it, it really is beautifully done. MacFly did admit that after many hours hard work he was beginning to wish to had never started it but he persevered and the end result made it all worthwhile. MacFly asked me to trim it out for him and I was pleased to find that the plane flew beautifully, exactly as I had remembered. After a couple of minutes I handed the transmitter over to MacFly who finished the flight with no problems and he has since had several more flights.  With his confidence growing on every flight he is finding out what the model is capable of and is practising more and more aerobatics. You can see some of the flying in this month’s video.

A couple of months ago Catapult King got caught out by the vicious tip stalling tendency of his Yellow Tail electric glider which resulted in a fair bit of fuselage damage.
But he’s now got it all neatly back together and he asked Dougal to fly it and trim it out.
It flew fine but Dougal reported that it definitely still has the vicious tip stalling tendency. The Yellow Tail has very thin wings which are probably the main cause of the tip stall but I think the tailplane looks rather small, maybe a larger tail would help. Any thoughts?

New member Simon Pattrick is settling in well with the club now and having joined us after a long break from model flying he’s quickly remembered how to fly! In October he brought along his latest purchase, an Arrows Hobby Marlin EDF.
This is what Inwood Models say about the Marlin: From beginner jet pilots to top guns the versatile 4S EDF Marlin will put a big smile on your face. If you’ve always fancied joining the jet set but have struggled to know where best to start, then ponder no more for here, in all its durable EPO-moulded loveliness, is the perfect entry-level jet, and what a cracker it is. We flew it extensively during the testing period and from the moment it confidently left our underarm launch we were smitten. Powerful, precise and arrow-like in flight you’ll find the Marlin inherently stable, beautifully forgiving and truly confidence-inspiring. With an aerobatic envelope to rival the very best that the EDF world can offer this is a jet that’ll look after you when you’re finding your feet and challenge you when you’ve found ‘em. From large sky-eating loops to locked-in knife-edge flight, s-l-o-w full flap passes and everything in-between, you’ll find your Marlin so versatile that it’ll quickly become a Sunday favourite. It looks good, it sounds good, it goes good! Assembling the Marlin is simplicity itself and with no glue is required you can be airborne within an hour of opening the box. Just add a 4S 2200 to 2700mAh 35C flight pack, a 5-channel Tx and Rx combo and go wake the angels.
‘Go wake up the angels’?! Both Bob the Builder and Mini Mike own Marlins and Bob has woken up a couple of moles with his! But they have proved to be excellent fliers although sometimes they’ve been a little reluctant to get off of our relatively small patch, especially if the grass has been a bit long and/or wet. No such problems with Simon’s Marlin though, you can see in the video that it shot into the air after using left than half the patch!
It might just be that Simon’s batteries are newer and better than those of Mini Mike or Bob. I note that the website mentions underarm launching so maybe that would be the way to go, removing the undercarriage would certainly make the Marlin look better in the air although the obvious downside is the risk of damaging the underside of the model and I can see the attraction of being able to do proper take-offs and landings.
Simon is flying his Marlin well and I couldn’t help noticing that in the video he flies two consecutive left hand rolls whereas by preference most of us would fly consecutive rolls to the right rather than the left, maybe we have a budding aerobatic expert in the making!

In the September Patch News I wrote about the new HobbyKing warehouse that had just opened in the UK and that although at the time there was virtually no stock there were lots of offers on backorder stock at very good prices. I ordered three 3 cell lipos and three 4 cell lipos and the expected delivery was quoted as the end of October. A couple of days ago HobbyKing posted a photo on their Facebook site of a container being unloaded at the warehouse so I was hoping that my batteries were inside but it doesn’t look as if they were.
The website has now been updated and shows lots more stock in the UK warehouse but sadly not the packs that I had ordered and my order still shows as Processing and the packs out of stock with no ETA at this time. Hmm…that’s not so good then, although I’m not really in any desperate need of the packs and hopefully it won’t be too long before they turn up. On the plus side both packs are now listed at a Reduced price that is 78% higher than I’ve paid so I’ve definitely got them at a good price… if they do eventually arrive!

Still on the subject of batteries, Dougal Entendre had a couple of flights with his large scale Spad on one of the nicer October days. The Spad uses two 4S 5800mAh packs connected in series to become 8S and that gets Dougal around 7 to 8 minutes of flight time.
I shot some video of the first flight from the ground and then followed the second flight with my FPV Ranger and you can see some of both flights in this month’s video.

Young Leo brought along a new model to fly in October, a Dancing Wings Cloud Dancer. Leo built the 1.3M span Cloud Dancer about a year ago from the Dancing Wings kit which was designed as a three channel trainer with rudder and elevator but no ailerons.
He says he’s hardly flown it since finishing it due to a lack of time but after some work it’s now re-emerged fitted with ailerons which are driven by wing mounted servos, a different motor, and a new speed controller. I wasn’t at the field to see it flying myself but I’m told that it flew well, it certainly looks good in the video and Leo seemed to be flying it nicely.
But never mind all the above, the most interesting thing about the model is that Leo had to rebuild the starboard wingtip. Why? Because of a serious crash or dodgy landing?
No, it was because Leo’s mum shut it in the car door! Oh dear, I bet that got ‘mentioned’!

Julian James dropped in to see us again one Sunday morning in October, this time in a North Wing ATF (Air Time Fix) with a Stratos wing, an ultralight soaring trike.
The ATF is powered by what I think is a single cylinder 27HP Polini 190 engine. It’s very much a lightweight machine designed as a motor glider for motor off soaring although Julian had the motor running the whole time we saw it flying.
Julian said it’s about as basic and open as it’s possible to get but can only be flown in very light winds. It’s a single seater so there could be no offers to take a passenger up this time.
It’s also available powered by a 21kw 28HP electric motor, I wonder what battery it uses?

Ever had a bad day flying? The guys in this F-14 Tomcat certainly did!
I spotted the photo online one day but have no details of the actual event although apparently there were a few mechanical failures of the swing-wing mechanisms on early Tomcats and it was possible to land safely with the asymmetric wings.

Now for some action photos, Kryten snapped most of these excellent shots for us on the last day of the month. The last photo, of Dougal’s Spad, is taken from this month’s video:

At last, it’s video time, this month with footage shot by me, MacFly 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

The propeller on the front of a small plane is actually only there to keep the pilot cool…
Just watch, if it stops spinning the pilot will start sweating like crazy.

Colin Cowplain

Autumn has definitely now arrived and the weather has changed hugely from the first week of the month when everybody was moaning about the heat, to wind and rain at the end of the month. Never mind, it’s pretty much as expected and club members did quite a lot of flying. Mowing continued throughout September with the supervisors outnumbering the workers as usual but as the weather grows colder the need for mowing will decrease.
The bullocks came and went but the only time they were really bothersome was when Chairman Gordon Bennett sent out an email to all members saying they were no problem at all. Who knew the bullocks could read and were even on the member list?!

I’ll begin with something away from the patch, the two day Popham Model Show which is run by the BMFA Southern Area. Popham Airfield is a great location for a model show with plenty of room for flying, trade stands, marquees for boat and train displays, a bring and buy section, and all the usual catering stands. There is free parking and the airfield is only 25 miles from Petersfield so it’s ideal for PAM members.
Last year the show was excellent with lots of displays by top pilots and a lot of trade stands to browse, the event was definitely growing in size and popularity so members were looking forward to an even better show this year. But sadly this time the show was a real disappointment to most of us. For some reason the organisers had changed the date and the chosen weekend clashed with other model shows at Headcorn and Much Marcle which meant that pilots and trade stands had to choose which event to attend and Popham lost out to the other more established shows. I went on the Saturday with Dougal Entendre and Leo and we bumped into several other PAM members and quite a few ex-members as well but all were saying the same thing, there were almost no trade stands to browse.
There were some very nice models being flown by some excellent pilots and overall the flying side of the show was pretty good but the assortment of models was much reduced from last year. One of the flying slots was for electric foamies and I think there were about a dozen in the air at once, maybe a few more, which was quite entertaining but I took offence to the commentator describing them as ‘ceiling tiles’!
I thought it was a bit odd to basically insult the sort of models that the majority of the spectators present probably fly every weekend. We don’t all want to fly large scale petrol models or turbines although we do enjoy seeing them at the shows. Dougal on the other hand found it rather amusing so maybe I was being over sensitive, those who know me will be aware that I’m a shy, introverted, easily upset sort of chap…
Young Leo was determined to spend some money at the bring and buy and eventually settled on a rather nice Salto electric glider, more of which later. The other club youngster Charlie was also hoping to bag a bargain but was sadly disappointed to find there was almost nothing left to buy when he arrived at around lunchtime. Charlie’s mum Nadine said it was good for her but bad for Charlie! So overall the show was a bit of a let-down for most of us, let’s hope that next year the organisers revert to a weekend that doesn’t clash with other events and it’s better attended by the traders.

There were a few new models flown in September and the first I’ll feature is Gordon Bennett’s MX2. Both Dougal Entendre and 1066 have one of these foamies and they are good, tough little models for practising 3D stuff without breaking the bank. Both of theirs came from HobbyKing but as the HK warehouse in the UK had closed Gordon had to scour the internet where he found one for sale in China and then waited 3 months for it to arrive.
Needless to say no sooner had the model arrived than HobbyKing announced the opening of a new UK warehouse and one of the items on special offer is the MX2! But it’s on back-order and not due until the end of October so maybe Gordon got it right after all.
This is what Gordon says: I’ve watched Dougal and 1066 do amazing things with their MX2s and decided I wanted a piece of the action. I know I can’t fly it like them, but they do seem to have a lot of fun with quite an inexpensive model so I tracked one down. It’s an interesting beast, mainly foam and foam sheet over some balsa reinforcing. It’s light of course and I think this helps it take the inevitable knocks. I had a look at Dougal’s model as mine arrived with no instructions and I wanted to check how he’d set his up. Massive control throws seemed to be the answer. He’s got specially extended servo arms that give huge deflections. I didn’t think I’d need all that to start with so just went with the biggest servo arms I could find in my spares box. The kit only takes a couple of hours to put together, it’s basically glue in the wings, tailplane and control surfaces. I got the servos, powertrain etc. as a bundle and things seem ok so far. For those that like to know what’s under the bonnet it’s an 1100Kv motor, 10×4.7 prop, 40A esc and 3S 1600 lipo. Dougal tells me I’ve fitted the ‘slow flight’ prop, news to me. I played around with where to fit the receiver (superior Spektrum since you ask) battery and esc and didn’t really come up with a suitable answer. Dougal said he’d had to do a lot of hollowing out to fit a 2200mAh lipo. Without any hollowing there was enough space for my 1600 lipo but then nowhere for the esc, so I decided to leave it dangling and post it into the canopy, which is then held in place by a tongue and a couple of magnets. It’s a bit fiddly but seems OK. 
The first flight (Friday) went surprisingly well all things considered. The wheels are tiny and on a flimsy bit of wire so I didn’t even bother trying to roll off the patch and went for a hand launch instead. I’d dialled in 55% expo and max throws. She needed a bit of elevator trimming and that was it. Inverted needs a tiny push. Knife edge will take a bit of getting used to as I don’t need much throttle and only a little rudder. It’s all very different from my Acrowot. While packing up and chatting to Dougal I suddenly realised I’d connected to the outer hole on the elevator control horn so wasn’t getting maximum throw. This needed to be sorted at home as I needed to ream out the correct hole. So, second flight was on Sunday was with new and improved elevator throw. When I say ‘improved’ I should perhaps say terrifying and near uncontrollable. I limped around the circuit with huge altitude and pitch changes even though I was only breathing on the stick. With sweat dripping off my brow, I landed ASAP and dialled in some throw reduction and more expo. This has made it flyable, but I’ll need to try a few more tweaks as I learn to fly it. I have absolutely no idea how to do all the spinning, humpy bump etc., malarkey but I’ll still have fun trying to master a four-point roll. There is definitely a long way to go.  Gordon was kind (stupid?) enough to let me have a flight with the MX2 and I found it to be a good flying model that’ll do whatever the pilot wants it to do. I’m not really into 3D like Dougal and 1066 but found I could knife-edge and prop hang it fairly easily so I’m sure Gordon will quickly get into all that stuff. If you’d like one for yourself HobbyKing are listing it in the UK warehouse at a back-order price of just £64.86 at the time of writing but you will have to wait until the end of the month, maybe longer.

Speaking of Gordon, towards the end of the month I was innocently flying my beautiful Hornet carefully around the sky, minding my own business, when Ghastly Gordon decided to smash his manky old Mig-29 straight into the Hornet! And then, just to rub salt into the wounds, he did a victory roll overhead while I was picking up all the pieces. Nasty man!
Mind you I found two videos this month which prove beyond doubt that we’re all rubbish at flying these things. I’ve combined them both so take a look, it’s less 40 seconds long:

As I’ve said above HobbyKing have announced the opening of a new UK warehouse this month after pulling out of the UK back in October 2021. They say the reason is that the guy who started the company many years ago was taking a step back and wasn’t willing to invest in new products etc. but now some new investors have come along and are pushing development of projects that had been shelved and are expanding the whole set-up. Although the UK warehouse is already open there is currently virtually no stock but they are taking back-orders and much of it is at very good sale prices. A container is due to arrive mid-October so they are saying orders will be sent out towards the end of October.
As soon as I saw the offers I jumped in and quickly ordered 3 x 3 cell 60C 2200mAh lipos and 3 x 4 cell 60C 2200mAh lipos which cost just under £70. HobbyKing work in dollars so although prices are shown in GDP the actual amount you pay will alter slightly with the currency conversion on the day the payment goes through. My order for six lipos showed at £67.93 on the order but was £69.87 on my credit card statement so be aware the price will alter slightly, sometimes up, sometime down. I suppose there is a slight risk with back-ordering from a company that has almost zero stock but at those prices I decided it was a risk worth taking. Hopefully by the time I write the next Patch News I’ll be able to tell you that my order has arrived. Over the years there has been a lot of controversy over HobbyKing, some people hate them and complain constantly about lack of customer service etc. but others (including me) have had few problems and on the rare occasion I’ve needed to deal with their Customer Services I’ve always been sorted out quickly and fairly.

In September Mini-Mike treated himself to a very nice L-39 Albatros from Arrows Hobby.
That’s the same company that manufactures the Red Arrows Hawk that Mike already flies and the Vipers that Gordon and 1066 both fly regularly. Arrows Hobby also produce the T-33 Shooting Star that Chas owns although I’ve only seen that fly once so far.
All of these models feature the same 50mm fan and 2627 4500kv motor so should have a similar performance with only the ducting and drag on the airframe making a difference. Mini-Mike’s Albatros flies very well although he says it’s not as fast as his Red Arrows Hawk, presumably because the fuselage is not as sleek. It comes fitted with the fan, motor, 30A esc, 3 digital servos and unlike the others in the range, a 6 axis gyro. It looks great in the air, very smooth and scale-like, no doubt helped by the gyro,. You can see it in this month’s video. There is also a 50mm fan Avanti coming from Arrows Hobby…tempting!

On 23^rd September Dougal and I went down to Lee-on-Solent to watch a flying display along the seafront. It was part of the Lee Victory Festival, a ticketed three day event that took place on Solent Airport, formerly HMS Daedalus. The Saturday morning had perfect flying conditions and we were able to park up easily and find a prime spot to watch the display which began with a Fairey Swordfish, part of the Royal Navy Historic Flight.
After displaying for a few minutes it was chased off by a Messerschmitt Bf108 which then did its own display. But then a Spitfire roared in and gave chase until the pilot managed to shoot the 108 which then trailed lots of smoke before disappearing over the channel.
Then a Hurricane joined the victorious Spit and they displayed together for the finale. 

Dougal and I both filmed some of the action and I’ve made the footage into a short video:

As I said earlier young Leo bought himself a second-hand Salto at the Popham Model Show bring and buy. If I remember correctly he paid £80 for it which seems good for a largish electric glider that’s complete and ready to fly. It was built from a Wik kit and I’ve scoured the internet for some information but found very little. Apparently it’s an H-101 Salto (Loop) and Wik produced the kit in about 1975 so it’s pretty old.
It is 2.3M span and has a fibreglass fuselage and sheeted built-up wings. I don’t think they made an electric version so presumably Leo’s has been converted and it has been fitted with a high Kv motor and a small folding prop. It looks very smart and, as you can see in this month’s video, it flies well so it was definitely a good purchase.

Woody also bought himself an electric glider in September but he bought a new one, a Max Thrust Aggressor Sport. There’s already several of these in the club and they are excellent performers, they are good for aerobatics, will fly in strong winds, and glide pretty well. Woody bought his from Model Shop Leeds where their website says this: The Aggressor range of gliders offers high performance in more ways than you think. They have great high-speed stability both under power and also on the glide. Constructed from our new super smooth EPOFLEXY with carbon spars in the wings and fuselage giving a very strong airframe. The Aggressor Sport is at home both on the field or the slope where with the high-performance brushless power system you can either hunt out the lift or power through F3A style aerobatics. The model features high-speed servos throughout and even has a metal geared one on the all-moving tail to give you a very precise and accurate tail. With a 1.5 metre wingspan using a 3 cell 2200mAh pack you will be able to get the model into pretty much any car easily. If you really want to extend the ability of the Sport why not order up the Thermic wing extension to extend the wingspan by an additional 600mm to transform the model into 2.1 metre thermal hunter. Chas bought the Thermic wing extension for his Aggressor but I don’t think I’ve seen it fly with the extension in place. 1066 has a Max Thrust Lightning, the predecessor of the Aggressor so he was ideally suited to do the trimming flight for Woody and he had no problems at all.

Bob the Builder was lucky enough to have a flight in a microlight early in September after a visitor to the field turned out to own one and offered Bob a flight that evening.
Here’s Bob’s report: Sunday morning I went to fly my models not knowing that 12 hours later I would be in the air myself! I tried hang-gliding 50 years ago and gave up after 2 crashes. It was completely uncontrolled then and quite risky, things have changed a lot since then. Proper flexible wings have been developed along with reliable engines have been used to produce modern Microlights making the whole thing a lot safer.
You can see from the pictures that the only flight controls are a control bar in front of the pilot and a throttle control. Moving the bar shifts the weight of the fuselage relative to the wing, side to side for turns, forward and backward for up and down.
Really simple and very little to go wrong. It was perfect conditions, dry, warm and no wind. After a suitable briefing by my excellent pilot, Julian James, I got in the back seat strapped in, put the helmet on and checked the intercom was working. After running the engine to get the temperature and pressure correct we taxied out to the runway opened the throttle and we were away in a south westerly direction for a 54 minute flight. The route look us over Winchester Hill, over the M27, down to the coast, over the Solent to Ryde on the Isle of Wight, back to Portsmouth, up the A3 to Butser, then to Stroud and over my house, before heading north west back to the landing field and a safe landing.
I was amazed at how safe I felt, there was never a moment’s anxiety. Views were magnificent and a wonderful feeling of freedom to move in 3 dimensions, just like a bird. Would I do it again, yes please! So if ever you a chance for a Microlight flight go for it. Bob sent me photos and lots of film so I’ve made an edited highlights version of the video:
If you want to see the whole flight filmed by Julian’s on-board camera you’ll find it HERE

Now for some action photos, this month with a few of Kryten’s great photos from August:

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

I was sick on my flight to Munich with Lufthansa last week, I blame the airline food.
It was the wurst…

Colin Cowplain