Patch News – November 2017
Aargh! I said last month that the bullocks had gone, the patch was recovering, and we should have a decent patch over the winter months. I was wrong, we’ve now been joined by some fresh new ones. This lot are young and inquisitive, although they do seem to be quickly getting used to us and not bothering us quite as much as at first. They were especially keen to welcome Bob the Builder one morning.
On the plus side, being young they don’t weigh so much as the older ones and haven’t messed up the patch as much as the full grown ones…yet. I don’t remember a year when we’ve had bullocks in the field so often, we need to do something about it. Suggestions on a postcard to ‘What a load of bullocks’…
October was Kung Fu month and Norwegian Nick was the only one who didn’t get to fly his new toy (our fault for switching the competition date). But he put that right early this month and quickly discovered that like all the others it doesn’t need any reflex and the centre of gravity needs to be well forward. Once that was sorted it flew brilliantly.
So that’s all ten of the Kung Fu’s now flying very well, they really are great little fliers. Woody’s was the one that needed the most sorting but he persevered and he’s now loving it. Woody’s features at the end of this month’s video, doing a low pass and then…oops. I’ll say no more, you’ll just have to watch it!
I added a last minute ‘Stop Press’ to the October Patch News showing the damage that occurred when Chris P Bacon’s Cougar 2000 had a mid-air with my almost new HobbyKing F-16. I was very polite and didn’t apportion blame, but Chris P just couldn’t resist having a dig when he repaired his Cougar.
For that he becomes Nasty Nigel for a month! At least the Cougar was repairable, unlike my F-16. The F-16 was the Plug’N’Play version that I bought in the HK sale for £45, but, as that sale had finished. I had to pay £44 for a replacement ARF version. It’s basically the same thing but minus the servos, fan, motor, and esc. To add insult to injury just a couple of days after I ordered it HobbyKing reduced the price of the ARF version to £22 in yet another sale. Bob the Builder jumped in quick and bought one, the swine! Anyway, I’ve put the new one together and it flies just like the first one. I haven’t bothered with any photos as it’s identical to the original in the last Patch News. I didn’t have time to include the maiden flight of the original in last month’s video so it’s in this month’s, and if you want to see the maiden of the second one just watch the video twice, it’s exactly the same.
The collision crown of Nasty Nigel and myself was forgotten almost immediately when 1066 managed three collisions during November earning him the title Hacker Hastings. First, during a fast downwind pass, his Delta met Captain Slow’s Art-Tech Diamond that was innocently dawdling across the patch.
Both models were damaged but the Diamond came of worse and Captain Slow decided not to repair it.
Both of Hacker’s other collisions occurred on one flight and both with the same model, Bob the Builder’s Kung Fu. Hacker Hastings was doing a flat out into wind pass with his Kung Fu while Bob’s Kung Fu was just climbing away from a hand launch. The impact broke the prop of Bob’s model so he simply glided round and landed on the patch. Hacker’s Kung Fu still seemed to be flying ok but of course he needed to land to check for any possible damage, but as he landed he managed to hit poor Bob’s plane again as it lay on the patch awaiting retrieval and this time he knocked off one side of the V tail. That’s just adding insult to injury!
The damage to Hacker’s model was just a gash in the right-hand wind, remarkable really for a Depron model.
Hacker had only recently repaired his Kung Fu having had an unexpected arrival due to a battery failure.
Well that’s what he said caused it, but then he would wouldn’t he…
At the start of the month I was contacted by Dave Durnford, a friend from many years ago in the early days of electric flight. In those days Dave was an Air Traffic Controller at West Drayton but he moved to Locks Heath when he was transferred to NATS at Swanwick. He’s since retired so can spend lots of time modelling and, being a BMFA Instructor and Examiner, spends time teaching and testing. To his credit he’s just bought a Multiplex transmitter the same as mine, hence the reason for contacting me with a couple of technical queries. Yes, he was that desperate! Dave is a member of the Alton club but, at my invitation, came and flew with us one midweek day.
He flew a Max Thrust Riot, a type that I don’t think we’ve seen before at our field which is surprising as it’s very much a Wot-4 lookalike. I think I read somewhere that the Riot has a stronger undercarriage than the Wot-4.
A few new models appeared this month, the first one I spotted being an E-Flite Sukhoi SU-29 belonging to Geoff Berry. Geoff was a very active PAM member a good few years ago and an excellent flier so it was great to see him return after a break from flying. I think the Sukhoi is his first electric powered model and it seems to suit him well, he’s flying as if he’s never been away. All the E-Flite models seem to be good and the SU-29 is no exception.
It’s an 1120mm span Plug’N’Play model that comes ready fitted with a 15 size 1250Kv motor, 40A speed controller, and 4 servos. It uses a 3 cell 2200mAh lipo and weighs around 1150gms ready to go. Geoff’s been flying it with no problems although he’s been complaining that he’s not happy with his landings; they look perfectly ok to me Geoff. You can see one in this month’s video, it was the worst he did on that particular day and I reckon it was fine anyway. Geoff deserves to have a nickname and with the surname Berry it should be an easy pick, so how about Goose? With it links to Top Gun Woody will approve for sure.
Page Boy has just completed his first ever scratch built model, a Millie Bob which was a free plan in RC Model World in May 2015. It was designed by Tony Wright and is billed as a high wing electric trainer so it’s well within Page Boy’s flying capabilities but is an ideal model for a first scratch build.
He’s made a lovely job of both the build and the covering, which is HobbyKing iron on shrink film. The Millie Bob is 1120mm span, weighs around 850gms, and is 3 channel (no ailerons). Page Boy has fitted an Emax 2830 motor, a 10×4.7 prop, 2 x 9g servos, and a Turnigy 30A esc.
He’s using 3 cell 2200mAh lipos and the set-up gives around 300W so there is more than enough power. As you’ll see in the video it flies extremely well, just requiring some additional down thrust to handle the excess of power.
Doreen and I spent a few days in the Peak District during November so some of the photos and video in this edition were taken by Captain Slow and Dougal Entendre, thanks chaps. It seemed an ideal opportunity to make a detour on our way home and visit the BMFA National Centre at Buckminster, about 10 miles south of Grantham. Andy Symons spoke about Buckminster at his recent club talk and I’m sure we’ve all read about Buckminster in BMFA News but I wanted to see it for myself and also support the endeavour. I must say I was very impressed by what I saw, it far exceeded my expectations. We were greeted by Mannie Williamson, the BMFA Development Officer, and given a guided tour of the facilities. We both know Mannie from our days on the Southern Area Committee and helping at the Nationals etc. so it was good to catch up with him again. The site was previously an equestrian centre but everything was very rundown and some of the buildings were virtually derelict. It’s still a ‘work in progress’ with just Stage 1 of 3 completed so far but the original farmhouse has been converted to reception, offices, and meeting rooms, along with kitchen and toilet facilities.
A building that was previously used for exercising/training horses has been transformed into an Events Building and now has lots of uses, education, corporate events, indoor FPV flying etc. although the ceiling is a bit low for larger indoor flying. When we visited there was a track laid out for RC cars, a local club uses it for their weekly meetings and leaves the track down when the BMFA don’t need the building for other things. The building will be used for a Christmas Swapmeet in December when it will be set up with 60 tables. The building also houses toilets and workshop facilities. Everything has been done to a high standard, both buildings are first class. Much of the basic work has been done by volunteers from a local club who turn up each week and do whatever is required.
The flying site is superb, there is a huge grass main runway with almost bowling green like grass, and another smaller crosswind runway at one end. The pits area is enormous with mown paths linking it to the runway, there are two control-line circles, a large gravelled car park, and toilets are nearby. Trolleys are provided to transport all your gear from the car park to the pits, although it’s much closer than we are used to at our field. There is a large camping area and the plans for Stage 2 include converting existing stables into simple overnight accommodation. I had taken my Kung Fu along so I felt obliged to have a couple of flights just to test the facilities for you guys!
Anyone can go and visit and/or fly so if you are in the area pop in and say hello. If you want to fly it’s worth checking the website to see if there are any events on before you travel. There is a daily fee for flying but Mannie refused to charge me for just having a couple of flights so I made a donation. I took a short video of the flying area and have included it in this month’s video.
Back to PAM now; Wonky Wiltshire made a rare appearance in November, making the usual excuses about son’s rugby sessions, daughter’s gymnastics, his work, blah blah blah….! Unfortunately he chose a particularly windy day to fly but he had a few flights with his Durafly EFX Racer and enjoyed it lots. But he wisely decided it was just too windy to test fly his new EFXtra Racer, basically an uprated, faster version of the EFX Racer.
This is what the HobbyKing website says about it:
If you’re craving speed, the EFXtra is where it’s at, with out of the box performance in excess of 100mph+. Durafly retained spirit of the EFX Racer and focused on adding extra performance, like the incredible roll and climb rates.
There are plenty of high-performance features and new additions over the EFX Racer. The Durafly EFXtra boasts a new clipped wing (975mm) to give extreme roll rates. An upgraded 3536-1780kv brushless motor (using ultra-high-speed Japanese bearings) with a 60A Aerostar ESC has been added, and optimized, for up to 4S performance. Higher speed, higher torque digital 9g servo’s (metal geared on the ailerons) together with ball link connectors provide true precision control of all surfaces no matter what speed you are traveling. We’ve even included FPV mount in the box for the Adeline junkies that love to live life on the edge.
Durafly heard your calls and redesigned the airframe to fit larger capacity Lipo battery packs resulting in longer flight times. The aircraft is stronger than ever with both glass and carbon fibre reinforcements throughout whilst keeping the airframe as light as possible. Super Compressed EPO foam and polished finish to deliver the ultimate in performance with the sleekest of looks. How fast you go depends on the propeller and battery size. The plane comes with two propellers, for the standard setup of 3S an 8×6 prop or for performance setup of a 4S a 7×6.5 prop.
That says it all then, it’s for hooligans, I can’t wait to have a go with it!
The last new model to feature this month is Captain Slow’s Multiplex FunGlider, bought to replace the Art-Tech Diamond that got eaten by Hacker’s Delta. It’s available in various versions and Captain Slow plumped for the RR (Ready to Run) package which Multiplex says only takes about 15mins to assemble.
So in his usual rush to get it finished Captain Slow managed to get it all done in just a few days, although to be fair he did have to change the battery connector. The 1300mm span FunGlider comes with 4 MPX Nano S servos and a BL-20SD 20A speed controller which is coupled to a BL-0 2816-900 Permax brushless motor. Multiplex suggest using a 950mAh 3 cell lipo but Captain Slow has lots of 1300mAh 3 cell packs so that’s what he’s using.
There’s plenty of room in the fuselage and he intends to fit an SM Modellbau Unisens-E telemetry unit soon. He’s set the control movements and two stage spoilerons exactly as Multiplex recommend and the first flight proved the settings were spot on, it flew very well indeed. Captain Slow let me a fly and I really liked it…tempted.
As it happens I might be in the market for a new electric glider having badly damaged my Swing Plus last week. I was climbing away from the launch when at around 300ft I suddenly had no control (much to the delight of Spektrum flier Nasty Nigel!) and the model went in vertically. I haven’t yet had a chance to investigate fully but the initial conclusion at the field was that the cause was a loose XT60 connector.
When I reached the wreckage the radio wasn’t working and the receiver LED was off but as soon as I pulled the battery out of the fuselage everything burst into life again. The installation is a bit messy as the battery plugs into the telemetry unit which in turn connects to the speed controller and the whole lot sits alongside the receiver. Not an ideal arrangement but I’ve never had a problem before despite having flown at extreme distances. I found that by waggling the connector I could make/break the connection, and on the transmitter the LQI (Link Quality – the strength of the signal the tx receives back from the rx) showed 100% when it lost the signal which would tend to indicate loss of power rather than a signal problem. But I’m not totally convinced and will investigate more fully in due course. The Swing Plus is fairly badly damaged and I’ve yet to decide whether it’s worth repairing or not.
Time now for a few flying shots, these are not all from November but I think were all taken by Kryten:
Ok, it’s video time:Please watch the video full screen, it’s so much better with small models flying around. If the video above won’t play for you CLICK HERE
This month’s tall tale was sent in by Dougal:
One day at Area 51 a radar tech spots a single engine plane on final approach to the secret Air Force base. The plane touches down and is immediately surrounded by armed guards. The plane is impounded and the pilot is whisked off for questioning. The pilot claims that he had been flying from Las Vegas, got lost, and nearly run out of fuel, so he put his plane down at the first runway he saw. After extensive background checks, it is proven that the pilot isn’t a spy and he is set to be released the following morning.
Before he is allowed to leave, he is given the “You didn’t see anything” talk, and is told that under absolutely no circumstances is he allowed to tell anyone where he was, or what he saw. The Air Force fuels up the man’s plane, gives him a proper heading to get back to Las Vegas, and sends him on his way.
Later that day, the man’s plane is again spotted getting ready to land at Area 51. This time there are two people in the plane. When the plane touches down, it is immediately surrounded by guards again. As soon as it comes to a stop, the man hops out and yells: “Do whatever you want to me, but SOMEBODY has to tell my wife where I was last night.”
Colin Cowplain
Patch News – October 2017
Those of you who read Patch News last month will know that it only covered the first half of the month as I was away on holiday for the second half. So this edition will cover six weeks of flying and includes the new Kung Fu club models so there should be lots to keep your interest. There is a bonus of two videos this month, one covering the usual flying at the field, and the other just featuring the Kung Fu maiden flights. The videos include footage taken by Dougal Entendre, Catapult King, Captain Slow, and Percy Vears, thanks guys.
The bullocks returned to the field and, with the help of torrential rain, pretty much destroyed our lovely new patch. However, Dougal had a chat with farmer George and they have now gone again, hopefully until springtime. So the old farts (Friday Afternoon Rural Trimming Society) have been busy once again and the patch is now recovering quickly. 1066 bought a roller for the club and with the help of Captain Slow has filled it with concrete and completed the first rolling. We are in the process of moving the patch a few metres (again!) to avoid the worst of the mud bath created by the bullocks, a task that should have been completed by the time you read this. Rolling the patch requires a lot of effort but seems to be doing the trick and we should have a decent patch over the winter months.
Dwayne Pipe snapped this shot of Norwegian Nick doing the mowing while Cream Egg and Colin Cowplain are flying. Chris P Bacon is acting as safety spotter. I have to say that it’s always the same members that turn up and do the work; the members that complain that the patch isn’t suitable for the models they want to fly are often noticeable by their absence. If you aren’t happy with the patch, don’t sit at home moaning, come and do something about it!
Just before I went on holiday Percy Vears took his Vulcan to the Chichester club site at Thorney Island and I was able to take it for its first two flights. On our previous visit to Thorney we had discovered problems with low voltage from the ubec so Percy fitted a higher current one and this time everything worked perfectly.
The Vulc needed a bit of trimming on the first flight but once sorted it flew very well and both flights were completed without a hitch. Percy shot a bit of video and I’ve included it in this months’ video at the end of the blog.
Well done Percy, building a model with four ducted fans powered by two battery packs, and full retracts was no easy task but you made a beautiful job of it. I look forward to the next time we get a chance to fly it.
Dwayne Pipe has recently rebuilt his Acro-Wot with a longer nose to enable the removal of all the lead it needed to achieve the correct centre of gravity. He also took the opportunity to give it a nice new colour scheme and smarten it up generally. With the lead removed the model is now lighter than before and flies even better.
It should prove to be an ideal choice for the blustery winter months at Chidden Down.
Norwegian Nick finally got round to flying his Eze Twin that I first featured in Patch News back in June.
It’s an interesting model which features a profile fuselage flanked by two ducted fan units. It was built from a free plan by Nigel Hawes in the January 2010 edition of the RCME mag. The Eze Twin features all balsa construction and is glass clothed all over except the tailplane and fin which are tissue covered.
The wingspan is 40” (1015mm) and the all up weight is 2lb 8oz (1135gms). Nick has fitted two ChangeSun 64mm 12 blade EDF units with 3200kv inrunner motors, and two 60A speed controllers. The model flew extremely well and it looked as if Nick was soon very comfortable with the handling. As you’ll see in the video he was happily doing fast and low passes for the camera and all went well until the landing. He was unlucky and just caught a wingtip on the edge of the long grass around the patch which spun the model round and snapped the profile fuselage. Given how well it flew I’m sure Nick will soon have the Eze Twin repaired and flying well once again.
I snapped this photo of one PAM member the other day:
Who do you know that drives to the field in his slippers and wears different trousers on each leg…we do have some strange members in the club these days!
While I was away on holiday I missed Dougal Entendre talking about his lovely new Spad S.XIII at a club meeting, and also its successful first flight at the field a few days later.
The ARTF model was produced by Maxford USA and this is what their website says about it: The SPAD S.XIII was a French biplane fighter aircraft of World War I, developed by Société Pour L’Aviation et ses Dérivés (SPAD) from the earlier highly successful SPAD S.VII. It was one of the most capable fighters of the war, and one of the most-produced, with 8,472 built. The S.XIII was flown by famous French fighter pilots such as Georges Guynemer and Rene Fonck, and also by Italian ace Francesco Baracca. Aces of the United States Army Air Service who flew the Spad XIII include Eddie Rickenbacker (America’s leading ace with 26 confirmed victories) and Frank Luke (18 victories). The project to design a radio controlled SPAD XIII was started in late 2009. Our version is based on pilot Jacques Raphaël Roques’ SPAD XIII of the WWI French Air Service, SPA48, Aircraft Serial Number S1893. This ARF is designed for gas, glow or electric, and it comes with an adjustable engine mounting box and a motor box. It is true to scale to the full scale SPAD XIII.
Dougal’s Spad was a Christmas present from his wife Angie; he must have been really good last year! At 1/5th scale the Spad is 1727mm (68”) span and weighs around 6kgs (13lbs) so to power it Dougal chose a Turnigy Aerodrive SK3 – 6364-245kv brushless outrunner which swings an 18 x 8 propeller at about 6000rpm. He uses two 5800mAh 4 cell Zippy Compact lipos in series (8 cells) linked to a Robotbirds Pro-80 amp Brushless ESC V4 Opto HV speed controller. He also fitted a separate high voltage BEC to ensure the radio gets the voltage it requires.
To really finish the model off Dougal purchased the optional extra Vickers machine guns and the completed model now looks superb. Catapult King filmed the first flight which went perfectly, the only problem occurring afterwards when Dougal removed the batteries and the plywood that the Velcro is stuck to delaminated!
We can always rely on Bob the Builder to provide us with some entertainment and this month was no exception. He had a bit of a trimming problem with his Splotel which resulted in an ‘unscheduled arrival’ shortly after taking off and unfortunately something must have punctured the lipo.
The result was a lot of smoke but no flames so there was no further damage. Surprisingly only one of the lipo cells actually burnt and it didn’t spread to the two remaining cells. Anyone want to buy a slightly used two cell lipo…?
Captain Slow has finally finished his latest model, an Obelix slope soarer designed by Chas Gardiner which was a free plan in RCM&E back in January 1983. I think that was when Capt. Slow started building his…
Anyway, it took a while as he decided to make it electric powered rather than a slope soarer. It’s mostly blue foam, built more or less as per plan although things have moved on since 1983 (even Capt. Slow!) so he fitted an aileron servo in each wing rather than one central servo with cables to the ailerons. He also extended the pod rearwards to give more battery room and avoid the need for lead at the rear. For the powertrain Capt. Slow decided to use the same setup that he’d used in his Zagi, a PELIKAN Ray B2845/09 motor, and a PELIKAN Ray R40A esc, both of which came from Puffin Models. It’s fitted with a 6x4E prop, which draws 23.5 amps from a 3 cell 1500mAh lipo.
The first flight didn’t exactly go to plan; the Obelix did a quick loop and ‘arrived’ about 5 metres behind the launch point. There was a bit of damage but Capt. Slow has already repaired it so now it’s probably just a case of sorting out the amount of reflex required and getting the centre of gravity correct to get it flying properly.
A couple of other new models had their maiden flights at the end of October. I’ll feature them here but you’ll have to wait for next months’ Patch News to see the video of their first flights. The first to fly was my HobbyKing F-16 that was reduced to a bargain price in one of their weekly offers. It’s a 670mm (26”) span EPO foam Plug ’n’ Play model.
Not exactly my idea of Plug ‘n’ play but it comes ready fitted with a 6 blade 64mm fan unit, a 4800kv outrunner motor, a 50A speed controller, and 4 servos and it was on offer for just £45.53! What’s a chap supposed to do, it just had to be purchased! When it arrived I was a bit surprised about how big it was, a span of only 670mm sounds small but the length is 1035mm and it’s actually quite large. The instructions are just a label on the end of the box!
The model comes with an undercarriage but it has tiny wheels that would be hopeless on our patch so I didn’t fit it, an F-16 would look odd flying with its wheels down anyway. There is a pre-fitted servo for nose wheel steering but it’s not possible to remove it without destroying the model! It turns out to be a bit of an odd model, I think it must be a clone from another manufacturer as there are a few oddities. The HK page says it has elevons (all moving tail) but you can add aileron control by fitting an additional two servos (not supplied). The wings have the servo holes and hinge lines moulded in but I didn’t bother with ailerons. The tailplane halves have pre-moulded elevator hinge lines and control horn mountings but they aren’t used as the whole tail moves. The model is also sold as an ARF without any of the electronics and it says it’s for a 70mm fan but the PNP version comes with a 64mm fan.
It also says the decals are factory applied, they aren’t, and the ones on each side of the fin are a right pain to apply, especially the side that has the rudder servo pre-installed. So, all in all, I was little unsure as to how well it would fly, but I needn’t have worried, it went away from a hand launch well and needed almost no trimming. It’s got enough power and isn’t noisy, is fine without ailerons, and flies like it’s on rails.
The other late October arrival was Stanley Knife’s lovely Junkers CL.1 that is produced by Seagull Models.
The Junkers is an unusual choice, I’ve never heard of the CL.1 but I have to say it’s very nice. Dougal said it will be better when Stanley fits the top wing and I can see what he means, I suppose it must have been one of the first low wing monoplanes produced and it does look rather like a bipe that’s missing the upper wing.
This is what Seagull say about it: The CL.I will immediately catch the eye of W.W.I aircraft lovers and it’s not difficult to see why. Festooned with period character and large enough to really make an impression, this 69” span model of the 1917 ground-attack monoplane takes 10 – 15cc engines, uses 4 channels and takes 5 servos. In other words, it’s an uncomplicated, sturdy, everyday flyer that would make a perfect first scale model. Finished in authentic matt Oracover and sporting all the fussy detail you’d expect – not least machine guns, bracing wires, engine / radiator detail, and cockpit coaming – it’s ripe for club scale competitions and the perfect canvas for weathering and adding further scale refinements. Stanley has fitted a Purple Power 1500W 63mm motor from 4-Max that swings a 17 x 8 prop. The 120A speed controller is a bit bigger than is required, the motor pulls around 47A from an 8 cell 4000mAh Turnigy pack and has more than enough power for the 3.8 kilo (8 1/2lb) model.
The first flight went perfectly, the model has great presence in the air and showed no nasty tendencies at all.
I snapped a photo the other day for all the ‘less than expert’ fliers out there. If you ever feel that you break things on a regular basis but the ‘experts’ never do, have a look at this: On the left is Dougal Entendre’s Slick minus the undercarriage that he neatly removed when he landed short of the patch, and on the right is 1066’s SBach with the right hand aileron hanging off following a low pass ‘incident’!
Note that they were both embarrassed and Dougal tried to hide his loss with white tape in the hope that we wouldn’t spot the absent undercarriage, and 1066 tried to push the aileron back into place but it wouldn’t stay put!
Now for the main event of October, the Kung Fu competition. The Kung Fu was chosen as this years’ club model as it is a very simple Depron flying wing that is quick and easy to build and can use equipment that many of us already have kicking around. At the club meeting on 5th October a total of eleven Kung Fu’s were presented although one of them was a control-line version! The models were judged in three categories by all members present, Most Original Design, Best Looking Model, and Least Likely To Fly. The winner of the first category was 1066, purely because he was the only person who couldn’t follow the plan properly. Best Looking Model was Colin Cowplain (his Kung Fu was quite nice as well). Least Likely To Fly went to Woody, a choice that proved to be totally correct! Dougal had two Kung Fu’s, one a normal R/C, the other a control-line version, both of which were actually built by his son Cameron.
The following Sunday eight of the eleven models turned up in time for the photos, The Squire arrived a bit later, and Catapult King couldn’t fly until the next day. So, at the time of writing, it’s just Norwegian Nick’s Kung Fu that hasn’t yet flown as, due to us changing the competition date, Nick was away on holiday.
Bob the Builder flew first and other than a bit of elevator trim it went perfectly. Throughout the morning the others all flew, the amount of elevon reflex being about the only thing that needed adjustment on most of them, very little was required. Not sure if that’s down to the Kline-Fogleman stepped wing section or not but it seems odd that a flying wing needs very little or no reflex. They’ve turned out to be nice smooth models to fly.
The only one to have problems was Woody’s, the first two attempts resulted in very small loops back to the launch point! But this has since been resolved, removal of the reflex and moving the centre of gravity forward being the main factors, and it’s now flying well. As the second photo below shows even Woody flies it fairly low!
Later Dougal tested the Cameron/Dougal control-line Kung Fu (with RC throttle operated from a radio controlled car handset) and found it also flies well, amazing well really.
The following day was rather murky when I test flew Catapult King’s Kung Fu. It went beautifully and was very fast, right up to the point when one of the elevons tore off, just leaving a bit of flapping covering on the right hand side! Fortunately it came down with no further damage and Catapult soon had it mended and flying again. 
The first flights of the RC Kung Fu’s can be seen in the Kung Fu Special video but the control-line one is in the usual monthly video. But first, a few flying shots snapped by Kryten:
STOP PRESS: Chris P Bacon and Colin Cowplain had a ‘coming together’ over The Valley of Death!
Chris P Bacon did well to fight his damaged Cougar back and land on the patch but my F-16 just spiralled into the valley. The replacement parts for the F-16 have been ordered. I don’t think either of us were to blame, it was just one of those things, but who should be accused? Will it be Basher Baker or Palmer the Impaler?
At last, it’s time for the videos:
Please watch the videos full screen, it’s so much better with small models flying around. If the videos above won’t play for you CLICK HERE and HERE
Statement by the US Air Force: ’Cluster bombing from B-52s is very, very accurate. The bombs always hit the ground’
Colin Cowplain
Patch News – September 2017
Well this Patch News is going to be a bit of an odd one due to holidays. I’ll start with some bits I missed at the end of August but I won’t be able to include the second half of September as I’m going away again. So this edition will be rather shorter than usual but on the plus side the October one should be a bumper edition as it will feature the unveiling and flying of this years’ club models, the Kung Fu’s. Did you spot the unintentional unveiling of Catapult King’s Kung Fu in the August Patch News? Check out the photos of his modelling room for a sneak preview.
What I missed at the end of August was the annual club barbecue on Sunday 27 August followed by more flying on the Bank Holiday Monday. Fortunately both Dougal Entendre and Kryten took some photos for me to use.
Choosing the date of the barbecue is always a last minute decision as we have to consider the condition of the field as well as the weather. Fortunately at the end of August the field had been bullock free for long enough for most traces of them to disappear and George the farmer was happy to keep it clear of animals for a while. The weather forecast looked just about perfect so the date was fixed and members emailed. The short notice inevitably meant some (like me) couldn’t make it but on the day the turnout was pretty good. As predicted the weather was very good and I understand both the barbecue and the flying went well, apparently a good time was had by all.
Congratulations and thanks are due to the people that did all the work to make it happen, mostly 1066 I believe.
As well as many old favourites several new models made their debut appearance at the barbecue and the first to feature is Woody’s FMS Minimoa which he purchased from Gliders Distribution of Newark.
Dougal test flew it for Woody and it went well with no problems. Woody has since let me have a go with it, and I must say I was impressed. This is what the website says about it: As the newest addition to the FMS line, with a wingspan of 1500mm, this mid-sized glider is ideal for both beginning and advanced fliers. This plane comes with four installed servos, a 20 Amp ESC, and a brushless motor. The gentle flying characteristics, from low to high speeds, and the added advantage of a landing wheel, to help protect the foam, makes it a perfect choice for everyone. Simple construction makes assembly quick and easy, so you can get flying faster!
I must admit that when Woody first mentioned his choice of glider I was a bit dubious; I thought it was too small and lightweight for his purposes, but having flown it I’ve changed my mind. It only uses a 2 cell lipo, in Woody’s case an E-Flight 1300mAh pack, but it goes very well and handles fairly blustery conditions with no problems.
Last month I included a photo of Dougal’s empty transmitter case at Buriton one evening. He said he’d simply forgotten to put the transmitter in but now I’m starting to think he’s lost it, as next time out he had a new one!
It’s another Walkera deVention transmitter but this one is a Devo 10, his previous one being a Devo 12E. He actually has three deVention transmitters now so he’s quite a fan, they are well priced, have all the usual features and never seem to give him any problems. His excuse for buying the Devo 10 was that the Devo12E was too heavy. As well as being a ‘normal’ 2.4GHz 12 channel transmitter it also has a 32 channel 5.8 GHz FPV (First Person View) image receiver and a 5” full colour screen built into it so I suppose that lot does add a fair bit of weight. But Dougal uses a neck strap so I wouldn’t have thought the weight made too much difference, man up Dougal! As far as I can see the new Devo 10 is simply a 10 channel version of the same transmitter but minus all the FPV stuff. So far it’s performed perfectly and he seems very happy with it.
The first new model Dougal got to try out the Devo 10 on was his Lidl glider. Both Dougal and I bought gliders from Lidl a few months ago when they were one of the twice weekly ‘specials’ items.
They are just an 850mm span moulded foam chuck glider for kids really but at £7.99 they were quickly snapped up by loads of RC fliers who realised it would be easy to fit them with radio gear. They have been a huge success and as well as featuring on various forums there is even a Lidl Glider Group Facebook page with over 700 members. They were available in various colours, this is my as yet untouched slime green and black one.
There have been countless conversions done, some people have simply fitted two or three channel radio and turned them into slope soarers, but many have also added motors as well. I’ve seen just about every conversion possible including one with twin ducted fans! Dougal took the easy route and got his son Cameron to fit it out for him.
He used 5 gram servos on ailerons, elevator, and rudder, and used a motor, speed controller, and folding prop from an old HobbyKing Spirit/Kinetic/Wingnetic. Cameron cut ailerons into the inner wing panels and elevators into both sides of the tailplane. The elevator servo is fitted into the bottom of the fin but the rudder servo is mounted just behind the wing. To stiffen the fuselage Cameron has added some 3mm carbon rod along the length.
Dougal had to add 20gms of tail weight so it would be better to have the rudder servo at the rear with the elevator one and also mount the battery further back, but that might mean extra strengthening is required. Cameron used duct tape to cover up all the messy bits and tidy it up in general. It seems to fly well, not unlike a slightly larger and more docile Spirit. The only real problem is that it needs a lot of down-thrust on the motor, something not easily achieved, so I imagine Dougal will shortly be mixing some down elevator in with the throttle control. It can be seen flying in this month’s video at the end of this Patch News.
Catapult King has built a Sunbird from the HobbyKing laser cut kit and, as this was his first balsa model build, he used the kit parts as templates and cut his own replacements to use for the build.
So now he not only has a very nice Sunbird, he also has a Sunbird kit. There has been lots of discussion about the wing and Catapult thinks it’s wrong and should have polyhedral but I’m not convinced, looking at the HK photo and others that have been built I think he’s wrong, he got it right!
It seems to fly well enough anyway and he’s made a nice job of the building and covering so I think Catapult should be well pleased. The motor is a Turnigy 2830/1000kv connected to an HK 30A ESC and a 3 cell 1300maH Zippy Compact lipo. So far Catapult has been using a 7×4.5 folding prop but it’s a bit underpowered and is only drawing 9A so he’s going to try a 9×5. I think it’s probably going to be more suited to light winds rather than the strong ones we tend to get at Chidden Down but I’m happy to be proved wrong. You can see it flying in this month’s video.
At the first club meeting in September JP gave us a very interesting talk on photography. Club member JP has been a self-employed commercial photographer for around twenty years and hasn’t starved yet so he must be doing something right. The talk covered the basics principles of how and how not to take a decent photo whether you’re using a mobile phone, a compact, or an SLR camera. As well as covering the composition of the picture (being careful of what is in the foreground and background and focusing in the correct area) JP explained about balancing shutter speed and exposure. With all this in mind I snapped JP during his talk and think I covered just about everything he mentioned in this one shot, even including Captain Slow who was asleep by this time!
Thanks JP, I think we all found it a useful and informative talk, hopefully my Patch News photos and videos will show some improvements in the future.
We were pleased to welcome back ex PAM member Alan Flux at a recent club meeting. Alan and his wife Pam emigrated to Australia several years ago but he has remained in touch with some of the club members and has visited us before. He took a Splot plan home with him at the end of his last trip to England and built one back in Australia. Apparently it flies inverted even better down under…
Alan wanted a photo with his old buddies and the Squire snapped this shot of me (Colin Cowplain), Viv (Stanley Knife), Alan, and President Don, all long time PAM members.
This month the high quality flying shots are all from Kryten.
Time for this month’s video which this month begins with Norwegian Nick’s tiny Trojan:Please watch the video full screen, it’s so much better with small models flying around. If the video above won’t play for you CLICK HERE
Q: What do you call it when you’re sick of being in the airport? A: Terminal illness.
Colin Cowplain
Patch News – August 2017
August saw the return of the bullocks, and happily, their departure as well. We had some pretty wet weather while they were in the field and they didn’t do the patch any favours but it’s nothing like as bad as before. I think it will be fine again given a decent bit of weather over the next few weeks, although apparently there will probably be sheep in the field by the time you read this. The sheep are less of a problem to us and don’t really damage the patch other than by adding their own brand of fertiliser! While the bullocks were in the field they mostly ignored us and, although we did have to herd them away from the models and patch a few times, very often they paid little or no attention to us despite being fairly close. Personally I’m rather fond of them, but I prefer them medium rare…
1066 wasn’t too keen on my Friday Afternoon Gardening Society acronym and suggested the Friday Afternoon Rural Trimmers Society was more appropriate, so next time you head off up to the field on a Friday afternoon you can truthfully tell the wife “just off to see the old farts”.
While I’m talking about 1066 he’ll be really pleased to see that I’m featuring one of his models this month…or maybe not. This is the remains of his Speedy glider that met an unfortunate, untimely, and unusual end.
The photo shows it exactly as it was when we reached it, note the divot by the battery pack! He was doing a flat out low pass over the patch when there was a very sudden and loud screech from the motor immediately followed by total loss of control. We think the motor must have seized and the sudden stop somehow killed the speed controller including the BEC (Battery Eliminator Circuit). No doubt people that understand the electronics better than I will mutter about ‘spikes’ and ‘back emf’ etc. but all we know was that it screeched and the radio stopped working. As I said, the model was flat out and low so from the screech to the crash was probably less than a second. It’s a great shame as the Speedy was an entertaining hotliner to fly and to watch. We’ll have to keep a watchful eye on Catapults King’s Speedy which has the same ‘outrunner in a case’ motor to see if there are any tell-tale signs of motor problems before the worst happens.
August was supposed to be the month that saw the maiden flight of Percy Vears’ Vulcan but sadly it wasn’t to be.
Percy built the Vulcan from the Tony Nijhuis plan and with a wingspan of 1.24m (49”) it’s a fair size for a one piece model. The airframe is constructed from balsa and plywood, covered with glass cloth and epoxy resin, and finished with Humbrol acrylic and weighs only 2.3kg (5lb) without batteries.
Thrust is provided by four electric motors driving four 50mm 10-bladed fans. Two 4-cell lipo batteries located in the wings provide power for the motors, radio equipment and retracting undercarriage. With its’ retracts and small wheels the model isn’t suited to our rather rough grass patch so Percy was pleased to be offered the chance to fly from the tarmac runway at the CADMAC’s Thorney Island site. Two dates that fitted in with the CADMAC schedule were provisionally planned and on the first date we arrived to find ideal weather conditions but when doing radio checks we found a problem with the receiver sometimes going to ‘hold’ mode. We couldn’t sort it on the field so we aborted and Percy investigated the problem in his workshop. It turned out that the UBEC wasn’t able to supply enough current to power the retracts, servos, and speed controllers, exacerbated by a nose-wheel retract that wasn’t always retracting quite fully so was continuing to pull current. So he’s now fitted a higher current UBEC which seems to have sorted the problem. The second date was forecast to have strong gusty winds so we scrubbed it before making the trip. The next available date is 16 September so fingers crossed the weather plays ball.
You may remember that a couple of months ago I reported that Woody had managed to pull the wings off his Ugly Stick at about 200ft altitude. Surprisingly the only major damage was to the dummy I/C engine but they are currently unavailable from HobbyKing so I thought Woody would write the model off. But this month it reappeared, reborn as a ‘normal’ electric model with no dummy engine.
Woody simply removed all the dummy bits, the original electric motor, and the driveshaft connecting the two together, and then bolted an Emax 2820-07 straight to the front bulkhead. It worked perfectly and the Ugly Stick is now back flying just as well as it ever did, a great result.
The current popular trend of electric powered gliders seems to be growing and another three appeared in August. First up is Gentleman Jim who has bought a Phoenix from HobbyKing.
The Phoenix is available in two sizes, 1600mm and 2000mm wingspan, and Jim, like Kryten last month, and Stanley Knife last year, bought the 2000 version. According to the website the Plug’n’Play version only takes 15 minutes to assemble, something both Jim and Kryten disagree with! However it does go together very quickly and the end result is a great flier, good for both soaring and gentle aerobatics.
Jim wasn’t keen on the supplied stickers and when I took the photos his Phoenix was in its bare form. He has since applied some of the supplied ones along with some of his own design. Kryten and Stanley Knife have both added the optional flaps but so far Jim hasn’t bothered with them. But having watched Jim’s Phoenix several times cruising sedately over the patch at a few feet altitude and steadfastly refusing to land I think they might soon be added!
Second of the new gliders to show up was Captain Slow’s Dalasy Models Expert 600 that he purchased in 1999.
Now I know we call him Captain Slow but I thought that was because he likes slow flying models not because it takes him 18 years to finish an ARTF glider! Ok, the truth, he bought the model when he was in the army based in Germany in 1999 (he’s really a Major not a Captain) and flew the model a lot out there. He flew it at our field a few years ago but it’s only in this month that he’s fitted it with 2.4 GHz radio gear and started flying it again.
Dalasy Models was a Czech manufacturer and there are similarities in the construction with my own Czech made Swing Plus. Both models feature a glass fibre fuselage, a V-tail, and built-up wing with a carbon sandwiched spar for strength, but the Swing Plus is only 1.7 metre span whereas the Expert is 2 metre span and is fitted with ailerons.
Captain Slow is still flying it with the original brushed Speed 600 motor which is fitted with a gearbox and he’s still using 8 cell NiMh batteries of 3200mAh capacity. This all makes the model a little on the heavy side compared with more modern set-ups but nevertheless it performs well. The climb is relatively sedate but that’s how he likes his models and it thermals well once it’s up there.
The final ‘new’ glider to show up in August was Dougal Entendre’s ancient Olympic 100” thermal soarer. He actually flew it with FPV at our patch back in July 2014 but I expect you’ve all forgotten about it by now.
As you can see it’s a proper ‘built from balsa’ glider to which he’s added a small pylon that holds the electric motor and speed controller. The Olympic was originally a plan from the American mag RCM back in the 70’s and Dougal has recently discovered that Airtronics kitted the model for a while.
If you fancy building one the plan can be found by clicking HERE. Dougal has added some sheeting and rib capping strips to improve the torsional rigidity of the wing.
Under power it’s best described as ‘I can hear the motor so it must be climbing’ but it soars beautifully. Dougal’s claim to fame with the Olympic is that he once came second to Chris Foss in the Towner Trophy thermal competition many moons ago, that’s no mean feat.
At the first club meeting in August we had an RTP (Round The Pole) night. A few months ago I bought an RTP set-up from HobbyKing, mainly to utilise the spare weight for which I was paying postage anyway. I spotted the package in the HK Bargain Bin for under £12 and it just looked like too much fun to refuse. When it arrived I discovered I didn’t have a big enough space at home to fly it so I suggested flying it in the hall one club evening. It was a popular suggestion and another 5 identical ones were promptly ordered by others members.
We started off with just one model flying but that was a bit boring and they come with streamers so you can do combat with two models flying at once on the same pole. That was much more exciting so we decided to try three models at once, and then four! If you weren’t there to witness the ensuing chaos you can see some of it in this month’s video at the end of this Patch News!
Along the same lines (that’s a joke) also in the video is attempt number two with 1066’s electric control-line model. One evening 1066, Dougal, and I went to a local park to play with the modified model.
It was much better than previously and we all had successful flights with it. At least with electric control-line you can just shut the throttle and land when you get dizzy. Eventually 1066 decided to try looping it…and failed, minor repairs are now required. You can see it fly in the video. No doubt more on this subject will follow.
Norwegian Nick brought along a Christmas present from his kids to fly at Buriton before one club meeting.
It’s a Parkzone Ultra Micro T-28 Trojan BNF (Bind’N’Fly). It comes completely finished; all you have to do is charge the battery and bind the pre-installed receiver to your existing Spektrum transmitter. The Trojan is just 16.5” wingspan (420mm) and the flying weight is 38gms (1.34oz) complete with four channel radio controlling ailerons, elevator, rudder, throttle and steerable nose leg. That’s ridiculous, 4 channel ready to fly weight of 38gms!
The undercarriage is removable and Nick flew without it. It took a few attempts to get the centre of gravity and trim correct but once they were sorted but then it flew very well. Unfortunately I didn’t get any video of it flying; maybe I’ll be able to get some for next month.
Tony Neil flew his P51 Mustang once during August. Tony won the Mustang in the November 2013 big raffle and flew it early in 2014 but I haven’t seen it fly since then. It’s a 59” span Phoenix Models ARTF that comes with all the parts to make it either I/C or electric powered. Tony chose the I/C route and installed an ASP46 2-stroke.
It’s a lovely model but would be so much lovelier if Tony had fitted an electric motor instead! He struggled to take-off with small wheels and the rather rough patch but eventually made it ok only to discover it had much too much aileron movement. This meant the flight was a bit ‘interesting’ but he got it under control and back down in one piece so it ended well.
Bob the Builder has been building again and he’s named his latest model a Splotel as it’s a cross between a Splot and a Trottel. You know what a Splot is, the Trottel is the little Depron model he’s been flying lately, it’s on the same forum as the Kung Fu’s that is this year’s club model. Basically the Splotel has a Splot wing that’s made from an earlier Depron version that Bob built and he’s made a balsa and ply Trottel fuselage, tailplane, and fin but scaled them up to Splot size. The wing has a 10mm diameter carbon spar so he won’t be breaking that in a hurry!
The finished model just looks like a Splot with a tricycle undercarriage to me. It has a PropDrive 3536-1400KV motor than can take either three or four cells and the model weighs 3lbs with a 2200mAh four cell pack. On four cells the motor produces more than 600W so the model has over 200W/lb! The power certainly showed when I took off on its test flight, it and it shot off across the patch like a startled rabbit.
It flew well, I spent most of the flight at less than half throttle but it would go vertical forever if you wanted. I managed to remove the main wheels when I landed and was rather relieved when Bob did exactly the same when he landed on the second flight, obviously a bit of a weak point. No doubt Bob will sort that easily enough.
I had a bit of an issue with my Multiplex transmitter in August. When I tried switch it on one Sunday morning it was totally dead, just a quick flash of the power LED, then nothing. Needless to say I took a lot stick, mostly from Spektrum users who very kindly let me fly their models whilst mentioning Superb Spektrum. The problem turned out to be my own fault; apparently if you leave the transmitter switched on when you stop flying at lunchtime on Wednesday the battery will be flat by Sunday morning…doh! After a quick charge everything is working perfectly again, Marvellous Multiplex. But Dougal had an even more embarrassing problem with his Devention transmitter when he went to fly at Buriton before one club meeting. He opened his transmitter case only to find this:
Leaving the transmitter at home must surely be worse than leaving it switched on?! However, he redeemed himself later that by giving us an excellent talk on launching gliders and brought along a 3.8 metre span one to show us.
A few months ago I featured some members’ modelling rooms/sheds/garages. Now Catapult King has sent me some photos of his spare room, explaining that it’s now so full he has had to resort to building his models in the kitchen.
He says it’s less than ideal but it’s convenient that he doesn’t have an other half to pester him!
Now for a few flying photos, Gentleman Jim snapped the first two on his mobile, the others are from Catapult King.
Now it’s time for this month’s video, some was done by The Squire, Dougal, and Captain Slow, thanks guys:Please watch the video full screen, it’s so much better with small models flying around. If the video above won’t play for you CLICK HERE
This month’s joke was sent in by Dougal Entendre so don’t blame me:
I watched a documentary on how wings are fixed to planes. It was riveting.
Colin Cowplain
