Patch News – September 2024
Woody deserves a special mention as when nobody liked the look of the flying weather one Friday morning Woody took it upon himself to mow the patch alone. 1066 reckons he should be known as the Lone Mower so maybe the mowers should be Silver and Tonto?
I missed the Popham Model Show so I’ve asked Dougal Entendre to tell us about it: Popham this year was pretty much its normal self, but with marginally worse weather. Leo and I went on the Saturday, as this seemed to have the better forecast, though I think the Sunday turned out pretty much the same. Anyway, there was no weather-induced break in the flying while we were there, despite the odd light shower.
Having scored a winner with his Salto purchase the previous year, Leo had brought a wad of cash along, so we headed straight for the Bring-and-Buy. In almost no time at all he had parted with much of it for a rather nice Multiplex Joker glider (with electric conversion), and a slightly battered 3D Hobby Shop AJ-Slick (same as 1066’s, but with more history written all over it). This meant two long walks back to the car park to deposit the goods in the back of my estate.
Our legs were starting to show the strain, as was Leo’s wallet, so we headed for the flying displays. It was mostly a mix of Futura-style jets, petrol-powered 3D aerobatics, and the odd jet-powered glider. We were particularly impressed with a 12-year-old 3D pilot, and a couple of half-scale Piper Cubs which put on an excellent display of synchronised aerobatics:
On one of the trips back to the car we bumped into Captain Slow and Woody, and later on we met Patrick and his son Joe, who seemed to be enjoying the show.
Back at the trade stands Leo fell for a second-hand foam biplane (I can’t remember the details, but it did seem like quite a good price), so that used up even more space in the back of my wagon. When we left in the early afternoon there were still a few unsold items at the Bring-and-Buy; among them was quite a nice autogyro, fully equipped except for radio, which the guy offered us for a knockdown price. Realising I might be in trouble with Leo’s Mum if I let him buy that too, I hastily closed the deal myself, so we came back with quite a car load.
Subsequently Leo brought the Joker and Slick along to the patch, and both flew well.
The Slick has a motor which won’t take more than a 3S pack, so it’s not 3D capable, but it still seems like quite a good aerobat. The Joker had amazing performance, though there were several things which needed sorting (ESC, flaps and rudder), so I struck a deal with Leo – the Joker is now mine, and he has the autogyro (some money also changed hands)! I’m looking forward to getting the Joker in the air once I’ve sorted the electronics, and I hope we see Leo’s autogyro at the patch soon. So all-in-all a very enjoyable morning, with plenty of purchases to show for it!
Thanks for that Dougal, it sounds as if I missed a good day as well as some bargains. Leo shot some video at the show which he has added to his YouTube channel in two parts.
Take a look at them on his YouTube channel by clicking HERE
I’ve trawled the internet for information on the Multiplex Joker that Dougal has now bought from Leo but have not managed to find out much at all. As far as I can tell the Joker was discontinued many years ago, there’s a suggestion that was due to the cost of production being too close to the selling price. The obechi veneered foam wings span 3333mm (virtually eleven feet) and the 1350mm long fuselage is moulded in fibreglass.
Dougal tells me that on his Joker the wings have been beautifully glass-clothed. I have only found specifications for a glider version but there are several electric powered ones around so presumably there was an electric version available. It appears to be very well rated in everything I can find, no doubt I’ll be able to tell you more next month.
When writing Patch News I use the internet a great deal to find information on models etc. and very often Google comes up with stuff that is only very loosely related to my search but is quite interesting anyway. While I was looking for information on the Multiplex Joker I stumbled across a piece about full-size gliding which has a bit of local interest:
Robert Kronfeld, the famous pioneer, showed the way when on June 17, 1930 he flew from Itford Hill (East Sussex) to very near Portsmouth, a feat which amazed the other pilots at the time. An extract from his book is well worth repeating here: “I only cleared the last small hill near Petersfield by three hundred feet. In view of the noiselessness of my flight and the advanced evening hour it struck me that I was very indiscreet in flying over a small wood swarming with courting couples. I imagine that it was not exactly considerate of me to call out at the top of my voice “Whcre’s Portsmouth?”
Just outside Petersfield back in 1930? Bob the Builder was probably there!
Last month I showed you a couple of photos that 1066 had sent me of the Dancing Wings Cub that he’d started building and I promised some more info on the build this month.
Well, there’s been a development, this photo is 1066 with his Dancing Wings Cub…but it’s not the one he was building. The Cub that 1066 had started building was a 1200mm span version but then he spotted a larger used ready built and ready to go Dancing Wings Cub for sale locally which he snapped up. This one is the 1775mm wingspan version and is the actual Piper J-3 Cub that was built by Rob Lawes of the RC Model Geeks YouTube channel in 2017 and featured in several of his videos. It’s powered by a Propdrive V2 3548 900KV brushless motor linked to a Hobbyking Red Brick V2 70A speed controller. It’s fitted with four Corona DS339MG digital metal gear servos and the whole lot runs on a 4 cell lipo. 
The model features a proper sprung undercarriage as per the full-size Cub, two hefty 10mm carbon fire tube wing joiners and working light alloy main and jury struts. The struts attach to the fuselage on a pin with an ‘R’ clip which ensures quick assembly and disassembly. Dougal took the photos when 1066 took it to the field for its first outing and since then he’s added some trim and lettering to brighten it up a bit. In this month’s video you can see that the registration he’s added is G-JEPH, I’m not sure why he decided to call it Geoff but apparently he’s having trouble with his speel chequer! So what has happened to the Cub 1066 was building? He says he wasn’t really enjoying the build so, having the larger one, he’s decided to sell it part built. It looks as if he’s done lots of the work already
I believe Chas has shown some interest but as far as I know it’s still available.
Gordon Bennett flew two new models on September, the first being an E-flite Mustang. 
Gordon’s excuse for the purchase was that he’d had a win on the Premium Bonds, not that he needed an excuse. The Mustang is 493mm wingspan and will fly on either a two or a three cell battery, Gordon is using a 3 cell 300mAh lipo. This is from the E-flite website: The P-51D Mustang is world-renowned as quite possibly the most iconic fighter aircraft of all time! (Flippin’ Yanks, that’s the Spitfire!) Its unique design resulted in it delivering some of the best performance among all fighter aircraft flown in WWII. “Detroit Miss” is a history-making P-51D Mustang that was flown by Urban “Ben” Drew, and in 1944 he became the first USAAF pilot to shoot down two jet-powered Messerschmitt Me 262 fighter aircraft with it. The E-flite UMX P-51D Mustang is an ultra-micro sized model of the famous aircraft that’s a warbird version of the popular UMX P-51D Voodoo racer. 
It’s equipped with expertly-tuned AS3X and optional-use SAFE Select technologies, is 2S and 3S battery compatible, and provides real-time battery voltage telemetry to compatible transmitters. Because of its ultra-micro size, the UMX P-51 can be flown in more places and smaller spaces including many yards, parks, and sports fields! The fixed landing gear with a steerable tailwheel makes it easy to taxi, take-off from, and land on smooth surfaces, or you can leave the landing gear off for more speed and vertical performance with easy hand launches over and landings on grass. It’s the most affordable, convenient, and easiest-to-fly replica of a P-51D Mustang yet!
On the first flight Gordon had to add full down elevator trim so before the next flight he made some adjustments to the elevator linkage after which it was fine.
The Mustang appears to fly really nicely and the stabilisation cancels out most of the effects from buffeting winds. Overall it’s a great little flier and a good purchase.
In Patch News a couple of months ago I showed you this photo of Dwayne Pipe’s Gnat that had suffered a minor misfortune…OK, a major misfortune…some would say a write-off!
But Dwayne is an ardent builder and he’s not put off by a minor setback like that. As he’d designed the Gnat himself he knew exactly how to undertake the repairs so in September the Gnat re-emerged looking as if nothing had happened. As you’ll see in the video the Gnat went way from the launch ramp well but the battery pack failed almost immediately. 
Dwayne got her safely down with no damage so just needs to sort out a replacement pack.
Gordon’s second new model was one he bought a while ago at a Southern Counties Swapmeet after selling his trainer there. It’s a Multiplex Extra 330SC which is an 1150mm wingspan full 3D machine moulded in foam with wood and carbon fibre reinforcement.
It appears to be discontinued but I found some information on the AT Models website: F3P World Champion Gernot Bruckmann with the internationally successful Extra Aircraft Company and the talents of the Mirco Pecorari design studio have created an aerobatic model aircraft that has been tailor made for pilots who know what they want, know how to fly, and desire the very best 3D performance that is possible to get from a stunning out and out pattern and freestyle aerobat. That model is the Extra 330SC and if you add Multiplex world-class design and manufacturing experience to the heady mix of talent, the package is further enhanced by a powerful and extremely solid Elapor airframe that sets new standards in the 1.2m class. Its versatile too, and with exceptional longitudinal stability, very precise, conventional, F3A-style aerobatics are a joy to perform. This, then, is a model you’ll instantly fall in love with and one whose secrets will make you look so good, you’ll be reluctant to share them.
The Extra has had some minor repairs but nothing major and it just needed a receiver and a three cell lipo to get it in the air. None of the Multiplex stuff is cheap and if I remember correctly Gordon only paid £80 so I reckon it was a real bargain for a top notch plane. 
Gordon asked me to do the test flight and to trim it out. It needed no trimming and is an excellent flier so I quickly handed the transmitter over to Gordon to complete the flight.
Gordon’s still playing around with the settings to get the Extra flying exactly as he likes it but it appears to be good so far. He’s going to remove the aileron Y lead and use separate channels. You can see how both of Gordon’s new toys perform in this month’s video.
For the extra shots this month I’ve used some of Dougal’s photos from the Popham Show:
Video time now, this month with footage taken by myself and MacFly. Please watch the video full-screen, it’s so much better with small models flying around:
If the video won’t play for you please click HERE
This is a supposedly true flight safety announcement from a Southwest Airlines employee:
“Welcome aboard Southwest Flight XX to YY. To operate your seatbelt, insert the metal tab into the buckle, and pull tight. It works just like every other seatbelt, and if you don’t know how to operate one, you probably shouldn’t be out in public unsupervised.
In the event of a sudden loss of cabin pressure, oxygen masks will descend from the ceiling. Stop screaming, grab the mask, and pull it over your face.
If you have a small child traveling with you, secure your mask before helping with theirs. If you are traveling with two small children, decide now which one you love more.”
Colin Cowplain Patch News – August 2024
I’ve started the last couple of editions of Patch News by complaining about the bad weather and hoping for better next month. And yes, August was very slightly better. We flew regularly but it hasn’t really been a proper summer, just a couple of decent days here and there. But fear not, our Chairman Gordon Bennett is predicting an Indian Summer, get the sunscreen and iced drinks ready! At the start of the month the farmers gave a flock of sheep their annual dipping and they were in ‘our’ field briefly but they were no trouble.
A few days later farmer George said we were looking lonely so he brought along a herd of bullocks to keep us company! Oddly, despite being the young, normally problematic ones they have barely bothered us at all. We have had to gently steer them away from the patch a couple of times but once away they’ve stayed clear for the rest of the flying session. 
On the last Friday morning session they decided to come to the pits to watch our flying.
Mowing continued as usual throughout the month and the patch is in good condition.
Several new models were flown in August, I’ll begin with two from new member Patrick. Patrick is going to need a pseudonym for blog use soon and, as his surname is Beagles it shouldn’t be too difficult to come up with something…Poodle? Answers on a postcard…
The first of his new models to fly was a HobbyKing Bixler 3. We’ve all seen Bixlers before, they’ve been around for years in various forms and the version 3 doesn’t look to have changed much but apparently it has angular wing and tail surfaces and it’s bigger than the other versions with a wingspan of 1550mm. It also has an uprated 2620 1400kV motor and an easily removable undercarriage. All ARTFs have those, but mostly unintended!
The Bixler comes almost ready to go, fitted with the motor, a 20A speed controller, and 4 x 9g servos so it just needs a receiver and a 3 cell 2200mAh battery. Dougal Entendre did the initial trimming after which he handed the transmitter over to Patrick who flew the Bixler with no problems. Patrick’s second new model is another one from HobbyKing, a Durafly Ugly Stick, identical to the one that Woody has been enjoying flying recently.
The Ugly Stick comes ready fitted with a 3536 900kV motor, a 30A Durafly speed controller, and 4 x 9g servos so, like the Bixler, it just needs a receiver and 3 cell 2200mAh battery to get it flying. And Ugly Sticks fly very well indeed, even Dougal managed to make it look good on the maiden flight! You can see parts of the first flights of both of Patrick’s new models in this month’s video which seems to have turned into The Mini-Mike Movie!
A few flights later Patrick managed to break the Ugly Stick slightly but luckily not too drastically and after a few cocktails (by the look of it!) he had it all back in one piece.
Patrick is not alone in breaking a new model and after two Patch News articles on his Fusion build 1066 has written another piece for us about breaking and then repairing it:
We all break models at some point, and we can generally put it down to pilot error, structural or avionics failure. As some may know I recently damaged my new fun-fly model while trying to do fast consecutive touch and goes. The damage was confined to the fuselage, one side had a single crease and the ply doubler had delaminated from the balsa, (poor building here) the other side had two cracks that went through the balsa and ply doubler, all this was within the area of the battery hatch, so the weakest part of the fuselage. This model is not an ARTF (always ready to fail) it is designed with the sole purpose of being competitive in national fun flying competitions. The undercarriage is built like a tank, and is mounted in such a way that it’s impossible for the plane to nose over, the wheels are in front of the propeller, so almost impossible to damage it.
When you look at the forward sweep of the undercarriage, and the way it is mounted, you can see a lot of thought has gone into reducing and spreading the loads encountered when doing a touch and go. During competition these guys are not waiting for a gentle touch when doing as many as they can in 2 minutes. Taking all the above into account, I was totally confused as to the cause of the damage the model had suffered. Was it pilot error? (YES! Ed) My attempted touch and go was a bit faster, and steeper than optimal, however it was straight into wind, we had just cut the grass, and our patch is not full of holes, so therefore should have been well within the models’ ability. I know I am biased, but I’m claiming no pilot error on this occasion, so it’s got to be structural failure. The repairs were very straightforward, and I have taken the opportunity to stiffen things up around the battery access. It was when I came to refit the undercarriage that everything became clear. The kit is not supplied with any wheels, the ones I used needed the hub opening out to fit the large gauge piano wire axles, and it looks like I went a bit too far.
As can be seen in the photos the left hand wheel had locked solid on impact with the ground, probably due to the hub failing and riding up over the bend, and because the undercarriage is so stiff and long this magnified the twisting load applied to the sides of the fuselage. I suppose the moral here is, no matter how good the design, there is always the unforeseen. Thanks 1066, maybe just fit a second collet on the other side of the wheel?
One Sunday morning in August there was a light easterly wind and a couple of paragliders were trying to fly. I say trying because they did manage to get airborne but neither of them was able to gain enough height to stay aloft. A couple of times they each ended up at the bottom of the slope and had to carry their gear back up for the next attempt. We were very wary about flying as they did come along the ridge quite close to us and with just a small change in the wind they may have suddenly appeared in our airspace. Eventually they gave up so we flew but by then it was almost lunchtime. A few MVSA members were also flying but they were no problem to us. When I walked back to my car an MVSA guy arrived and we got chatting, discussing the suitability of the wind for the Sky Surfers, and he told me about a website called Flybubble that the paragliders use and we might find useful:
Flybubble is a specialist paragliding and freeflight equipment retailer and distributor and the interesting thing for us is that their website has weather forecasts for paragliding sites right across the country including Mercury where we fly. Their main website is https://flybubble.com which is quite interesting in itself but the one that’s useful to us is https://flybubble.com/weather/mercury-15469#5 Dougal has revamped the PAM website weather page to include the Flybubble link for Mercury, just click on the Weather heading.
It’s interesting to note that the BBC forecast seems to give the steady windspeed (not gusts), Holfoy gives the actual speed live plus gust speeds, and Flybubble appears to give the highest speeds, so presumably gusts. At the time I am writing BBC says 11mph, Holfoy 9.9 to 13mph, and Flybubble 16mph. Take your pick, maybe take an average of them all!
Following his Fusion build 1066 has got the building bug and has started on a Dancing Wings Cub. Here’s a little teaser of what’s coming in next month’s exciting instalment! 
Woody has sold his Max Thrust Riot to Captain Slow as he didn’t really get on with it.
It’s actually a Pro-Built balsa and ply Riot rather than the all foam one and is a lot heavier than the original. I’ve just found an article in RCM&E by Kevin Crozier about the Pro-Built Riot which says it’s 60% heavier than the foam one, surely that can’t be a good thing!
Captain Slow only had one flight on the day as something was out of balance which made the plane very noisy. He thinks it was the prop driver that wasn’t running quite true so will be sourcing another one and checking everything properly with a dial gauge before he’s happy to fly it again. But it flew fine apart from the noise and it’s in this month’s video.
At the end of the month Captain Slow dug out his Wot Trainer to give prospective new member Terry Small some flights using a buddy box. I’m never quite sure about the model, it’s become known as the club trainer but I believe ownership is actually split between Captain Slow and Woody. It flies on either 3 cells or 4 cells but as it needs weight in the nose it uses either 2 x 3 cell or 2 x 4 cell packs connected in parallel so it only has the voltage of one 3 or 4 cell pack and gets long flights, perfect for a trainer. It was very windy on the day Terry had some flights with the plane but he seemed to be getting the hang of it.
MacFly bought and flew a very nice new model in August, a JP F38 Hornet Delta Racer.
This is what the J Perkins website says about it: Looking for fast and furious R/C fun? Then you’ve come to the right place. Buckle up, tuck this tantalising F38 under your arm and prepare for a 3S-fuelled thrill that’ll have your clubmates rushing to buy their own. Make sure they get a different colour and enjoy triple the excitement as you go head-to-head in a bout of brute, brushless pylon racing. Packing a powerful pre-fitted 1200KV brushless motor, 30A ESC and supremely capable twin 9g servos, just 30 short minutes is all it takes to get this 3-channel PNP foamie airborne, and 30 seconds to get hooked! Docile, dead easy to launch and furiously fast, the JP F38 Hornet is the perfect all-weather grab ‘n’ go racer. Suitable for any occasion and almost any field, it’s a keeper.
Well they certainly seem to like it! And so do I and fortunately MacFly does as well.
The Hornet is 800mm wingspan and the flying weight is quoted as just 550g so with a 2834 1200kV motor it’s no slouch but I wouldn’t say it’s as fast as the description implies. MacFly asked me to trim it and I found the Hornet good to fly, smooth, responsive, and quick at full throttle but also happy at half throttle and it will slow up nicely for landing.
MacFly has been enjoying the Hornet, it’s ideal for our field as it flies in pretty much any weather from the howling January winds to the August…well not quite so howling winds!
The Hornet comes complete with everything except a receiver and battery so MacFly has fitted an FrSky Archer Plus SR10+ combined receiver and stabiliser and he’s using a 3 cell 2000mAh 35C lipo pack. He’s had a couple of ‘interesting moments’ with the plane, the second one when he decided to switch the stabiliser from the Stabilisation mode which damps out wind buffeting to Automatic Level which, as the name implies, should instantly bring the model to level flight. MacFly isn’t sure what went wrong but it seemed to roll the Hornet inverted (even though he’s sure it was set correctly) and in the race to switch back to Stabilisation he lost and gravity won. A replacement airframe is already on order…
For the action shots this month I’ve been looking back through some very old photos:
Video time now this month with footage taken by myself, Dougal, and mostly by MacFly.
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
Boarding an airliner for the first time, Sharon sat in a window seat in a quiet area.
A man came over and politely said, “Excuse me madam, I think you’re in my seat.”
But being totally unaware of the correct aircraft seating arrangements Sharon replied “Tough, just go away and find yourself another seat!”
He said, “Okay, fine, you fly the plane.”
Colin Cowplain
Patch News – July 2024
I started the last Patch News by saying summer had finally arrived. Well I got that wrong! We did have some brief spells of summery weather in July but also a lot of terrible days and record rainfall. Mowing continued as usual, mostly by the Friday fliers but on Fri 19th only Woody turned up (several away on holiday) so he mowed alone. Gold star for Woody!
The last few days of the month were hot and sunny, just as July should be so maybe August will be better, fingers crossed. Despite the poor weather there were some highlights with several new models being flown and Dwayne Pipe successfully ran the annual chuck glider competition which is always a popular event but more on that later.
When we first moved to our new field late last year there were a few concerns about interference from the nearby radio masts. These concerns proved to be groundless and there have been no problems with our transmitters using 2.4GHz. But when flying FPV (First Person View) the system uses 5.8GHz so as a test Dougal Entendre flew his FPV model between the masts last month and experienced no problems as all. I was slightly jealous that he’s done it before me so in early July I flew my FPV model between the masts in the opposite direction, from east to west. Like Dougal, there were no problems at all.
The farmer has told us that sometime this summer both masts will be replaced by a single larger one so I suppose the concerns will return until we’ve satisfied ourselves that there are no problems. First person to fly FPV around the new mast Dougal?
In June I asked the name of this plane that I’d seen at the RAF Manston History Museum:
Nobody even had a guess so I’ll tell you, it’s a PZL TS-11 Iskra. I’ve never heard of it either!
So this month the quiz is to name this electric model. Rod Ashton received it as part of a lot of stuff he’s received from the widow of an aeromodelling friend. Nobody he has asked so far has a clue what it is so start searching, Rod would really like to know it’s name:
In May I featured Part 1 of 1066’s Fusion V2 build. It’s now flown so here’s Part 2:
By the time this makes the blog, the Fusion will have been flown, but having sent Colin some build photos in June we both thought some views on the build may be of interest. After building all the tail I moved on to the fin, rudder, and ailerons. Having built two kits this year I have noticed you have to be very careful with how you use the strip material supplied. On this build I only wasted 15 mm on each length of the 9mm x 6mm strip supplied for all the cross bracing, but still managed to run out.
Next came the fuselage, this was a very straightforward tapered box that went together very easily, and made for a very rigid structure, however me being me, I can’t resist a mod or two. I don’t like band on wings so I decided to change to a bolt on fixing. I also prefer using self-tapping screws for fixing motors, so I added an extra 6mm ply firewall. 
Next up was soldering the four parts of the undercarriage together, the instructions show this being done on a jig, but I preferred to do it with the parts fitted to the fuselage.
I now moved on to the wing assembly, and this is where things went a bit wrong!! With the wing pinned down, the structure was started in the normal order, see photos.
With all the ribs, and spars in place, the instructions give the dimensions for the webbing pieces to be fitted to the front edge of the top and bottom spars, I cut one and offered it up (see photo) and as you can see it was far too tall. All the rest were marked and cut in situ.
Next the instructions tell you to chamfer the leading edge stock to follow the curve of the top and bottom of the aerofoil before fixing to the front of the ribs, this sounded a bit tricky so I decided to butt join it to the leading edge after the sheeting had been fitted.
The instructions also tell you to cut the supplied 100mm sheet into 2 pieces one 80 mm wide for leading edge and the remaining 20mm piece for the trailing edge, which I did. However, if I had followed the leading edge instructions, the leading edge sheet would be too narrow. The next issue I faced was that the Depron ribs would not hold the pins for fixing the leading-edge sheet even after wetting. With the glue already applied, I had to rely on a lot of house bricks, and a straight edge to hold it in place.
All the top sheeting was completed, but when it came to fitting the rib capping the material supplied was supposed to be the same thickness as the rest of the sheet but it was visibly thinner which made sanding more difficult than it should have been.
The wing was now turned over, pinned back onto the bench and all the bottom sheeting added. With all the glue dry and the wing off the bench I felt that the trailing edge seemed very unstable, with poor torsional strength, and over the next few days it developed a very visible bow (see photo).
So it was all pinned down again, webbing added to the front of the trailing edge sheeting, and a 6mm x 4mm extra trailing edge fitted, which seemed to sort things out. 
My next concern was the fixing of the large wing tips, I was not happy with fixing them directly to the Depron ribs so I added some thin balsa sheet, and braces to make a much stronger assembly (see photo).
With all the components completed I did a dry assembly to check alignments etc. The next issue to come to light was the poor fit of the leading edge in the fuselage (see photo) which had me very puzzled as all the parts were laser cut!
Plus, the wing has a small under camber which was not reflected on the wing seat. When I build any model I always check the wing and tail incidences with a basic meter, on this occasion it showed the tail was set at a positive angle when compared to the wing! A few hours of filling, sanding, and reshaping resolved all of the above issues.
The rest of the build, covering, and gear installation was straightforward, but I still changed a few things. The instructions call for the ESC to be fitted outside of the fuselage, between the undercarriage legs, but I wanted it inside, which was easier said than done. All surfaces are top hinged, elevator control is via a closed loop, instead of a pushrod.
Finally, balancing the model at the recommended starting position of 25 mm behind the main spar took a huge amount of lead, however, the designers say their display models balance at 50% of the chord, this would need far less lead, but was not something I wanted to risk. As I said at the beginning of this drivel, I have now flown the model, and I am happy to report, it’s great, it needed no trim and I am very happy with the CG.
Thanks for that very comprehensive report 1066, I can happily agree that the Fusion flies brilliantly and performs exactly as a FunFly model should. Apparently 1066 thinks the Fusion is ugly so he calls his Fugly. I’m assured this is short for Flipping Ugly…
Last year Dougal Entendre smashed the nose of his Max Thrust Aggressor electric glider. I won’t embarrass him by going into details, let’s just say it involved a fast low pass and a large bush. Dougal ordered a replacement fuselage but kept the damaged one although it seemed unlikely he would ever need a spare back half of a fuselage, after all, who manages to break the back half but not damage the nose? Well it turns out that Dougal does! He appeared to have a radio problem and the Aggressor crashed again. It must have hit the ground with one wingtip as the nose was undamaged but the rear fuselage broke in half.
After a minor repair to the wingtip Dougal got out his saw and was able to graft the old fuselage rear end to the newer and undamaged nose. He’s made an excellent job of the repair and the Aggressor is flying beautifully again with no trim required.
Staying on the subject of repairs, I think Dwayne Pipe might struggle to repair his Gnat. The flight was going really well until Dwayne got disorientated after rolling out from a spell of inverted flight. Sadly I don’t think it’s going to buff out this time Dwayne!
Captain Slow has found a model that suits his flying style perfectly, a vintage Junior 60.
It was built by the late Chris P Bacon (Nigel Baker) and Captain Slow bought it when Nigel’s models were sold off following his passing in April last year. Captain Slow did some minor repairs to the tail and fitted his own receiver but everything else is as it came.
The Junior 60 has its origins back in 1946 when it was designed as a free-flight model by Albert Hatfull. This one was built from a Ben Buckle kit and is of course electric powered.
The model flew beautifully and slowly, which is exactly what Captain Slow wanted, and the only problem he had was getting it down, the Junior just wanted to float along forever!
Having recently sold me his XFly T-7A Red Hawk because it was a bit too much of a handful for him Woody has replaced it with an XFly F-22 Raptor. Hmm…
We advised against buying the Raptor but Woody reckoned it should be easier to fly than the Red Hawk because it has a larger wing area and a lower wing loading but the XFly specs say the Raptor has a smaller wing area and a higher wing loading. Another hmm…
The Raptor has a wingspan of 702mm and weighs around 950g with a 4 cell lipo. It’s powered by two 12 bladed 40mm fans each of which is run by a 1413 5000KV motor and has its own 20A speed controller. The gyro wasn’t operating in the correct direction so rather than mess around with the settings at the field the first three flights were done with the gyro switched off and they were all rather ‘interesting’ going away from a hand launch.
Once airborne the Raptor flew well, it just seems to need a fair heave to get it flying. Woody had sorted the gyro setting out by the next session and it was launched with the gyro set in the damping mode and it’s gone away from every launch with no further problems. I’m not sure that’s because the gyro is doing its stuff or the launchers have got better at throwing it. You can see the first launch in this month’s video and you’ll see that it was tricky but that the Raptor flies very nicely once it’s got a bit of speed.
As I mentioned earlier the annual Chuck Glider competition was held in July, ably run by Dwayne Pipe. Here’s Dwayne’s report: The annual chuck glider competition was held this month. Instead of our new flying field, we held it on the playing fields at Buriton as we didn’t want any chuck gliders to get carried away in the wind and end up in East Meon. 
In the event, the conditions were perfect, and we had nine people turn up and eight take part in the competitions. In the standard Chuck Glider category, it will come as no surprise to learn that Colin Cowplain won with a significant lead over everybody else. 
However, he may be losing his touch as his overall time of 56.1 seconds this year was considerably less than the 82.1 second, he won in last year. Second place was Dougal Entendre and MacFly came third. We also had the Catapult Glider competition as well and the results were completely different with Woody coming first and Tony Neil second. 
Everyone seemed to have a good time. I would recommend for next year that you get lots of practise in trimming your aircraft before you turn up on the night.
Thanks Dwayne, it was, as always, a good evening of fun and we all enjoyed it.
In the May Patch News I featured Gordon Bennett’s Fosdyke Flyer, a model that he bought when the club was auctioning off John Bourne’s models and equipment.
John is an extremely capable modeller who was a PAM member for many years but old age has caught up with him and his modelling days are sadly over. In May Gordon told us all about the work he’d done preparing the model for flight but he hadn’t flown it at the time.
However, on a nice calm day in July the Fosdyke lived up to its name and flew. And it flew very nicely too, just needing the thrust line adjusting as it climbed steeply at full throttle. 
Gordon has since added some downthrust and flown it again and, as you’ll see in the video, it performed beautifully. We need to see it flying circuits with Captain Slow’s Junior 60.
The last new model to feature this month is Mini-Mike’s lovely Arrows Hobby Avanti.
I have a suspicion that he likes the Arrows edf range and to date he has the Marlin, Hawk, Viper, Albatross, and now the Avanti. It’s another in the 50mm fan range and is very similar to the others, especially the Viper. I’ve always liked the look of the Avanti, it’s one of those designs that just looks right somehow. The Avanti comes with a pre-installed 2627 4500KV brushless motor spinning at 11 bladed 50mm fan. That is exactly the same motor and fan combination as the others but oddly the recommended battery is a 3 cell 1300-1600mAh rather than a 2200mAh that all the others use. Mike uses a 2200mAh anyway but it needs to be positioned a fair way back to get the correct centre of gravity.
The Avanti comes with a Vector 6-axis gyro and three 9g servos and it all simply screws together with the quoted assembly time being just thirty minutes. Mini-Mike reckons it’s really nice to fly, very smooth, and of course you can see it in this months’ video.
Dougal brought out his large Spad to fly when the weather improved at the end of the July.
I’ve featured it before so won’t bore you with too many details but it’s an ARTF Spad XIII made by Maxford USA, is 68” wingspan and weighs around 13lbs with 2 x 4 cell lipo packs.MacFly shot some lovely film of the flight and I think it’s worthy of its own video.
Unfortunately Kryten was busy this month and was unable to take any action shots for us. So I’ve taken some screenshots from the video which are of lower quality but hopefully ok.
Video time now this month with footage taken by myself, Dougal, and MacFly. Please watch the video full-screen, it’s so much better with small models flying around:
If the video won’t play for you please click HERE
A friend told me he wanted to start making scale models.
I said “be realistic…”
Colin Cowplain
Patch News – June 2024
At last, summer seems to have finally arrived…possibly. The first half of June really wasn’t summery at all with chilly winds and mostly overcast days. But things improved briefly in the second half of the month and we had some excellent flying weather for a few days.
When we arrived to fly on Friday 21st June we were greeted by Farmer George and a lot of sheep who seemed determined to go anywhere except where they were supposed to.
George explained that they were shearing the ewes so were separating them from their lambs, something neither the ewes or the lambs were happy about. Once shorn the ewes were returned to their lambs in ‘our’ field. It all made an entertaining start to the session!
Dougal has written to make a very important point about safety with our electric models:
Can I ask that people are careful to keep their appendages out of the way of the propeller whenever a plane has its main battery connected? This is especially an issue if the Tx doesn’t have a throttle kill switch. I’ve recently seen people holding their planes by the nose while the power system is “live”, and it only takes an accidental knock of the throttle stick for the thing to become a potent finger-chopper. Electric motors are even worse than IC in this respect, because:
1. They can burst into life unexpectedly.
2. Electric flight propellers are normally sharper than IC ones, and
3. IC motors sometimes stop once they’ve sliced enough flesh. Electric ones don’t.
This photo might make you think about the kind of situation we’re putting ourselves in:
As Dougal & I (Mark & Andy) are the club BMFA Examiners we have a responsibility to try to keep members safe but ultimately it’s down to individuals to do things correctly.
There have been a few incidents in the past when members have had unexpected motor starts, sometimes causing injuries, we should do our best to prevent any future issues. I admit to relying on the throttle kill switch too much and will change my habits in future.
I started off the month badly by writing off my Multiplex FunGlider! It’s had hundreds of flights over many years and has had its share of crashes but this was one crash too many. I’d love to say that something broke in the air, or the radio failed, but I must admit that it was pilot error. I’ve always known that the model would loop tightly but needed a lot more space to bunt (outside loop) so it’s something I’ve rarely done. But I had a bit of brain fade and decided to bunt at a fairly low level. When the model was heading vertically down I thought it wasn’t going to make it so I switched from full down elevator to full up elevator.
Big mistake! It wasn’t even close and hit the ground hard. This time is was past repairing so the radio and powertrain have been removed and the remainder retired to the bin.
In June two prospective new members come to fly with us, the first being John Sheehy.
John arrived on a push bike with a trailer for the model, I’m pretty sure that’s a PAM first!
The model was a small foamie, a ZOHD Drift which is an 877mm wingspan electric glider. 
The Drift can be bought in various configurations and John’s is the PNP version which comes with a Kopilot gyro and even a small FPV unit in the nose. The Kopilot gyro is interesting as it has GPS so as well as having the usual stabilisation the pilot can switch into Return to Home mode if the plane gets too far away. When activated the RTH function will steer the model back to the launch point at a height of 35 metres and when it has come back you simply switch back to stabilisation mode and carry on flying. John said he’d been flying the Drift OK with the stabilisation turned on but wanted to learn to fly with it turned off. So at our field I launched the Drift and John flew it with stabilisation on and he flew a couple of circuits with no problems. But then he switched stabilisation off and the Drift promptly dived into the ground. After a few minutes with a hot glue gun we tried again. This time John launched it and I flew the Drift with stabilisation turned off. 
The first few seconds were ‘interesting’ as the plane wanted to dive badly but once I’d trimmed it out it flew fine. I gave the transmitter back to John who flew it for a little while but eventually crashed with minor damage. I couldn’t make the next flying session but 1066 tells me that John flew a HobbyKing Bixler and both John and the Bixler flew well.
John has now completed three visits so is eligible for membership if he wishes to join.
The second prospective new member was Patrick Beagles who brought along a Durafly Tundra to fly, I think it’s the V2 version, the same as the one that Mini-Mike flies.
Patrick has done quite a lot of RC flying in the past but hasn’t flown for around fifteen years so is a bit on the rusty side. Dougal Entendre took Patrick under his wing and did the Tundra take-off and landings but Patrick handled the rest of the flying with no problems.
Our Chairman Gordon Bennett had a birthday in June and brought along cakes for us all. 
They were individual carrot cakes that had been lovingly made by his step-daughter and very nice they were too. It was good that Gordon did the decent thing by bringing cakes, unlike someone who gave broken promises of cakes in May, but I won’t mention 1066…
As I reported in Patch News last month Woody has sold me his XFly T-7A Red Hawk having found it a bit of a handful and deciding he needed something a little easier to fly.
He chose a Durafly Ugly Stick V2 from HobbyKing, something we all agreed was a good all-round choice and in June he had several successful and confidence building flights.
This is what the HobbyKing website says about it: The Durafly Ugly Stick V2 not only looks as good as the original but flies just as well too, perfectly capturing those excellent flight qualities of which the Ugly Stick was renowned. Being the well-mannered RC sports model it is, the Ugly Stick is suitable for both beginner and experienced flyers alike. At the lower end of the speed range, it exhibits no bad stall tendencies and can be flown comfortably at half throttle if desired. However, when you wish to experience its true flying capabilities, open the throttle wide and the Ugly Stick will oblige, performing a full range of sport aerobatic manoeuvres with the ease that made the original so popular. Due to the low current draw of the Ugly Stick V2 power system, you can also enjoy longer than average flying times with mixed power use.
In the video you’ll see me doing the trimming flight and then Woody enjoying it himself.
As well as assembling the Ugly Stick Woody has been busy re-painting his E-Flite F-15. 
He’s kept the original colour scheme but it was getting a bit tatty and faded so he’s given it a facelift and brightened it up. We all commented that it looked much better in the air, really standing out well. Note that I said ‘looked’ rather than ‘looks’. Unfortunately, a couple of weeks after making the F-15 look all pretty again it had a mid-air with MacFly’s Max Thrust Ruckus and neither model survived the head on collision, a great shame.
About the only good thing to come out of the collision was that the very expensive and posh new larger wheels with inflatable tyres that MacFly had only recently fitted to the Ruckus were undamaged. They worked very well on our grass patch but sadly proved to be utterly useless when arriving at the ground with one wing and half the nose missing!
To replace the wrecked Ruckus MacFly has bought a Volantex Saber, a 920mm span 3D aerobatic model. The Saber comes ready fitted with a 2212 1250KV motor, a 30A speed controller and four 9g servos. MacFly said the only problem he had putting it together was adding the decals which are very thin and proved to be extremely difficult to apply well.
It all looks good to me, I think he’s done an excellent job of them. The Saber comes with wheels and spats but MacFly chose not to fit the undercarriage and instead toughened up the underside of the fuselage with helicopter tape. Personally I think I would have fitted the undercarriage and wheels but left off the spats which are often a problem on grass.
MacFly asked me to do the initial trimming during which time I found the Saber to be an excellent flier before handing the transmitter over for MacFly to get to grips with it.
Young Leo has built himself a new model, a K&C Fleur-De-Lys. Never heard of it? Neither has anyone I have asked and I can’t find anything on the internet with that name.
Leo got the kit from Dwayne Pipe ,who got it from Fred Robinson, whose late father-in-law had owned it. Obviously it’s a very old kit and it was originally designed to be IC powered.
But Leo has made it electric by fitting it with the motor from his old Wot 4 along with an 80A speed controller. He’s using a four cell 5500mAh battery so the flights should be long. 
The model is 54” wingspan and has a fibreglass fuselage and veneered foam wings. Leo asked Dougal to do the first flight and, as you can see in this month’s video, all went well.
Father’s Day was in June, a day when we’re all spoilt rotten by our kids…possibly. To be fair my kids looked after me well and, amongst other things bought me a suitable beer! 
Have a Kite at this, the Eagle eyed amongst you will like it, I won’t Crow but I went into Raptors. Did that make you ‘Owl with laughter? Oh OK, make up your own jokes then…
We’ve had a few people asking about the masts that are close to our field, wondering if they cause any radio issues. The vast majority of us use 2.4GHz nowadays and none of us or the nearby MVSA (Meon Valley Soaring Association) have experienced any problems. Both myself and Dougal sometimes fly FPV (First Person View) which uses 5.8GHz to transmit video back to the goggles and we haven’t noticed any problems when being close to the masts but Dougal decided to do the ultimate test in and fly between them.
He had zero problems, no loss of signal at all so I think we’re safe to assume they’re never going to be a problem to us. I have to admit to being jealous, I wanted to do that first!
Captain Slow bought himself a new plane this month, a Maule M-7 which he bought from Banggood. He paid just £62 but was slightly miffed when he saw that they’d reduced the price by £10 a week or so later. Calm down Slow, it was cheap, you got a bargain anyway!
The Maule is another of the small foam RTF models that comes complete with transmitter. 
The plane is fitted with a 6-axis gyro which can be switched through three different modes from the transmitter. Like the similar models it also has a push button which with just a single press with make the Maule either loop or roll. It uses a single cell 500mAh lipo battery and about the only negative thing Captain Slow had to say about the Maule was that the stickers are extremely thin and delicate. The Maule flew well right from the start with gyro turned on and Slow has had several flights already and it experimenting with the various settings. I don’t think he’s pressed the aerobatic button yet…it might go quickly!
Some of you will know that I had a flight in a two Spitfire back in October 2020 although I rarely mention it…! Well in June my wife and I visited the Spitfire & Hurricane Memorial Museum at Manston Airport in Kent and I had a go on their Spitfire simulator.
I was well briefed before taking-off from Manston and I flew across London, overflew London City Airport, almost took out the London Eye and landed safely at Heathrow. Doreen filmed most of the ‘flight,’ here are some stills taken from the video:
The museum is small but worth a visit and entry is free, although donations are gratefully accepted. The simulator is great and costs £10 for a 10 minutes or £30 for 30 minutes. 
What I hadn’t realised is that on the other side of the car park is the RAF Manston History Museum. There is a small entry charge and the museum looked small from the car park. 
However once inside we found it was much bigger than we thought and is crammed full of loads of interesting aircraft and equipment and there were even more planes outside. 
Sadly we didn’t have time to do it justice, it’s definitely worth a visit if you’re over that way.
Quiz time now, what is this aircraft that I spotted at the RAF Manston History Museum?
Now for some of Kryten’s excellent action shots from June. The first two are Woody’s F-15 and MacFly’s Ruckus that were sadly both lost in a mid-air collision later in the month:
This month’s video has footage filmed by me, MacFly, and Dougal Entendre, thanks guys.
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 invention of the air friar:
Colin Cowplain
