Patch News – July 2025
July was a great month for the club with lots of good weather and great flying enjoyed by the members. As there was little rain the grass barely grew so we only needed to mow once in July. The sheep have gone for now as there’s not enough grass for them to eat.
As is usual for July, the annual Chuck Glider competition was run mid-month. You’ll find the Competition Secretary’s full report on the event a little later in this Patch News.
First up of the new models is Woody’s lovely foamboard Typhoon that he’s built using the plans from the RC.tohme.net site which you’ll find HERE. The website says to use Depron but Woody has built his from Hobbycraft foamboard, leaving the covering paper on.
Woody first fitted the Typhoon with a drone motor but the power seemed a bit marginal so after the first flight he swapped the motor to a Turnigy 2212/10. I don’t think the swap made a lot of difference really but it has enough power although certainly not excessive. 
The speed controller is 30A and Woody is using the usual 3 cell 2200mAh lipo packs.
Woody has finished his in the scheme of a specific RAF Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft, one that is painted in a D-Day commemorative livery. This aircraft, serial number ZJ913, is nicknamed “Moggy” due to the way the letters “FM-G” are arranged around the roundel, resembling “FMOG”. The livery is based on the Hawker Typhoon of 257 Squadron, coded FM-G, flown by Pilot Officer Denzel Jenkins on D-Day. Last year was the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings, and the aircraft was part of the RAF Typhoon Display Team.
Woody has made a cracking job of it and it looks great but, oddly for Woody, he hasn’t added any lights, surely a first?! The first flight was ‘interesting,’ Woody asked me to trim it out which I quickly did once it had gone away from the launch. All seemed fine for the next couple of minutes but then it lost radio contact and it dived left into the ground.
Woody had previously had a couple of unexplained crashes but had fitted the Typhoon with a different receiver so the transmitter became the prime suspect. The transmitter was a Multiplex Cockpit 7 that I’d sold Woody second-hand a good few years ago. I’ve looked through some old photos and found that I was using the transmitter at least fifteen years ago so it hasn’t done too badly. It still works but there’s obviously an intermittent problem, maybe just the aerial connection or similar. Anyway, Woody decided to bite the bullet and bought himself a new Radiomaster transmitter which is compatible with his Multiplex receivers (and various other brands) so after some repairs to the model we tried again. 
Woody has now flown various models using the Radiomaster with no radio troubles so it seems the transmitter was the problem. The Typhoon is now flying well and it looks great in the air. You can see it in this month’s video which includes Moggy diving into the deck!
In the May Patch News I reported that Dwayne Pipe had begun repairs of his Folland Gnat following some fairly severe crash damage and in July he brought it along to test fly.
He discovered that, despite his best efforts, the wing incidence wasn’t the same on both wings which resulted in a built-in left turn that was too much to be trimmed out.
Dwayne got the Gnat down safely twice without any damage so he’s now taken it back to the workshop for a bit of re-jigging. There’s a lot to be said for designing and building a model from scratch, it means almost anything can be fixed and got back in the air.
Next up is a Dougal Entendre’s Durafly Rare Bear Reno Racer that came from HobbyKing.
So, what is the model based on? Rare Bear is the nickname of a highly modified Grumman F8F Bearcat aircraft that has competed in the Reno Air Races, specifically in the Unlimited class. It’s known for its speed and has set many performance records for piston-driven aircraft, including the 3 km World Speed Record of 528.33 mph set August 21, 1989, which still stands in this class. Over many years of racing Rare Bear has been painted in various colour schemes including the gold and white livery that Dougal’s is finished in.
Here’s what HobbyKing say about the model: Do you feel the need for speed? Then this great-looking, extremely fast Rare Bear Reno Racer from Durafly is for you. It is supplied as a Plug-N-Fly model with minimal parts count, so assembly is quick and simple. There is no gluing required, just one screw holds the tail components in place, and 1 screw for the wing. Battery and radio access is via the large magnetically held canopy hatch, so radio installation and battery changes are very easy and straightforward. Durafly has captured this amazing turn of speed with their Rare Bear, on the stock 4S setup with the supplied 8×5 propeller, speeds of around 110mph are easily achievable. But the Rare Bear is not all about speed; slow it down, and it handles beautifully. The controls work well, right down to the very predictable stall, the Rare Bear is just a joy to fly with no nasty tendencies. Back to when flying at speed, on the stock 4S setup, it flies like it is on rails, and gives that locked-in feel while performing aerobatics, huge loops, and long, smooth knife-edge flight are just a breeze to carry out. 
The build quality and attention to detail are typical Durafly, it is just fantastic. The Rare Bear is a hand-launched model and belly lander, so underneath, the fuselage and the wingtips are reinforced with tough plastic to take the knocks and bangs. Additionally, glass fibre reinforcements are on all the control surfaces, which really stiffen them up to stop any flutter at high speeds, and the foam hinge line is reinforced with a clear flexible adhesive. The fuselage is also reinforced inside with glass fibre rods running along the length of each side for added strength. It has a solid plastic firewall, stiff pushrods with ball link connectors for positive control, and the scale mouldings include a dummy exhaust and radiator intake. This Plug-N-Fly model is supplied with a pre-installed 3536-1700KV brushless motor, a 60A Aerostar LITE brushless ESC, 4 x metal-geared 9g servos, and an 8×5 propeller. Once it is assembled, all you require is a 4ch or more transmitter and receiver, and a 4S (14.8V) 1800~2200mAh 40C minimum LiPo battery. 
Unfortunately, when Dougal first unboxed the model he found one of the aileron servos was faulty so he replaced it, but the first time he brought it to the field there was a problem with the replaced servo glitching so he couldn’t fly. Checking it out at home he found it was getting very hot so he’s now binned it and has fitted another from his stock. He got onto HobbyKing who sent two replacement servos but they were plastic geared ones, not metal, and the plane definitely needs metal geared servos. Once the servo saga was sorted I filmed the first attempt at flight which didn’t go quite to plan! Chas’s launch was fine but the Rare Bear torque rolled hard left and it cartwheeled right in front of me.
Amazingly there was no damage so Chas launched it again, this time with Dougal using less throttle. Although it rolled left again Dougal was prepared for it and the plane got away safely, and on subsequent flights Dougal has found that half throttle is the absolute maximum power when launching. Once safely away the performance is amazing, Dougal only uses full throttle for very short bursts as it’s so fast! He says it’s really nice to fly and doesn’t seem to have any nasty characteristics. The video includes the first launch and then some of the flying but it’s too fast for me to get much decent film of it.
As I mentioned earlier, July is Chuck Glider Competition time and our Competition Secretary Dwayne Pipe got everything arranged for the event to be held in the evening of 9th July at the Buriton playing fields. Here is Dwayne’s report: The annual chuck glider competition was held this month, and as usual in the middle of July the conditions were perfect. We had nine people turn up and all took 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. His consistent times are part of the key to his success as his overall time of 58 seconds this year was almost the same as his time last year of 56.1 seconds. Second place was won by 1066 who entered for the first time and had a creditable time of 38 seconds and Tony Neil came third.
We also had the Catapult glider competition as well, and for this the results were completely different. Dwayne Pipe came first with a time of 79.1 seconds, and Colin Cowplain second with a time of 53.4 seconds and Dougal Entendre third. 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 for the report and for arranging and running the comp Dwayne. I’ve added some brief clips of the flying to this month’s video, with the best flight I’ve included being one of mine (obviously!). I’ll add some photos of the evening to the Action Shots section below. It’s always a fun evening and everyone seems to enjoy it, including dog walkers etc who seem bemused by a bunch of (mostly) old men chasing little balsa wood toys around!
At the field one day 1066 mentioned that he’d spotted a Volantex Phoenix for sale on Facebook Marketplace and that it would be perfect for Woody who was looking for a replacement for his Max-Thrust Aggressor. After lots of persuasion by others Woody agreed to check it out and Captain Slow took him down to Portsmouth to take a look.
It turned out that the seller was a guy who had previously sold 1066 a model that had turned out to be a very good buy so he was known to be an honest, decent seller.
The model advertised was a Phoenix Evolution that has a wingspan of 1.6m but also comes with an additional centre section that can be fitted which takes the span up to 2.6m.
I have an older version Phoenix 1600 and can vouch for its excellent flying characteristics; it’s a reasonable glider but is also excellent for aerobatics. The Evolution has a slightly different wing shape to mine but looks to be basically the same model apart from having the extra wingspan available that would obviously increase its gliding capabilities greatly. 
Woody reckons the Phoenix has never been flown so with the seller asking just £65 for it, just needing a receiver and battery, it was a great deal. Dougal did the initial trimming while I filmed and the Phoenix flew perfectly, with Dougal saying it was really nice to fly. Woody quickly took the controls and was very happy with the way that it handled.
I haven’t had a chance to fly it myself yet but I doubt it’ll be very different to mine.
Dwayne Pipe has been building again, this time he’s built a Dancing Wings Piper J3 Cub from a kit given to him by 1066. Here’s Dwayne’s rather sad tale of how the building went: Dancing Wings advertise a 1.2 metre Piper J3 cub as a balsa construction kit. The price of between £80 to £90 on the face of it seems reasonable, and one of our illustrious members forked out and bought it. (It’s alright Dwayne, we know it was 1066!)
According to the blurb in the instruction manual: The Piper J3 cub was the most popular commercial aircraft of the 1930s? Barely 7 yards long and instantly recognisable in its yellow and black paint scheme, this nostalgic favourite became the foremost trainer of the era? Eventually training 80% of the United States military pilots by the end of World War 2. A new Cub was rolling off the assembly line nearly every 20 minutes and many of these beloved aeroplanes are still around today.
The quality of the wood was appalling, the instructions confusing and the kit seems to be designed by someone who has never actually flown the plane. On the positive side the laser cut parts fit together well. 1066 started to build it and realised it was going to be a challenge with no guaranteed success. So, he gave it to me, and two months later after a lot of frustration and redesigning large parts of it, the Piper cub is ready to fly.
The Dancing Wings model has a wingspan of 1200mm, a length of 725 mm and an alleged flying weight of 750g. Mine actually has an all-up weight of 1100g.
I fitted a 30A esc, a 1000kv motor and a 10×6 prop (now changed to a 9×6 prop).
Progress to date. It refused to take-off from the ground due to severe ground looping.
A hand launch showed that the control surface deflections in the instructions are far too high and the planes first flight lasted about ten seconds with moderate damage.
Repairs have been made, larger wheels fitted, a new smaller prop installed.
The challenge continues.
The moral of this story is don’t buy a Dancing wings kit unless you have a lot of experience building balsa planes and unlimited patience. Thanks for the report Dwayne, it’s a great shame the quality of the kit was so bad and that so far it hasn’t flown properly.
I filmed the first three attempts at flight so far, you can see them in this month’s video. Since then Dwayne has had a couple more attempts and is gradually getting the problems sorted but at the time of writing the Cub still has some way to go before flying properly.
This month the action shots were taken during the annual chuck glider competition.
Video time now, this month with footage shot by me, MacFly, and Dougal Entendre. Please watch the video full-screen, it’s so much better with small models flying around. If the video won’t play for you please click HERE
Final Funny: Two hunters from Ireland were on holiday in Canada and they hired a pilot to fly them to hunt moose. Over the next couple of days they bagged six between them. As they started loading the plane for the return trip home, the pilot tells them the plane can take only three moose. The two men objected strongly, saying “Last year we shot six moose and the pilot let us put them all on board and he had the same plane as yours.” Reluctantly, the pilot gave in and all six were loaded. Unfortunately, even on full power, the little plane couldn’t handle the load and went down a few minutes after take off. Climbing out of the wreckage, Paddy asked Mick “Have you any idea where we are?” Mick replied, “I think we’re pretty close to where we crashed last year.”
Colin Cowplain
Patch News – June 2025
Well that’s summer over then, the nights are drawing in and it’s time to start looking for your winter build projects… just kidding! We had some lovely weather in June, including two heatwaves when for we all moaned that it was too hot. The sunshine brought out lots of club members and we enjoyed plenty of flying. There were several days with strong winds, but with very little rain the grass barely grew and mowing was rarely required.
The bullocks have disappeared (to Sainsburys Taste the Difference I believe!) but several hundred sheep came and went a few times throughout June and left plenty of ‘presents’.
We also saw the farmers doing educational trips for school children, bringing them up to the field in a trailer towed by a tractor. We didn’t have trips like that when I was at school!
With good weather in June a few new models appeared at the patch. First up was Catapult King who brought along two new models, one being a ready to fly ‘toy’, a Sky Viper Vector.
The Vector is the same as both Woody and Captain Slow got for Christmas and Woody has successfully flown his several times, but Captain Slow hasn’t rushed into flying his yet. It was a windy day when Catapult King flew his Viper but it handled the conditions well.
In the video you’ll see a big difference between the upwind and downwind speeds.
The second model that Catapult brought is much more interesting, it is a copy of an E-flite Pulse that he’s built from balsa, unlike an earlier Pulse copy that he’d built from Depron!
I asked Catapult for a few details: Amazingly this plane came in 200g lighter than the foam version so I used all the electrics from the old one. Good old HK900 servos for all control surfaces, Turnigy 4s 2650 battery, PropDrive 3530 900kv motor, HK 40amp ESC and a 10×6 APC prop (I think if all goes well this could go up to an 11×8).
Catapult has made a lovely job of the model, and the quality of the covering, which is HobbyKing film, is amazing. He asked Dougal Entendre to do the maiden flight and this is what Dougal says about it: It took off OK, and was fine once I’d got sufficient down trim in. However, I commented that it looked like the wing was flexing a bit, and it seemed to have more dihedral than when it took off! It also dug in on a couple of turns, so I refrained from doing any aerobatics and got it down fairly sharpish.
I asked Catapult if he’d found and cured the problem, this is his reply: I had had my concerns about the flex in the wing joints but stayed with it as I thought the dihedral looked more pleasing. However, as Dougal says one gust on the day and it was obvious they were not going to hold very long. It was just as well he landed as on inspecting the wings the original carbon tube had actually split inside the fuselage area. To fix this I cut an old aluminium arrow in half, filed a ‘V’ shape in one end, and then with one end in a drill and the other being guided by the carbon tube (and with a lot of trepidation) I literally drilled the arrow into the wing about three quarters of the way. Unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures. The wing itself though feels very solid.
The next part was the join in the fuselage. I filled the old angled tubes with epoxy (let it cure) and then drilled a new hole directly through the original openings. Finding a carbon rod which fitted the inside of the arrows I then drilled out the original carbon tube from inside the arrows with the longest drill I had, even more scary than before. This goes about as far as the second rib in each wing. Refitting the wings already feels much better than before, but I still need to rework the first rib in each wing from angled to flat against the fuse. Then I think we’ll be ready for a proper test flight. Watch this space. Sadly nobody filmed the test flight so we’ll have to wait for test flight number two.
Not content with putting together his HobbyKing Voltigeur last month, 1066 has also started building another one to add to his collection: Having stumbled across a build video of the Angelwing Blink V2 I decided to take a look at the Angelwing website.
The Blink looked like an interesting and easy build, and for £60 delivered was not so expensive, so after putting one in my basket I ummed and ahhed for a couple of weeks before hitting the buy button. The kit arrived a couple of days later, wow the boxes seem to get smaller and smaller! For £60.00 you don’t get a lot, not even a plan or instructions, these have to be downloaded as a PDF, however they are really good, I’m assuming they are taken from the CAD drawings used in the design process.
What you do get is a bunch of laser cut sheets of balsa, and a bag of 3D printed parts which includes the motor mount, wing tips, finger holds, rear hatch support, plus a couple of bits I’m not sure about yet. The laser cutting is some of the best I’ve seen, with some of the parts falling from the sheets just taking them out of the box. However when I started building there was one sheet where the laser hadn’t quite penetrated so a knife was required and I did break a few bits on the grain, mainly at the leading edge.
Now I don’t know about you lot, but my old lady is always nagging me about not reading instructions, so why break the habit of a lifetime, besides, I had looked at all the lovely pictures! When I build this sort of kit I like to remove all the parts from their respective sheets first, OK so far, but what I hadn’t noticed was that all the spar components have built in sacrificial jigging so, anyone like to guess how many jigging parts had to be rescued from the bin and be stuck back on, before I realised my mistake?
The accuracy of the laser cutting, and the self-jigging design means the model goes together very quickly, I opted to use wood glue in all the slots, backed up with dots of super glue to act as pins while the wood glue dries. Having dry assembled 75% of the wing to check it went together before committing to glue it became very apparent this was a very stable structure, so if I had some very thin glue available, I would have probably slotted it all together dry, then run the glue in. My thoughts so far, well the quality is fantastic, but the model is quite a bit smaller than I thought, so is it good value? So far I think it is, even if I could cut balsa to the accuracy the laser can, it would take days, and it’s very obvious the manufacturer has put a lot of effort into the design.
Let’s hope it fly’s as well as it is going together. Thanks 1066, looking forward to it flying.
Dwayne Pipe will be running the club Annual Chuck Glider Competition at 7.30pm on Wednesday 9th July. It will be held at the Buriton playing fields rather than our patch as it will hopefully be less windy and won’t involve a half mile retrieval after every flight! Dwayne has set an alternative date of 16th July if the weather is bad but I can’t make the 16th so I say we’re having the comp on the 9th even if it’s pouring with rain and blowing a gale! There will be two classes, normal chuck glider, and catapult launched glider, with the catapult being provided by Dwayne. It’s always a fun evening so come along and join in.
1066 has never taken part in the chuck glider comp but this year he’s got one on the building board and says he intends to be there and win the trophy. He even sent me a photo of the kit he’s building so we know exactly what we’ll be up against.
Dougal Entendre has been busy getting a Sportster that was a second-hand purchase ready for flight, here’s his report: Back when we had the club auction for John Bourne’s planes, there were no takers for his large Sportster. The airframe had to go somewhere, so I paid the club a tenner and had it decorating the ceiling in my hangar.
A few weeks ago I added a motor and ESC, and took it to the patch. 1066 said that I was unlikely to get my usual adrenaline fix from it, but it turned out to be quite eventful!
To backtrack; it’s a 1936 design from Model Aircraft News, about 73″ span, and the plan is available on Outerzone. It was beautifully built and covered in what I think is Solartex, with just rudder and elevator controls. It’s got John Bourne’s phone number on it from before it changed to an 01 dialling code, so that dates the airframe to before 1995!
I added a 5055 400kV motor, 80A ESC and a 13 inch prop, with a 6s 5000mAh pack from my Velox. On take-off, it was immediately apparent that it had plenty of power, but needed nearly full down trim. The rudder was powerful, but the plane had a tendency to wallow from side to side, which can be seen in the video. I think it’s due to all the dihedral and the short moment arm. After 5 minutes I landed, flipping it over in the wind, but no damage. Remaining battery capacity: 85%!
After winding in a load of down elevator I flew it again. After a minute or two I dared to try a loop, but got very violent tail flutter as it pulled out. I throttled back quickly and found I had no elevator control. I turned round using rudder and braced for disaster, but in the event it landed downwind about half way across the field, and didn’t even flip over! On inspecting the damage, I found the elevator control horn had broken off, and the violent flutter had broken the tailplane in the middle (the Solartex held it together well enough for the landing!). I’m not sure what to do now. I could strengthen the tail and move the elevator servo down to the back of the fuselage to eliminate pushrod flex.
It would still have the wallowy flying characteristic though, so it’s returned to being a hangar queen for now. But at least it flew! Thanks for that Dougal, I rather like it, an ideal model for a calm summer’s day. It’s bound to Dutch roll (wallow) with all that dihedral, not much you can do about that without changing the dihedral but then the Sportster would lose part of it’s charm. I can’t help thinking that six cells provide way too much power, surely it would be fine on four cells, then being lighter and slower maybe there would be less wallowing? Take a look at the video and see for yourselves how it performs.
The last new model that flew this month was mine, an FMS Futura. I wasn’t looking a for a new model, like many of us I already have too many, but I spotted the Futura on the AliExpress site for just £109.93 with free delivery and it was simply too cheap to resist. 
While I was waiting for mine to be delivered the price dropped and on 25th June the price was just £92.15 but the following day it had gone up to £115.46 so keep your eye on it!
The Futura design has been around for quite a while and there are many versions from enormous turbine powered ones down to small EDF foamies. Mine has a wingspan of 900mm, is fitted with a 64mm fan and runs on four cells. This is what FMS say about it: The FMS Futura is a licensed sport jet developed by FMS in conjunction with Tomahawk-Aviation. Designed by a Sino-German team of engineers, the Futura represents the pinnacle of what a foam jet can be. Futura is definitely a pleasant surprise for those who struggle to choose between speed and stunts. It has high speed, high maneuverability, and excellent handling performance, satisfying players’ needs to experience various flying modes such as free flying, simulation competitions, and stunt flying.
The power system is composed of a high-torque 2840-KV3150 brushless motor, a high-stability 40A ESC, and a 4S 2200mAh-2600mAh battery (to be purchased separately), which is paired with 8pcs high-precision 9g servos mounted on the wings, tail, and front steering position, allowing players to easily experience various control techniques and enjoy the pleasure of high-speed flight. In addition, the wings and tail of Futura have been pre-embedded with reinforced ribbons, and the cockpit is firmly fixed in place with buckle, which allows players to perform aggressive turns, rolls, and flips without any concerns. The CNC all-metal landing gear with trailing-link suspension is highly precise and robust, protecting the plane against rough landings. I placed the order on 26th May and it arrived on 23rd June, a week earlier than the date quoted, and it was in a sturdy box and was undamaged. Construction was simple, the parts simply screw together, no gluing required, then add your own receiver and battery. The ailerons, elevators, flaps, and rudder/steerable noseleg are all fitted with Y leads so only five channels are required. 
Interestingly the speed controller has an extra signal lead which enables you to have switched reverse thrust but as I am using a five channel receiver I don’t have a spare channel to try it. Presumably you’d only use reverse thrust after landing to slow the model on the ground, or maybe when taxiing, neither of which are relevant on our grass patch. The instructions warn not to engage reverse thrust at more than 50% throttle as it could damage the ESC so it wouldn’t be much use for crazy aerobatic antics!
As usual I took some photos of the model before the first flight but then I made the mistake of handing my mobile to Gordon Bennett for him to take a photo of me holding the plane. That’s very childish Gordon (well done!) and his accomplice Woody is no better!
With the photos taken, the first flight was uneventful, using half flap the Futura took-off from the grass with no problems and then flew beautifully. The power set-up provides plenty of thrust and all the usual manoeuvres are possible. I landed using half flap and the Futura came in nicely and landed gently, no doubt helped by the sprung oleo legs.
At the time of writing I’ve had three flights with no problems and I’m gradually getting used it’s characteristics. You can of course see some of the flying in this month’s video.
This month the ‘action shots’ aren’t action shots at all (my blog, my rules!):
I’m not sure if I’ve ever mentioned it (!) but back in October 2020 I was fortunate enough to have a flight in a two seat Spitfire from Solent Airport Daedalus, courtesy of my son. 
For some strange reason some club members seem to think I mention it far too much, and at the end of June Woody bought me a present in the hope that it’ll finally shut me up!
A T-shirt with all the correct aircraft markings! Thanks Woody… but it won’t shut me up!
Video time now, this month with footage shot by me, MacFly, Dougal, and Dot Cottam.
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
Final Funny:
No joke this month but I saw this and it made me chuckle
Colin Cowplain
Patch News – May 2025
I was away for the last week of April and much of May so I missed most of what was going on at the patch. Fortunately both MacFly and Dougal Entendre took lots of photos and video as well as keeping me informed of the various events that I missed, thank you both.
The May weather was very mixed, at the start of the month the unusual easterly winds carried over from April, then there was a spell of glorious sunshine with light winds, and then more normal windy and showery weather returned towards the end of the month.
As there’s been little rain the grass hasn’t grown much but the dandelions have flourished! The last Sunday of May was unflyable due to strong winds, but Woody went along and mowed the patch all by himself, that’s a lot of mowing for one person, Woody you’re a star!
On 25th April, just before I went away, Dot (Simon Cottam) took and passed his BMFA ‘A’ test. Dot has recently joined PAM and returned to flying after a break of around fifteen years, and had in fact passed the test previously, but BMFA were unable find it in their records. Of course things have changed a lot in fifteen years with all the new regulations so Dot was keen to take the test again and make sure he was up to date with everything.
Having watched him flying since he joined us it was clear that Dot is a very capable flier and he sailed through the test with no problems at all, easily the best candidate that I’ve taken. Well done Dot, now it’s time to start practising for your ‘B’ test!
Another event that occurred on the same day was sadly not so good but it did cause a lot of evil laughter amongst all those present. Gordon’s Freewing Grumman Panther has had a rather short and chequered history up to now. It’s proved to be tricky to get away from a hand-launch and has been damaged a couple of times when it’s failed make it, although once up to speed and safely away it flies beautifully. Like all EDFs, with no propwash over surfaces, the pilot has little control until the speed builds up, and that takes a few seconds. 
Gordon has been toying with the idea of borrowing Dwayne Pipe’s launch ramp and bungee but, having repaired the damage from the previous failure but not added a bungee hook, he decided to try one more hand-launch. He also decided to hand me the transmitter and do the launching himself. There was a nice breeze blowing so a hand-launch should surely be alright, what could possibly go wrong?! Gordon gave it a perfect throw, nice and level, directly into wind, and the Panther sank very low to the ground, slowly gathering flying speed, straight as a die, and just starting to climb when…it met the fence box! 
Fortunately (I think?) it hit the box straight on, not with one wing, so the damage wasn’t as bad as it could have been and hopefully Gordon will soon have it back in one piece, and I’m guessing, with a shiny new bungee hook ready to be launched from Dwayne’s ramp.
Thinking of Dwayne Pipe, when I returned from my travels I heard that Dwayne has been unwell. I wrote to wish him well and in his reply he included this: You may remember I spectacularly disassembled my Folland Gnat in April. I have used the last month to rebuild most of it. I hope to get it up to the patch soon. Regards to all the midweek flyers.
We’re all looking forward to seeing you back at the field and flying again soon Dwayne.
Oh, and by the way, Gordon says please can he borrow your launch ramp?!
Also at the end of April a rather unusual event occurred, Dougal Entendre crashed!
Here’s what he says about it: I had a bad day. 2nd flight of the Edge, I tried to enter a knife-edge spin, but it went wrong and I ended up in a fast spin. When I tried to pull out it didn’t seem to respond, and it went in hard, about 3/4 of the way to the car park.
There was a puff of smoke, so I legged it over to the wreckage, most of which was about 3 feet away from the burning batteries and ESC. The cells went off one after the other, and each time one went, it shot out flames about a foot long. I stayed with it until all the flames had subsided and I was sure the grass wasn’t going to catch light.
I then returned with my phone to take pictures of the burnt mess, and used the shovel to dig up the motor and charred remains of the ESC. The servos and Rx are OK, but everything else is a write-off. Fortunately I have an untouched kit for another one!
That’s a great shame Dougal but we look forward to seeing the next one when it emerges.
The first new model to feature this month is Mini Mike’s Soar Ahead Sailplanes Blob.
The Blob is a 40” span model that was originally designed as a slope soarer but was then made available as I/C powered and now electric. SAS ceased trading a long time ago but the designs are now kitted by NJR Modelling where the I/C or Electric Blob costs £86.99.
Mini Mike says the kit was a little strange to build as you have to build the fuselage onto the wing rather than slide the wing into the pre-built fuselage as you would normally. This resulted in Mike’s having a slightly bent rear fuselage, not that’s it’s noticeable.
Mini Mike has fitted his with an Overlander 3536/05 1500Kv motor and an Overlander 50A speed controller. He’s using a 9×6 propeller and the new Shorty 2200mAh 3 cell 50C lipos from HobbyKing. He says they are lighter than the standard size ones and get the centre of gravity closer to the correct position. Mike has used JX metal geared servos and there are only two so the Blob must just use one centre mounted servo for the ailerons.
The covering is Ripmax Aero heat-shrink film and very smart it looks too. So, now for the all-important question, how does it fly? I haven’t seen it fly myself yet but, as you will see in this month’s video, it looks to be excellent, fast and smooth, nice one Mike.
The Popham Model Show took place on the weekend of May 10th and 11th. Sadly I missed the show this year as I was away but several members went and reported it was excellent, with great weather and more trade stands than last year. Dougal Entendre took lots of photos for us, including one of some pilots, I have no idea why he concentrated on these!
I’ll include some more of Dougal’s Popham photos towards the end of this Patch News. Dougal splashed out and left the show with a model, here’s his report: I picked up a Wasp E2K racer in the bring-and-buy at Popham, just like 1066’s red one, but this one’s blue.
I only paid £50 for it, fully equipped (bind-and-fly), so it was too good to miss.
The drawbacks were relatively minor: a slight crack in one fuselage side near the LE, which had been well repaired, and the Rx was Spektrum! Also there’s no battery hatch, so it’s a case of removing the wing to change the battery, but it’s only one bolt.
I added a stripe and decal to the wings, as I didn’t fancy my chances of retaining orientation with a plain light blue model! I bought a couple of Nihewo LiPos for it, 4s 2200mAh 100C, currently £47.49 for two on Amazon. I then bound my Radiomaster Tx to the Rx, set up quite small throws (as recommended by the seller), and was ready to go.
I went off with about 3/4 throttle to avoid torque issues. 1066 launched it and it climbed away rapidly, with only a little aileron trim required. Once I’d gained some confidence I opened up the throttle and listened to it whistle! No issues with the AR6210 Rx – it covered a lot of sky without any problem. It’s a big grin model for remarkably little cost.
The motor is an Overlander T3536/05, 1500kV, with an 8 x 6.5 prop. The ESC is a Red Brick, but it’s glued in (what kind of psychopath does that?!) and I can’t read the label. 
My first flight was 5 minutes, but I only had 10% left in the pack, so I dialled it down to 3 and a half minutes for the second flight, and came down with 33%.
Thanks for that Dougal, the Wasp certainly looks good, and fast flying in the video.
Another new model that flew in May was 1066’s Voltigeur. This is the second Voltigeur that’s been owned by a PAM member, the first one being Cream Egg, but I’m not sure that one is still flying, I seem to remember he had a rather ‘abrupt arrival’ a while back! I’m sure that won’t happen with 1066, he’s much more experienced with aerobatic machines.
1066 bought his Voltigeur secondhand on Facebook Marketplace for just £125, a real bargain as the current new price is over £200. The plane was still in it’s box and 1066 thinks it has never flown. It was a case of being in the right place at the right time as the seller was within walking distance of where 1066 happened to be when he spotted the ad. The Voltigeur is a 1220mm wingspan EPO moulded 3D model from HobbyKing who say this about it: The Voltigeur is a well-known performer and we’ve just taken it to the next level. Flying the Voltigeur is a dream, using the recommended 3S Lipo battery for aerobatics and sports flying it handles like a trainer, docile, and extremely predictable. 
Everything from rolling circles, waterfalls, inverted harriers, and blenders, nothing will stop the Voltigeur. We have improved the drive train to provide even more power (1900g thrust), better efficiency, and cooler running with a 5% lower temperature). To help with the extremes of 3D flying the servo arms have been beefed up and the landing gear has been improved with carbon fiber legs. No more applying stickers as they are factory-fitted too. There is even a bigger, better ESC access hole for more airflow.
Want even more power? Then fit a 4S battery. You will notice straight away the extra speed and power, you’ll be able to use that extra power and quicker throttle response during your maneuvers. This added power will make your pop tops, rifle rolls, and all the extreme 3D moves that much more aggressive, ideal for experienced 3D pilots.
The Voltigeur is a true aerobatic performer and an extreme 3D flying machine. Construction is from lightweight EPO foam and features large control surfaces coupled with masses of power. Perfectly balanced with a mid-mounted full symmetrical wing, large battery compartment, composite glass fiber wing tube, metal gear high-speed servos all around, and all electronics pre-installed. Orientation is not a problem with the highly visible and unique color scheme. The HobbyKing info above is for the Mk2 version and 1066’s is presumably the Mk1 version. He is currently using a three cell lipo which seems to be enough judging by how the Voltigeur is performing in the video, it looks good.
Returning home from St Kitts we walked out and boarded the plane in bright sunshine but then, as we taxied out, the heavens opened and the rain was torrential as we took-off.
The first leg of the journey is just a short twenty minute hop to Antigua where we landed in sunshine. All the passengers stayed aboard while lots more got on, and the Boeing 777 was fuelled for the Gatwick flight. While we were on the ground I was able to visit the cockpit and was chatting to the crew when two British Airways maintenance guys turned up.
The Captain explained that the windscreen wiper on his side was rubbish and he couldn’t see a thing when we took-off but fortunately the Co-Pilot could! They then wound open the cockpit side window and a maintenance guy hung out of it and changed the wiper blade.
The Captain said if they had waited to change it at Gatwick if would have involved a cherry picker, a mountain of paperwork, and a delay! When they’d finished the Captain told me “Boeing made a great aircraft but they used windscreen wipers from an old Ford Fiesta!”
I was back home in time to test fly the last new model to fly in May, Woody’s XFly Glastar.
The 1233mm wingspan Glastar is a smaller version of the 1500mm span Tasman and other than the size they look identical, although the Tasman has flaps but the Glastar doesn’t. 
Both Bob the Builder and John Warren fly Tasmans and they appear to be excellent models. Woody’s Glastar is an attractive little model and it proved to be a delight to fly, no problems at all and I soon handed the transmitter over to Woody to enjoy it for himself.
It seems like an ideal model for our field with its large wheels and totally benign handling.
You can see how it flew on it’s very first flight in this month’s video.
Instead of the usual ‘action’ shots here are some of Dougal’s pics from the Popham Show:
Video time now, this month with footage shot by MacFly, and Dougal Entendre.
Please watch the video full-screen, it’s so much better with small models flying around:
If the video won’t play for you please click HERE
Final Funny:
When a British Airways Boeing 737 touched down at Frankfurt airport the Air Traffic Controller was obviously in a bit of a frivolous mood and he transmitted:
“Speedbird 123. Nice landing Captain, but a little left of the centre-line I think.”
Quick as a flash, the BA Captain replied in a cool, suave English accent:
“Roger Frankfurt Tower. Perfectly correct. I am a little to the left of the centre-line. And my co-pilot is a little to the right of it.”
Colin Cowplain
Patch News – April 2025
This month’s Patch News will only include events of the first three weeks of April as I was away for the last week. But there’s lots to talk about, some flying and some non-flying.
The month began with gloriously sunny but windy weather, exactly as March had ended, and it seemed to continue for ages. The strong wind was from the east so it was perfect for the MVSA slope soarers and they were flying at the same time as us on several occasions.
But of course the wind was also in the right direction for the Sky Surfers with their paragliders and hang gliders. Fortunately, most of the time the wind was too strong for them, especially the paragliders, so we didn’t have to stop flying too many times. As I said last month, they seem to stand around a lot, threatening to fly, often with their wing inflated, but not actually take flight. I can see their point, if we take a chance and fly in unsuitable winds, we might break a model but the only thing that gets hurt is our pride.
A bigger problem was the herd of bullocks in the field which was a much larger herd than we are used to. They had slightly damaged the electric fence once in March and, having repaired it and watched them touch it and back away, we thought our troubles were over.
But in April they trampled over the fence several times. We changed the wire to a different type but it made no difference, they still wrecked it. There was lots of discussion about the reason, was the cause the old batteries or was the energiser reaching the end of its useful life? We couldn’t be sure so, after the fifth time of arriving to find the fence down and damaged again, the decision was made to replace the batteries, earth rod, and energiser.
These were quickly purchased and on April 12th four of us installed all the new gear.
We were treated to a glorious sunset as we finished the work. By then the bullocks had been moved on to fresh pastures, but when we flew on the 20th a different batch were in the field and the fence was untouched so it seems the new gear has done the trick…hooray!
Last month’s blog went live on 1st April so I felt obliged to include an April Fools piece. But almost nobody seemed to spot it, the only ones who mentioned it were 1066 and Page Boy. So what was it? There was a photo that I said was taken from the video with the comment that Page Boy and Mini Mike’s Avantis had flown towards each other and had a near miss. 
But if you watched the video you would have seen that the two Avantis were never even in the air at the same time, let alone close. Also, in the write-up I said ‘it must have been Mini Mike’s fault as he was feeling a bit under the weather at the time…poorly lad, as if.’
Well ‘poorly lad as if’ is an anagram of April Fools Day. Mini Mike told Page Boy that he didn’t remember the near miss so Page Boy explained it to him! 1066 posted a comment on the blog about it being foolish to not fly circuits but nobody picked up on that either!
Lots of new models turned up to fly in April, especially when the strong easterly winds had been replaced by more favourable conditions. First up was Mini Mike’s new Electro Streak. 
Mike has had a series of Electro Streaks over the years, going right back to the original early balsa ones but this one is an all-foam creation by E-flite which can use either three or four cells. On its first outing he flew it on a three cell lipo pack and it went well but Mini Mike decided he could do better, so for the next outing he switched up to a four cell pack.
It certainly shifts around the sky when flat out and I didn’t bother trying to film it, but you can see how it went on the rather cautious first flight on three cells in this month’s video.
Dougal Entendre retired his ancient Slick last month after the much weakened undercarriage parted company with the fuselage yet again. Dougal said there was nothing left to glue it back to in the lightly constructed fuselage, so after years of faithful service it’s flown it’s last. But some time ago Woody had sold an Edge 540T to Dougal when he decided it was too much of a handful, and Dougal had just lost his own identical Edge in a midair collision. So in April Dougal brought the Edge out of retirement to fly again.
The Edge is one of a now discontinued range produced by HobbyKing that was made of a lite-ply skeleton covered in EPP foam so the model is very light for its 1430mm span.
The motor is a Turnigy Aerodrive 4250 500kV which is coupled to an 80A speed controller. Amazingly the 14” propeller on Dougal’s previous Edge had survived the midair collision and he is using it on this one. He mostly flies it with a five cell 3000mAh pack but he only has two of those so if he wants a third flight he uses a Y-lead to put two three cell 2200mAh packs in series (equivalent to a 6 cell 2200mAh pack) and says there seems to be no difference in performance. You can watch the performance in this month’s video.
Some of you will have seen Norwegian Nick’s E-Shark at the club EGM in late February. At the time it had not been flown and April was the first opportunity Nick has had to try it.
As usual Nick had made a lovely job of the building and covering. The plan for the E-Shark is available from Sarik Hobbies and this is what their website says: This is a simple sports or slope (using a folding prop) 41 in. span model design by Graham Dorschell built up from 5mm Depron using the ‘folding wing’ method, with some balsa and Correx board and using basic tools with two 9g servos for delta mix. With just a few parts to cut it turns into a quick model to fly with a 35mm 1500KV brushless motor, 60 Amp ESC, 8″ x 6″ prop and a 3S 2200-3000 mAh LiPo. It sounds good to me, a simple, cheap, small model to chuck in the car for flying at any opportunity, what could possibly go wrong? 
Unfortunately, quite a lot as it turned out. I was flying so I missed what happened on it’s maiden flight, I just saw it going away from the launch but that was all. The next thing I knew was that it had come down somewhere in the distance and Nick had gone off to retrieve it. Sadly the E-Shark had literally crashed and burned and eventually Nick returned with some very charred remains. I’ve no idea what caused the crash but the battery obviously got damaged in the impact and destroyed the rest of it, a great shame.
It’s extremely rare for that to happen but it’s a possibility that we all need to be aware of.
Time to move on to happier things now. Having been to the field several times, asked lots of questions, and done loads of research, new member Terry splashed the cash on what seems to be an ideal set of equipment for someone with zero knowledge of model flying.
He bought a HobbyZone AeroScout trainer, a Spektrum NX7e+ transmitter, five Turnigy three cell 2200mAh batteries from HobbyKing, and an Overlander VSRmini+ charger.
Here’s what the Wheelspin Models site says about the plane: The HobbyZone® AeroScout™ S 2 1.1m makes learning to fly an RC (radio controlled) airplane more fun and easier than ever before! It’s the perfect trainer because it’s very durable and is equipped with exclusive SAFE® (Sensor Assisted Flight Envelope) technology that helps to prevent overcontrol, loss of orientation and crashes so nearly everyone can learn to fly successfully. It also features Beginner, Intermediate and Experienced flight modes so you can choose the level of stability and control you need at the flip of a switch. The “pusher” power configuration and EPO construction make it more durable than other similar class models. Tricycle landing gear with oversized tires and a steerable nose wheel makes it easy to take off from and land on a wide variety of surfaces from pavement to grass, or you can install the optional floats (sold separately) to fly from ponds and lakes! 
Terry was very lucky as for the first couple of sessions he flew the conditions were near perfect with light winds. The AeroScout proved to be ideal for Terry and after just a few minutes in Beginner mode Terry was happily flying in Intermediate mode which gives more control but doesn’t allow the pilot to over control and inadvertently get upside down.
On only his third flight he took off with no problems and by around flight number seven he was landing safely. On his third flying session there was a strong wind blowing which made Terry realise that it’s not always quite so easy but he coped well and I’m sure he’ll quickly reach the BMFA ‘A’ certificate standard. Some of Terry’s flying is in the video.
When Bob the Builder decided he had too many models a while back he sold his Tiger Moth to Gordon Bennett. Bob had built the Tiger from a HobbyKing laser cut kit back in 2016 and made a beautiful job of it. The Tiger had it’s first flight in September that year.
Bob finished it in the colour scheme of the one Ralph Hubbard landed in our field twice but who was sadly killed doing the Cresta Run in Switzerland in 2017 at the age of 72!
New owner Gordon has now had several flights with the Tiger Moth and is gradually getting used to flying a fairly draggy biplane,. He has been making a few adjustments to get it flying as he likes but overall it’s a lovely model that flies well as you’ll see in the video.
Last month 1066 decided to sort out his battery packs as, like most of us, he had quite a few that weren’t up to the job of providing decent power for a reasonable time. He spends a lot of his spare time making stuff out of gash wood, pallets, old furniture etc. so, having discarded the duff batteries, he set about making a storage unit for the remaining ones.
It seems he still has over seventy packs! That’s very neat 1066, are you taking orders?
While he was clearing out his batteries 1066 also cleared out a model. Having finished his new kit-built Mirus 1066 donated his old Mirus look-a-like airframe to Woody.
Woody has fitted an Airtek Excell 3536 1400KV motor along with a Hobbywing speed controller, and is using the folding prop that survived when he crashed his Aggessor.
He has made a new cowl from two plastic cups which I notice has a sexy see-through look!
With the rates reduced, and flying it on three cells instead of four, the Mirus is much less of a hooligan machine and seems to suit Woody well. Guess where you can see it in action!
This month the rather poor quality action photos are all taken from the video.
Sorry Dougal but I couldn’t resist including your Sport Jet landing ‘incident’! 
Video time now, this month with footage shot by myself and Dougal Entendre.
Please watch the video full-screen, it’s so much better with small models flying around:
If the video won’t play for you please click HERE
The Final Funny:
This is supposedly a true conversation between Air Traffic Control and a student pilot.
Cessna: “Jones tower, Cessna 1234, I’m a student pilot and I’m out of fuel!”
Tower: “Roger Cessna 1234, reduce airspeed to best glide. Can you see the airfield?”
Cessna: “Er…tower, I’m on the south ramp; I just want to know where the fuel truck is..”
Colin Cowplain
