Patch News History

After the pretty lousy weather of December there was a distinct improvement in January. Several of us flew on New Year’s Day and, although it was very blustery, it was a good start to the year.Sadly for the workers the weather wasn’t good on some the Sundays in the month but the Midweekers were able to enjoy several cold but clear and almost windless days. Fog was quite often a problem, especially on Sundays. Only three idiots even bothered turning up on this one. The fog didn’t clear and we slunk off home all miserable…With the unseasonably warm and wet weather the grass on the patch has continued to grow but Ron managed to get the mower up there on a couple of suitable days and we all mucked in and got it cut. Obviously it’s not perfect, it’s a bit soggy and pretty bumpy, but it’s not too bad, certainly useable.

Several new models appeared this month and I have loads of photos and video for January so no shortage of material. In fact I had trouble trimming this months’ video down to a suitable length, and at 11 minutes it’s still longer than usual. Thanks to all those who have helped by providing pics and video, keep them coming.

I’ve now worked out how to embed videos correctly (I think!) and this months’ will appear towards the end of this blog. Embedding the video enables you to play it on this page instead of being taken away from the blog. I suggest you watch it full screen by clicking the icon at the bottom right, next to the word Vimeo. Just hit Escape (Esc) on your keyboard to return. And did you know you can zoom in on any photo in the blog simply by clicking on it?

I’d been struggling to find a good nickname for Richard King but he has turned out to be an excellent model launcher and will now be known as Catapult King. He can be seen giving his new F22 Raptor an unorthodox launch in this months video. The Raptor is the same as his previous one but it’s made from Depron instead of the previous heavier Correx.It looks great and flies well, although, like the Correx one, not exactly overpowered. I think Catapult is going to play with different props and maybe motors to speed it up. But the slow speed makes it great for videoing as you’ll see!

1066 managed a vertical ‘landing’ one day with his delta, I think he must have been at full speed when it hit!Obviously the arrival broke the prop but he’d soon replaced that and removed the mud, and after a just few minutes it was flying again, that Correx is strong stuff, it’s even Hastings proof!Chairman Ron’s Splot had a landing mishap one windy day, he was caught by a gust just as he was about to touch down and the ensuing cartwheel damaged the fuselage quite badly. Fortunately the wings and tail were fine.But Ron reports that it was simple enough to repair and most of you will have seen it looking as good as new again when he brought it along to club one evening.

Having been used and abused rather too much Vice Chairman Woody’s Spirit has been retired, but he’s replaced it with a sparkling new Kinetic. I think the almost identical Kinetic is a better buy than the Spirit, the motor mount reinforces the nose somewhat and the motors seem to last longer and are available as spares. Most of the Spirits in the club have now been fitted with Kinetic motors. Woody tells me that, unlike the Spirit, the slightly cheaper Kinetic comes with the stickers already applied making it even faster to get in the air.

Norwegian Nick has been flying a HET Tucano in January.It was his son’s but Nick commandeered the previously unflown model and it turned out to be a nice little flier once Nick had got the control throws and C of G position correctly sorted out. I can’t find any information on the Tucano as HET no longer produce them, all I can tell you is that it’s 27” span.

In the last Patch News I reported that father and son JP & Monty had passed their BMFA ‘A’ tests flying their ST Models Discovery trainer. Having passed their tests it was time to check out what would make sensible second models for the next part of the learning curve, and then total ignore ‘sensible’! JP decided on a Durafly Vampire and Monty a Durafly Stuka, neither of which would have been recommended as second models.But both models have now flown successfully and JP landed the Vampire on its third flight. There have been a couple of Durafly Vampires in the club previously and they are great little fliers so I think it’s fair to say that if you absolutely must have an EDF for a second model the Vampire is probably the one to choose.Although it has retracts they haven’t been used yet as the patch isn’t in a good enough condition for the small wheels so JP did a hand launch for the first flight. You can see the result in the photo below, the Vamp should be heading from right to left in a gentle climb!It can be seen in full in this months’ video. To be fair, by the third flight JP’s launching had improved immeasurably.

Monty’s Stuka has only had one flight at the time of writing but the model performed well, much better than I dared to expect. Monty sensibly removed those rather vulnerable looking cannons before the flight.Having experienced JP’s launching, and knowing that Monty has done no hand launching at all, Catapult King stepped up and got the Stuka away perfectly. It has plenty of power and, although I didn’t get a chance to test it thoroughly, it seems to have pretty benign handling with no sign of the dreaded tip stall that the sharply tapered wing could cause. I didn’t use the flaps at all but the Stuka came in nicely with no problems.As Monty is at school all week he is only able to fly at the weekends so has been hampered by the weather this month but I’m sure the Stuka will see a lot more flying over the next few weeks.

Since the Delta Challenge last autumn I’ve been flying my delta regularly, it performs well in pretty much any weather and as the airframe cost was about £2.50 for the sheet of Correx I don’t worry too much about it. Being a tough one piece model it’s the ideal model to chuck in the car boot on those ‘might be flyable’ days.

The only problem I’ve had is that it’s a bit noisy. When I built it I fitted an old Axi motor I had spare, in fact in 2002 it was the first outrunner I ever bought and cost about £150 with its matching speed controller. I used it for a long time but eventually it started throwing magnets (possibly due to me using 10 cells on a 7 cell motor!) and I cured the problem by filling the gaps between the magnets with epoxy. But it made an odd noise, presumably it was out of balance, and eventually the bearings started to protest. In the delta the noise was getting worse every flight so I had to do something. The Axi was producing over 400w on 3 cells and the model had unlimited vertical performance, something I wanted to keep. But it also had a large lump of lead at the back, something I wanted to lose, so I looked for a lighter motor that would still produce loads of power. Eventually I settled on an NTM Prop Drive Series 3530 1400kv that cost less than £13 from HobbyKing, how things have changed! It looked very small next to the Axi and I wasn’t sure it would provide enough thrust although the specs said it should. Being considerably lighter than the Axi, it enabled me to lose the lead tail weight so the delta now only weighs 26ozs instead of 30ozs and that really shows up in the low speed handling.The vertical performance is still there, although maybe a touch slower than before, and the flight time has increased by around 20%, most flights are now around 7-1/2 minutes.

But the most important difference is the lack of noise; I’m no longer embarrassed to open the throttle! So same performance, more agile, quieter, and longer flights, wins all round I reckon. Want to see the vertical take-off? Watch this months’ video.

Dwayne Pipe has now flown the Splot XL that he brought along to a recent club meeting and I’m happy to report that it flies brilliantly.It’s 48” span so is 1-1/3^rd scale, the standard Splot being 36”, and Dwayne has made a few minor changes to the construction. The slightly lengthened nose allows him to slide the battery pack in through a hatch on the top, rather than from underneath as is usual on the smaller Splots. The much anticipated maiden flight was very much a non-event; it just took off and flew round as if it had flown hundreds of times before, did a few aerobatics, and landed back on the patch as if it was nothing special.Well done Dwayne.

Basher Bob has been flying his mini Splot again, having extended the wings somewhat. At 24” span it was 2/3rds scale but the wing loading was a little too high to make the flying enjoyable, so, being unable to make it any lighter, Bob increased the wing area by extending each wing by about 3”.

It’s made it a nicer flier but in terms of wingspan it’s not much smaller than standard now. Bob also regularly flies his Splob, his slightly modified standard Splot, which flies very well indeed using either the normal 3 cell lipo or a 4 cell if he’s feeling racy. I was able to get a photo of all three so you can see the difference in size.Bob’s Splob can be seen briefly harassing Dwayne’s Splot XL during its maiden flight in the video below.

If the video above won’t play for you click HERE

Norwegian Nick has now flown the Bird of Prey that I featured in its unfinished form a few months ago.The Bird of Prey is no longer available but was produced by Kavan about 10 years ago and is unusual in that it’s basically a glider but it has an EDF unit mounted in the fin. Nick had a few problems as the original fan unit is no longer produced so he had to modify a larger fan to fit and turn a suitable wooden shroud on his lathe.

The model is 1565mm spam (about 62”), weighs around 1100gms and has a very nicely made lightweight fibreglass fuselage and obechi veneered foam wings. From the initial launch the model seemed to be making a lot of noise but not going very fast but once trimmed and settled down it flew well with the motor throttled back to around half power, much quieter and not much speed difference. It seemed happiest when it was power off and just gliding, but it is also pretty aerobatic.So far Nick has only had a couple of flights and each time he landed with loads of capacity left in the lipo. It shows great promise and I think it will certainly thermal well in the right conditions.

The last new model to fly in January was Dan Handley’s EPP Mini Edge 540T 3D, another one from HobbyKing.It’s a real 3D machine and should be capable of all the manoeuvres in the book. This is what the webpage says:

The model features an EPP skin over a plywood and carbon fiber built-up structure making it super-light, strong and flexible where needed to shrug off the minor knocks of everyday flying, while retaining scale looks with its fully sectioned cowling, curved canopy, symmetrical air-foil and smooth lines.

Dan says it has quite a lot of EPS under the EPP skin so you need to use foam safe cyano or be very careful where you use normal cyano, you have been warned!The model looks great and is super light at just 660gms ready to fly. Dan asked me to take it up for the first time and I discovered it’s just about perfect, I didn’t add a single click of trim. It even flew completely hands off when I rolled it inverted, no elevator required at all. I quickly handed it over to Dan who flew the rest of the flight and, after some aerobatics, knife-edge etc., he landed it back on the patch at walking pace. An excellent first flight.We only had the one flight as the wind got up a lot and being so light I don’t think it will be good in much of a breeze, but it’s a brilliant model for calm days. 1066 has the EPP Mini Sbach 342 3D from the same range under construction so watch this space.

A couple of action shots now, Captain Slows’ Twinstar and Chris P Bacons’ Cougar 2000. Chris P (Nigel Baker) is newly retired and enjoying flying with the Midweekers. Looks like the top rudder hinge has come loose Nigel.

Following on from my pictures last month of Captain Slows’ new model rack and my own shamefully untidy model room Basher Bob sent a photo of his model shed.It looks very smart and tidy, and he hangs all his models up at one end. At the other end Basher has a neat building area where he currently building a Tiger Moth.Would anyone else like to send me some photos of their model room? We could have a monthly feature.

Finally, us lucky Midweekers were treated to a display by our local friendly Yak pilot one beautiful Tuesday. We had just finished flying when he appeared, so we watched his display that lasted about five or six minutes before he gave us a wing waggle and headed off. So then we, all happy and contented, meandered home for lunch, what a glorious end to our morning. I managed to get some video of it with my phone but the quality isn’t great. I’ve cut out most of the rubbish bits so what left is just under 3 minutes long.

If the video above won’t play for you click HERE

Did you hear that the guy who invented predictive text was tragically killed in plane crash last week?                    His funfair is next Monkey.

Colin Cowplain

Well that’s Christmas over for another year, I hope you all had a good time and received lots of modelling related presents. December was a pretty awful month for flying, lots of wet and windy weather that seemed to make a point of being at its worst on Sunday mornings. Fortunately the Midweekers were able to fly on some of the better days but even so we didn’t go to the field as much as we would have liked. This means I don’t have a huge amount of material for Patch News so this edition will be rather shorter than usual, but I’m sure you’ll all be sending me lots of information about your modelling presents so the January Patch News should be back to normal even if the weather stays bad. THIS MONTH’S VIDEO is also shorter than usual but features the EFX Racers of Modelling Clay and Wonky Wiltshire, the Deltas of 1066 and Colin Cowplain, and a few other snippets.

In the last Patch News I pictured a large box that had arrived from Santa (HobbyKing) and on Christmas Day I was finally allowed to open it. Strangely enough it’s exactly what I had ordered, a Durafly Me163 Komet.It’s the Plug ‘n’ Play version so there isn’t much to do to ready it for flight, just glue in the fin, screw on the control horns, connect the linkages, and add my own receiver and battery.I’ve built a couple of Komets over the years, both of balsa construction and both powered by I/C engines so this one, being an electric powered foamie, will be a bit different. Of course the original was actually rocket powered and it would reach over 600mph after a 70 degree climb of up to 39000 feet in less than 3 minutes, unheard of performance in the 1940’s. It used a lethal combination of C-Stoff and T-Stoff for fuel, lethal because it would dissolve anything organic, which included the pilot. Despite wearing protective suits several pilots were literally eaten alive in accidents, while a luckier few were simply blown apart in explosions. The model has the option of fitting a rocket in the tail for a few seconds of boosted power! So far I’ve only had time for a quick examination of the model but it looks to be of excellent quality and nicely finished.Both of my previous Komets lacked an undercarriage and had to be hand launched but this one features a ‘drop off’ undercarriage, just like the full-size, and the release mechanism and servo are pre-installed. So it should take-off from the patch (I hope), drop the wheels, and then belly land after the flight. It should be ready to fly very soon so hopefully I’ll be able to give a report of it’s flying characteristics next month.

I pictured Basher Bob’s unfinished half size Splot in the November Patch News and Bob brought it along to a December club meeting where the general consensus was that it was too heavy! So Bob decided to fly it on a smaller battery pack than originally planned and all the flights so far have been with a 1000mAh lipo.It flies very well, better than I expected really. It just about manages to take off from the patch but the grass is very wet at the moment and longer than in the summer so some flights were from a hand launch. As expected it’s pretty twitchy but overall not too bad, and it doesn’t need to fly as quickly as I thought it would. It would benefit from being a bit lighter but with the control throws reduced a bit and some more expo I’m sure Basher will get on well with it, just remember to stay close Bob!

The highlight of December had to be father and son JP and Monty both passing their ‘A’ tests . They had flown a little with Elmbridge Model Club before moving to Petersfield and discovering PAM in August so they weren’t complete beginners when they joined us. They shared an ST Models Discovery and had a buddy box set-up, and it was immediately obvious that neither was going to take long before being ready for the test. Dougal Entendre and I decided it would be best if we each took one them and Monty drew the short straw and got Dougal!Of course JP had the advantage of being able to get in some extra practice mid-week while poor Monty was at school. JP assures us that he is a freelance photographer but personally I have my doubts, he never seems to do any work and is always keen to fly.They both flew through the test (groan) and answered the questions with no problems and were duly awarded their certificates at the last meeting of 2015. Well done Monty and JP.

With the winter weather giving him more time for building Captain Slows’ thoughts turned to storage systems. Like me, he uses a spare bedroom for modelling but lacked storage space, and apparently his wife Anne failed to see the beauty of a dining room table covered in models. So, having spotted a rack system on the RCM&E forum, he set to with a hacksaw and lots of plastic pipe and produced this:John can now store his models out of harms way in the garage, giving him both room to build more modes and a happy wife, a double bonus. I think it’s rather impressive, although I don’t think I need one as obviously my own model room is always clean, tidy, and uncluttered:OK, maybe I should start building my own model rack…! I should point out that my model room had turned into the Christmas present store when I took this photo.

We spent one Sunday morning dodging showers and retreating to the barn while they passed. During one of the dry spells Captain Slow was unlucky enough to lose the small foam battery hatch from his MX2 out over the valley and set off to search for it. A few minutes later we spotted a looming deluge sneaking up behind Modelling Clay.A minute later we were hit by very heavy rain and dashed back to the barn where we discussed Captain Slow’s predicament. We decided that, being an ex-military man, he would have constructed a bivouac, lit a fire, and would be tucking into rabbit stew while plotting the coordinates of the hatch search. Sadly we were wrong and a very wet, bedraggled, miserable, and hatchless Captain Slow eventually returned to the barn.

But not to be defeated, Captain Slow made a replacement hatch and he and Dougal sneaked off to the field between Christmas and New Year where the MX2 behaved itself and didn’t eject the new hatch!Dougal took the opportunity to test fly his new HK Wingnetic  which, I think, he bought in the recent HobbyKing sale.  Apparently it performed well, more on this one later.He didn’t do quite so well with his own MX2 unfortunately, it suffered a little in what he describes as ‘a heavy landing’. Never mind, it looks as if the repair should be fairly straightforward.

Several people sent me photos this month so included are some from Graham Swan, JP, Dougal Entendre, and Captain Slow, thanks guys.

I’ll finish with a couple of links, first one for all those who think they are good modellers: CLICK HERE  And secondly one for anyone looking for an electric trainer with a difference: CLICK HERE  Don’t forget to take a look at THIS MONTH’S VIDEO.

A Happy New Year and safe flying to you all.

On a transatlantic flight the turbulence was vicious, and things went from bad to worse when a wing was struck by lightning. One woman in particular lost control. Screaming, she stood up at the front of the plane. “I’m too young to die!” she wailed. “If I’m going to die, is there anyone on this plane who can make me feel like a WOMAN?” For a moment there was stunned silence. All the other passengers had forgotten their own peril, and were riveted by the sight of the desperate woman. Then a gorgeous man stood up at the rear of the plane. Tall, well-built, brown hair and hazel eyes, he started to walk slowly up the aisle. As he did so, he began to unbutton his shirt one button at a time. All eyes were on the man as he neared the woman, who by this time was breathing heavily in anticipation as the god-like stranger approached her. He removed his shirt. Muscles rippled across his chest and back as he reached her. He lifted his arm, holding his shirt, and extended it to the trembling woman. Intense, his gaze never left her eyes, as he whispered, “Here, iron this…then get me a beer”

Colin Cowplain

It’s 10.30 on a Sunday morning and I should be at the patch, but it’s blowing a gale and there is light drizzle so I’m taking the opportunity to produce some light drivel of my own. The Hampshire Astronomical Group weather station, which is close to the patch and at roughly the same elevation, is showing a wind speed of 34mph right now so I think I’ve made the right decision. If you missed the link I gave to the station a couple of months ago it’s worth saving for future use: http://weather.hantsastro.org.uk/

This morning about sums up the weather for most of November, damp and windy. But, as always, we’ve managed to get some flying in and I have plenty to write about. Oddly, several of the days that weren’t damp and windy were almost flat calm, most unusual for Chidden Down.

Last month, at the end of the October Patch News, I posted a caption competition. There have been a few entries but I’d like to see some more. I will award a prize for the best caption at the club meeting on 3rd December so if you haven’t entered yet please have a go now.

I’ll start this month with some photos taken on a foggy 1^st November, those that turned up flew but it was certainly a day to stay close and take great care.Mark (Dougal Entendre) snapped me flying my Delta so I snapped him flying his Laius. See some of the misty flying, along with some better days, in THIS MONTH’S VIDEO

The last remaining I/C stalwart in the club Gary Houghton was running out of model space so he gave his Cougar 2000 to Modelling Clay. (He GAVE it…doesn’t he know I’m a poor pensioner?!).Tim promptly did the decent thing and converted it to electric and in the process he stripped off the oily covering and redid it in a fresh new colour scheme.Not sure what electrics he used but it looks like an NTM Prop Drive 42 Motor and the setup seems spot on, plenty of power and decent duration. Meanwhile Gary is busy using the space he gained and is building an Acro Wot…and its electric powered, I knew he’d see the light eventually!

Modelling Tim also has another new plane, an Addiction from Precision Aerobatics no less.This is what it Precision Aerobatics say about the Addiction on their website: “PA brings you a new aerodynamic design with a huge wing area of 485 sq.in and amazing flying weight of only 750g (26.5oz). The Addiction is predictable and stable, features exceptional stall and slow speed handling characteristics, quick recovery and robustness – allowing any modeller to fly hardcore 3D with ease, inches off the ground.” There you go then Tim, we expect to see hardcore 3D just inches off the ground any day now.

It’s a good thing that Modelling has got a couple of new models; he’s been busy breaking the old ones. Dougal sent me this photo, taken after he and Tim flew on one of the windier Sundays of November.Most of us had more sense and stayed home. Fortunately the damage isn’t too bad; Spirits are tough little birds and repair well after ‘heavy landings’.

Dwayne Pipe (sometimes known as Keith Evans) has been busy experimenting with a new model that he’s designed to be a slow flier. Using a play on the name of the Ugly Stik he’s called it the Rugby Stick as he’s hoping to fly it on the rugby pitches at Penns Place (close to his home) once he’s got it trimmed and fully sorted.To make it fly slowly Dwayne has used a simple lightweight stick built fuselage and a large under-cambered wing which he’s made from Correx. He’s simply bent the Correx over a few ribs to form the wing section, simple and effective although at the moment he’s having a few problems with flutter so needs to stiffen the structure somewhat. I saw Dwayne fly the Rugby Stick the other day (you can see it and more in THIS MONTH’S VIDEO) and it flew well until he tried a loop, as the speed built up on the downward part the flutter demonstrated it itself bigtime! No doubt it will be sorted soon and Keith will be sneaking off in quiet moments to fly on the rugby pitches.

Basher Bob has been at it again. No, not having more mid-airs, this time he’s been balsa bashing or to be correct balsa and Depron bashing. He’s built a mini Splot, a 2/3rds size one at just 24” span and the wing is made from Depron. It’s powered by a Prodrive 28-36 1400kv motor that gives anything from 200 to 550 watts depending on a 3 or 4 cell battery etc. The flat plate tailplane is made from 6mm Depron, but the wing has a Depron sheet top and bottom with a 10mm carbon spar in the middle. It has a balsa leading edge, and ailerons are made from 1″ trailing edge balsa. The flying weight is about 1.5 lbs. Bob has made fibre glass u/c legs but the wheels are a bit small for our patch so he’ll hand launch it to start with.It will be interesting to see how it flies, I’ve not seen a smaller than standard Splot before, I imagine it will be pretty twitchy but very maneuverable. The designer of the Splot, Graham Head, built a Big Splot of 48” span which flew very well, just like the normal one really but a little less maneuverable. Graham’s was powered by a 4 stroke I/C engine but Dwayne Pipe has a 48” span Splot under construction at the moment which will of course be electric powered. That means Bob’s 24” mini Splot is really a half scale Big Splot and knowing Bob he won’t call it Mini Splot, it will be Sploblet or similar!

A little light relief now with something for all you Whovians out there. What’s a Whovian? A Doctor Who fan of course! I already knew Dougal was one and it seems young Monty is also one. He’s made a Tardis (police box) body for one of his copters and demonstrated it one Sunday morning with a brief flight while we were waiting for the weather to clear.Well done Monty, it’s certainly something different. “Exterminate…exterminate…!”

Captain Slow has gone and bought an ST Models MX2, against the better judgement of several other club members who didn’t really get on with theirs. But, as if to prove the others wrong, Captain Slow’s seems to fly very well, so far anyway.One of the failings the others experienced was the usual ARTF problem of weak undercarriage mountings but I see from the adverts that they are now producing an updated version with strengthened mountings and I think John’s must be one of these as the undercarriage has stayed firmly on, for the first few flights at least. ST Models have also fitted a 36A speed controller (I think the earlier ones had a 30A one) and they’ve added some side-thrust to the motor. I remember 1066 playing around with the thrust angles on his MX2 so maybe that’s part of the reason John’s seems to fly much better. He hasn’t had a chance to fly it very much yet because of the recent bad weather but it’s looking promising. You can see the first take-off in THIS MONTH’S VIDEO.

Chris P Bacon (Nigel) has also bought a new plane, a Ripmax Jive. Nigel bought it secondhand from a guy who said he’d been flying it all summer. The Jive is only available in an I/C version (very surprising I think in this day and age) so the seller must have done the electric conversion himself. The lipo is just strapped on under the nose, not the neatest solution but at least it’s easy to swap packs over. It is fitted with a Turnigy G10 motor which is supposed to be equivalent to a 0.10 glow motor but the recommended motor for the Jive is an Irvine 35 or 39 so I was expecting it to be underpowered when Chris P asked me to test fly it, but no, it tore across the patch and shot into the air.It flew very well and had loads of power so after the flight we checked the current and found it was pulling over 80A from the 4 cell pack! A couple of flights later Crisp P’s enjoyment was cut short when it went deadstick and the motor felt very rough when we turned it, I think it’s cooked. If the previous owner really had flown it a lot as he stated I think he must have been using a much smaller prop or 3 cells or probably both.No doubt Nigel will soon fit another motor and having it flying again. It seemed excellent until the motor failed so I think it will still prove to have been a good buy.

Captain Slow sent me a link to a short video of an airline pilot making a passenger announcement, probably not one you want to hear: Click HERE

We often see a white light aircraft around the field and I always say it’s from Lower Upham Airfield as a friend of mine flies a similar looking plane from there.I finally got around to looking it up on the internet and discovered that there are actually three of them, operated by Solent Flight at Lower Upham. They aircraft are IKarus C-42 microlights; two have 80hp Rotax engines, the other a 100hp Rotax. They are very quiet so cause few problems with their neighbours in Lower Upham.The grass runway is just 578 metres long and has obstacles at both ends so visiting aircraft are very rare although a few helicopters are also based there. Solent Flight offers a variety of trial lessons and PPL courses. I had a quick measure up on Google Maps and the airfield is 8.75miles from the patch, almost exactly due west, so it’s not surprising we see them so often. They have an interesting website, take a look: http://www.solentflight.co.uk

New member Graham Swan sent me some photos he took at the field on one of the decent, calm, midweek days. He was using a good quality camera so the shots are better than the ones I take with my mobile. Thanks Graham, great photos, I especially like the one of Norwegian Nick’s little Tiger Moth, it’s a great shot and you’d never know it’s a small, lightweight foamie.

Like it or not Christmas is coming and the Black Friday sales have just finished. No doubt most of you have seen the HobbyKing Cyber Sale that ran for a week with new items being added every hour. More than 650 items were discounted, some by very large amounts, and a good percentage of them were from the UK warehouse so I’m wondering if many of you took advantage? I know one lucky person who was browsing the sale items with various exclamations such as “Wow, look, reduced by 50% now” was told very firmly “Just buy it, it can be your Christmas present”.So what was I supposed to do? The only problem is that I’m not allowed to open it until 25^th December.

On a Norwegian Airlines flight:

“We have commenced our descent to London Gatwick, and the toilets are now closed. The cabin crew will shortly be coming round to collect your waste.”

Merry Christmas everyone. Colin Cowplain

In Patch News last month I explained that I would be away on holiday at the end of September and beginning of October so would be relying on others to keep me up to date with patch happenings. Everything worked out as hoped, I received updates from several members, and I was able to upload Patch News from my tablet on 1^st October while in my Singapore hotel room, isn’t technology great? So now it’s time to report on October and some of the report, photos, and video content has been provided by Dougal Entendre, Captain Slow, JP, and Barracking.

The weather hasn’t been too bad recently; in fact we’ve had some very good flying days, some with hardly a breath of wind. By the start of the month Chairman Ron had got the patch in really good condition, his hard work mowing over the summer really paid off and the grass was the best it’s ever been. But then, in mid-October, George put some bullocks in the field… Sadly now the patch has been badly churned up and is well manured. Initially the young bullocks were very inquisitive, a real pain to keep out of our way, and had a tendency to follow us from the barn up to the patch, as demonstrated by Dougal Entendre and Basher Bob in this photo.But happily, more recently they seem to have got used to us and now ignore us most of the time. The little presents (ok, big wet sloppy presents) they leave on the patch make landings interesting, it’s not easy to consistently land on the patch and much harder when you’re trying to avoid ‘obstacles’! See Wonky Wiltshire in THIS MONTH’S VIDEO.  At least most of the deltas people built for the Delta Challenge don’t have wheels so can be plonked down with virtually no running on. If the initial touchdown is on a clean bit of grass the plane should stay clean. But Basher Bob discovered the hard way that if the delta actually lands smack in the middle of a pat the result is not pleasant.Perhaps I should confess that it was actually me that landed it that time following a trimming flight…payback time Basher…payback!

While JP was on herding duties he got all artistic and snapped my Delta flying over the cows.How come his photos are so much better than mine? It must be something to do with him being a professional photographer I suppose!

Basher Bob tends to incorporate his name or initial into the models that he’s designed or heavily modified, so his delta is actually Belta, his Splot has become Splob, and his Calmato is Bobmato. The last one should be ‘was’ Bobmato, he heavily modified it rather badly recently and I don’t think it will re-emerge this time.

One thing I missed while away was a low level aerobatic display by a Yak. Woody says it’s our friendly local Tiger Moth pilot who also flies a Yak. Shame I missed it, by all accounts it was a very good display, but unfortunately nobody seems to have got any photographs of the event. Dougal managed to get a short snippet of video though and it can be seen in THIS MONTH’S VIDEO.

Following a coming together between Basher Bob’s Spirit and Dougal Entendre’s Slick last month both models have been repaired and are back flying once more. Basher managed to graft half of his broken Spirit onto half of his broken Kinetic (they’re almost identical models) and made one decent model from the two wrecks.Dougal has made a lovely job of repairing the Slick and even included a small insignia to record the ‘kill’!

A few months ago Chris P Bacon (Nigel Baker) brought one of his mates (no, I didn’t think he had any either) to the patch to find out what model flying is all about. The friend is Mike Creamer and Mike has now fully joined as a member. That first occasion wasn’t a huge success; Chris P let Mike have a fly of his Wot 4 Foam-E with me in charge of looking after him. I’m not quite sure what happened but Mike managed to crash in the valley and I managed to not save him from doing so! But things have gone much better since then, Mike has bought a Freewing Pandora, a 1.4M span ready to fly foam model that has proved to be excellent. It’s very unusual in that it can be configured in 4 different ways and it can be changed between the 4 at any time. It can have either a tricycle undercarriage set up or the more usual taildragger arrangement, and it can be either high wing or low wing. All the parts are included with the kit, and you can choose whichever configuration suits you to start with and change to another version later. It also comes fitted with flaps but they are fixed as standard, you must add two of your own servos and the linkages if you want to use them. Mike has wisely gone for the high wing taildragger set up without flaps at the moment and the Pandora is serving him well.It’s a good size so handles the wind well and is easier to see than some of the smaller trainers, and with the taildragger arrangement it has pretty large wheels that are well suited to our patch. Later, when Mike’s skills improve he can convert it to a low winger and even swap it to a trike undercart if he wants. I must say I was quite surprised to see that it looks very pretty as a low winger, it doesn’t like a lash up at all, Freewing have done a good job on the design.

Woody’s Vulcan delta is flying well, last Sunday he had recorded the ‘Vulcan howl’ on his phone, and played it as his Vulc did a low slow pass and climb out, magic! It looks surprisingly realistic when flying at high level which is where Captain Altitude does most of his flying.

Woody says he can’t hit anything up there, time he was introduced to Basher Bob methinks! See it flying in THIS MONTH’S VIDEO. He managed to break the prop landing on the patch the other day and duly searched for the broken blade, we don’t want them being eaten by the cattle. He couldn’t find the missing blade so several others joined the search before someone finally spotted it.What are the chances…?

Several new models had their first outings in October. First up is Chairman Ron’s Splot, a beautifully made example that Ron built exactly to the original Graham Head design other than converting it to electric power.Ron didn’t feel the need to lengthen the nose or add extra bays to the wings; he simply fitted an E-Max 2815/09 motor with an 11 x 7 prop, a 40A esc, and a 2200mAH 3 cell battery pack. He even used the original design of fitting one centrally mounted aileron servo, something of a rarity these days but of course it was the norm back in 1986 when Graham designed the Splot.Ron asked me to do the test flight and I’m happy to report that it flies like all the Splots do, brilliantly. There was hardly a click of trim needed and the centre of gravity proved to be spot on. Ron has now had several flights with it and it’s already become a firm favourite.

Modelling Clay won the Big Raffle again recently (I knew he was trouble right from the start) and chose the Wingnetic. This is a flying wing version of the Kinetic/Spirit and it shares the same fuselage front end, motor and motor mount.

I flew 1066’s Wingnetic when he bought one a few months back and was very impressed. I think Tim’s is the same version as Steve’s, so it comes with the motor and speed controller but you have to provide you own servos, 3 x 5 or 6 gram ones are recommended.At around £45 it’s a great little model.

Now for a new model that a little different. It’s Gary Houghton’s new Black Horse Models Edge 540. So what’s different? It’s got one of those strange, old fashioned I/C engines!It’s an ARTF built from balsa and ply, and is covered in Oracover. The wingspan is 62” and the model weighs around 7-1/4lbs. The engine is an OS65AX, which is 10.63cc. The model flies well and is capable of just about any manoeuvre in the book.Gary’s is fitted with the standard silencer and passed the noise test ok. It didn’t seem noisy to me, it’s certainly quieter than his Wot 4. But I see from the OS website that there is an optional silencer available that is both quieter and lighter than the one they supply as standard. Why on earth don’t they supply the quieter, lighter one as standard in these days of noise problems and lost flying fields? Anyway, Gary has taken the hint from the rest of the club and he has an electric powered model under construction.

We haven’t seen any new EDF models for a while but Wonky Wiltshire has just bought a Mini Katana EDF from HobbyKing. The name seems a bit odd, Katana is actually the name of a long sword, but in full-size aircraft it’s a 2 seat composite light aircraft, and model Katanas are mostly 3D aerobatic types on the lines of an Extra or Edge.This Katana is 600mm span and is pushed along by a 5 bladed 50mm fan unit coupled to a 30A esc and the usual 1000mAH batteries that most of us have for our Spirits etc. It’s all moulded from EPO foam so it’s strong and can be glued with normal cyano, not foam safe.It seemed to fly well once Wonky had recovered from my dodgy launch and it certainly moved round the sky pretty quickly, not one you’d want to let get too far away! I look forward to trying it Phil…

I had a surprise this month when a prospective new member arrived at the field and introduced himself as Graham Swan, one of my old friends from school! We built and flew single channel radio control models together back in the 60’s, and Graham actually still has one of his, a Wizard of Oz slope soarer, as featured on the cover of Aero Modeller in April 1966.

I can also remember that he built (for obvious reasons) a Swannee, also from an Aero Modeller plan, and a Mini Concord from a Veron kit.Like me, Graham has recently retired and he decided to return to modelling following a trip to Old Warden on what turned out to be a model flying day. He has already bought an E-flite Apprentice, the new version with a built in gyro called SAFE – Sensor Assisted Flight Envelope.It works well; Graham has had three flights so far without crashing despite me looking after him! From what I saw on those flights I don’t think it will take him long to learn, although it will probably take longer to get used to the club ‘characters’.

Finally, it’s time for another Caption Competition. There will be a prize so place your entries in the Comments sections at the end.‘The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly’ is too obvious, think up your own insults!

A supposedly true story of a Scottish flight: 

After being airborne for approximately thirty minutes on an outbound evening flight from Glasgow, the lead flight attendant for the cabin crew nervously made the following painful announcement: “Ladies and gentlemen, I’m so very sorry but it appears that there has been a terrible mix up by our airport catering service… I don’t know how this has happened but we have 103 passengers on board and, unfortunately, only 40 dinner meals… I truly apologise for this mistake and inconvenience.” 

When passengers’ muttering had died down, she continued: “Anyone who is kind enough to give up their meal so that someone else can eat will receive free, unlimited drinks for the duration of our 5 hour flight.” 

Her next announcement came 90 minutes later: “If anyone would like to change their minds, we still have 40 dinners available.” 

Colin Cowplain