Patch News – September 2014
September has been a lovely month for flying, and the good weather brought out lots of new models. But before I get on to them, an apology, in last months’ Patch News I wrongly named Wonky Wiltshire as the owner of the orange and white Slick, it does of course belong to Steve 1066 Hastings.
The trouble is there are just too many Slicks in the club now, and September saw yet another having its maiden flight. This one is Dougal Entendre’s; I know that’s correct, he’s holding it! 
After about two hours dripping on about it being too windy Mark eventually gave in to our nagging and flew it.
No surprises at all, it flew beautifully just as they all do, and within the first couple of minutes he was trying the usual 3D manoeuvres.
Anyone want to buy a very tame 3 channel electric glider?
We’ve recently been joined by a young French guy, Nicolas Humeau. He is currently living and working in England and is already a competent modeller and flier so he sought us out.
Nic has flown with us a few times now and has been reading the BMFA Handbook so is looking forward to taking his ‘A’ cert very soon. Fortunately his English is perfect; I don’t think he’d get much luck trying to get any of us to speak French! His joining PAM must have halved the average age of the membership so he’s a very welcome addition indeed.
Gentleman Jim Hobday recently got tempted by an electric glider at Sussex Model Centre. It’s an Art-Tech ASK-21 which is fully moulded in EPO foam with carbon spars in the 2 metre span wings.
So far it’s only had a couple of flights but it seems to be pretty good although it will tip stall if the speed drops too much. I think with a bit of effort the tip stall can be tamed, but probably it’s mostly a question of getting used to the characteristic rather than being afraid of it.
Like the full-size ASK-21 the model is fully aerobatic and should be a lot of fun to fly. With his Pulse, Wildcat, Splot, and now the ASK-21, Jim has quite an airforce!
The popularity of 3D models is growing all the time and Tony Neal is now flying a 3D Hummer.
Unsurprisingly it’s another one from HobbyKing and it’s an EPP 1000mm span profile model that weighs under 500gms, so it only needs a small amount of power to do the 3D manoeuvres we have come to know as ‘normal’! The model comes as a kit only, with none of the electronics included so Tony had to add his own motor, esc, and 4 servos, as well as the usual receiver and suitable size battery. As it’s so light it only needs 2212 1000kv motor and a 3 cell 1000/1300 lipo pack, the same as many of us are already using in the little Mustangs, ME109s, Mini Spirit gliders, and in my case the EDF Gripen, and my new Stearman.
The profile fuselage is stiffened with some full length foam side cheeks that prevent the flexing seen on other versions of the model. Tony is new to this 3D lark and is still getting to grips with it but from what I’ve seen so far he’s doing very well and the model is obviously very capable, so if you fancy trying 3D flying with something that is cheap and close to unbreakable get yourself a Hummer.
A very similar model that made its PAM debut in September is Steve 1066 Hastings’ Gee Bee. Again, it’s from HobbyKing, it’s a 1000mm spam EPP 3D profile machine, comes as a kit only, and it only needs low power. It’s slightly heavier than the Hummer and the website says it needs a 2217 motor and 1200/1500 3 cell pack.
To me this one really does look like a packing case! The wing is almost just a slab of foam and the fuselage isn’t much more stylish, but it flies remarkably well so who am I to knock it?
At least 1066 tried not to make the model look any uglier than it already did!
Two new warbirds graced the patch this month, an unusual Skyraider from Smiffy, and a lovely Spit from Mower Man Ron (BTW, I must just say a massive ‘Thanks Ron’ on behalf of all members, we really appreciate your mowing efforts even if we don’t mention it much).
I’m not actually sure if the Douglas Skyraider qualifies as a warbird, but it first flew in March 1945 so that’s near enough for me.
Andy Smiths Skyraider is a Starmax model and is 1600mm (63”) span, quite large for a model made from EPO foam. It’s very well equipped with E-Flite electric twist & turn retracts, a steerable retracting tail wheel, flaps, and huge scale airbrakes on the fuselage sides.
The motor is an NTM Prop Driver 50-50 580kv swinging a 14 x 8 wooden prop. The motor is linked to a Turnigy 80A HV esc and a 4400mAh 6 cell lipo. Smiffy has added some scale cockpit detail and a Freewing V1 sound system.
It flies beautifully and the sound system sounds great on low passes. Smiffy’s first landing wasn’t good but the model survived and further landings were perfect. I took some video snips which I’ve have edited together, unfortunately the only landing I recorded was the first one! You can watch it here: Skyraider video
Ron’s Spitfire is the Kyosho I/C one which he has converted to electric. At 1440mm (57”) span the model is 1/8th scale and the weight with an I/C engine is around 2.5Kg, I don’t suppose Ron’s electrified version is very different.
The motor Ron used is a Turnigy G60 500kv with a HobbyKing 80A esc and is powered by a 5 cell Zippy Compact 4000mAh battery. This set up provides loads of power and most of the flight can be done on around half throttle.
The model has electric retracts and split flaps as standard and Ron has added a MrRCSound V4.1 sound system with a TT-25 Transducer. The transducer takes the place of a speaker and is much lighter, the whole system only weighs around 180gm. As well as the Merlin engine sound the system also produces the sound of the Spits machine guns!
Kyosho actually produce an electric version of this model but Ron bought his before he realised the sensible way to go!
Another I/C to electric conversion we saw this month was Mike Smiths’ venerable Cougar 2000. I’m not sure how old the plane is but Mike seems to have been flying it for a long time. He’s taken the plunge and converted it to electric, using a Turnigy Aerodrive SK3-3548 840kv motor and an 11 x 8 prop which gives the model 170 watts per pound. The battery is a Turnigy 4s 3300mAh pack.
It certainly flies well and has loads of power, more than the I/C motor did for sure. It looks as if it would have been a fairly straight forward conversion although Mike is going to try to make the battery pack removable without needing to remove the wing every time.
Bob Hill has built a Splot…except that he hasn’t. He has built a Splot fuselage but has fitted the cut down wings and tail from a defunct Seagull Decathlon and calls it a Splob.
Some unkind chap (and for once it wasn’t me) said he didn’t need the P, I’m sure I don’t know what they meant! Bob has fitted a Turnigy Prop Drive 35-48 1100kv motor and uses a 3 cell lipo but had a bit of trouble getting the CG in the right place (that’s what you get for not using the correct wings and tail!) and had to add some nose weight.
But other than that it’s fine and flies just like a ….well just like a Splot.
Dan Bennett (Desperate Dan) surprised us after the last club night by flying a Wot 4 Foam-e in total darkness. He’s fitted it out with strips of red, green and white LED lights that he connects to the balance plug on his usual 3 cell lipo. He found it was difficult to land without being able to see the ground so Dan has also fitted a really bright light under the fuselage that he switches on just to light the ground when he lands.
He seemed to be flying it without too much trouble and he let me have a couple of flights with it as well. I must say I found it easier than I expected and didn’t have any orientation troubles at all. He tried to get 1066 to have a go as well but Hesitant Hastings was just too chicken!
Finally, if you wonder what some of your fellow members get up to in their ‘private’ lives watch this: Oh dear!
In a famous SR-71 Blackbird story, Los Angeles Centre reported receiving a request for clearance to FL 600 (60,000ft). The incredulous controller, with some disdain in his voice, asked, “How do you plan to get up to 60,000 feet? The pilot responded, “We don’t plan to go up to it, we plan to come down to it…” He was cleared…
Colin Cowplain
Patch News – August 2014
August was a pretty good flying month weather wise but the first Sunday saw us all gathered in the barn for some ‘will it/won’t it’ time until the rain moved on and we were able to fly.
You may wonder why Steve Hastings (1066) has his back to the camera…believe me you don’t want to see the photo I took 10 seconds later!
We were all very pleased to welcome George Rose back to PAM after an 18 month absence, he said he realized he just couldn’t live without us. Or it may have been more like “Hopefully that Palmer bloke will keep his big gob shut this time”! What he actually said was that he can see way the club is going, partly because of the proximity of the new houses being built, and he has decided to make the switch to electric power. So George brought along couple of electric models, a Kinetic and a Devil 3D. The Kinetic is from HobbyKing and is almost identical to the Spirit mini glider that several of us are flying, little more than cosmetic changes and a slightly different spec motor. The first flight didn’t go too well, apparently George had inadvertently programmed in reversed exponential on the ailerons. It’s very easy to do, especially as on some transmitters you need positive expo but on others you need negative, you’d think the manufacturers would standardize such things but they haven’t. Personally whenever I set up expo I dial in about 80 or 90% and then check it’s the correct way, it’s easy to see if it’s soft or extreme around the centre with that much expo, then dial it back to around 30% or so to fly. Anyway after a little repair work the Kinetic is now flying perfectly, it appears to fly just as well as the Spirit.
The Devil 3D is manufactured by Dynam and George got his from Sussex Model Centre. It’s an all EPO foam biplane that is billed as a 3D capable sport aerobatic bipe.
It’s 1016mm span (40”) and is powered by a 3720 motor with a KV of 650 and a 4 cell pack. It flies really well and I think George will have a lot of fun with it.
Andy Smith also recently returned to us after a few months of being AWOL. Never one to do things by halves Smiffy came bearing an SU-35 twin 70mm EDF with vectored thrust and retracts! It’s a Freewing model and is pretty much a bolt together airframe, I think the nosecone is the only part that’s glued. He had done some taxiing trials with the model at the Guildford club and decided that it wouldn’t get off our patch so decided to bungee it off his ramp. He’s used the ramp successfully many times with his EDF Phantoms but the Sukhoi is much bigger and heavier than the Phantoms. It has a wingspan of 1080mm but is 1630mm long and weighs around 3kg.
Smiffy tried three bungee launches, with increased tension each time. We put more pull on the bungee each time as well! I could mention trivial problems we discovered like one motor running reversed but I wouldn’t want to embarrass the plonker! It really didn’t seem to be even close to going off the ramp but felt as if there was lots of power so Smiffy decided I should hand launch it.
In this picture Smiffy is in his favourite position, waiting for his mate 1066!
It probably wasn’t the best chuck in the world but it didn’t seem too bad and the plane looked like it was going to get away but unfortunately all it achieved was enough height and speed to ensure lot of damage when it failed. Such a shame as it really was a lovely model. The good news is that a replacement airframe has been ordered. Not sure how Andy is going to overcome the launch problems so watch this space.
While I was messing around (helping?) with the SU-35 Nigel Baker was waiting to test his new ST Models MX2.
I must have been engrossed as I missed it completely and Nigel later told me off and sent some photos, sorry Nigel! The MX2 is made from good old EPO foam, is 1210mm span (a tad under 48”) and weighs just 960g so it’s got a light wing loading and should be a good flier. It uses a ‘standard’ 3 cell pack of around 2200 capacity.
I’ve missed a couple of Sundays this month so I still haven’t seen it fly. Does it fly ok? Does it still exist?!
Another new model I almost ignored was Phil ‘Wonky’ Wiltshire’s new Slick 360 3D, but I did at least take some photos.
This one is yet another from HobbyKing and it has an all wood, very lightweight laser cut structure with iron on covering. It’s 1300mm span, weighs around 1400g and flies on a 4 cell lipo.
Dougal Entendre (Mark Agate) sent me some info and a photo of his Evil Pigeon, a ‘bitsa’ made from parts of four other aircraft. The fuselage is from the Easy Pigeon that he won in the club Christmas raffle, he didn’t say what happened to the rest of the model, he should be charged with failure to take due care & attention of a raffle prize I reckon.
The wings are veneered blue foam and were made in 1982 for a slope soaring pylon racer, the tail is from Desperate Dan’s ill-fated Phoenix 2000, which he has beefed up with a carbon spar that came from the wings of his late Spad! Initially Dougal fitted a 35mm motor but it proved to be too much for the plastic fuselage so he swapped it for a 28mm one and it now flies very well.
Dan’s replacement Phoenix 2000 is a good flier, this one benefiting from a receiver that actually works! Last Sunday both he and John Wheeley were enjoying tremendous lift in the ideal conditions. Unfortunately I forgot to take any photos or details of John’s glider. There were lots of buzzards around to indicate where the thermals were and I tried to get some photos of both gliders circling amongst about eight buzzards but they were too high for my cheap old camera. These were the best two I got (on full zoom!), not sure but I think it’s Dan’s glider. As usual the buzzards treated the models with utter disdain and totally ignored them!
Norwegian Nick brought along a new/repaired model one midweek day.
It’s a revamp of a small electric pylon racer Nick flew some time ago and this one has pink foam wing cores skinned in balsa and then glass-clothed. He’s made a lovely job of it and fitted a Mega motor.
Sadly it was short lived, Nick said it was too twitchy on ailerons and result wasn’t pretty.
Steve 1066 has been flying another new model this month, an MXS from HobbyKing.
It’s an unusual model in that it features a type of construction we’ve not seen before. We are used to seeing built up structures made from laser cut parts of light plywood which are then covered in conventional heat-shrink film. We are also used to seeing all foam models, often with a few pieces of stiffening ply where required. But this model has a built up structure that is then covered in printed EPP foam, and the result is very impressive, being ultra light yet strong. Unlike many EPP foam models the structure gives it the correct scale(ish) curves etc rather than being boxlike.
This picture is from the HK website, it shows the construction better than the photos I took. Personally I think we will see a lot more models using this type of construction in the future.
Steve says it went together better than any other ARTF he has assembled, everything just fitted perfectly. The flight performance is also very good and although he’s still getting used to it the potential is very definitely there. Fancy having one yourself? Well there aren’t any in the UK warehouse, and there are only a few in the European one.
A man is sitting in a plane which is about to takeoff, when another man with a dog occupies the empty seats alongside. The dog is sat in the middle, and the first man is looking quizzically at the dog when the second man explains that they work for the airline. The airline rep said “Don’t mind Rover, he is a sniffer dog, the best there is, I’ll show you once we get airborne and I set him to work.”
The plane takes off and levels out when the handler says to the first man, “Watch this.” He tells the dog, “Rover, search.” The dog jumps down, walks along the aisle and sits next to a woman for a few seconds. It then returns to its seat and puts one paw on the handler’s arm. He says “Good boy.” He turns to the first man and says, “That woman is in possession of marijuana, so I’m making a note of this, and the seat number, for the police who will apprehend her upon arrival.” “Fantastic!” replies the first man.
Once again he sends the dog to search the aisles. The dog sniffs about, sits down beside a man for a few seconds, returns to its seat and places both paws on the handler’s arm. The airline rep says, “That man is carrying cocaine, so again, I’m making a note of this, and the seat number.” “I like it!” says the first man.
Once again he sends the dog to search the aisles. Rover goes up and down the plane aisle, and after a while sits down next to someone, and then comes racing back and jumps up onto the seat and craps all over the place. The first man is surprised and disgusted by this, and asks “What the heck is going on?” The handler nervously replies “He just found a bomb!”
Colin Cowplain
Patch News – July 2014
After my holiday last month Patch News was very late. This month I’ve got loads of material, partly due to the fabulous weather no doubt, and I’m aiming to get back on track so this should be online by 1st August.
I’ll start with what seems to be an emerging trend, possibly a follow on from the highly successful EPP Mustangs & 109s. At the beginning of the month 1066 brought along a Freewing Spirit, it’s an 815mm span EPO mini electric glider described as a ‘warmliner’. That means it’s fast and fully aerobatic, but it can also be flown in a docile manner and it glides remarkably well for its size. It comes complete with four servos, a 2621 1100kV motor & folding prop, 20A speed controller, and even a second power pod to convert it to a pusher for FPV work. It’s around £43 in the UK and all you need to add is a receiver and 3 cell lipo. The model info says to use a 450-500mAh battery but the 1000mAh packs most of us use in the Mustangs fit perfectly. I’m sure the slightly fatter 1300mAh pack would also fit. The wings simply click together, as does the all moving tail, and mounting the wing uses two screws. That’s it! Putting on the stickers really does take the longest time.
Steve had purchased two Spirits from HobbyKing, one being intended for a future raffle prize, but great interest was shown in the Spirit as soon as it flew and Dougal Entendre promptly managed to persuade Steve to sell him the second one! So then there were two…
I tried to order one as soon as I got home but they were out of stock at both the UK & European warehouses. However last week I spotted they were back in stock in Europe so I immediately ordered one (should have ordered two or three, the £8 postage would have stayed the same). It arrived one lunchtime and that same evening I had four flights with it! So then there were three…
You may recall that a couple of months back my SportJet had a slightly vertical arrival whilst flying with the identical SportJets of 1066 & Dougal, a classic case of mistaken identity. To avoid similar problems with the Spirit I have cunningly applied the fin stickers differently on my Spirit. Some may think I simply got it wrong but obviously it was intentional… ahem.
I’m sure a few more will be purchased before too long, they really are great fun to fly.
There have also been a couple of other electric gliders at the patch this month; the great weather must have brought them out. One belongs to Desperate Dan, the other to Dougal. Dan’s is a Phoenix 2000 from HobbyKing, and it’s actually a replacement for one that disproved the ‘virtually indestructible’ claim when the receiver packed up before I even had a chance to photograph it. Apparently it went in very hard from a great height so it’s not surprising it was totalled. The replacement seems to fly very well and I saw it up pretty high on Sunday. It’s got EPO wings and tail but unusually, the fuselage is blow moulded nylon with ply reinforcement. For just under £50 you get everything except the receiver and lipo, although I see Dan has added the optional flaps which would have required another couple of servos.
Dougal’s is a totally different machine, as you can see it’s a proper ‘built from balsa’ glider to which Mark has added a small pylon that holds the electric motor. It’s an Olympic, which was a plan from the American mag RCM back in the 70’s and its 100” span. Dougal has added some sheeting and rib capping strips to improve the torsional rigidity of the wing. He was having problems with the speed controller last week so has now fitted a new one, but the plane flew very nicely anyway.
Smiffy (remember him?) reappeared on Sunday after a long absence. He was flying a Dago Red Racer from YT International which has a fibreglass fuselage with carbon reinforcements and an obechi skinned foam wing. It comes complete with servos, motor, esc etc and is reckoned to do 120mph straight and level! It obviously scares Smiffy as there didn’t seem to be much full throttle flying as far as I could see but it certainly shifted around very rapidly. Looks like a few minutes of adrenaline filled fun.
John Wheeley went right out of character a couple of weeks ago and turned up with an EDF F-4 Phantom. It’s a Starmax one and I initially thought it used the same motor and 50mm fan as my little Grippen but after some investigation I think it must be a 64mm fan version. It’s 540mm span and weighs around 19ozs, uses a 1300mAh 3 cell lipo.
It went away well from the launch and continued to fly well although elevator control seemed to be an issue, particularly when John throttled it back a bit. He flew for around four minutes and got it down with just some very minor damage to the foam. Smiffy reckons that the nozzle angle on the Starmax model is incorrect and it needs some throttle/elevator mixing. He could well be right but it’s difficult to tell from the one flight it’s had so far. One thing that surprised me was that it had around 60% left in the pack after the flight, remarkable considering it’s a 1300mAh pack, so maybe John just needed more throttle! I liked it a lot and would like to have a go with it to see if I could figure out the problem. I took some video of the launch and some of the flight but unfortunately missed the landing. You can see it here: Phantom first flight
John also kept our attention by adding a small video camera to his Multiplex TwinStar. Not sure which camera it is but it seems to be good, has quite a wide angle lens and records good quality video. I’ve uploaded some of John’s first efforts, as well as circuits around the field it catches Desperate Dan’s Wot4 Foam-e and, very briefly, my Grippen. There is also a moment of both Dan and I being stupid, we do it so well! It’s worth a look, see it here: Onboard the TwinStar
To go with his new glider Dan has purchased an Orange transmitter. It’s the first one I’ve seen in the flesh and it looks like a nice bit of kit for the money. I don’t think you’ll find another 6 channel, 10 model memory transmitter that has all the usual dual rates, expo, mixers etc for under £40.
It looks slightly odd at first with its opaque orange case but I expect you soon get used to it. It operates on DSM2 so presumably it’s compatible with Spektrum DSM2 receivers as well as the Orange ones. Bargain.
John Reynolds brought another old model along one midweek day; this one is a Middle Stick. Some of the older modellers will probably remember the Stick series of models from the 60’s/70’s. As well as the Middle Stick there was an Ugly Stick, Big Stick, Little Stick, Slow Stick and no doubt several others. John’s is powered by a Webra I/C motor, the plane is 55” span so the motor is probably a 40 I expect. Graupner kitted the Middle Stick but I imagine plans were also available from various sources, so I’m not sure of the origins of Johns. It looks nice and flies well.
We had a rare visit from John Barnard in July. John is a PAM member but usually flies at the syndicate field. I think he’s realised it’s time to learn to fly properly (that should wind up any syndicate members who read this!) and came along to see how we do it. As John Reynolds remarked “The flying part is easy, it’s the pits protocol that’s hard to get right!”. Anyway John B had brought along an electric powered model, the name of which totally escapes me. It looks a lot like a Hots from back in the late 80’s but I don’t think it is. Perhaps John will enlighten us.
He had one flight which went well, it just needed a bit of trimming, but when he went to take off for the second flight there was nothing, no radio, no motor, nothing. After a little waggling of wires suddenly everything worked again, not a happy situation. We did some more wire waggling and it seemed to be the factory fitted connector on the battery pack that was the problem but we couldn’t be 100% certain so John wisely decided to do a thorough examination of it all at home on the bench. He was very lucky that the fault showed up just as he went to take-off rather than 10 seconds later, happily the model lives to fly again.
The Wot4 Foam-e is an excellent model but, like many ARTFs, the undercarriage does seem to fail all too easily. To be fair they probably aren’t too bad if you have a long tarmac runway but they just don’t seem to last long on a small grass patch. Desperate Dan kindly demonstrated the problem for us the other day.
Richard King has suffered the same problem but has come up with a neat solution. He has used a two wire system to replace the original alloy undercarriage but what the photo can’t show is that part of the new wooden mount goes a looong way down (up?) into the fuselage. That gives a good area to glue and means the leverage that occurs in a heavy landing won’t simply rip it out again.
You may have seen that in the comments on the last Patch News Smiffy posted a photo of me that he had modified by adding a clowns outfit. I was going to get my own back and went through the various photos I have of him but nothing I could do to any of them could possibly make him look more ridiculous anyway. But Cyano Steve had different thoughts and produced this little gem:
Good one Steve!
Cessna: “Jones tower, Cessna 12345, student pilot, I am out of fuel.” Tower: “Roger Cessna 12345, reduce airspeed to best glide!! Do you have the airfield in sight?!?!!” Cessna: “Uh…tower, I am on the south ramp; I just want to know where the fuel truck is.”
Colin Cowplain
Patch News – June 2014
As most of you will know I’ve recently spent two weeks on holiday in Cornwall. This means that not only is this issue very late but also I missed out on quite a lot of what actually happened in June. So now I’m faced with a bit of a dilemma, should I stretch out the info I have got or should I simply invent stuff? You know the sort of thing: Multiple Models Montague failed to buy any new models in June, Steve 1066 Hastings finally cracked hovering, Burly Turley didn’t speak for three consecutive minutes… no I’m just being ridiculous now, better stick to the truth!
I’ll start with some info that Dougal Entendre (Mark Agate) kindly sent me. You may remember that in the May Patch News I posted a photo of 1066’s broken Extra, with Steve showing his pleasure at having his picture taken. Well the damaged model was passed on to Mark who made a beautiful job of the repairs.
However, apparently 1066 didn’t pass on his ‘slow and low high alpha’ skills and after only a few minutes the Extra decided to stop flying! Mark now knows that slow and low high alpha flight requires large and rapid applications of throttle at the correct moment, or the model just stops and falls.
Unfortunately the resulting damage proved terminal for the airframe although the hardware was fine so it wasn’t a total loss.
Dougal had also suffered another loss earlier in the month but at least I was present to enjoy it! His little Spad had a mid-air with a larger model (I forget who so I’ll say it was Bob Hill, he seems a likely candidate).
As the Spad was so small and light it was bound to come off badly in any collision but it was a shame to see it meet its end like that.
Onto happier things now, a couple of new models had their maiden flights. First off was Viv Burgess’s with his new PT-19 (Boeing Stearman) from HobbyKing. It’s a PNF (plug n’ fly) so comes complete with motor & prop, speed controller, and 4 servos. All you need to add is a receiver and a 4 cell lipo pack and for under £90 you have a 1200mm span scale trainer from World War Two.
I can confirm it’s a lovely flier, Viv was kind enough to let me have a go. It has loads of power, more than is scale in fact, and will do all the aerobatics you could expect from a biplane trainer.
The second new model was a Splot built by Gentleman Jim Hobday. Yes built, from a plan, from real balsa wood!
The Splot was designed back in the 1980’s by ex PAM member Graham Head and his original was powered by an OS20 four stroke, the latest thing in those days. Graham designed it as a quick and easy model to build, hence the unswept 36” span wing with no dihedral. It turned out to be a very good all round sport model and modellers started fitting bigger and bigger engines, the OS25FSR being a favourite. With an excellent power to weight ratio it was great for ‘fly for fun’ competitions and PAM members had great success with them. Sussex Model Centre even kitted them for a while.
I had an electric version several years ago, back in the days when it needed a heavy 10 cell Nicad to make it perform decently. Since then of course things have moved on a lot and now they fly very well on a 3 cell lipo, which is what Jim’s uses. He’s made an excellent job of it and sensibly included a hatch on the fuselage underside to make battery changes easy. It flies just the same as the I/C powered ones always did but without the noise and oily mess. Desperate Dan has offered to run off some copies of the plan if you’re interested in having a go at one.
We had a couple of old timers turn up the field the other day… and they were both flying Junior 60s!
John Reynolds model is powered by an elderly OS20 I/C motor and the airframe is covered in Solartex, very smart it looks too. The other Junior 60 belongs to Dave Campling and the airframe is pretty elderly but John has replaced the original I/C engine with an electric motor. The power train actually came straight from a Wot 4 Foam-E and it powered the model very well. The covering is original and shows the stains of its I/C powered past.
Both models were controlled by 35meg radio which somehow seems more appropriate than 2.4ghz although 27meg single channel would be even better. Of course the original was free-flight but the addition of radio saves an awful lot of running around! It was good to see the models flying together…took me back to…well before I was born I think! By the time I started modelling in around 1962 the Junior 60 had been replaced by the Super Sixty and then, a few years later, the Mini Super came along.
Cyano Steve had a slight mishap with his large Velox early in June. As you can see the model suffered a broken fuselage but no doubt Steve will soon have it repaired. When a pilot pushes the envelope as much as Steve does mishaps like this are bound to happen now and again.
Control: “AF1733, You are on an eight mile final for 27R. You have a UH-1 three miles ahead of you on final; reduce speed to 130 knots.”
Pilot: “Rogo’, Frankfurt. We’re bringing this big bird back to one-hundred and thirty knots fer ya.”
Control: (a few moments later): “AF33, helicopter traffic at 90 knots now1 1/2 miles ahead of you; reduce speed further to 110 knots.”
Pilot: “AF thirty-three reining this here bird back further to 110 knots”
Control: “AF33, you are three miles to touchdown, helicopter traffic now 1 mile ahead of you; reduce speed to 90 knots”
Pilot (a little miffed): “Sir, do you know what the stall speed of this here C-130 is?”
Control: “No, but if you ask your co-pilot, he can probably tell you.”
Colin Cowplain
