Patch News – June 2015
I’ll start with the CAP 20L of John Warren. John built the CAP a few months ago from a Peter Miller plan in RCM&E and converted it to electric power. It flew very nicely and looked ok but I remarked at the time that having proved it flew well John needed to add some trim to make it more scale and even prettier. Well now he has. 
Just the addition of some fairly straightforward stripes to the wings and a trim strip along the fuselage has made a huge difference and really brought the model alive. 
Unfortunately shortly after I took the photos John managed to break it! But have no fear, I’m sure it will soon all be repaired and flying again.
On the subject of repairs, you may remember that I bemoaned the Almost Ready To Fail undercarriage mountings found on many of the ARTFs nowadays, in particular the UglyStik from HobbyKing, one of which I own. It’s a great flier and, for a foamie, it’s a pretty good replica of the original balsa and ply model design that first appeared in the 70’s, even sporting a dummy I/C engine that hides the fact that it’s gone all modern and is electric powered. But the undercarriage mounting was just too weak and I managed to tear it out on our grass patch. Captain Slow was especially pleased to see me do it as I’d previously featured his own UglyStik with the undercarriage removed in the same manner. Anyway, the problem was quickly sorted with the addition of a much stronger ply plate to replace the plastic original and I found it could then withstand the rigours of multiple touch-and-go’s with ripping out again. But now I’ve found another problem. Having strengthened the undercarriage mounting hugely the stresses are transferred to the next weak area…and the whole nose comes off!
‘It was a pretty gentle landing honest guv.’ So then I inset a strip of spruce on each side of the fuselage but on the very next flight I found that the spruce flexed enough to allow the foam the crack without breaking the spruce! Now I’ve added thin ply doublers to each side (inside) to spread the load and stop the flexing and so far they seem to have done the trick.
Fingers crossed, watch this space. Of course it wasn’t all bad news, all the nasty boys in the pits really enjoyed the sight of my poor Stik breaking its nose!
I reported last month that Tim ‘Modelling’ Clay had learnt to fly and passed his ‘A’ test in a remarkably short time, flying his ST Models Discovery. He has also been flying a Bixler 2 with great success and in June he added a Wot 4 Foam-E to his growing fleet.
Steve 1066 did the first take-off and trimmed the model before handing the transmitter over to Modelling Clay who promptly demonstrated some very acceptable loops and rolls before performing a perfect landing smack in the middle of the patch.
One of the older club members was heard muttering ‘I wish he’d hurry up and break it so I can go home happy’! I would name the culprit but I don’t want to upset anyone…especially Bob Hill!
Dwayne Pipe (Keith) turned up at one of the rather windy midweek flying sessions with a new electric glider. It’s new to Dwayne, having previously been owned by ex-member Jim De’ath. Unfortunately Jim had to give up aeromodelling a few years ago when he had a health issue but he now attends an art group run by Dwayne. It’s a small world, nice to hear that Jim is enjoying a different hobby. The model is a Vega, designed by Neville Mattingly many moons ago, and was kitted under the Wonderwings name.
It has a GRP fuselage and, I think, veneered foam wings and Dwayne has fitted it with a modern electric outrunner and 3 cell lipo. As it’s a bit of an unknown we watch the first flight with some trepidation but all was well.
It has tiny ailerons and they didn’t seem very effective at all so Dwayne had to use lots of rudder as well, and the blustery conditions weren’t ideal for a test flight but after an anxious first minute or so Dwayne had largely tamed it and brought it back to a successful landing. I videoed the flight and some of it can be seen on the MONTHLY VIDEO
Desperate Dan flew a flying wing at the patch during June, a Tek Sumo. It’s fully equipped with FPV (First Person View) and a video camera and flew surprisingly well I thought.
A pilot flying FPV must have a spotter who watches the model and advises the pilot if they’re getting too far away or close to objects etc and I helped Dan out for one flight. He is now well used to flying FPV, although mostly with drones, and he had no problems flying it around at all. A couple of times the watchers from the pits thought he got too close to the road and he was genuinely surprised by the comments as he was happy that he was well clear of it. I wonder if it’s down to the camera making everything look further away than it really is, it’s all down to field of view apparently. Anyway, after a few minutes Dan offered me a go.
I somewhat reluctantly agreed, my previous attempt with one of Dan’s FPV planes didn’t end well although he assures me it was caused by a battery connection failure. The Tek Sumo was fine, easy to fly around and, once I’d settled down, reasonably easy to know where I was. It’s all very well being able to fly the plane around but to be aware of where it actually is in relation to the patch is a whole different thing, I suppose it comes with practice but I can certainly see why a spotter is essential.
Dan says it’s easier if you fly lower but I was keeping fairly high just in case…! Dougal said he’d like to see the view through the goggles but he didn’t want to take control at the same time so I flew it ‘normally’ while he wore the goggles. He seemed quite impressed until I started doing aerobatics and made him feel sick! I can see why many FPV pilots sit on a chair while they fly. To see some of Dan’s flight watch the MONTHLY VIDEO
John McEvoy has been building a Smith Miniplane for a while and he’s now completed it. It’s built from the Sig Manufacturing kit and John has made an absolutely beautiful job of it, faultless.
The original full-size Miniplane was designed and built in 1957 by Frank Smith of Fullerton, California, and was an early example of engineering with the amateur homebuilder and weekend pilot in mind. It could be constructed with tools easily within reach of the average craftsman, and in the air it was stable and easy to fly. The top wing spanned 17 feet, and the empty weight was a mere 600 pounds. Powered by a 100hp Lycoming, the tiny Miniplane cruised at 120 mph, climbed at a fantastic 2,500 ft. per minute, and was highly aerobatic. It was just what many sportsman pilots were looking for! In 1974, Glen Sigafoose, then President of Sig Mfg. Co., acquired a complete Smith Miniplane to use for aerobatic practice. Glen’s beautiful red, white, and black aircraft was the inspiration for Sig 44” span kit version of the Miniplane.
John has fitted a Saito four stroke engine to his model, I think it’s the FA-62 but I could be wrong. That is 0.62 cu inch or 10cc, so quite a large motor for a 44” span bipe but I think John said it weighs nearly eight pounds so it’s no lightweight. John brought the model up to the patch unexpectedly and we didn’t have either of the noise meters available but it didn’t seem too loud so we allowed a couple of test flights. But it will have to pass the 82dB sound test before flying again. I did the test flight and it flew as well as it looks, lovely, no vices, gentle stall, and very aerobatic.
John did the second take-off with no problems and then flew around very happily and performed the usual loops and rolls etc. The engine tick-over speed was a little high so the model wouldn’t slow up quite enough on the approach so both landings ran into the long grass but with no damage. So now there are just two things that must be sorted, the noise test (which I doubt will be a problem), and John must take his ‘A’ certificate. It’s ridiculous, John is perfectly capable of passing the test, he flies better than many of the new members that have passed the test as part of their learning process. Come on John, it’s unfair to all the others that have made the effort, unfair to the qualified pilot that has to stand next to you, and it’s breaking club rules, so TAKE THE TEST! To see some video of John flying the Miniplane watch the MONTHLY VIDEO
Dougal Entendre has been good enough to send some info and photos of things I missed in the second half of the month; first of all, 1066 Hastings has at last realised his limitations and has gone back to flying a trainer, a Wot 4.
Well ok, that may not strictly be true, it’s not a Wot 4 it’s a HobbyKing Apprentice 64E Intermediate Trainer. He won it in the club raffle (that he runs buts I’m inferring nothing…). Apparently the CG was too far back initially so Steve had to add a fair bit of lead to the nose, and he then felt it was a bit underpowered with the stock set-up so is planning to try a larger propeller. If that doesn’t work he’ll switch to a larger motor.
Chris Hard has emerged from his winter hibernation and flew one of his flying wings, this one is a Ripmax Wild Wing, and he’s using a 3S 2350mah lipo, 150Watt 1700KV outrunner, 6 x 5.5 prop.
Look at that transmitter, a great long aerial with frequency number on it, must be 35 MHz, how quaint, I remember those! Seriously though, there’s nothing wrong with 35 MHz as long as you can get around possible interference that can cause glitches when using electric power.
Dwayne Pipe sent me the following: Spektrum DSM2 alert
An article in the June RCME by Simon Cocker made me aware of a couple of issues of the much maligned Spektrum DSM2 system used by a lot of club members. They may also apply to other receiver systems as well so don’t get smug because you fly something else. It may also account for some of the unexplained crashes we get.
The first is that the 2.4GHz system uses a line of sight signal so that if the plane can’t see the transmitter because its flown behind dense tree cover, or into the valley of death, or someone has walked in front of the transmitter, you lose the connection to the plane and the controls on the plane go to failsafe until the line of sight is restored.
The second is more dangerous and involves the receivers’ failsafe settings in the event of power failure. The receiver needs to see a clean start up at the right voltage when the power is connected. If the receiver power is interrupted due to dodgy connections or shaky hands while connecting the battery, the receiver will be only partially bound. That means that the range of the receiver is limited making it much easier for the plane to fly out of range and control. It will pass all the ground checks and you will only notice the problem in flight. The Spektrum receivers are fitted with led’s which are a continuous red when correctly bound and flash if partially bound. The solution to this problem is to arrange your Spektrum receivers so that you can positively see that the led’s are continuous red after you have connected the battery and before you fly. Thanks for that Keith, important information.
Early in the month there were five Spirits at the patch so, with agreement of the committee members that were present, we flew all five together.
Lots of fun, quite a sight, and no issues! There was good thermal lift on 21st June and when Captain Slow and Dougal flew their Spirits they went for duration, with Dougal landing at 20 minutes 31 seconds from a 6 minute motor run, and with 47% capacity remaining in the 1500mAh pack. Not bad for a cheap foamie!
One evening whilst in South Wales I had a couple of flights with my Spirit on Swansea beach.
Captain Slow turned up with an old Ripmax Coyote, which he had previously flown as a sloper, but had now electrified.
The canopy is part of an old Coke bottle due to a previous incident. It was a real handful on the first flight due to a rearward CG, but he moved the batteries forward and transformed it into a much gentler beast for the second flight. It looks as if it has a very short moment arm so I can imagine the CG would be quite critical.
This month, instead of my usual joke I’m using a cartoon that Dougal found in a BARCS newsletter from the mid-1980s.
Colin Cowplain
Patch News – May 2015
Time flies and already it’s nearly June so time to report on May. The May weather was a bit of a let-down after some of the lovely weather we had in April, rather wet and fairly windy, although there were some decent flying days as well. Fortunately it was good for our annual pilgrimage to the Blackbushe Model Show.
Incidentally, I will be away quite a lot in June so all reports/photos/videos will be extra welcome, thanks.
I was in Spain for a week in May but I did manage one flying shot.
To start off, I must include a couple of things that I forgot in April. The first one wasn’t actually at the patch; it was before the start of one of our club meetings at Buriton. Steve 1066 decided that a bit of limbo between the goal posts was a good idea…it wasn’t, those steel goal posts are very hard!
Secondly, I had forgotten to take a photo of Richard King after he had taken his ‘A’ test. Well here he is, looking suitably pleased with his achievement, well done Richard.
He doesn’t have a nickname yet, somehow Dick King doesn’t seem quite right…any ideas?
I must thank Richard for taking most of the video in this month’s video, everything before 1066 with his DLG was filmed by Richard, to watch it click on MONTHLY VIDEO and you’ll see Dougal’s Spitfire & Laius, Mike Smith’s Squall, Nigel Baker’s Wots Wot, Steve H’s Apollo DLG, and a couple of snippets from Blackbushe.
Last month I related the sorry tale of the first flight on newbie Tim Clay’s ST Discovery. If you remember it crashed before he even got to touch the transmitter, some sort of record I think! But now both the Discovery and Tim are flying really well, Tim has completed many flights totally by himself, including the take-offs and landings, with just the odd word of advice and guidance from whichever ‘expert’ has been with him. He managed a bit of a cartwheel on one landing which caused minor damage but that was soon sorted.
I’m sure Tim will be taking his ‘A’ test in the next couple of weeks.
Tim has also been flying his second model, a HobbyKing Bixler 2.
I have to say the Bixler seems an excellent model, flies really well, stable, but also aerobatic when required, I can see why they are so popular.
I mentioned Blackbushe earlier, this year it was on 16th May. I won’t say too much about it as I think DoughBoy (treasurer Nick Squire) is going to write a proper report with lots of quality photos.
Unlike last year (which became known as Crashbushe) there was no carnage, in fact I didn’t see a single crash all day. It seemed as if half the club was there to see some great flying, helped no doubt by the presence of Ali Machinchy, and some superb models.
Viv (Stanley Knife) said he would like to have seen more ‘club’ style models such as Acro-Wots and such like and I think he has a point; virtually everything flying was a ‘show’ model rather than the sort of stuff we fly week in week out. And Chairman Ron pointed out that there weren’t many warbirds this year, although there was a Battle of Britain Memorial Flight trio of a Lanc, Spit, and Hurricane. There were loads of jets, turbines are becoming increasingly common these days, lower costs and simplicity of operation are big factors I imagine.
This year the show was opened by Steve Holland flying a 66% scale, 4 metre span Aerokot, the full-size itself being a home-built modelled on a Bucker Jungmeister.
It is powered by a DA150 petrol engine and Steve used his expertise to show it off very well I thought.
But I wouldn’t want to pay the fuel bill!
The Bishops father and son team were flying new models this year, Krill Avanti S’s with Jet Italia turbines.
They hadn’t flown the models together before Blackbushe and understandably they weren’t as good in formation as we are used to seeing with their Red Arrows Hawks but by their third flight of the day there was a noticeable improvement.
But what made them stand out was the thrust vectoring fitted to the models which enabled them to prop hang (?), amazing to watch, especially when they turned the smoke on!
There was another jet duo; Simon Potter and Paul Camilleri, flying 2.5 metre span Tomahawk Futura jets.
They were also very good, one of them doing a pass so low I don’t think there would have been room to lower the wheels…seriously!
When the commentator said that Ali was flying with Spektrum radio in his jet DoughBoy and 1066 laughed but Tim fell to his knees in prayer!
Fortunately there weren’t many helicopter slots, something for which us fixed wing pilots were grateful, they are just boring to us I’m afraid, a real yawn.
Gentleman Jim obviously thought so anyway!
Captain Altitude (Woody) splashed his cash on a new Spektrum DX6 to replace his DX6i that is playing up. He’s pictured here testing it out at our field the next day.
Smiffy bought a Blade helicopter to play with in his garden and then realised that it was Bind’n’Fly so his Hitec transmitter wouldn’t bind to it. A normal person would have simply fitted the chopper with a Hitec receiver but not Smiffy; he bought a Spektrum DX6 transmitter instead.
There weren’t too many new models seen at the patch this month but Stanley Knife turned up with this lovely new Spacewalker.
It’s from HobbyKing and at 1580mm span it’s designed to be either I/C or electric powered. Stanley chose the electric route of course and obviously got the motor/battery choice just right as the model flies beautifully.
It’s a ‘proper’ film covered balsa and ply model with a GRP cowl, not a foamie.
In traditional manner Nigel Baker managed to remove the Almost Ready To Fail undercarriage from the new fuselage of his Wot 4 Foam-E. It’s nothing that a decent ply plate won’t sort out.
You can tell that summer is on its way, several models that we haven’t seen over the winter made re-appearances. Mike Smith flew his Phase 3 Squall again in May, the first time for a few months.
It’s EDF and I’d forgotten how quick it goes, and it rolls like an electric drill. It features in this MONTHLY VIDEO
Dan Handley flew his Dynam Hurricane for the first time in a while.
It’s 1250mm span, uses a 4 cell lipo to drive a 600kv motor, and comes fitted with worm drive retracts.
It’s a foamie but it looks great and flies very well.
The rather battled scarred SE5a belonging to Bob Hill also flew again this month.
It flies well but isn’t a model you’d want to fly in the winds of winter, especially the winds we get on top of Chidden Down.
The Spirit Mini Sport gliders continue to thrive and Tony Neal has now joined the throng, although he has gone for a Kinetic instead of a Spirit. The two models are virtually identical although they are fitted with different motors. A few Spirit motors have failed (including my own) and HobbyKing don’t stock replacements so the easy choice is to fit a Kinetic motor instead. They aren’t a direct swap but are pretty easy to fit, although it is necessary to use a Kinetic prop as well.
Bob Hill has also gone the Kinetic route; I think he managed to destroy his Spirit in a less than perfect ‘arrival’. I have only just discovered that the Kinetic comes with the decals already applied. As applying the decals is the biggest job required to complete the Spirit I reckon the Kinetic is the way to go.
As I’m talking about the Spirits I’ll include a photo that Dougal Entendre sent me a little while ago. His elevator servo needed replacing so he had to remove the servo cover that is factory fitted. He says it was easy to prise off and he managed to replace the servo and refit the cover without problems.
I was surprised by the servo layout; I had assumed both the servos would be fitted upright, not with one laying on its side.
I took the plunge in the HobbyKing May Day sale and ordered a Hummer. It’s one of those horribly ugly 3D EPP profile fuselage things made from packing cases but it does what it’s supposed to do. It was only £16 odd so I thought I should at least try 3D to find out what the appeal is. So far I haven’t found out!
That’s probably because mostly I’ve found out that I can’t do it but I’ve only had a few flight so I’ll keep at it and see what happens. The ‘kit’ was pretty good, everything fitted ok, and the carbon rods alone would have cost more than the whole kit at most models shops. I used cyano for virtually the whole of the construction, time will tell whether that was wise or just lazy.
Unbeknown to me Dougal was putting one together at the same time so now there are two of us trying to learn how to prop hang. We could be the next Bishops…or not.
The last new model we saw in May was 1066’s Apollo DLG. This is yet another from HobbyKing, and has a fibreglass fuselage pod and tail boom, with pre covered balsa and ply built up wings and tail.
The HK listing mentions composite so I think it must have carbon in the spar. A full composite DLG model costs a lot of money, this one is under £50. For those who don’t know, DLG stands for Discus Launch Glider, and that’s just how they are launched. There is a peg mounted vertically through the wingtip that the pilot hooks his fingers round, he then spins round a complete turn and releases the model into wind. Once the technique is mastered the models can reach amazing height and, being very lightly built, they can stay aloft for a considerable time, searching out the weakest of thermals. It’s a highly skilled class of modelling, and it will be interesting to see how Steve gets on with it once he’s mastered the launch and trimmed the model correctly. See it in action in the MONTHLY VIDEO
Meanwhile 1066 has been showing off his knife-edging skills with his Extra 300. This one is an ex-Cyano Steve model, produced by 3D Hobby Shop.
Captain Slow was good enough to send me a link to an airline Safety Announcement, it’s very funny and well worth watching, you can see it by clicking: HERE
STOP PRESS: Tim Clay took and passed his BMFA ‘A’ certificate this morning. Well done Tim, you’ve reached this stage very quickly, some of the more experienced pilots are watching you with envy!
Remember: You do not need a parachute to skydive. You only need a parachute to skydive twice.
Colin Cowplain
Patch News – April 2015
April saw the weather improve dramatically and for a couple of weeks after Easter it was perfect for flying. The Midweekers made good use of the weather and flew lots. Chairman Ron cut the grass a few times and the patch was looking great…until the sheep and cows arrived. Never mind, I expect they’ll soon be gone. Of course there were some bad days as well, the last Sunday in April was very grey with low mist/cloud and although we flew it wasn’t ideal. However the following day was absolutely glorious and I took this photo so the people who were back at work won’t feel too left out, obviously we felt for them!
I’ll start this month with a link that has absolutely nothing to do with the patch or even the club but it’s sort of aviation and it’s just so good you all need to see it, trust me, you will like it! CLICK HERE
We had a new arrival in April, Tim Clay. He is new to flying but his dad is a long term modeller and Chairman of Eastbourne & District Model Flying Club so Tim has grown up with modelling. He’s spent some time on a simulator and it shows. Tim had obviously taken advice from dad and he turned up with an ST Discovery, an ideal electric powered trainer, and he was equipped with two transmitters and a buddy lead.
Unfortunately we didn’t get off to a good start. Steve 1066 checked it all over and trimmed the model out on the master TX, did a couple of rolls etc. , then passed control to me on the slave TX. I trimmed it out and then did a roll but when I stopped the roll the plane carried on. Steve released the buddy switch to take back control but the plane just kept rolling all the way into the deck.
Hang on; I think I might have spotted a problem with the slave TX…
Fortunately the damage wasn’t too bad but it certainly wasn’t what should have happened. The plane has been repaired and has now had several flights (without using the buddy lead) with no further problems.
Both Steve and I have since taken Tim for flights with the Discovery so hopefully he knows we are aren’t really a pair of idiots. We don’t know for sure what the problem was but we think the radio went into failsafe mode and it was possibly something related to the buddy lead. Guess what make the radio is… no I mustn’t! Following the crash Richard King kindly let Tim have several flights with his Clouds Fly and it was immediately clear that Tim won’t take long to learn how to fly.
Richard King’s flying has been steadily improving, flying both his Clouds Fly and Wot 4 Foam-E, and most of his training has been undertaken with Dougal Entendre (Mark Agate) supervising. As Dougal is now a club examiner it seemed fitting that he should take Richard for his ‘A’ test. Richard was certainly ready for the test and seemed determined to prove it by taking the test on a day when there was a howling gale blowing. All went well, Richard certainly showed he can fly a Wot 4 in pretty much any weather, and he passed the test and received his certificate at the following club meeting. Well done Richard.
Sadly I forgot to take a photo of Richard, in fact looking back through my pictures I don’t think I’ve ever taken a one of him, although I have found one of his Clouds Fly.
Several new models were flown in April, first up is Mike Smith with his Great Planes Tracer. The Tracer is a ‘proper’ plane, a balsa and ply kit of laser cut parts, that you have to glue together yourself and then cover.
The model is 1335mm span and weighs around 2.4kg. It’s supposed to have a 40-51 cu.in I/C engine but of course Mike has converted it to electric. He also added electric retracts which seemed to work well on the test flight. The landing caught Mike out, he let the Tracer get a tad too slow but I don’t think there was any damage.
You can see some of the Tracer’s first flight and lots of other members and their models in THIS MONTHS VIDEO which you can see by CLICKING HERE
I included a photo of Dougal Entendre’s nose-less Spitfire in the March Patch News, the result of a cartwheel on take-off. Dougal was keen to explain that it went back together well and in the Comments section last month there was some discussion about paints and the different shades of grey on offer.
He sent through some photos to show the end result, but I’m not certain his research was quite correct.
1066 has put together another HK 3D style model, this time it’s a Katana and he has set it up for a 4 cell lipo instead of 3. He still has the first pale green MXS, which flies very well, but I think this one looks better in red, white, and blue.
They are both of unusual construction; they have a lite-ply frame that is covered in EPP foam. It shows up well in the photo below, the manufacturer has even put lightening holes in the box that houses the wing joining tube which seems a little excessive to me.
The Katana certainly performs well and can be seen in THIS MONTHS VIDEO.
Smiffy is also known as The Invisible Man because he seems to disappear for a few months at a time, but he reappeared in April and flew on several days. As always, he had more equipment than I take when I go camping for a fortnight.
He brought along some models we’d seen before but also some new ones. When we all started flying the little Spirit Mini Sport electric gliders last year Smiffy called us clowns and the planes ‘Mini Gay Gliders’! Well, now he’s seen how they perform (I was brave enough to let him have a fly of mine) he’s a convert and has bought one himself. No doubt his will soon be fitted with an exotic hot motor and a 10 cell lipo but in the meantime he’s enjoying it in stock form. He also had a larger electric glider with him, a 2 metre span Kunlun 2000 from CM Pro. No, I’ve never heard of it either. It looks as if it should be a hotliner with its moulded fuselage but apparently the forums warn of overstressing the wings so Andy will have to be a little careful with it, more of a warmliner perhaps.
Following some advice found online he changed the tail configuration from a T-tail to a V-tail. The major reason for this was that the model comes out very tail heavy so removing the fibreglass fin and cutting the original tail-plane in half to use as a V-tail makes it possible to balance the model without needing loads of lead in the nose. He fitted a Dualsky 850kV motor, a 60A esc, and a 4 cell lipo driving an 11 x 6 prop but it was rather tame so he tried a 12 x 6 which was much better, and has ordered a 13 x 7 to try next. It looked pretty good to me although it would definitely benefit from having a bit more oomph. But try not to rip the wings off Smiffy.
The final new model he flew was an E-flite Carbon-Z Yak 54 3X, bit of a mouthful so let me explain! The Carbon-Z part refers to the type of construction; apparently it’s extremely light whilst retaining the strength for violent manoeuvres. The 3X part of the name only applies if you either buy the BNF (Bind-N- Fly) version or fit a Spektrum AS3X-AR635 receiver to the PNP (Plug-N-Play) version. AS3X is Artificial Stabilization 3 aXis, in other words the receiver has a built in 3 way gyro that can be programmed in different ways, either to provide extra stability or to give enhanced agility. Smiffy bought the PNP version and as he uses Hitec radio gear he doesn’t have the gyros.
Anyway, it’s a Yak 54, 1220mm span, is fitted with a 25 size 1000kV motor and runs on 4 cells. Following his usual very thorough pre-flight checks Smiffy attempted the first take-off only to find the motor was running backwards. Obviously we were all very sympathetic and barely mentioned it!
I was videoing at the time so you can enjoy the moment in THIS MONTHS VIDEO. Once the motor was sorted the Yak flew well and should be a really good 3D machine when Smiffy gets used to it.
The Spirit motor doesn’t seem to be available as a spare so my own Spirit has been fitted with a Kinetic motor and prop after the original failed. A couple of weeks ago it threw a prop blade and the imbalance tore the motor mount clean off the fuselage, destroying most of the foam around the area. Whilst ordering a pair of prop blades I noticed HK also stock the Kinetic motor mount which, unlike the Spirit one, has a couple of side cheeks that fit around the nose. Fitting this to the Spirit strengthens the nose generally and in my case made the nose rebuild much simpler.
I took the opportunity to tidy up the fuselage front with a bit of filler, some acrylic paint, and a couple of new stickers.
John Warren has been successfully flying an old biplane for a long time, in fact it first flew over 20 years ago when it was I/C powered. It’s a Sunday Flyer, designed by Mike Conrad in 1989 and described as a vintage style sports biplane. John converted it to electric power when he joined us at PAM but until recently it has only had rudder and elevator controls, no ailerons. Then, a few weeks ago John decided that it might be worth trying to fit some ailerons and I suggested it would be pretty straightforward to build a new bottom wing incorporating them. But John had other ideas; he simply tacked some ailerons onto the trailing edge of the existing wing!
Despite my mockery of the end result John asked me to test fly the plane and I found that, surprisingly, the ailerons worked well and the model was much more precise in its flying than before. John has now had several flights with it himself.
Landing on the ship during the daytime is like sex, it’s either good or it’s great. Landing on the ship at night is like a trip to the dentist, you may get away with no pain, but you just don’t feel comfortable. — LCDR Thomas Quinn, USN.
Colin Cowplain
Patch News – March 2015
Last week Dougal Entendre sent me something he found in the April 1983 Epsom Radio Flying Club newsletter that seems appropriate for this time of year, he thinks it was written by the then editor, one Chris Hodson:
“In the Spring a livelier iris changes on the burnish’d dove;
In the Spring a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.”
When Tennyson wrote this immortal verse, it is obvious that he wasn’t referring to an aero-modeller! Most hot blooded fliers that I have met certainly don’t need the spring to trigger off their thoughts of love. They attend to that during the winter months. When the spring comes there are far more important things to think about.
And here we are once again, with mother nature performing her annual miracle. The daffodils are already past their best – and the trees are alive with blossom to delight us all. So with the promise of good flying days ahead, it’s time to get those models down from the top of the wardrobe – check the radios, paint the airframes, and head for the flying field.
Had Tennyson been a member of our club, he might have written:-
“IN THE SPRING THE SUMMER EVENINGS PROMISE DAYS OF PURE DELIGHT.
IN THE SPRING THE AEROMODELLER LIGHTLY TURNS HIS THOUGHTS TO FLIGHT.”
Sadly it’s been blowing a gale almost constantly since I received Dougal’s email but spring really is here and the weather is going to turn glorious at any moment…
March started much the same as it ended, very windy, and, as I mentioned in last month’s Patch News, on 1st March I managed to video 1066 and Captain Slow braving the gale. Several others of us also flew but it was a bit of an endurance test at times! Steve was flying his 4 cell Speedy glider which proved to be the ideal model for the conditions. John flew his Zagi, which also seemed unperturbed by the gales. To see the video CLICK HERE
A few months ago I featured Captain Slow’s Ugly Stik (I think I could have put that better!) and mentioned that I quite fancied one myself but felt they were a little expensive. Well in early March HobbyKing had a sale and the Ugly Stiks were half price from the UK warehouse. That was too good to refuse and a couple of days later one duly arrived having cost just £47.15 plus postage. That is an amazing price as it includes the EPO airframe, motor, speed controller, four servos, and the dummy I/C engine. The electric motor is mounted inside the front of the fuselage with an extension shaft running through the plastic dummy I/C engine.
Me and my new best friend Captain Slow with Ugly Stiks and Spirits!
The instruction manual is surprisingly good and assembly consists of just eight points, one of which is to fit the prop ‘with the Durafly logo facing outwards’. At the back of the manual is a Trouble Shooting section and one item is: Problem – Model moves backwards. Cause – Prop installed backwards. Solution – Turn the prop around. Err…no, fitting the prop backwards results in greatly reduced power but it still pushes the air in the same direction! In the ‘good old days’ before radio control and throttles we would sometimes fit a prop on backwards to reduce the power of an overpowered free flight model.
The suggested battery is a 3 cell 25C 2200 lipo and I was a little concerned that my 3 cell 25C 4000s might cause CG problems even if they fitted ok, but I needn’t have worried, I can report that a 3 cell 25C 4000 Zippy Compact fits snuggly and the CG is spot on. The extra weight probably reduces the performance a tad but it seems to go well enough to me and the flight times are ridiculous, I tend to land after around 12 minutes and usually have well over 30% left in the pack.
Captain Slow took this as I prepared for the first flight.
I had read reports of the bearing in the dummy I/C seizing and this can cause the esc to blow, possibly resulting in a loss of radio, so I was worried when mine suddenly made strange rev linked noises during the first couple of flights. I landed, checked all was ok, and took off again several times before discovering that the noise was caused by a piece of transparent film over the Durafly logo on the prop. The film had started to lift in the airflow and once these were removed from both blades the noise disappeared.
I’m still wary of the bearing seizing and have oiled it several times but so far I’ve had no problems. Like Captain Slow, I managed to pull the undercarriage out after a few flights. The landing really was quite gentle but the plastic undercarriage mounting is simply trapped between the two halves of the fuselage and doesn’t appear to have any glue on it all. So on the first landing that is anything less than perfect the plastic just pulls through the foam underside. Mine was soon put back in position but this time with copious amounts of Gorilla Glue. It’s stayed put for lots of flights since (including a touch and go) so I’m hoping it will be ok now. Fingers crossed…
Away from aero-modelling the supposed highlight of March was the near total eclipse of the sun at 9.30am on 20th March. Some of us Midweekers decided to go to the patch a little earlier than usual, hoping to get a good view of the eclipse from high up on the downs and then fly from 10am as usual. Sadly the 100% cloud cover meant we saw absolutely nothing of the sun but we were amazed by just how dark it got up there. It was very eerie, there was total silence as it grew darker and darker, and the birds obviously thought it was nightfall.
But, unlike them, we weren’t fooled, after a few minutes the daylight returned and we enjoyed the rest of the morning, flying as usual. Needless to say, later on the cloud broke and we saw the sun, typical!
Last month I said that Woody (Alan Wood) had replaced his much loved Seagull Pilatus PC9 with a… Seagull Pilatus PC9, but I had forgotten to photograph it. Well here it is, having corrected the CG it’s now flying just like the first one and we have a happy Woody once again.
Chairman Ron also likes the Seagull PC9, so much so that he actually has two of them. They have very lightweight ‘traditional’ built up structures which are covered in Oracover. I thought they might be a little fragile when I first saw them but in fact they have proved to be pretty durable, light but strong. They are excellent fliers and both Woody and Ron praise them highly. At just under £70 from Kings Lynn Model Shop what’s not to like?
Accompanying Ron’s PC9 in the photo is his Edge 540. This is another Seagull model with a similar light but strong structure and it also flies very well. Both models use the almost standard 3 cell 2200 lipo packs although the Extra can take 4 cells for those that want more extreme performance.
Ron’s Edge 540 also came from Kings Lynn Model Shop and if you’d like one, at £71.99 they are just £2 dearer than the PC9.
On 15th March the weather was windy (again) so not many fliers showed up but it turned out to be an interesting morning as the bottom lane was on the route of the Meon Valley Plod organised by Portsmouth Joggers. This was interesting not only because we were able to watch people even dafter than ourselves enjoying their sport but also because Dougal’s wife Angie was one of them! We lined up alongside the fence to cheer Angie on as she ran past, and then retreated to the comfort of our cars and home for a warm up.
The Plod is a very muddy cross-country run of just over 21 miles featuring six big hills with a total ascent of 2300ft…they must be mad! As she passed us Angie said she was struggling but she finished roughly in the middle of the pack with a time of 3 hours 37 minutes so very well done to her I say.
On the same day the other Agate (Dougal) didn’t do so well. As I said, it was very windy and as he attempted to get his Spit off the ground the wind got under one wing and it cartwheeled. Spitfires with scale retracts are notoriously difficult to get off the ground safely, they always try to ‘peck’ the prop into the ground and the pilot has to try to stop it by holding full up elevator until the speed has risen. Then, unless the elevator is perfectly managed, the plane jumps into the air with insufficient airspeed and there are dire consequences.
In calm weather Dougal often hand-launches his Spit with the wheels retracted as it’s impossible to stop it nosing in, but he thought he may have more control in the strong wind. Sadly he was wrong, but not to worry, the damage looked worse than it really was and Dougal reports the nose simply glued straight back in position with barely a mark to see.
Stanley Knife (Viv Burgess’ new self-imposed nickname) flew his large Stinson Reliant on one of the calmer midweek days. The model was designed to have a 160 I/C motor but Stanley has converted it to electric. 
It has loads of power and flies very well but Stanley is still finalising elevator movement and CG position as the model seems very sensitive to down elevator. So far, despite the motor producing around 2.7kW of power on 10 cells, each time Viv has landed after flights of around 5 minutes there has been around 80% left in the batteries. Once off the ground Stanley throttles back and the Stinson cruises round very regally.
On the last flight it suffered the usual ARTF undercarriage failure despite a reasonable landing but it was soon repaired and strengthened somewhat. I took some video of Stanley’s’ latest flight (including that landing) and have compiled it with various others taken in March, including Gentleman Jim, Chairman Ron, and Mike Smith’s new Pitts Python. To watch the video CLICK HERE
Last week I was looking forward to seeing Mike Smith test fly his new Great Planes Tracer aerobatic model that he’s converted to electric, but when he arrived at the patch he was carrying a biplane instead. Turns out he’d got the Tracer out of the car only to discover he’d left the wing bolts at home. What sort of an idiot does that…apparently almost all of us at some time or other! The biplane turned out to be a Dynam Pitts Python, a new model Mike that had recently purchased.
The original was designed by Curtis Pitts of course and the Python version was fitted with a Russian radial engine which gave it a superb power to weight ratio. The Dynam model is 1067mm span and only weighs 1300g so running a 650kVa motor on 4 cells means it also has a superb power to weight ratio.
Mike spent most of the morning plucking up the courage to fly his new pride and joy so he only had one flight but I’m happy to report that all went well. Being the first flight Mike didn’t do anything dramatic with the model but it certainly appears to fly well, has loads of power, and will obviously be a very capable performer.
Snippets of the first flight can be seen in the video mentioned in the previous section.
On the subject of Pitts, for those of you that I haven’t bored to death with the story, in 2010 I was bought an hour long aerobatic flight in a Pitts Special for my 60th birthday (yes, I know, I can’t possibly be that old etc…) and had a great time. It was from Rochester Airport in Kent with a pilot who competes in the British Aerobatic Association events in Pitts G-TIII. He let me fly a large part of the flight on the way to the aerobatic area on the Kent coast, then did all the usual gut wrenching things an aerobatic pilot does in a Pitts, and then let me fly most of the way back to Rochester. Amazing flight and no I wasn’t sick! The plane is currently up for sale so if you’d like your own Pitts and have £50k spare I can give you a phone number. If you’d like to see a video I did of the day CLICK HERE
Last week we had a lovely day with a reasonable wind that was in a perfect direction for the Sky Surfing Club who use Wether Down, up by the radio masts. We mostly see paragliders nowadays but the wind that particular day must have been better suited for hang gliders as lots of them were soon aloft and several found enough lift to leave the ridge and thermal soar away from the hill.
They gradually drifted southwards, circling in the thermals and passed over our field to the east of the pits. Obviously we kept a good lookout all the time they were in our vicinity but none of them ever got close to the area the models were flying in. They are fascinating to watch and have advanced hugely from the early days of Rogallo wings, they are now high tech, high performance machines.
The photos aren’t of brilliant quality but you can clearly see that they have some form of tailplane and reflexed wing tips. It was great to be able to watch a totally different type of aviation whilst enjoying our model flying.
With the upcoming election in mind the sign on the back of one of those trucks that sucks out the waste from airliner toilets seems appropriate: ‘Caution – This truck is full of political promises’
Colin Cowplain
