Patch News History

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

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 1^st 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 20^th 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 15^th 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 60^th 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

It’s the beginning of March and the signs of spring are here, roll on summer! February gave us the expected mixture of weather, some days were just wet and awful, others were cold but clear, but the overall trend seemed to be windy.

February 1^st in particular was VERY windy, only an idiot would have bothered trying to fly…well it seems we have two idiots, Captain Slow (John Wheeley) and Dougal Entendre (Mark Agate). Perhaps I should mention that the nicknames are mostly not ones I have dreamt up, they are what people have chosen to call themselves.Anyway, said idiots both flew their little Spirit electric mini-hotliners and Dougal sent the photographic evidence.He reports that the wind was typically 25 knots with gusts up to 38 knots but the Spirits took it in their stride!

We all tend to struggle with watery eyes when trying to fly in really windy weather. Personally I wear sunglasses all year round and find that they control the watering. Steve 1066 Hastings struggles more than most and was seen this month testing yet another solution.

Not your best look Steve but if it works for you…

Last month I briefly mentioned the Citabria Pro that Dwayn Pipe (Keith Evans) had built but as he was planning to give a talk at club about building the model I didn’t go into any detail.The talk was excellent and gave a good insight into building from a plan, including such things as creating a materials list and cutting a kit of parts before commencing the build.Following the first flight Keith has made a few adjustments to such things as the motor downthrust etc and the Citabria has now had several more successful flights. I managed to get some reasonable video of one flight which you can see here: Citabria video

I also mentioned last month that Dougal has been messing around with some new firmware on his Walkera Devention transmitter which has meant overwriting every model setup. So he has been giving all of his many models a fresh ‘first flight’ to trim them and get the control movements he likes. Dougal seems to have gone with the approach of starting with the maximum movement possible on all surfaces with no exponential, and then taming them back to something more comfortable. This has resulted in some amusing moments for us spectators and having watched some of his tests I decided to record the ‘first flight’ of his Slick.

I only managed the first few seconds as I was laughing so much: Slick video

One of the PAM members who braved the winds several times in February was Gary Houghton. Gary is the last remaining regular I/C flier but I understand an electric model is currently under construction.

He is seen here with his Chris Foss Wot 4 and he also flies a Weston Cougar 2000.

Steve 1066 Hastings has been enjoying his Speedy electric glider this month. The model has a 1600mm span built up balsa wing and a fibreglass fuselage, and is sold by HobbyKing as a 3 cell model.Steve first flew the model on 3 cells but wanted a bit more power so he switched to 4 cells. Unfortunately I wasn’t there to witness the event but apparently the extra power proved too much for the fibreglass fuselage and the motor ripped the nose off! I would imagine the prop was out of balance for it to do that. Steve duly completed the repairs and stiffened the inside of the nose with some ply strips.

The motor looks like an inrunner but it’s actually an outrunner inside a case. The case means there aren’t any rotating parts to keep the wires etc away from, something that can be a problem in a glider with a slim nose. He wasn’t over keen on the kit and said it was a bit of a pig to put together but now it’s sorted I think he’s very happy with it, it certainly performs very well. I shot some video of it flying in very strong winds on 1^st March but as this is the February blog you’ll just have to wait until next month to see it.

A model that has been to the field but is as yet unflown is Tony Neal’s new BAE Hawk. It’s another one from HobbyKing and is very similar to their T-45 Goshawk but in fact it’s slightly larger and uses a 70mm fan rather than 64mm.

It’s a bit odd as HK call it a Red Arrow BAE Hawk but it’s not in Red Arrows colours; in fact it has American markings! However, it looks great and I think it will fly very well, certainly the Goshawk is an excellent flier and if anything this one should be better.

Tony’s model is complete and ready to go but he wisely decided not to risk a maiden flight in the blustery winds that prevailed on the day he brought it along. Hopefully it will fly soon and I will be able to report on it in the March blog.

Gentleman Jim Hobday chose one of the calmer days to fly his Grumman Wildcat. It’s been around for a while now and is a great little flier. Jim bought it at Blackbushe a couple of years ago as a bag of foam Wildcat parts rather than a complete kit.

It seems to be the Parkzone one but I imagine it was a replacement airframe for people who had crashed theirs. So Jim had to find a suitable motor along with all the usual fixture and fittings, something he obviously got right as it flies really well.

Woody has bought himself another Pilatus PC9 to replace the one he ‘wore out’… I test flew it and discovered Woody needs a lesson on how to locate the CG! But all was well and after the addition of lots of nose weight and some elevator adjustments it flew nicely. I forgot to take a photo of the model; I just got this one of a rather dispirited looking Woody being assisted by Gentleman Jim.

I also snapped this general one of the pits on a cold and windy day.

Captain Slow has discovered that his Ugly Stik has the usual ARTF undercarriage…Almost Ready To Fail.It neatly fell off on what looked like a pretty gentle landing and on closer examination it seems there was almost no glue holding the mounting plate in place.

I suppose it meant it came off with minimal damage to the surrounding area but the manufacturers really need to improve undercarriage mounting for people who don’t fly from lovely tarmac runways. John has now glued it back in properly so hopefully it will stay put.

We had a very welcome surprise visit to the patch a couple of Sundays ago when a full-size Tiger Moth decided to drop in and see us! We have often seen it around the area and occasionally we have been treated to a low pass or an impromptu aerobatic display. This time he circled the field quite closely a couple of times so we landed all models to avoid him, and then he came in from the bottom corner, parallel to the road, for what we thought would be a low pass. But he touched down and stopped level with the patch and waved us over. He apologised for interrupting our flying (as if we minded!) and explained that he liked seeing us fly, saying he had tried R/C modelling a few years ago but kept crashing so now he just sticks to full-size as it’s easier! He was only down for a couple of minutes, and then he taxied up to the top corner and took off again heading back towards the bottom corner.There was a pretty strong crosswind blowing but it didn’t seem to bother him at all. Some of us took some video and photos which I have made into a short video that you can see here: Tiger Moth

It’s interesting so see how much the Tiger slows down when he turns into wind after take-off; it shows just how strong the wind was that day.

An Irishman arrived at JFK airport in New York and wandered about the terminal with tears streaming down his face. An airline employee asked him if he was homesick.

‘No’ replied the Irishman ‘It’s worse, I’ve lost all me luggage’

‘That’s terrible, how did it happen?’                                         

‘The cork fell out of me bottle’

Colin Cowplain

Well it’s 1^st of February, a Sunday morning, and I’m sat at home writing Patch News instead of flying. Don’t upset yourselves, it’s not because I’m a slave to the ‘job’, it’s blowing a gale outside and very cold so I decided to give it a miss today, although I expect some hardy souls have ventured up to the patch. Overall January wasn’t too bad, we managed a fair bit of flying between us as you’ll see below.

I was away for a few days over New Year so I missed some flying but Dougal Entendre (Mark) was kind enough to send me some photos. His email was titled Flying in the Murk and you can see why! It seems there was some standing around waiting for the fog to clear but 1066 (Steve H) was able to fly a couple of his 3D machines, keeping them very close in.

Dougal also included some photos and info of his new X-Tech Laius, including a helpful note on the instructions. Good to know that Chinglish is alive and well!I asked for some more info on the Laius and this was Dougal’s reply: “I have virtually no info on the Laius I’m afraid! I got the kit on Ebay for just under £30, all surfaces built and covered, but it still took me most of the holidays to do the installation and set-up. The instructions say it’s made by X-Tech, but Google doesn’t give any other clues, so it’s probably obsolete now. It’s 38″ wingspan and seems to go nicely on a 3S 1800mAh, though as Steve H pointed out, probably needs a little more oomph for prop-hanging. I’m going to experiment with bigger props and speed controllers, but even with the current set-up it’ll be great for calm summer evenings.”I took some photos later in the month, the model was flying well and for £30 was a good buy I reckon.

Dougal has also been playing with the firmware on his transmitter. He bought a Walkera Devention Devo 12 around a year ago and has been very happy with it, but now he has changed the firmware to Deviation.Deviation is a 3^rd party software company and their programs are written specifically for Devention transmitters but can also be used on various others, including the Turnigy 9X. One of the things it does it enable the use of Spektrum receivers. Not being a Spektrum lover myself that wouldn’t appeal to me but of course Spektrum receivers are far more readily available, and presumably cheaper, than Devention ones. It allows the user much more flexibility in programming and even enables them to change colours, fonts, and bitmaps on the Tx screen.One thing that Mark has used it for is to make the numbers on the built in timer much larger so he is able to read the timer with just a very quick glance down, much safer. One drawback is that he has lost all the set-ups on his existing models so he has been working his way through all of them, treating each one as if it were a brand new model.It’s made for some exciting ‘first’ flights for the rest of us to watch! In the photos you can see the transmitter has spots of water on it, and here is my transmitter safely in its muff.I was trying to photograph the snow on it but it was still warm enough inside to melt the snowflakes almost instantly, that was one cold day at the field! Of course some people don’t seem to notice the cold at all; this is Desperate Dan on a slightly warmer day in full laidback mode!At the time he had his Phoenix 2000 electric glider well up at a safe height.

Another model that had its first outing in January was John Wheeley’s Durafly Das UglyStik from HobbyKing.The original plan for Das Ugly Stick first appeared in 1966 and it was designed by Phil Kraft. It was hugely popular and was soon kitted by a company called Jensen, followed by several others later on. There have been many other Stik offshoots over the years, bigger, smaller etc. Not sure why but Durafly say UglyStik as one word, maybe it’s a patent issue or something. It’s in their Retro Series and in keeping with that the model comes with a dummy I/C engine and a wooden prop. It’s actually powered by an electric motor fitted behind the plastic dummy I/C one, with an extension shaft running through to the prop.I’ve read reports of the shaft seizing so John is going to keep an eye open for any signs of problems. The 1100mm span model is all EPO moulded and comes ready fitted with the 3536 1000kv motor, a 30A esc, and 4 x 9gm servos. All you need is your usual transmitter and receiver and a bog standard 3 cell lipo of around 2200mAh. It has various hatches to access the necessary parts, the battery being fitted from the underside, below the wing. The HK blurb says there are just 8 simple steps needed to complete the model, it all goes together with screws/bolts, so it only took John about 4 months! It flies very well, I’ve had a go with it and I liked it a lot, I might be tempted in the future. The only thing I’m a bit surprised by is the price, right now the HobbyKing UK warehouse is showing £103.12, yet the Sea Vixen which comes with a ducted fan as well as a motor, a 45A esc, and 3 electric retracts is only £98.99, doesn’t make any sense. I thought the Stik was much cheaper than that when it was first announced about a year ago? Maybe they’ve bumped the price up because it’s very popular.

In Patch News in December 2013 I featured John’s Twinstar and included a photo of another Twinstar with ‘underslung totty’ that proved very popular. Well for your enjoyment this month I’m including a photo John that sent through of Dougal’s HK Sportjet with another fine example of ‘underslung totty’, I hope you enjoy it just as much.

Bob Hill has been flying his little HK Mustang again during January and it now has a slab-sided look.The profile fuselage model has had a great many flights and has suffered a bit over time so Bob decided to add sheet balsa around the front half of the fuselage to strengthen and tidy it up a bit. Seems to have worked well and it smartens up the whole thing.

I featured the Citabria Pro that Keith Evans was building in the November Patch News but at the time it wasn’t quite ready for its maiden flight.Well, I test flew it in January and am happy to report that all went well, with just a slight trim problem. Keith will be giving us a video presentation and talk about the build and first flight at the next club meeting (12^th Feb) so I won’t go into any of the model details for now.

1066 flew his relatively new HobbyKing Invictus a couple of times in January. I mentioned the model in Patch News last October and said that Steve wasn’t really happy with it at the time. He’s now made some changes, fitted a higher current esc, changed the prop, and a few other things, and is now much more pleased with it. It’s designed as a pylon racer and conforms to NMPRA (National Miniature Pylon Racing Assoc) specs for EF-1 so it’s never going to be a slow aircraft but neither is it scarily quick, just a good all round sports model.The changes seem to have made it much more manageable for our site and, as Steve bought it to be a rough weather model, I think he’s probably succeeded now.

Chairman Ron has built an ME109 from a David Boddington plan which was part of a Dogfight Duo, the other one being a Spitfire.The plan was first published in the July 2001 RC Model Flyer magazine and it’s fairly unusual in having a Jedelsky wing construction. If you don’t know what that is I recommend Google! The original was intended to be powered by a .15cu I/C engine but Ron has converted it to electric power and fitted a 2418/8 motor with a 40A esc. The all up weight is around 800g (28ozs) including the 3 cell 2200mAh lipo that he used for the first couple of flights. The pack still had about 65% remaining after a 5 minute flight so I wonder if it might be worth trying a lighter pack to reduce the wing loading a bit. It does have a tendency to tip stall if slowed down too much but I don’t think it will be a major problem. Maybe lateral balance needs to be looked.It has a very small (presumably scale) tail plane, not sure if that is a contributory factor. The model has a good turn of speed and as it’s only around 30″ span it disappears pretty quickly so Ron will have to keep his eyes peeled. Ron has made a really good job of both the build and the finish.He recently brought the model to club for us to admire and said he intended to build the Spitfire if the 109 flew well. Time to get building then Ron, it flew well!

In last months’ edition I ran a caption competition in an attempt to find out if anyone actually reads Patch News. There were quite a few entries but mostly from the same old contributors. Comments are always welcome, good or bad, please add your thoughts. Anyway, the competition winner was Scare D. Cat with a particularly cutting caption and I presented the prize, a Vulcan mug, at the AGM last week. If you don’t know who Scare D. Cat is… you should have been there!

A supposedly true story about Muhammad Ali:

Ali was once on a plane, awaiting take-off when the flight attendant asked him to fasten his seatbelt. He replied “Superman don’t need no seatbelt”. She responded “Superman don’t need no plane”.

Colin Cowplain