Patch News History

There’s a lot to talk about this month even though I had a week off camping in Cornwall. I’ll start with some good news, we thought we’d lost Burly Turley at the start of the month but we’ve found him again!  Apparently he’d wandered over to the track to collect the windsock and we couldn’t see him. Thankfully the field has now been cut and all is well again! When George and his men cut, turned, and cleared the hay they worked round us so they didn’t interrupt our flying.  PAM is extremely lucky that the farmer and his workers are so considerate towards us.   We now have lots of the little EPP combat models flying.  There seems to be quite a difference between the P51 and ME109 with the P51 seeming to fly best.  Mine has now had 51 flights and I love it, despite its light weight it will fly in really strong winds, it’s as docile or as mad as you could want, and has no nasty vices.  The 109’s seem to vary quite a lot, Steve 1066 has had lots of trouble getting his to fly properly but Chairman Ron’s seems pretty good. Apparently Herr 1066 has been sneaking off in the evenings for test flights and it’s flying better now. I’ve flown several of them now and both Woody’s and Multiple Models Montague’s are better with the rudder and ailerons coupled. Unlike the P51 the 109 comes with the wings already joined and the carbon stiffeners fitted to it’s not easy to alter the dihedral, personally I think they need more to make them turn properly. Some of us have tried combat using 2M of twine and a 5M paper streamer. It’s very difficult to get cuts but at the moment I’m leading Wonky Wiltshire 3 cuts to 1. I must have caught Wonky’s twine on one cut as his streamer ended up right through my leading edge! Smiffy and I also had a fight with streamers on but he viciously flew his wing into my prop!  Fortunately his wing just needed a bit of sticky tape and mine needed a new prop, then we were off again.  I think the pressure got to him and he dumped it (made excuses about flat battery etc but we know the truth Smiffy) but he got away with very little damage. So far none of the ME109’s have got as far as flying with streamers… 1066 almost did but when he, Wonky, and myself did a mass launch his streamer wrapped round his neck and yanked the 109 out of the sky! MMM actually started off with a P51 but ‘modified’ it a few times and it wouldn’t fly right so he replaced it with a 109 as the P51’s are out of stock. So he now has a 109 powered by a P51 motor, bet that would have been interesting in the war.   The Texan that Woody bought at Blackbushe last month is now flying very nicely.  It does have the full-size trait of tip stalling if the speed gets too low so Woody will have to be a bit careful on the landing approaches but it doesn’t do it until it’s going pretty slowly so hopefully he’ll be ok. Nick has put lots of new photos in the Gallery section which include some flying shots of the Texan, it looks great. Don’t forget, check out the Gallery.   Wonky has sorted out his ST Models DG-1000 motor glider now. When he first flew it all went well until the battery ran flat and the radio quit at the same time as the motor! Fortunately the plane just landed itself with no damage. He’s now changed the electronics and sorted that problem, but the motor retraction servo failed so he wasn’t able to tuck the motor away on the glide. Third time lucky then Wonky… I finally remembered to take a photo of Mark Agate’s HobbyKing Skyfun. It’s very fast but also slows up nicely for landing so a good all-rounder. Mark has fitted a much hotter motor than the standard one but he seems to get long flights so it must be a pretty efficient motor/airframe combination. Its worth watching Mark’s discus launch, works well if a bit unconventional!   Mark has also brought along his shiny new EDF T-45 Goshawk, another one from HobbyKing. He sensibly declined to test flight it in the 20mph winds last week so we are looking forward to seeing it take to the air when conditions are better.  It’s a nice looking model and I’m sure it will fly well.   Chairman Ron has been flying his Spitfire again, now fitted out with E-Flite servo less retracts.  The model is a Parkzone Mk IX Spit that already flew very nicely but now looks so much better in the air with the retracts fitted.   Andy “everything I own is bigger/better/more expensive” Smith seems to be determined to arrive at the patch with more equipment than everybody else.  As you can see in this photo he evens brings his comfort blanket along!  The other day he was talking about adding a tent as well in case it rains, presumably to put all that gear in while he goes off to get the low loader! Well bad news Smiffy, you’ve been outdone for once, look at what Bob McBride is turning up with these days! The only thing I don’t understand is with all that electric power available why on earth is he flying I/C? I suppose someone has got to, although I hear a rumour his next model is electric.     Chris Hard is continuing his theme of flying wings and this week has been flying his latest, a Radjet 420.  It’s yet another one from HK and the 420 figure is the wingspan! It comes conveniently complete in its own carry box and it’s not until you see Chris holding it that you realise just how small it is. We all watched the first flight carefully, expecting it to be a hairy little beast, but in fact it flew very smoothly and with no problems other than seeing it. Chris has fitted a tiny receiver that is range limited to about 300M but with such a tiny model 300M is plenty far away enough!      Gentleman Jim brought his latest model along on Wednesday, a Zlin 50L.  I won’t say who is selling them, it’s getting boring now!  The Zlin 50L is a follow on to Jim’s E-Flite Pulse XT that has served him so well for quite a while now and should make a good next step.  I test flew it and it showed its aerobatic pedigree, I think it’s going to be a great model. The full-size Zlin first flew in the mid-seventies and won many world class aerobatic competitions until around the late eighties when it was edged out of top level competitions by the Sukhoi SU-26. They continued to build them right up until 1995 and many are still being used by top aerobatic teams. So we are expecting great things Jim…     Norwegian Nick and his son Shaun came to the patch today and flew both the A-4 Skyhawk and a smaller version of the Fantrainer that Nick has been flying recently. Good to see some models beautifully built from old fashioned balsa and covered in doped tissue.     Rather off topic but while we were down in Cornwall we visited a new museum at Newquay Airport/RAF St Mawgan. It’s called Classic Air Force and it only opened at Easter this year. It seems to have been reborn from Coventry based Classic Flight which was part of Air Atlantique, and as it’s so new they are still bringing many aircraft in. It’s classed as a living museum i.e. almost all aircraft can and do fly. It’s based in one of the hangers that used to house Nimrods and currently has: Anson, Twin Pioneer, Percival Prentice, 2 Rapides, 2 Jet Provosts, Chipmunk, Vampire, Venom, 2 Meteors, Dove, Hunter, Harrier, BAC-111 and several more. They give flights in the Rapides, Chipmunk, and even the Prentice. The website www.classicairforce.com is very good and shows planned aircraft movements so you can plan your visit to fit in with interesting flying. While we were there one of the Meteors flew in from Coventry.   We were able to get right up to it and even have a chat with the pilot. Because it’s relatively new and small the museum is very friendly and the staff are very happy to chat and show you everything.  As seniors our entry was only £6.60 each including a Gift Aid supplement and paying the supplement gave us 50% discount in the excellent shop and café. Both the shop and café prices were very reasonable so the 50% discount meant there were some real bargains! So if you are visiting Cornwall I recommend you drop in, you won’t regret it.   The crew of a US airliner made a wrong turn during taxi and came nose to nose with another aircraft, the furious ground controller (a female) screamed: “[Callsign] where are you going? I told you to turn right on ‘Charlie’ taxiway; you turned right on ‘Delta’. Stop right there” Continuing her verbal lashing of the embarrassed crew, she shouted: “You’ve screwed everything up. It’ll take forever to sort this out. You stay right there and don’t move until I tell you to. You can expect progressive taxi instructions in about a half hour and I want you to go exactly where I tell you, when I tell you, and how I tell you. You got that?” Naturally, the frequency went very quiet until an unknown male pilot broke the silence and asked: “Wasn’t I married to you once?”   Colin Cowplain

It doesn’t seem like a month since I wrote the last Patch News but it’s been a pretty busy month and time has flown even more than we have. I had a week on holiday in Marrakech, many of the active fliers had a trip to Blackbushe, and we’ve still managed to get a fair bit of flying in despite the weather.
I won’t say too much about the Blackbushe model airshow as no doubt Nick will be writing a report for the website. Suffice to say some members shook the moths out of their wallets and splashed the cash. Woody was spotted with a large box of Texan, it’s the Art Tech one which has had some good reviews so we expect great things very soon. As he rearranged his Ripmax Mustang the other day the Texan may have moved nearer the front of the queue! Or been put further back I suppose…

When we decided ice-creams were required Smiffy didn’t want to be left out and as usual he had to go bigger, better, and more expensive than everybody else…

Of all the models there Ali’s English Electric Lightning stole the show for me, very impressive both on the ground and in the air.

No doubt Nick’s report will have lots more on it. Meantime have a look at this 5 minute video, it might be short but it’s excellent and gives a very good impression of how the day went: Blackbushe video
While we were watching the jets I remarked that I really liked the Viper Jet and Smiffy dragged me (kicking and screaming obviously) to look at one on the Al’s Hobbies stand. I decided that £120 was too much for just a foam airframe, it still required the fan, motor, esc, and all the radio gear so the total cost would be pretty high.  But no sooner had I got home than Smiffy emailed to say he’d ordered one! Of course his is a bigger better one and comes complete with 90mm fan, motor, retracts, lights etc and cost about £350. Knowing Smiffy it shouldn’t be too many years before we see it at the patch!
We haven’t seen too much of newish member Chris Hard for a few months  but recently he has reappeared and has been flying a couple of impressive flying wings. I failed to get any details about either of them but am happy to report that they fly very well and Chris is a skilful pilot. (Note to self: break his thumbs!)

 
Slightly off topic, as you may know you can see the International Space Station when it passes overhead, weather permitting of course. It’s quite a thought provoking sight as it streaks across the night sky, well worth standing outside in the cold for a few minutes. So how do you know when and where to look? Go to http://spotthestation.nasa.gov/  and enter your mobile number and location. If the space station is due to pass  you’ll receive a text in the morning giving the time it will appear, a compass bearing, and how long it will be visible for. It’s easy to spot as it’s brighter than the stars and moving quite quickly.
 
Burly Turley has also been visiting the patch more recently and getting back into flying. He’s got a Chris Foss Uno Wot which, like all Foss models, flies very well despite Peter’s help! Until I took this photo I never realised how long the Uno Wot fuselage is…

New member John Wheeley has a helicopter B certificate but nothing for fixed wing so having purchased a Wot4 Foam-e from George Worley of 4-Max he decided to take the plunge and go for his fixed wing A certificate. Despite it only being his seventh flight with the Wot4 he flew it fine and once I’d explained the way the BMFA want the figure eight done he sailed through the flying part.  Not so the questions, he answered the first one “What’s in the brown envelope?” with “Nothing”!  I was forced to resort to proper questions and unfortunately he knew the answers so I had to pass him! Well done John.
The combat flying that Steve Hastings dreamt up is being to come to fruition. Nine of us agreed to build the models, either a P51 or an ME109, both very similar profile models made from EPP. Steve sent off a large order to HobbyKing and we have now all received the stuff we ordered.  Steve says “Never again” as it was a pain in the backside to get all the orders together etc, so a big “Well done and thank you” is due to Steve. My order was for a P51 with motor, esc, 3 servos, and 4 x 3 cell lipos, all of which came to £67. I’ve put it together and have had eight flights so far. It isn’t a pretty model (I’ve never liked profile fuselages) but I’m pleasantly surprised by its flying qualities, it doesn’t have any vices and will do any aerobatics you can dream up. I took mine to the field to fly on Friday but it was gusting 20mph and I decided not to risk test flying a very light model in those conditions. My granddaughter was happy to pose with it for the photo, her clothing is an indication of the windy conditions! However I went back in the much calmer evening for 4 flights and had another 4 the next evening. I’m enjoying flying it too much to risk smashing it in combat!

 
A plane was taking off from Kennedy Airport. After it reached a comfortable cruising altitude, the captain made an announcement over the intercom, “Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking.  Welcome to Flight Number 293, nonstop from New York to Los Angeles. The weather ahead is good and therefore we should have a smooth and uneventful flight. Now sit back and relax — OH MY GOD!”
Silence followed and after a few minutes, the Captain came back on the intercom and said, “Ladies and Gentlemen, I’m so sorry if I scared you earlier, but while I was talking, the flight attendant brought me a cup of coffee and spilt it in my lap. You should see the front of my pants! A passenger in Economy said, “That’s nothing, he should see the back of mine!”
Colin Cowplain

I’m writing this on 1st May so it must be time for the April Patch News. Despite the fact that Multiple Models Montague has gone fishing in Florida for 2 months I’ve still got lots to write about. That must mean the weather has picked up at last and the sunshine has brought more people out to fly.
I’ll start where I finished last month, with my Sea Vixen. OK, let’s get it over with, I’ve ‘modified’ it slightly. I had a few flights since adding the new rudder linked to a gyro and it seemed to do the job, the plane was much steadier in blustery weather. Sadly a few Sundays ago it suddenly decided to half roll into the deck. Wasn’t me guv honest!
My ex mate Nigel very kindly took a photo and as you can see both ailerons are in the full down position. When I checked it out back at the workshop I found one aileron servo had failed at full deflection and of course my correction would have put the other aileron at full deflection, and that’s how it hit the ground. At least it had the decency to do it on a busy Sunday when loads of you were there to enjoy it! Everything (apart from the aileron servo) still works fine, no problems with any of the hardware at all so I will get it flying again soon. Not certain whether to try repairing the wreckage or simply buy another airframe…watch this space.
 
Sticking with Sea Vixens, Norwegian Nick is building a ‘real’ one from the Chris Golds plan. He’s got the airframe built and it just needs some sandpapering etc to be ready for its paint finish. It’s a proper twin and uses two of the tiny Knight & Pridham fans and motors. It’s looking really good Nick, can’t wait to see it flying.  
 
Newbie Nigel (my ex mate) has recently bought a Durafly Mk24 Spitfire. It comes complete with retracts, split flaps, and nav lights and it looks great and flies beautifully. So far Nigel has asked me do all the take-offs and landings but he is enjoying the rest of the flight himself and says he’s achieved his boyhood dream of flying his own Spitfire.     
 
Meanwhile Smiffy is having a break from EDF and is flying a Wot 4. This one’s not a foamie one, it’s a proper wooden I/C version that he’s converted to electric. In typical Smiffy fashion, when sorting out battery pack access he’s gone for rear entry…

 
We’ve been joined by a couple of new members recently, John and Mark. Sorry guys I haven’t learnt your surnames yet. Both are already experienced pilots so no training is needed, a welcome change! So far John has been flying a Czech made V tail electric glider but purchased a Wot 4 Foam-e from George Worley of 4-Max at the last meeting. Mark is flying a hairy twin pusher motored foam wing, the name of which escapes me and I also forgot to take a photo. The most important thing is that he lives in Cowplain so he’s obviously a great guy with tremendous taste!
 
Keith Evans has been experimenting with aerial photography this month using a very cheap digital camera strapped to the nose of his electric glider. He’s had some good results so far with stills and is intending to try the camera in video mode soon.
 
Nick Squire has recently added lots of old PAM photos to the website and if you look at the Gallery under Past Pictures on page 3 you’ll find an aerial photo I took of some members waving from the edge of the patch about 30 years ago! I put a 35mm (film) camera inside my Merco 61 powered Veron Super Robot with it looking out of the side under the wing. Of course in those days I could only take one photo before having to land and remove the wing to wind the film on ready for the next shot. How things have changed! The quality of Keith’s digital photos if much better than anything I took and we didn’t even dream of video in those days, so I’m looking forward to seeing Keith’s efforts.
 
Viv has been flying lots recently with a variety of models. I photographed two of them, his Gee Bee and Cessna Bird Dog. The Gee Bee is a large foamie and despite what you’d expect of a racing machine it’s a real pussycat to fly. The Bird Dog is one of Viv’s old I/C models that he’s now converted to electric. It flies just the same as it always did but it clean and quiet now.
 
 
Finally its congratulation time: both Mike Smith and Tony Neil have passed their ‘A’ certs, well done to both. There aren’t many active fliers left now that haven’t passed their ‘A’s, that can only be a good thing.
A BA 747 pilot had waited for take-off clearance for 45 minutes. A German 737 was cleared immediately. The BA pilot asked the tower why the German aircraft had been given clearance at once. Before the tower could reply, the German pilot came back with “Because I got up very early in zee morning and put a towel on the runway!”
Colin Cowplain

Time for the March Patch News but with the recent weather there hasn’t been a lot of flying.  Some of us have still been venturing out and making the best of it but it has been very cold.  On Sunday just Monty and I made it to the patch and in the freezing wind we certainly needed our transmitter muffs.
Last month I mentioned that while the rest of us had gone for £8 Turnigy transmitter muffs Smiffy had forked out £44 on a very posh flash one. Well now we’ve seen it in action and…its rubbish!

That’s really not very fair to the manufacturer, the quality is excellent and it’s probably good if you are used to using a TX tray, but none of us are.  I’m sure it would keep your hands warm, but it’s too inflexible for our style of flying, I tried it after Andy had removed the detachable cuffs but still found it to be much too restrictive.  By now it’s probably found its way onto eBay and Andy has ordered one of the Turnigy ones the rest of us are using!  They really are good at keeping your hands toasty.
Sticking with Smiffy for a while, he has been flying an F4 Phantom very successfully for a few months, the only bugbear being that it makes a fairly unpleasant noise. Not overly loud but not a very ‘jet like’ noise.  But he has now flown a second Phantom (this time in US Navy colours) that is fitted with a different fan and motor.
 
What a difference, it goes just as well as the camouflaged one but sounds so much nicer.  Andy is now going to change the fan and motor in the first one.  He did have a slight ‘moment’ when on one flight when he said it ‘just didn’t feel right’ in the air.  He got it down ok and found he hadn’t switched the TX to the correct model, it said PHANTOM when obviously it should have said PHANTOM!  I understand the TX now has CAMOPHANT or NAVYPHANT! 
 
We had a Nature Watch moment a couple of weeks back;  we were walking across the field when Viv spotted a couple of leverets (baby hares) laying in their form.  They were really well camouflaged and I had trouble finding them when I walked back a couple of minutes later to take a photo.

Reading up on them it seems the mother returns to the form for only five minutes a day to feed the youngsters so I imagine these two were fine as long as they weren’t spotted by the kites or buzzards.
 
Multiple Models Montague has been at it again.  As I said in the last Patch News he had been impressed by Steve Hastings’ Yuk and promptly ordered one for himself.  Having explored the entire flight envelope plus a bit and tested the durability on several occasions he decided to buy a ‘fresh’ one.  You’ve guessed it, first flight, more durability testing!  But they are very strong and forgiving as well as being excellent fliers and despite MMM’s best efforts it’s still flying well.
Much more seriously he has also bought an Osiris, a 62” pattern ship.  The Osiris was designed by 2009 and 2010 USA National F3a pattern champion Andrew Jesky.  It is a full-competition performance level pattern aircraft, designed in a medium size to be less expensive and easier to transport than a full 2-metre plane and it flies on 5S 5000mah lipos.

Steve has wisely only brought it to the field once so far, deciding not to risk it in the rough weather we’ve had lately, but had several flights that day and it really showed its pedigree. It’s a superb flier and will enhance Steve’s flying lots.  Sadly I had the camera on the wrong setting so the pic is a bit blurred.
 
It has been really noticeable over the last couple of years that almost all models are ARTFs and more and more are foam.  Foam is especially suitable for EDFs as many have fairly complex shapes that would be difficult to produce as accurately and as lightly using conventional methods, plus it’s very crash resistant and easily repaired if the worst does happen.  But even fairly boxy looking models arrive ready built from laser cut components and ready covered these days.  Many are pre fitted with servos, motors, and even speed controllers.  Lots of modellers still like to build from kits or even from plans but the trend is certainly towards ready built and they seem to be getting better quality yet cheaper.  Last weekend I was in a craft shop in Havant with SWMBO and I wandered off to browse amongst the plastic kits and model trains when I stumbled across a stock of balsa.  I have my own stock at home so it’s been a while since I bought any balsa but I was really shocked to see the prices!  I imagine it would be cheaper in a ‘proper’ model shop but even so…

I thought £8.69 for a sheet of 3/8” was horrendous but at £3.59 a sheet of 1/8” was even dearer!  Balsa cement (remember that?) was around £3.50 for a small tube.  Covering is also a significant cost, a quick search of Al’s Hobbies shows Solartex is £13.53 for a 2 metre roll 660mm wide.  But this week HobbyKing have announced a new Mk24 Spitfire, 1100mm span, complete with motor, speed controller, 6 servos, electric retracts with rubber tyres and gear doors, split flaps, navigation lights, 4 bladed prop etc for £86.79 from the UK warehouse.  All you need to add is a 3 cell lipo and a receiver to get it in the air. Amazing value, and no doubt it’s a large part of the reason fewer people are building their own models these days.  I still like to see a beautiful model that someone has spent months building but it’s very easy to understand why they are fast becoming a rarity.
 
Speaking of foamies, my Sea Vixen has now had 34 flights and the retracts seem to be holding up well.  The only bad point I’ve found is that it really does get chucked around a lot in rough air. I tried it briefly with a gyro on ailerons and elevator but I was only using a 5 channel receiver so I couldn’t switch it on and off in the air. This proved a bit scary as when setting the gyro ‘gains’ the only way to find out if they are correct is to fly and try.  Interesting when you find they are wrong… ask me how I know!  So I moved the gyro to my old faithful EDF Twister to experiment for a few flights, and as it has a 7 channel RX I was able to make it switchable.  The Twister is a smooth flier and didn’t really need a gyro but being a high winger it always tried to roll out of inverted flight.  Not any more, with the gyro on (just one) aileron the inverted flight has been transformed.  So the gyro has stayed put and I ordered a second one for the Sea Vixen.
I then put a 7 channel RX in the Sea Vixen so I could make the gyro switchable in the air and tried again.  It was better in rough weather but it looked as if the tail waggled, presumably because of the air hitting the side of the booms and fins.  The answer would seem to be to put the gyro on rudder as well, but the plane didn’t have one. Well it does now.

It was simple enough to fit and replaced the small piece of lead I had on the tail previously.  I have so far had three flights with the gyro on rudder, elevator, and ailerons but needless to say the air was silky smooth so it proved nothing!  I’ve been too chicken to risk it in the really windy weather we’ve had recently so now I’m waiting for medium strength slightly bumpy conditions!
 
A few weeks ago Gentleman Jim brought his posh SLR camera to the patch and took some quality photos, much better than the snaps I get on my mobile.  I really like this one of the Sea Vixen on finals:

Thanks Jim
 
US Navy pilot: The three best things in life are a good landing, a good orgasm, and a good bowel movement. A night time carrier landing is one of the few opportunities in life where you get to experience all three at the same time.
 
Colin Cowplain