Patch News History

Click here for your very special Christmas message: Merry Christmas PAM

Sorry I’m so late with Patch News this month, I blame Christmas shopping & events, trips to London, grandchildren, and dealing with my late father’s affairs, not necessarily in that order. You can just blame me.  The larger photos proved popular in the last Patch News so I’ll continue with them until the webmaster complains about the space they use.

There wasn’t an awful lot to report until the end of November when the  shops had ‘Black Friday Sales’ and we had ‘Experts turned Idiots’!  More of that later…

Our new treasurer Nick Squire obviously didn’t take offence at my mickey taking in the last edition of Patch News, he was back flying again in November. I took this picture just as he was told that the meeting on 19^th December will be ‘club subs night’ and members will be showering him with money.

In the New Year I advise you to check your BMFA memberships carefully whilst admiring Nick’s Caribbean holiday snaps!

Speaking of memberships we were shocked and saddened to hear that Hapless Harper won’t be renewing for 2014. Several people remarked that I’ll have nothing to write about but I wouldn’t be so cruel. Although I did hear that certain trees let out a huge sigh of relief when they heard the news.  But joking apart Mick has been a great member for many years and we will miss him from both the patch and the meetings.  I remember the first day he approached the club when we had a stand at a hobbies event at the Grange Centre in Midhurst.  He said he wanted to build a specific type of R/C model and of course we all thought “Here we go, another nutter that wants his first model to be a Spitfire”.  But Mick went one better, he wanted a Lancaster! Now you have to remember this was a long time ago, before ARTFs, before foamies, before large models, before even 35meg let alone before 2.4gig, and well before electric power. We explained about single engined high wing trainers etc and he listened carefully before agreeing to join and promised to build a trainer…then a Lanc!

One of Mick’s first models was beautifully built and finished Cessna (high wing and trainerish). Unfortunately despite only being 54” span it weighed about 10lbs due largely to the 25 coats of perfect while paint. It was rapidly christened Midhurst White (after a house brick not a butterfly) and was soon sold on, but not before winning a local concours event. Mick tells me that he brought it along to a club meeting and I said I’d never seen a model using lead as a covering material before. That doesn’t sound like me at all…does it?

Mick went on to build many many models with varying degrees of success, one being a Splot, a high wing sport model designed by club member Graham Head. The wing was flat (no dihedral) and being 36” span meant it could be built from stock lengths of balsa without having to make any joints in the spars etc. This made for a very strong wing, they were almost indestructible. Except Mick’s… he was flying it one day and the wing folded in half resulting in a rather sudden arrival. We were all flabbergasted that he’d managed to break it in the air until we examined the wreckage and saw the two servo mounting holes he drilled straight down through the spar. Obviously we barely mentioned it!

But build a Lanc he did, in fact several, first I/c powered and then electric.They all flew but with varying degrees of success, as Mick was always able to come up with new things to go wrong, things that never happened to anyone else. But despite problems Mick always came back for more and always wanted to try something new. He was (I think) the second person in PAM to switch to electric power, he had one of the first EDFs, and above all he was an excellent builder. Mick produced many superb models, bounced back from problems with a smile and a new challenge, and always enjoyed (I hope) being the butt of our jokes.Despite his decision not to renew his membership I sincerely hope Mick will drop in and see us at the patch and at Buriton now and again.

John Warren has been flying this biplane for several months now, I think I mentioned ages ago that John had resurrected it after many years of retirement and converted it from I/C to electric.Apparently the last time it had flown was down at the old IBM club at Havant when I discovered it had a reluctance to turn in either direction! It only has rudder & elevator controls, ailerons would probably make a big difference, but it flies pretty well and can be enough of a challenge to make it interesting.  John’s had many flights with it and says he prefers it to his trainer because it’s that bit harder to fly. His next model is almost ready to be tested, another biplane but this time a scale model, a ‘proper’ balsa model built from plans, designed for I/C but John has converted it to electric. What is it? You’ll have to wait and see, watch this space!

Next up is new member Richard Bennett’s Cloud Fly from HobbyKing. Not sure why but it seems to be listed as an AXN Floater-Jet on the HK site, bit odd when it’s neither a float plane nor a jet.Anyway it’s a pretty little electric powered glider with a high mounted pusher motor so there shouldn’t be any problems with broken props or bent shafts. Steve 1066 Hastings has taken Richard under his wing so I’ve not flown the model much but it seems to be a good training model and Richard is coming on well with it.

Gentleman Jim Hobday has just finished a new model, a Grumman Wildcat no less.  Jim bought it at the Blackbushe Model Show in 2012 so he hasn’t exactly rushed constructing it (mind you I’ve got models I’ve been building for 20 years so perhaps I should shut up!).It’s a Parkzone model and I think it might have been a replacement airframe as it wasn’t in a box when Jim bought it and it didn’t come with a motor or any servos, ESC etc.  It certainly looks nice and the Parkzone models all seem to fly well so I have high hopes for this one.  All being well December Patch News will have a report of its first flight.

Discus Launch Gliders (DLG) are something we don’t see much of at the patch but Desperate Dan has being chucking this one around recently.It’s an Apollo 1550 from HobbyKing and the 1550 is the wingspan. It comes as an ARF so it’s fully covered, has a fibreglass fuselage with built up balsa and lite-ply wings, you just need to install your radio gear and give it a chuck. Dan hasn’t achieved any long flights that I’ve seen up to now but November is hardly the time of year for low level thermal activity. It certainly shows great promise and I reckon come the spring it should really show what its performance is like. It’s around £51 from the UK warehouse so not bad value when compared to the 900mm span Binary DLG with carbon reinforced wings at £125.

So onto the ‘Experts turned Idiots’ day I referred to earlier. Must have been something in the air I reckon, all the so-called experts seemed to be doing dumb things while the beginners were having no problems at all!

First off Cyano Steve missed the patch when he landed, a very rare occurrence these days. He then had to endure all the usual “We’ll get Roland to drag the patch over about 10 feet for you” etc comments.  How childish…  Then a little later we had a threesome, I was flying my SportJet, Wonky Wiltshire flying his Alpha Jet, and Mark Agate flying his Fun 3. First Wonky did a duff launch and knocked the nose off the Alpha Jet, but apart from that it was fine so he re-launched. Then we got into the bit of flying flat out screaming low passes over the patch in formation with Woody providing accompanying music from Top Gun on his mobile.  It’s all very well but there’s always some smart arse that has to go just that little bit lower. I was fine over the patch, but omitted to pull up when I reached the long grass at the end! The SportJet did a mild cartwheel and knocked the nose off. The resulting cheer from the pits was incredible, I’m sure it exceeded the 82db limit!Then, a few minutes later, I decided to fly the little EPP Mustang to reassure myself I wasn’t really an idiot. Turns out I was! I was doing the weird tumbling spins that I often do but somehow got disorientated and buried it. Fortunately it was far enough away that not too many people noticed, and the damage was pretty minimal.  I then decided it was time to beat a hasty retreat only to have Nigel Bastard Baker remark “Ok look, I’m taking two undamaged models home and you’re taking two broken ones”.  I’ll remember that Baker, I’ll remember!

Then…just as I arrived home my mobile vibrated and I opened up this photo.

Yup, as I was driving away Wonky got disorientated with the Alpha Jet and buried it big time! Like I said, something in the air that day…

 

A man is sitting in a plane which is about to take off, when another man with a dog occupies the empty seats alongside.  The dog is sat in the middle, and the first man is looking quizzically at the dog when the second man explains that they work for the airline. The airline rep said “Don’t mind Rover, he is a sniffer dog, the best there is, I’ll show you once we get airborne and I set him to work.”

The plane takes off and levels out when the handler says to the first man, “Watch this.” He tells the dog, “Rover, search.” The dog jumps down, walks along the aisle and sits next to a woman for a few seconds. It then returns to its seat and puts one paw on the handler’s arm. He says “Good boy.” He turns to the first man and says, “That woman is in possession of marijuana, so I’m making a note of this, and the seat number, for the police who will apprehend her upon arrival.” “Fantastic!” replies the first man.

Once again he sends the dog to search the aisles. The dog sniffs about, sits down beside a man for a few seconds, returns to its seat and places both paws on the handler’s arm. The airline rep says, “That man is carrying cocaine, so again, I’m making a note of this, and the seat number.” “I like it!” says the first man.

Once again he sends the dog to search the aisles. Rover goes up and down the plane aisle, and after a while sits down next to someone, and then comes racing back and jumps up onto the seat and craps all over the place. The first man is surprised and disgusted by this, and asks “What the heck is going on?” The handler nervously replies “He just found a bomb!”

Merry Christmas to all, hope to see you at the patch very soon.

Colin Cowplain

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             Patch News? What news? The weather was pretty awful for much of October and unfortunately personal commitments prevented me from attending some of the sessions even when the weather was suitable, so I’m afraid I have little to report. I’ll make up for it with some larger than usual photos!

Farmer George found a use for some of us one morning, that must be a first! It makes a change from George and his men doing their best to enable us to carry on flying while doing their work all around us. As we assembled planes down by the barn we were asked to form a line to guide the sheep from one field to another. There were all the usual comments about pretty ones but Hapless Harper didn’t seem to understand the joke, he said they were all pretty!

On one of the decent Sunday mornings newly seconded treasurer Nick Squire showed his face for a change. It was all very nostalgic, not only did he turn up with an I/C powered model, it was controlled with a 35meg radio! He attracted a lot of attention, all the old school fliers gathered round muttering things about the good old days, while the younger ones looked confused and asked questions such as “Why are you using a battery powered electric motor to start that noisy dirty thing?” and “What’s that long chrome tube sticking out of the transmitter, and why is there a peg on it?” How quaint!

 

The combat fun continues with more Mustangs appearing, they have proved excellent in the strong winds we’ve had recently. Bash ‘Em Bob and Hapless Harper are pictured immediately before launching into another sortie. I’m sure one of them should have been a German plane but they appeared to be perfectly happy to fight Mustang against Mustang!
One morning just Desperate Dan and I showed up, unsurprising considering the dubious weather conditions, and while we flying a magnificent rainbow appeared. I landed my model with the intention of taking a photo of Dan’s Wot 4 Foam-E with the rainbow as a backdrop but of course it had all but gone by the time I was ready. Hopefully you can just about see the remains of it in the photo. Dan’s plane is also there but it’s barely a dot!

In the last edition of Patch News I talked about Dan but had forgotten to take a mug shot of him. I’ve now done it, hopefully you’ll see why I call him Desperate Dan! As you can see he was checking the wind speed, it was only gusting 27mph that day, perfectly flyable! Apparently last Sunday it was gusting 32mph but the hardy (foolhardy?) still flew.

Also in the last Patch News I reported that Mark Agate had revived an old I/C model in order to take his BMFA Examiner’s Certificate but he had problems with both the motor and the radio. Since then he has converted the model (a Fun 3) to electric power and fitted 2.4GHz radio. Mark was kind enough to email a photo and the conversion information, this is what he said:

It’s been given a 21st century makeover with Devo 2.4GHz gear and electric power, as you can see in the attached photo. I test flew it at the patch today in extremely blustery conditions (Dan’s meter reported a 32-knot gust!), and I was really pleased with it.

The motor is a Turnigy 3542/6 1000kv running from a 3300mAh 4s pack, with a Hobby King 70-80A speed controller and an 11-7 prop. This seems to give the same or better power than the old 40 IC engine, but the whole plane is a bit lighter now (partly because I was able to remove half a church roof of lead from the tail), so the performance is even more sprightly. Needless to say, it’s also much quieter.

You’ll notice that I carefully built a precision mounting box to get the motor thrust line correct, and certainly didn’t just saw up an old lump of 2×2, no siree.

 

Thanks Mark, it’s always good to get information from the owner, it’s usually correct, unlike the rubbish I make up!

A group of airline passengers missed a connection flight and had to wait for another plane.  They all waited patiently except for one man who treated the ticket agent very rudely. “I had an aisle seat reserved and I’d BETTER get an aisle seat when we get on another plane,” he ranted and raved.
A few minutes later the ticket agent announced that there would be room for everyone. “And, sir,” she said, addressing the rude fella, “I’m happy to tell you that I was able to get you an aisle seat, sir.”
The man, still muttering, picked up his carry on, grabbed his boarding pass, and headed through the door.
The agent continued, “And I’m also pleased to announce the rest of you will be seated in First Class.”
 
Colin Cowplain

I’m afraid I’m a little late again with Patch News mainly because of lack of time but partly because I was short of material. This was because I haven’t been flying as much as usual, mostly due to personal commitments. The last Sunday in September was typical, we had grandson Luke stopping for the weekend and the forecast wasn’t promising so I was almost resigned to not flying.  I looked out at 9.30am, hmm… windy… overcast, with drizzle in the air. Shall I, shan’t I? Decision made, stop home, and earn some brownie points. Needless to say I spent the whole morning watching the weather brightening and the wind dropping…typical!
I said was short of material because the first Sunday in October was glorious weather, bright and sunny with very light winds.  This meant there was a really good turnout and some exciting developments to report on.
 
Mike Smith turned up a few weeks ago with a new EDF, a Phase 3 Squall. Some of you may remember Wonky Wiltshire flying a 4 cell one a while back but it was incredibly noisy and we banned it! But Mike’s is the 3 cell version rather than the 4 cell and it wasn’t at all noisy. It flew very well and although obviously not as fast as the 4 cell version it was pretty quick, I liked it a lot. “Give us a go mister!”
 
September seemed to have more than its fair share of mid-airs, and not the ‘expected’ ones that occur occasionally during combat with the little EPP models.  The first, and the most serious, was between Bob Hill’s all foam Yak 54 and the Edge 540 of Multiple Models Montague.  The models were both just doing their own thing and flying totally independently when they unexpectedly collided. Sometimes when there are several models in the air pilots are aware the models are close to each other but this time neither was aware of the other.  Both models stayed under control, Bob’s lost its undercarriage but belly landed safely.  Steve’s Edge was under control but obviously having problems. It sounded odd and was flying erratically. But Steve managed to get it down on the patch safely and then we could all see the problem!
    Bob’s undercarriage must have hit the left hand wingtip and pushed the whole wing rearward so it says a lot about the strength of the model that it stayed in one piece. Note  the damage to the wooden prop which caused the odd sound. I believe Steve has now successfully repaired it so all turned out well.
The other mid-air was between Gentleman Jim’s E-Flight Pulse and my little combat HK Mustang.  I said in the last Patch News that my Mustang had completed 150 flights…far too smug apparently! On flight number 170 with only me & Jim in the air, each minding our own business and with neither of us being aware we were anywhere near the other, there was a sudden bang!  Fortunately Jim’s Pulse carried on flying, although the motor was making odd noises, and he was able to land safely. It turned out that the impact with my P51 had broken the prop on the Pulse and the imbalance had torn the motor off the mount, but it was otherwise undamaged. Sadly the little Mustang didn’t fare so well, the collision being immediately followed by the dive of death! There were pieces of foam scattered over a wide area and although we managed to retrieve them all the wreckage was really beyond worthwhile repair. Luckily all the powertrain and radio gear was undamaged, even the prop survived, so I decided to just order another one. It had served me very well and was great fun to fly so I didn’t really begrudge sending HobbyKing another £36 odd.  The replacement went together better than the first one and is now flying well.  Obviously the whole event was 100% Gentleman Jim’s fault and he will now be known as Hooligan Hobday!
  
Speaking of nickname changes, Multiple Models Montague seems to have stopped buying new models every week (mainly because he very rarely damages them these days).  He was a very useful source of material for Patch News as I could always rely on him bringing several new planes to the patch every month. However, it turns out Steve has other uses; he has a seemingly endless supply of cyano and kicker if someone has the misfortune to break something. It’s become something of a joke at the patch that Steve is the first person to turn to when repairs are needed and he’s always happy to oblige. So MMM has morphed into Cyano Steve!
 
I haven’t mentioned Keith Evans’ late model Spitfire for a while. Keith has flown the model regularly and it’s undergone a few changes over the last year or so. He has tried a variety of undercarriage ‘systems’, ranging from none at all (looks good in the air but needs a decent chuck and belly landing), through fixed (good for take-off and landing but looks wrong in the air), to an ingenious ejecting dolly system (takes off, then the undercarriage is spat out by springs, model belly lands).  It’s suffered its fair share of damage during a few ’unscheduled arrivals’ but it has always re-emerged to fly again. Keith plans to up the cell count to 4 shortly as he feels it’s a bit marginal on power. I recently snapped this rather grainy photo of the Spit during a low pass.

 
Following the departure of Ian Hewlett the club has been left with just me as a BMFA Examiner.  Having only one examiner means the club would be unable to take any B certs without calling in someone from another club so Chairman Ron asked Mark Agate to take on the task. To become an examiner Mark needs to demonstrate he can fly the B cert schedule to a high standard and that means having an aircraft that can take-off. None of the electric models that Mark is currently flying have an undercarriage so he decided to resurrect a 33 year old I/C model he had stashed away.  I forget what the model is but it’s powered by a Meteor 40 with an 11 x 7 prop and the radio is DigiFleet 35meg.  We all thought it sounded noisy when it was being noise tested but the loudest reading was only 78.4dB, much much quieter than the regulation 82dB. I suppose it just goes to show how used we have become to electric powered models; I think Gary is now about the only regular I/C flier we have.  Anyway the model flew fine and I started talking Mark through the manoeuvres he needs to perfect. But after a few minutes the plane decided it didn’t like being told what to do and intermittently did its own thing! Luckily Mark was able to get it down safely and of course the radio was working perfectly on the ground.

There was lots of muttering about DodgyFleet and I think the set is going to be retired.  Interestingly Mark was involved with DigiFleet many years ago, doing some of their computer programming for the PCM system I believe. He’s giving us a talk about it one club night soon, should be an entertaining evening, I’m sure nobody will mention the problems!
 
With plenty of combat Mustangs present Wonky managed to convince four pilots to have some combat fun. Streamers were fitted and Wonky, Woody, and Tony and I took to the air. I was lucky and managed to take Tony’s streamer clean off as we climbed away from the launch, and it caught round my tail so I had two streamers! Shortly afterwards Wonky cut Woody’s streamer off in all the mayhem. I’m not too sure exactly what happened next as I was careering round the sky with the others but I saw Wonky’s plane suddenly dive into the deck. With the extra drag of streamers the little planes become slightly less agile and I think Phil just got caught out. There was little damage and it was soon repaired with an application of cyano. I got all cocky and did a low slow pass to show off my two streamers, at which point John Wheeley leapt into action and caught one of the streamers! I think it must have been the one that was tied to the tail as the model stopped dead and plonked into the grass.  But there was no damage so I just removed the offending streamer and chucked it back into the air. Loads of fun for all involved.
 
New member Dan (sorry, don’t know Dan’s surname yet) brought two models along on Sunday, a Wot 4 Foam-E and a HobbyKing Walrus. No I’d never heard of it either. It’s a fairly standard 1.4M span EPO foam electric glider although unusually it’s fitted with flaps. But the interesting thing about Dan’s is that he’s fitted it up with an FPV (first person view) system. This is a first for PAM so we were keen to see how it worked.
 
Now when Dan first came to the field he said he was a heli flier and had got an electric glider but needed to be taught how to fly it. I did hear the words ‘ringer’ and ‘hustler’ being bandied about; he didn’t seem to need much help to me! Anyway I flew the Walrus first while Dan wore the FPV goggles. The plane flew very well indeed and the FPV seemed to work pretty well although the prop was causing the usual lines in front of the camera.  The lens was apparently infrared which made the ground look as if there was a heavy frost although the sky was blue. Dan is going to change it to a normal lens that has a wider angle, which should improve it no end.

Unfortunately I didn’t get a photo of Dan wearing the goggles, only Wonky Wiltshire. But when you see him you’ll realise why a large heavily built guy with a beard called Dan can only be known as Desperate Dan. We’ll have to keep an eye on him when the farmer puts cattle back in the field, we don’t want Desperate Dan going for cow pie!
 
A man walks into a pub and says to the barman “Have you got any helicopter flavoured crisps?” The barman shakes his head and says, “No, we’ve only got plain.”             Oh stop groaning…
 
Colin Cowplain