Patch News – April 2025
But of course the wind was also in the right direction for the Sky Surfers with their paragliders and hang gliders. Fortunately, most of the time the wind was too strong for them, especially the paragliders, so we didn’t have to stop flying too many times. As I said last month, they seem to stand around a lot, threatening to fly, often with their wing inflated, but not actually take flight. I can see their point, if we take a chance and fly in unsuitable winds, we might break a model but the only thing that gets hurt is our pride.
A bigger problem was the herd of bullocks in the field which was a much larger herd than we are used to. They had slightly damaged the electric fence once in March and, having repaired it and watched them touch it and back away, we thought our troubles were over.
But in April they trampled over the fence several times. We changed the wire to a different type but it made no difference, they still wrecked it. There was lots of discussion about the reason, was the cause the old batteries or was the energiser reaching the end of its useful life? We couldn’t be sure so, after the fifth time of arriving to find the fence down and damaged again, the decision was made to replace the batteries, earth rod, and energiser.
These were quickly purchased and on April 12th four of us installed all the new gear.
We were treated to a glorious sunset as we finished the work. By then the bullocks had been moved on to fresh pastures, but when we flew on the 20th a different batch were in the field and the fence was untouched so it seems the new gear has done the trick…hooray!
Last month’s blog went live on 1st April so I felt obliged to include an April Fools piece. But almost nobody seemed to spot it, the only ones who mentioned it were 1066 and Page Boy. So what was it? There was a photo that I said was taken from the video with the comment that Page Boy and Mini Mike’s Avantis had flown towards each other and had a near miss. 
But if you watched the video you would have seen that the two Avantis were never even in the air at the same time, let alone close. Also, in the write-up I said ‘it must have been Mini Mike’s fault as he was feeling a bit under the weather at the time…poorly lad, as if.’
Well ‘poorly lad as if’ is an anagram of April Fools Day. Mini Mike told Page Boy that he didn’t remember the near miss so Page Boy explained it to him! 1066 posted a comment on the blog about it being foolish to not fly circuits but nobody picked up on that either!
Lots of new models turned up to fly in April, especially when the strong easterly winds had been replaced by more favourable conditions. First up was Mini Mike’s new Electro Streak. 
Mike has had a series of Electro Streaks over the years, going right back to the original early balsa ones but this one is an all-foam creation by E-flite which can use either three or four cells. On its first outing he flew it on a three cell lipo pack and it went well but Mini Mike decided he could do better, so for the next outing he switched up to a four cell pack.
It certainly shifts around the sky when flat out and I didn’t bother trying to film it, but you can see how it went on the rather cautious first flight on three cells in this month’s video.
Dougal Entendre retired his ancient Slick last month after the much weakened undercarriage parted company with the fuselage yet again. Dougal said there was nothing left to glue it back to in the lightly constructed fuselage, so after years of faithful service it’s flown it’s last. But some time ago Woody had sold an Edge 540T to Dougal when he decided it was too much of a handful, and Dougal had just lost his own identical Edge in a midair collision. So in April Dougal brought the Edge out of retirement to fly again.
The Edge is one of a now discontinued range produced by HobbyKing that was made of a lite-ply skeleton covered in EPP foam so the model is very light for its 1430mm span.
The motor is a Turnigy Aerodrive 4250 500kV which is coupled to an 80A speed controller. Amazingly the 14” propeller on Dougal’s previous Edge had survived the midair collision and he is using it on this one. He mostly flies it with a five cell 3000mAh pack but he only has two of those so if he wants a third flight he uses a Y-lead to put two three cell 2200mAh packs in series (equivalent to a 6 cell 2200mAh pack) and says there seems to be no difference in performance. You can watch the performance in this month’s video.
Some of you will have seen Norwegian Nick’s E-Shark at the club EGM in late February. At the time it had not been flown and April was the first opportunity Nick has had to try it.
As usual Nick had made a lovely job of the building and covering. The plan for the E-Shark is available from Sarik Hobbies and this is what their website says: This is a simple sports or slope (using a folding prop) 41 in. span model design by Graham Dorschell built up from 5mm Depron using the ‘folding wing’ method, with some balsa and Correx board and using basic tools with two 9g servos for delta mix. With just a few parts to cut it turns into a quick model to fly with a 35mm 1500KV brushless motor, 60 Amp ESC, 8″ x 6″ prop and a 3S 2200-3000 mAh LiPo. It sounds good to me, a simple, cheap, small model to chuck in the car for flying at any opportunity, what could possibly go wrong? 
Unfortunately, quite a lot as it turned out. I was flying so I missed what happened on it’s maiden flight, I just saw it going away from the launch but that was all. The next thing I knew was that it had come down somewhere in the distance and Nick had gone off to retrieve it. Sadly the E-Shark had literally crashed and burned and eventually Nick returned with some very charred remains. I’ve no idea what caused the crash but the battery obviously got damaged in the impact and destroyed the rest of it, a great shame.
It’s extremely rare for that to happen but it’s a possibility that we all need to be aware of.
Time to move on to happier things now. Having been to the field several times, asked lots of questions, and done loads of research, new member Terry splashed the cash on what seems to be an ideal set of equipment for someone with zero knowledge of model flying.
He bought a HobbyZone AeroScout trainer, a Spektrum NX7e+ transmitter, five Turnigy three cell 2200mAh batteries from HobbyKing, and an Overlander VSRmini+ charger.
Here’s what the Wheelspin Models site says about the plane: The HobbyZone® AeroScout™ S 2 1.1m makes learning to fly an RC (radio controlled) airplane more fun and easier than ever before! It’s the perfect trainer because it’s very durable and is equipped with exclusive SAFE® (Sensor Assisted Flight Envelope) technology that helps to prevent overcontrol, loss of orientation and crashes so nearly everyone can learn to fly successfully. It also features Beginner, Intermediate and Experienced flight modes so you can choose the level of stability and control you need at the flip of a switch. The “pusher” power configuration and EPO construction make it more durable than other similar class models. Tricycle landing gear with oversized tires and a steerable nose wheel makes it easy to take off from and land on a wide variety of surfaces from pavement to grass, or you can install the optional floats (sold separately) to fly from ponds and lakes! 
Terry was very lucky as for the first couple of sessions he flew the conditions were near perfect with light winds. The AeroScout proved to be ideal for Terry and after just a few minutes in Beginner mode Terry was happily flying in Intermediate mode which gives more control but doesn’t allow the pilot to over control and inadvertently get upside down.
On only his third flight he took off with no problems and by around flight number seven he was landing safely. On his third flying session there was a strong wind blowing which made Terry realise that it’s not always quite so easy but he coped well and I’m sure he’ll quickly reach the BMFA ‘A’ certificate standard. Some of Terry’s flying is in the video.
When Bob the Builder decided he had too many models a while back he sold his Tiger Moth to Gordon Bennett. Bob had built the Tiger from a HobbyKing laser cut kit back in 2016 and made a beautiful job of it. The Tiger had it’s first flight in September that year.
Bob finished it in the colour scheme of the one Ralph Hubbard landed in our field twice but who was sadly killed doing the Cresta Run in Switzerland in 2017 at the age of 72!
New owner Gordon has now had several flights with the Tiger Moth and is gradually getting used to flying a fairly draggy biplane,. He has been making a few adjustments to get it flying as he likes but overall it’s a lovely model that flies well as you’ll see in the video.
Last month 1066 decided to sort out his battery packs as, like most of us, he had quite a few that weren’t up to the job of providing decent power for a reasonable time. He spends a lot of his spare time making stuff out of gash wood, pallets, old furniture etc. so, having discarded the duff batteries, he set about making a storage unit for the remaining ones.
It seems he still has over seventy packs! That’s very neat 1066, are you taking orders?
While he was clearing out his batteries 1066 also cleared out a model. Having finished his new kit-built Mirus 1066 donated his old Mirus look-a-like airframe to Woody.
Woody has fitted an Airtek Excell 3536 1400KV motor along with a Hobbywing speed controller, and is using the folding prop that survived when he crashed his Aggessor.
He has made a new cowl from two plastic cups which I notice has a sexy see-through look!
With the rates reduced, and flying it on three cells instead of four, the Mirus is much less of a hooligan machine and seems to suit Woody well. Guess where you can see it in action!
This month the rather poor quality action photos are all taken from the video.
Sorry Dougal but I couldn’t resist including your Sport Jet landing ‘incident’! 
Video time now, this month with footage shot by myself and Dougal Entendre.
Please watch the video full-screen, it’s so much better with small models flying around:
If the video won’t play for you please click HERE
The Final Funny:
This is supposedly a true conversation between Air Traffic Control and a student pilot.
Cessna: “Jones tower, Cessna 1234, I’m a student pilot and I’m out of fuel!”
Tower: “Roger Cessna 1234, reduce airspeed to best glide. Can you see the airfield?”
Cessna: “Er…tower, I’m on the south ramp; I just want to know where the fuel truck is..”
Colin Cowplain Patch News – March 2025
March saw a definite improvement in the weather and club members did lots of flying. There was very little rain in the month which meant the parking area has now dried out well and our cars won’t be getting filthy every time we go flying. There was an easterly wind on several days so MVSA members were often flying and on a few occasions the paragliders and/or hang gliders appeared but they seemed to sitting around waiting a lot more than they were flying so rarely stopped our flying. As the weather warmed up the young bullocks that had wintered in the barn were let out into our field and they must have discovered what an electric fence does. One of the corner posts was down when we arrived to fly one day and they’d left us a few presents on one corner of the patch. But the fence had mostly done it’s job as they were all stood around close to, but not on, the patch and once we had herded them away they didn’t bother us again. The next day that we flew the fence was untouched and they had been moved to a different field. They will probably return sometime in the future but hopefully they will have learnt not to touch the fence.
On Sunday March 30th the weather was lovely and sunny but with a very strong wind at ninety degrees to the strip so there was more standing around socialising than flying!
One of the newest club members, Terry Small, has been learning to fly for a few months. 
Terry came to the club having already flown a little 700mm span HobbyZone Apprentice STOL which is a scaled down version of the 1500mm span E-flite Apprentice. The little Apprentice is fully stabilised and too light to qualify for the BMFA ‘A’ certificate so Terry bought the larger E-flite version and has been working towards taking his ‘A’ test. He’s done quite a lot of practising on his simulator but complains that the wind at the field is different to the simulator wind, it’s too strong/too bumpy/wrong direction/the wrong sort of wind etc. so 1066 suggested a suitable blog name for him and Terry will now be known as Windshy! He’s had the usual few knocks along the way but nothing too drastic and by the end of March I suggested he was ready for the test. I think I know why he chose to take his test on the 26th when there was a very light wing blowing straight down the strip!
After a couple of practise run throughs of the test Windshy bit the bullet, flew the test for real, answered the necessary questions and passed. So congratulations Windshy, it’s now time to look for a slightly more advanced model…no not a pylon racer or a Lancaster!
Several new models were flown in March and there were also several older planes brought out of retirement to fly again. The first to fly was Page Boy’s Woodpecker that I featured back in January as finished but not yet flown. Page Boy had started the build back in 2018 so there didn’t seem too much of a rush to get it in the air the moment it was completed. But on 2nd March the Woodpecker finally arrived at the field and took to the air.
I was surprised when I first saw it as, at 66” span, it was much larger than I had realised from the photos Page Boy had sent me. The Woodpecker was designed by Lindsay Todd and Paul Rice and the original used a 900kv motor and a 3 cell lipo but Page Boy has fitted a 3536 1250kv Turnigy motor and he’s using a 3300mAh 4 cell lipo which avoids the need for a lot of weight in the nose and gives flight times of around 6 or 7 minutes.
The speed controller is a 60A Turnigy unit and he’s using 4-Max servos for all control surfaces. The first flight looked reasonable but Page Boy said he was struggling as the motor had too much downthrust. As the motor is mounted on a pylon it’s easy to adjust so before the next flight the downthrust was removed and the second flight went much better. 
You can see the Woodpecker flying after the changes had been made in this month’s video.
Also featured in the January Patch News but unflown was Captain Slow’s Piwakawaka.
He bought it second-hand from a modeller in Southampton so it has flown previously. It seems very successful, Captain Slow had several flights with it in March with no problems. He’s been using a 3 cell 2200mAh pack but even after two flights on the same battery he’s still landing with around 40% left so he’s thinking of trying it with a 1300mAh instead.
I was going to suggest moving the throttle stick up beyond the mid position occasionally but I wouldn’t want to scare him and then have to change his name to Captain Medium!
The next new model to fly was John Warren’s XFly Tasman. John was after something nice and easy to fly and Bob the Builder suggested the Tasman as he loves his own and finds it very easy. John asked me to do the trimming flight which went perfectly other than it briefly disappearing briefly in the mist/low cloud… not the ideal day for a test flight!
Apart from the murky weather at the start of the flight all was good and John has now had several flights with no problems, the Tasman is the perfect model for John. Both Tasmans are in the video which is slightly confusing but I think I’ve got the captions correct.
At the end of February 1066 broke his VisionAire in half when a low inverted pass went just a tad too low and, much to his annoyance, I snuck a couple of photos into Patch News!
Well 1066 put his repairing hat on and soon had everything back in one piece and looking almost as good as before so it seems only fair for me to show you another photo of it.
The VisionAire now flies just as well as it did before it’s minor misadventure but oddly 1066 kept refusing to do any low inverted passes with it this month, I can’t think why!
Back to new models now and another from Page Boy, this time an Arrows Hobby Avanti. 
Unlike the Woodpecker that took seven years to make it from plan to play the Avanti was bought and flown in the same month. The EPO foam Avanti comes almost finished with an 11 blade fan, 2627 4500kv motor, 30A esc, 6 axis gyro, and 3x9g servos all pre-installed. 
The instructions say just thirty minutes assembly time so buying and flying in the same month should have been easy. This is what the Wheelspin Models website says about it:
Where good-looking, top performing, 50mm EDF sport jets are concerned, little can beat the locked-in, arrow-like characteristics of the Arrows Avanti. ‘If it looks right, it’ll fly right they say and in this instance there’s never been a truer word. Sporting Arrows highly-regarded, jet-like 50mm 11-blade fan and 2627 4500KV brushless motor combo, this 3S-fuelled slick ship will appeal to all who seek smooth, torque-free aerobatics, benign handling and a ‘go where you put it’ performance. OK, got that Page Boy?!
It was quite a windy day that Page Boy test flew his Avanti with some pretty turbulent air so the stabiliser was working hard but all went well and it looked great on the air. Mini Mike also has one of these and they can both be seen flying in this month’s video.
They were very lucky not to have a mid-air at one point, I captured this rather blurry screenshot from the video, Page Boy’s is the nearest one. He reckoned it must have been Mini Mike’s fault as he was feeling a bit under the weather at the time…poorly lad, as if!
I mentioned earlier that Bob the Builder has an XFly Tasman that he’s been flying for a while and he likes it so much that he’s now designed and built himself a mini version of it. 
This is what he says about it: Decided I needed to replace my old Basher with something easier to fly. What could be better than a Mini Tasman. I love my big Tasman so decided to scale it down to run a 1300 3s battery. First thoughts were to scale down to 60%. Started making all the dimensions 60%. Wasn’t long before I realised that the wing area was much smaller than 60% which didn’t look right, in fact it was only 36% when you multiplied the wing span by the cord. Decided to change tack and make the area of all flying surfaces 50% of the original area. I watched several YouTube build videos that used 10mm Thermocol foamboard which seemed to make the build very quick and easy. Unfortunately Thermocol doesn’t appear to be available in the UK and the closest I could find was 5mm foam board from Hobbycraft. It was all built from this foam board but with added strength where required and all covered with white or red parcel tape.
The fuselage bottom has been sprayed with grey paint. Technical data: Wingspan 1000mm, flying weight with 1300 3cell =1065grm, motor is a Hobbyking Propdrive 28/36 1400KV with a 9×6 Prop at 270 watts, 4 servos of 11grms. No flaps or wing struts yet and I need bigger wheels. A little more than half the weight of big Tasman with half the wing area so should fly OK but not quite as slow. Thanks Bob. To save weight Bob has removed the paper covering from much of the foam by soaking it in water. The pics show the construction method well, including the folded over wing profile and carbon joiner.
I did the initial trimming for Bob and the plane flew well. I then handed over to Bob and he flew it around for a few minutes before it suddenly dived into the ground. Bob wonders if he’d stalled it but I don’t think so, maybe something broke. The model was damaged but not too badly so Bob soon had it flying again. Everything appeared to be working perfectly but shortly after take-off the Mini Tasman lost radio contact and crashed again. It’s fairly easy to repair and Bob has changed the speed controller as that appears to have been the cause. He will of course give the whole thing a thorough check over before he tries again.
After taking a couple of months away from working on his Mirus 1066 finally got down to finishing and flying it in March. There were a few things he wasn’t happy about in the build, hence the delay, but now it’s all done and the end result looks good.
1066 says he had trouble with the covering on the underside and then found it tricky to see in the air so he’s jazzed it up with a few stickers, perfect! He’s fitted a 35mm 1000kv motor, a 70A speed controller, and powers it with a 4 cell 3300 or 3600mAh lipo battery.
Knowing that it’s very easy to break the prop when landing a Mirus 1066 decided to try an Aeronaut folding prop and for the first flight he fitted a 12×8. The Mirus flew well but wasn’t as fast as he’d hoped, plus it was pulling close to the limit of the esc so he switched to an 11×6 folder which worked much better, more speed and a lower current draw.
Having hand launched the Mirus a few times I can testify that it has a lot pull! You can see how it went on the first flight in this month’s video, on subsequent flights it was faster.
Last month I wrote that Woody was building a Yellow that he had bought as a plan and laser cut kit from Sarik Hobbies. He’s now finished the build and has finished it in blue covering. Woody has added some yellow trim in keeping with the Yellow name but just to confuse us all he is calling it Bluey instead. The covering is Ripmax heat shrink film.
He has fitted a 2810 1400kv motor with a 7×5 propeller coupled to a 30A speed controller and is using a 3 cell 1000mAh lipo. Bluey had a few flights in March with no real problems but Woody is gradually making a few adjustments to get it flying just as he likes.
Looking very smart…Bluey not Woody! None of the usual suspects managed to shoot any video of the Bluey flying in March but hopefully I’ll be able to include some next month.
In March I got two models out of semi-retirement and have enjoyed flying them both. First was a Kyosho Raptor that I’d put together back in 2017. Oh look, I haven’t changed a bit…
It flew well but one of the aileron servos kept freezing momentarily in flight, fortunately always in the neutral position. Obviously I needed to change the servo but the wiring on the Raptor was all glued in place during the construction to keep the EDF airflow clear.
So I stopped flying it while I pondered…for several years! I decided the only thing to do was to cut the servo off, leaving the wire glued in place, and then run the new servo wire through the duct as neatly as possible. Once I’d bitten the bullet if was very easily done, something I should have sorted years ago! The other change I made was to enlarge the battery bay slightly so I could use 2200mAh 3 cell packs instead of the 1300mAh packs.
This meant adding even more lead to the tail to correct the centre of gravity so, with the extra battery weight and the lead, the Raptor is now considerably heavier than intended. It needs a bit more of a chuck to get it away from the launch but once airborne it is nice and smooth to fly and I get around five minutes airtime. It’s in the video, I think it looks good.
The other rejuvenated model is my little Sharkface, another model that I had built in 2017.
The original was a single channel (rudder only) model designed in 1965 by Eric Clutton and in those days many people fitted them with Cox .049 glow-plug engines, although the design says for up to 1.5cc so some modellers fitted one of the small diesel engines that were popular in the sixties. In March 2017 RCM&E re-issued the original plan along with an article by Shaun Garrity and also added a Mk2 version of the plan which updated it for modern radio by adding an elevator. I’d stopped flying mine because I’d damaged the old ‘bell’ type motor it was fitted with and although it still ran there was a terrible vibration.
This month I rummaged through my stuff for the smallest motor I could find but the best I had was a drone motor from an old foamboard model. It was soon fitted along with a 30A speed controller and, as the old bell motor only used a 10A controller, I knew there was going to be huge increase in power! I fitted the smallest prop I could find, a 5×4, and gave it a go. The first couple of flights were ‘interesting.’ I’ve found that it needs to be launched at less than half throttle and, having reduced the rates a lot, it flies well… mad but well!
Note how much the covering has faded over the eight years since I built it. I was very lucky with one landing which finished right on the spot, total fluke, I wasn’t even aiming for it!
You can see the Sharkface in action in the video, it’s ridiculously overpowered but fun.
The action shots this month are all taken from the video so rather poor quality I’m afraid:
Video time now, this month with footage shot by myself, Dougal Entendre, and MacFly.
Please watch the video full-screen, it’s so much better with small models flying around:
If the video won’t play for you please click HERE
The Final Funny:
This month I have a helpful tip for you when you’re flying off on your holiday.
If you board the plane and spot Jack, your old mate from school, don’t call out “Hi Jack!”
Colin Cowplain
Patch News – February 2025
It’s March, welcome to glorious spring weather and lots of flying opportunities! Well, that might be slightly optimistic but there are signs that the weather is getting better and February was certainly better for us than January. We flew on the decent days and saw several good turnouts of members. Some days were very cold but the hardy ones still flew! 
Unfortunately Friday 21st was a complete washout and the forecast for the following Sunday was also dreadful so we flew on Saturday 22nd instead when nine members turned out for an excellent morning of flying and socialising in surprisingly good weather.
At the beginning of February we rotated the patch clockwise slightly as had been planned previously. This is to ensure better separation between airborne models and the houses (existing and planned). The rotation makes very little difference to our take-offs and landings but the red ‘Do Not Cross’ line that extends both west and east from the southern edge of the patch has rotated with the patch, effectively rotating our whole flying area slightly. So, when standing on the pilot line facing the masts, look left along the edge of the patch, extend that line into the distance, and never fly behind it, simples!
A couple of days after we’d mowed the newly rotated patch Woody and 1066 went back and mowed the whole patch again and sent me this photo as proof of their hard work!
Since then we’ve mown it a couple more times so the patch is now in very good condition.
I think it’s short enough now for Gordon Bennett to remove the wheelbarrow wheels from his Multiplex Extra and replace them with something sensible but I doubt that’ll happen!
On to new models now, starting with one that’s both come and sadly gone in the same month, Woody’s F-117 Lockheed Nighthawk. As I said last month the Nighthawk is one that Woody found on the website of Humayun Najabat but it seems this one was actually designed by someone else. It says Dzung 50 on the plan and I’ve found an S-DiY video of the build that seems rather better than Humayun Najabat’s, you can watch it HERE.
Woody fitted his usual foamie set-up consisting of a Turnigy 2826/6 2200Kv motor, a 30A speed controller, and a pair of 9g metal gear servos. He brought it along on two flying sessions and we had multiple attempts at each session to get it flying but never managed to get the Nighthawk airborne for more than a few metres. It’s a bit of an awkward thing to launch and it requires a discus style throw. For the first flight Woody positioned the battery as far forward as he could get it to achieve the centre of gravity that was shown on the plan and he’d also needed to add quite a large lump of lead to the nose.
It seemed odd as the one in the video on the website didn’t appear to have any lead added and the battery was mounted further back. The first few attempts resulted in it nosing straight into the deck so we removed the lead and gradually moved the battery back but, even with full up elevator the Nighthawk refused to fly. After several attempts the nose got damaged so Woody took it home for repairs, and also to change the servo linkages to increase the amount of up elevator that was available. The next time out the centre of gravity was definitely further back than Woody had marked on the wing and there was much more up elevator available so we were hopeful of success but again the Nighthawk wouldn’t go for more than a few metres before hitting the deck, strange and annoying.
After several more tries there was a bit of damage to the plane but more importantly to Woody’s confidence and patience. He decided to give up in disgust and, having stripped out all the gear, he relocated the remains to the local tip! Since then I’ve had another look at the videos and they say the CG should be about 42cms from the nose which is where Woody had the yellow lines on his. But two videos also show the plane being balanced, and they are balancing at least 3cms further back than where Woody’s marks were.
So either Woody can’t measure or the 42cms given is wrong, personally I reckon the 42cms is wrong. I’m pretty sure that if Woody’s Nighthawk had balanced where shown in the videos it would have flown. Never mind, it’s too late now, Woody’s loss is the tip’s gain!
Sticking with Woody, following the Nighthawk nightmare he was feeling rather blue so he’s bought himself a yellow. No, not a yellow, a Yellow, although Woody’s will be blue!
It’s a plan pack from Sarik Hobbies and they say it’s a classic .049 design for electric power and modern lightweight radio control gear designed by Ton Van Munsteren and featured in December 2023 RCM&E Magazine. In case you don’t know what an .049 is, it’s an I/C glow plug engine of 0.049 cubic inch capacity or 0.8cc, mostly manufactured by Cox.
The Yellow has a wingspan of just 936mm and requires a 2826/10 1400kV brushless motor, a 30A speed controller, and a 3 cell 1000mAh battery. It looks like it should be fun and probably ideal for our field. This is what it’ll look like when Woody has finished his.
You probably can’t tell that I’ve superimposed Woody’s face over Ton Van Munsteren’s…!
Page Boy came and flew his Wasp E2K pylon racer at the field in February, he has hardly flown at all recently so I think he was getting his hand in for when he flies his new Mirus. 
It’s the smaller 25 sized version and Page Boy says he’s happy with how it’s going together and the build is already well on track so we’ll probably see it flying sometime in March. 
Meanwhile you can see how his Wasp flew in this month’s video. Page Boy also snapped up a bargain that he spotted on Facebook Marketplace this month, it’s an FMS Avanti.
This is from Horizon Hobby: The fantastic 70mm EDF Avanti here! Avanti is a mutual-developed airplane made by FMS team from China and Sebart Team from Italy. The original design and authorization are from Sebart, with the additional FMS advanced production concept, it is finally being a promised finest work. Utilizing many new concepts and technologies from existing planes, this highly anticipated Avanti has the inherent ability to offer a rip-roaring flight. We have optimized the airframe structure markedly to make your time in getting ready for flight quick and easy. The assembly is very straightforward: 7 screws and a carbon fiber wing spar and you are finished.
The Avanti features the latest FMS locked-rotor mode E-retract with overcurrent protection, the CNC-processed shock-absorbed front and rear metal landing gear set (Worm Dia. 8mm), a 50mm diameter front wheel and 55mm rear wheels. These are excellent for taking off and landing on both paved and grass surface airfields.
The power system, which provides tremendous thrust and speed, utilizes our new and improved 70mm 12-blade EDF V2, KV1850 motor system. This brawny system, when coupled with a 6S battery, provides a resonating turbine engine sound.
The environmentally friendly water-based paint provides a vibrant and visual red scheme that makes this airplane look fantastic on the ground and in the air.
Well that all sounds great but I see there’s a Version 3 out now so it’s well out of date already, but I’ll do Page Boy a massive favour and take it off his hands for a few quid…!
Other than Woody’s Nighthawk the only other new model flown in February was my HobbyKing MX2. Yes, after buying it a year ago I finally got round to putting it together! 
The MX2 is certainly not much of a looker with it’s slab-sided fuselage but it’s a good flier and having test flown Gordon Bennett’s for him I ordered one for myself. The MX2 is made from ‘crash resistant’ EPP, has a wingspan of 955mm and weighs around 550g without the battery. This is what the HobbyKing website says about it: Introducing our EPP 3D MX2. Featuring a fantastic design and layout, this all out EPP 3D’er will satisfy the most eager 3D pilots! Its fuselage is torsionally very stiff yet light with loads of space beneath the long top hatch for your radio and power system. The wing is a one-piece affair featuring EPP construction, a very accurate symmetrical airfoil with 2 additional spars to minimize flex and twist. The control surfaces are something else – the elevator, rudder, and ailerons feature a 3 layer construction (Epp-Depron-EPP) making for stiff surfaces and NO flex at extreme throws! Snap rolls “Snap” and the control response is instantaneous. The light – yet rigid – airframe adds up to one great flying 3D “foamy”. Waterfalls, harriers, flat spins, rolling circles this model has the precision to perform these and any other moves you can think of! Assembly of the airframe in a quick 10-15 minute process with the help of a little medium CA. The radio and power system layouts are very straightforward, the long top hatch making for easy access. This is a great model for general park flying and hardcore 3D. You will be hard-pressed to break this model, it will take hard knocks and just keep bouncing back every time!
Several PAM members have owned one of these MX2s, including 1066, Dougal Entendre, and Gordon Bennett and some still have them. Who doesn’t still have one? Well I’m not one to drag up past mistakes but some of you will remember Dougal’s Dogwood…!
But amusing anecdotes aside the MX2 is a great performer and although 3D flying isn’t my thing I liked Gordon’s when I flew it and thought it would be a good all rounder for me.
It went together very easily although the HobbyKing claim of 10-15 minutes seems extremely optimistic. The manual suggests a range of motors to use, 2834, 2215, or 2217 with a Kv in the range of 950 to 1100 and, having discussed it with Dougal, I fitted a 2836 1120Kv Turnigy motor. So not in either the size or Kv range suggested but close! The manual also says a 3 cell lipo in the 1000-1300mAh range so I’m using a 1400mAh, but Dougal and 1066 both use 2200mAh packs in theirs. I had to carve out some foam to fit the 1400mAh pack so using a 2200mAh pack must require a lot of foam removal.
I’ve fitted a 30A speed controller and used four HXT900 9.8g servos which have been fine so far but I probably should have used better quality servos with metal gears. The first flight was good, there was plenty of power for vertical flight and I stuck to low rates which still had more than enough movement for most things. The centre of gravity is slightly behind the specified position and that showed as it was very twitchy on elevator and climbed when flipped inverted! The second flight was similar and I tried high rates briefly but things went slightly awry on the third flight when I used high rates for the whole time. Basically, I got disoriented with the rapid roll rate, and the rearward centre of gravity, plus a lack of height resulted in an ‘unscheduled arrival’. Needless to say MacFly was videoing at the time so you can enjoy my discomfort in this month’s video, but at least it came down on the patch! Fortunately, other than a bent prop adaptor and a small split in the fuselage side the only damage was to my pride. I’ve since had another six flights with no problems.
When I initially balanced it I used the marks indicated on the wing and realised the CG was slightly behind the marks but I figured it would be ok, so flew it like that. But I’ve just got round to correcting the CG and checked the manual, it says 85-90mm from the leading edge. Thinking about Woody’s CG problems with his Nighthawk I checked the position of the marks and they are at 98mm! I have now added a little lead but it’s still slightly behind the maximum of 90mm. I’ll fly it again and decide whether to add more lead or not.
New member Simon Cottam is fitting in well with the other members and has become a regular at the field. Simon has already been given a blog name and will now be known as Dot after Dot Cotton from Eastenders. He isn’t new to flying but before joining us Dot had last flown about fifteen years ago so he was understandably a bit wary about his abilities.
Dot needed a suitable model to get back into the sport and Woody managed to obtain a Wot 4 that was built by club member Ian Daniels who sadly passed away some time ago. 
The Wot 4 seems to suit Dot perfectly and you wouldn’t know he’s been away from flying for so long. He has already had several complete flights from excellent take-offs to some greaser landings back on the patch and needs no help from any of the so called ‘experts’.
Speaking of so called ‘experts’, there’s a habit in the club (as in most clubs I imagine) of shouting “LOWER” when someone does a low inverted pass, especially if it was already a very low one. Often the pilot will oblige and attempt an even lower inverted pass, and very occasionally they get it wrong! Well 28th February was one of those rare occasions!
I don’t want to embarrass said ‘expert’ but many of you will recognise 1066’s VisionAire. Sadly nobody was videoing at the time so you’ll have to make do with post party pictures! The black tape is to hold the broken fuselage together while 1066 carries it back to his car.
We had a club EGM on Feb 26th to make a couple of rule changes which were quickly and amicably sorted. The evening then turned into a social meeting for the 17 members that attended, several of whom had brought along models to show us. So this month’s ‘Action Shots’ are ‘Inaction Shots’ instead and next month I’ll tell you a bit more about them.
The first two are Norwegian Nick’s beautiful Blackburn Buccaneer:
Next it’s Gordon Bennett’s jolly perfect Jet Provost:
I think he’s taking the big wheel thing too far now!
And lastly it’s Norwegian Nick’s sexy Shark:
Video time now, this month with footage shot by myself, Dougal Entendre, and MacFly.
Please watch the video full-screen, it’s so much better with small models flying around:
If the video won’t play for you please click HERE
The Final Funny:
What’s the difference between a jet engine and your partner?
You can switch off a jet engine and then the whining stops!
Colin Cowplain
Patch News – January 2025
I don’t think I’ve ever had so little flying due to bad weather as this month. We expect January to be cold and miserable in the UK but this year it has been particularly bad.
We seem to have been plagued with mist/low cloud a lot more than usual and I’ve lost count of the number of times we’ve turned up to fly only to be thwarted by poor visibility. 
Our new flying site (not so new now as we’ve been using it for a year) is slightly higher than the previous one but I wouldn’t have thought it would make a huge difference.
On 12th January there was a light smattering of snow covering the field but that didn’t stop the hardier fliers although it made take-offs tricky and most pilots hand-launched instead.
It was good to see that Chas turned out and flew having been unable to make it on lots of days with much nicer weather. Members made the most of the days that were flyable and on one of those days Woody seemed happy to be flying but Captain Slow not so much!
Towards the end of the month storm Eowyn blew through and prevented flying on Friday 24th with heavy rain and very strong winds. More rain and winds were forecast from storm Herminia on the Sunday so several of us took the opportunity to fly in the better weather on the Saturday between the storms. The weather was perfect and, as you’ll see at the end of this month’s video, there was barely any wind and the skies were clear at last.
IMPORTANT NOTICE: We have been asked by the farmer to keep the gate that we drive through into the parking area closed at all times. We can keep it open as we all arrive but we must close it before we walk off into our field and down to the patch. This is primarily for when there are animals in the barn in case they escape into the yard, but rather than checking for livestock each time it’s best to simply make sure that the gate is always closed. The second gate, the one that we walk through into the field, can be left open as long as we are certain there are no bullocks or sheep in the field. If we’re not certain we must close it.
It’s been decided that we should rotate the patch and the red ‘do not cross’ line clockwise slightly to ensure further separation from the existing house close to the end of the track and from the new development that is just starting to the south of the field.
Despite the poor weather the patch grass has grown quite a lot and it now needs a good cut so we’ll do the rotation when we next mow, possibly by the time you’re reading this.
On the nicer January days a couple of new models were flown, the first being a ZOHD Drift by Patrick Beagles. Gordon Bennett has decreed that Patrick should be known as Snoopy, after the Peanuts cartoon dog. Maybe Gordon thinks Patrick is cute and cuddly…
Snoopy’s Drift isn’t actually new but it’s the first time he’s flown it at the PAM field having previously flown it in local parks where he’s broken the boom off a few times.
The Drift was first produced in white foam but Snoopy’s is a new Dark Breeze edition in black foam. The black foam is slightly denser than the white foam so it’s a little heavier.
ZOHD bill it as a ‘stealth’ version and it obviously works as Snoopy reckons orientation is difficult sometimes so he’s added some red and green tape to the wings to aid visibility.
He bought his from Hobbyrc where it’s available for around £74, and this is what their website says: The ZOHD Drift Dark Breeze edition is a lightweight and portable RC plane that boasts an impressive 877mm wingspan and a sleek black foam design. It comes with all the key components pre-installed, so you can assemble it in minutes without any glue. 
It also includes two different propellers for 2S and 3S LiPo batteries, giving you more flexibility in power and flight time. The ZOHD Drift Dark Breeze edition is designed to be easy to launch, fly and land. It has a dedicated equipment bay for your FPV camera, flight controller and GPS, and a built-in CF rod for extra durability. It has excellent flight characteristics, allowing you to glide smoothly in light wind conditions and perform agile maneuvers with precision. Whether you are new to FPV or looking for a relaxed flying experience, the ZOHD Drift Dark Breeze edition is the perfect choice for you!
As it says, the Dart is designed to take an FPV set-up with a flight controller but Snoopy is just flying his without any of the extras. He uses a 3 cell 1100mAh lipo battery with the supplied 5×3.5 propeller which gives him flight times of up to twenty minutes!
Now for some information from Gordon Bennett about his new toy, a Skynetic Tempest: Andy (Colin) asked if I could write a little about the Tempest. I’m no expert but I think Prospero was betrayed by his brother and the King of Naples…… Not often you get literary gags in Patch News ehh!? (That’s cos most of the readers aren’t bright enough…!) 
As no one bought me a new model over Christmas I decided to buy one myself. Motion RC were doing a deal on the 80 cm wingspan Tempest and I love the looks of the WW2 interceptor. The Tempest was initially called the Typhoon 2 but as it had diverged so much it was renamed. The aircraft entered service in 1944 and had a much thinner wing and was also one of the most powerful fighters of WW2. At low altitude it was the fastest single engine propeller-driven aircraft of the war. The model is built by Skynetic and arrived nearly ready to go. All you have to do is glue the horizontal stabiliser in and bolt on the wing. One quirk is that they don’t fit any control horns but everything is supplied except a receiver. The Tempest comes with fixed undercarriage and racks for armament. 
I didn’t bother with the latter but thought I’d give the gear a try, I figured the wheels might help protect the prop on grass landings. The first flight was interesting. She rolled hard left from the hand launch but went away like a wild thing. Way too much deflection on all the control surfaces (no set up info in the manual). Luckily, I’d set up some dialled down rates on a switch which calmed things down a bit. The landing was interesting, as soon as the wheels touched, she did a very fast somersault. This should have been the time to remove the undercarriage, but I got fixated on setting up new rates and forgot.
Launch two sorted things. Again, she torque rolled left and this time I couldn’t catch her. The resultant ‘landing’ swiftly removed the gear. Launch three was fine and I had a great flight humming the 633 theme to myself (ok wrong aircraft but who cares).
At the next trip up to the patch Mark suggested launching at 75% throttle. I also held in a bit of right rudder and she now goes away really well. For a smallish model I think she looks great in the air. I’m working on the ‘scale flying’ but it helps that she’s really stable in straight and level flight. When no one is looking I can switch the rates back up and do 5 rolls a second. Thanks Gordon, it was good to see how well she flies now you’ve got her sorted. I filmed some of the Tempest in the air which you can see in this month’s video.
Page Boy has sent me through some photos and information on a couple of models he’s building, the first being a very pretty looking Woodpecker, a model that he was hoping to fly on the last Sunday of January but unfortunately storm Herminia put paid to that idea.
He first started building the Lindsay Todd and Paul Rice designed Woodpecker way back in 2018 but has only just completed it… he must be a friend of Captain Slow!
The Woodpecker was a free plan in RCM&E in November 2017 and can be built with either a normal flat tail or a V-tail, Page Boy has gone for the normal one, I think that’s nicest.
Page Boy’s other new model is a Mirus that he’s only just bought so, if the Woodpecker is anything to go by, we should see it arrive at the field sometime around 2032!
He bought it when he watched Mini-Mike flying his a couple of month’s ago and, like 1066, was inspired to build one for himself. Unlike 1066 (more of his next month) he’s bought the smaller 25 sized Mirus which is the same as Mini-Mike’s. As you can see he hasn’t started work on it yet but hopefully it won’t take too long to put together.
He’s already decided on the power set-up he’ll be fitting, it’ll be the same as he’s using in his Cloud Models E2K Wasp pylon racer, an Overlander Thumper 3536 1500Kv motor with an 8×6 prop, controlled by a Hobbywing 80A speed controller, and fed by a 4 cell 2600mAh lipo. He’ll be using Hitec HS65 metal geared servos to steer the Mirus around and judging by the speed of his Wasp and Mini-Mike’s Mirus it’s not going to be slow!
Last month I reported on the Sky Viper Vectors that both Woody and Captain Slow had received as Christmas presents. Apparently Santa Claus had spotted them in the Lidl Black Friday sale for just £39.99 and bagged a couple to deliver on the big day.
Woody has been happily flying his Vector and has now had quite a few flights with it. He’s found that the stabiliser seems to take about ten seconds to sort itself out after launching, it always goes to a very high alpha from launch no matter what Woody does on the sticks. Sometimes it just sinks to the ground at high alpha but usually it staggers away and then there’s a noticeable ‘kick’ and it levels out and flies normally for the rest of the flight, odd. 
You can see the high alpha from launch in the video although the ‘kick’ isn’t very obvious. Woody has found that waiting with the motors running for at least ten seconds before launching seems to overcome the problem. Captain Slow hasn’t flown his Vector yet, he’s taking it slowly of course but I think he’s been put off by the ‘Built for Speed’ notice on the box. I’ve offered to buy his Vector from him for a much reduced price but so far he’s resisted my cheeky offers. Sadly I think my chances of a bargain have been reduced greatly as last week I saw the Vector for sale in Sainsburys for a huge £100…shhh…don’t tell him!
While he’s plucking up the courage to fly his Vector, Captain Slow has bought a second-hand Piwakawaka. A what?! Apparently Piwakawaka is the Maori name of a small bird from New Zealand called a Fantail although the model bears no resemblance to it at it all.
Anyway, this is what Captain Slow says about it: I bought the model from Facebook Marketplace from a chap in Marchwood for £60. It was his fathers who, from what I can gather, was a BMFA member and a member of the Southampton Model Aircraft Club.
It came complete with the free plan from the Jan 2006 RCM&E and was designed by Ray Huntley. The wing span is 3ft or 91cms. It’s fitted with an AXI 2808/24 outrunner motor, a Jeti Advance Plus 40A esc and 4 Hitec servos and has a pull – pull rudder.
It’s fitted with an 8 x 4 prop which doesn’t agree with AXI’s recommendations, either from the original instructions that I have, or from the AXI web page as it’s a current model apart from the fact that the latest version is 1190 RPM/V as opposed to the 1160 RPM/V of my version. It has a small amount of hangar rash that is easily fixed and I need to change the esc connections to XT60; other than that it’s ready to go.
The RCM&E article describes it as a small Limbo Dancer type model, it looks good to me.
Woody has built himself a Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk which is another from the website of Humayun Najabat. He is the guy in Pakistan who also designed the SR-72 Darkstar that Woody built a couple of months ago and was featured in the December 2024 Patch News.
This one was actually designed by someone else, it says Dzung 50 on the plan. I’ve found an S-DiY video of the build that seems rather better than Humayun Najabat’s, you can watch it HERE. The same guy has also made one out of cardboard which seems to fly well!
Woody’s is made of foam and he has used his usual foamie set-up consisting of a Turnigy 2826/6 2200Kv motor, a 30A speed controller, and a pair of 9g metal gear servos.
Another new model that has yet to fly is Gordon Bennett’s 64mm Freewing F9F Panther.
It came from Motion RC and apparently is a new 4 cell version of the Freewing Panther.
This is from the Motion RC website: The new version of the 64mm F9F Panther has a faster motor, larger 40A ESC, 12B fan for great sound, and runs on a 4S LiPo instead of a 3S. In order to achieve these upgrades, the fuselage mould was updated to create extra room for a 4S LiPo battery and the wing mould was changed to add a tubular spar for extra strength. The canopy magnets were also changed to a latch system to keep the canopy from blowing off due to the extra speed. The changes were worth it! With the extra power and 12 blade EDF sound this already fantastic plane is now even better. Well it certainly looks nice, hopefully there will be a flight review in the February Patch News of the Panther along with Woody’s Nighthawk, and Captain Slow’s Piwakawaka.
This month the action photos are a few more nostalgic shots from the PAM archives:
Video time now, this month with footage shot by myself, Gordon, and Dougal Entendre. Please watch the video full-screen, it’s so much better with small models flying around:
If the video won’t play for you please click HERE
This month’s Final Funny popped up on Facebook the other day, it made me smile 🙂
Colin Cowplain
