Patch News History

Well the weather has picked up since I wrote last which means our excellent farmer has finally been able to cut his field. Once the grass (very long by this time) had had a few days of sunshine the farmhands managed to cut, turn, and bale the crop in record time. Those of us that flew each day while this was going on really appreciated how George and his men went out of their way to help us keep flying and even changed their harvesting pattern in the field so they didn’t interfere with our flying! We really do owe George and his men a huge thank you, we are incredibly lucky to have such good friends on our side 🙂

Quite a lot has happened at the patch, several new models have appeared, and a few older ones have ‘disappeared’! Nick Sivertsen finally managed the get the A4 Skyhawk flying. Nick said it’s about 5 years old but had never flown. He brought it up on a perfect test flying day and spent quite a time setting up a launch ramp and bungee system, and going through final checks of CG, radio range, control surface movements, heart tablets etc! Eventually he was happy with everything…well as happy as he was ever going to be…and stretched the bungee to the correct (incredibly high I thought) tension and attached it to the launch ramp. It was at just this extremely tense moment in the proceedings that Keith Evans decided to “see what this pedal does”! He found out very rapidly when the bungee shot off at high speed towards Nick at the anchored end! Fortunately it missed Nick and even more fortunately the model wasn’t on the ramp at the time. Nick said something like “Gosh” and muttered lots while the rest of us fell about laughing… After a short delay and more heart tablets the Skyhawk was finally wrenched skywards, and it flew beautifully. Much too twitchy on ailerons but otherwise perfect, and it looked great in the air. I’m sure it doesn’t need such a violent launch as it flew quite happily on half throttle, and it landed fairly slowly even on a calm day. Well done Nick, we look forward to watching many more flights with detuned ailerons. Nick has also got his Fantrainer flying well now on 3 cells instead of 4, after a motor swap and the addition of a heatsink . Yes, it is a scale model: http://www.fanjetaviation.com/ One model that ‘disappeared’ a few weeks ago was Woody’s F-18 Hornet. He had brought it to a club meeting and showed off it’s lighting system which included throttle linked ‘afterburners’ but sadly on it’s first flight it lost one wing when I did a reversal (it wasn’t a tight one honest guv!). However it had been flying well until that moment so Woody collected up the thirty something pieces of EPS and passed them over to the most experienced repairman in the club, Mick H. After a few weeks the Hornet re-appeared looking good as new and with a stronger wing joint. It now flies very well and Woody loves playing the Top Gun theme on his mobile as Maverick streaks by! He is gradually getting used to flying it and barely shakes at all now when I hand him the transmitter! Jim Hobday’s Eflite Pulse isn’t actually a re-appearance as the original model was beyond repair when Jim discovered the Pulse was a step too far up his learning curve. After gaining some more experience on his Eflite Advance he has invested in another Pulse and this time he is happily flying it without problems. I must say that Eflite do seem to make good quality, well sorted models. Tony Neal’s Durafly Vampire didn’t disappear, but the Ubec did, through the fan when he was bench testing the set-up! This unfortunate incident demonstrated that EDF’s suck from the front just as much as they blow from the back, and it destroyed the Ubec, fan, and motor. Having replaced these items Tony’s Vampire is now flying extremely well, it’s definitely one of the nicer flying EDF’s. Sadly I forgot to photograph it but hey, it looks like a Vampire, and who wants to see a picture of Tony?!
Multiple Models Montague has been at it again and now I’ve completely lost touch with all of his models. The number of crashes has certainly dropped as Steve’s flying has come on in leaps and bounds, although there have been a couple of moments. His Seagull Edge is no more and a larger Extra has had a new fuselage. He has also got a 42″ Slick designed by Andrew Jesky, look here if you don’t know about him: http://andrewjesky.weebly.com/ it’s a very very good 3D machine. So much so that Steve has a larger 51″ Slick on the way! Another arrival is Bob Hill’s Lander Hunter from HobbyKing. It’s the same model as Mick’s Hunter but unlike Mick, Bob bought the bare airframe rather than the version that comes with the motor, fan, and retracts. So he sourced a Lander fan and motor to suit 4 cells (Mick uses 6 cells) from Overlander. He was aware that things seemed to get a bit hot on a brief test run but thought it would be ok at flying speed. But just over 2 mins into the flight the motor suddenly quit, exactly as Mick’s did on it’s first flight! The fan unit was removed and the motor appeared to have cooked, no magnetic field left at all, just like Mick’s. It all seems very odd, the two models use different motors and a different number of cells, yet both failed in identical manner. The good news is that it flew beautifully and survived the forced deadstick landing without damage so it will fly again once Bob has sorted out another motor. Mick’s Hunter is now fitted with a HET motor and has had lots of problem free flights. And so onto the tale of Hapless Harper…Mick’s recent problems began last week when he was flying his much loved Hyperion Yak 54 with a newly repositioned u/c. The view from the pits saw and heard the Yak scream into terra firma almost vertically a few hundred yards down the field, at which point Mick turned to Steve M (the only other person flying) and say “What happened?” Steve replied “I don’t know, I’m flying my model”. It was interesting to watch as they both carried on flying Steve’s model until the awful truth dawned on Mick! It seems Mick glanced down at the trims and picked up the wrong one when he looked up again. Sadly the Yak was well and truly totalled as were two brand new batteries, but happily Mick is looking at buying an identical replacement.

In the meantime Mick dusted off his old 3D machine, but… on Sunday Steve H suddenly shouted from the pits that Mick was very close to the only clump of trees at the top of the valley. Mick, thinking Steve was just shouting the usual micky taking verbal, responded in the time honoured fashion of abuse and flew another almost identical circuit. I say almost identical because it must have been just a few feet lower… I needn’t go into detail of the result 🙁

I had to leave while recovery was ongoing but I did manage to snap a picture of the initial attempt. Fortunately we managed to talk Mick out of climbing further and the last I saw involved a heavy weight and length of rope! Taxiing down the tarmac, the 747 abruptly stopped, turned around and returned to the gate. After a two hour delay, it finally took off. A worried passenger asked the steward, ‘What was the problem?’ ‘The pilot was bothered by a noise he heard in the engine’, explained the flight attendant, ‘and it took us a while to find a new pilot.’ Colin Cowplain

At the club meeting last week it was decided that this evening (Wed 8th Aug) we would have a go at clearing the nettles etc from around the parking areas at the field. Unfortunately Roland’s van is being repaired and he is not sure he’ll have it back for tomorrow, we need Roland to bring most of the equipment!
Mick H has decided we should reschedule it for next Wednesday 15th Aug, 7pm if you can make it.

We had a surprise visitor to the patch in May. A few of us were flying one Saturday when we spotted a Tiger Moth heading our way and the pilot had obviously spotted us as well. He flew a circuit around the field, presumably to check we were aware of his presence and, once he could see we had landed all the models, he treated us to a low pass…and I mean LOW!  We thought he was going to do a touch and go but he stayed a few feet up. I just managed to snatch a quick photo with my mobile as he passed, poor quality I’m afraid but you get the idea.  He returned our waving as he passed and then pulled up and round and as he crossed the patch again he did a lovely loop right over the top of us!  It certainly made our day, and the pilot seemed to be enjoying himself as much as we were.

During the rest of May the weather went downhill to the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee at the beginning of June, but there was another highlight when we were visited by a familiar looking couple. Apparently they dropped by to present our Chairman with a special certificate for Services to the Glue Industry… about time he was certified!

As I write we have just emerged from the wettest June on record so not surprisingly the flying has been a bit limited. Some of us braver idiots did get out to fly on a few of the better days, although we sometimes got caught by the showers. We had some unusual problems against us this month, caused by the weather, starting with a large tree that got blown down across the track to the barn. Roland leapt into action and attacked it with his chainsaw, aided by some of the flyers, but the tree was just too big for both the chainsaw and the helpers. We tidied it up as best we could and after a couple of efforts Roland managed to clear a path wide enough for walkers and bikers but not cars. We had to reach the car parking area via the bottom road for a few days but then the farm workers arrived with some seriously large machinery and cleared the lot in under an hour!

 
The other weather related problem is the length of the grass. George (our farmer) has been letting the field grow for hay but because it has been so wet he hasn’t been able to cut it and at the moment it’s well above knee height. Walking to the patch means a good soaking and it’s hard work for those of us with trolleys. Can’t be helped and no doubt it’s more of a worry for George than it is for us. He told us he’ll cut it as soon as he can so fingers crossed the weather improves soon. Meanwhile the patch is in excellent condition although harder to land on than usual because of the long grass all around it.
 
Ron Vears brought his swing-wing Tornado to show us at club one meeting and the model has now flown successfully several times. It flies pretty much like other EDF’s with the wings in the forward position, and there’s not too much change with them in the mid position. In these positions the ailerons are very positive, even with low rates and plenty of exponential dialed in, it rolls like a drill!  But when the wings are fully swept back the ailerons become pretty ineffective despite programming in maximum movement and zero expo. Overall the model flies really well and is very impressive in the air, particularly when pulling into a vertical climb with the wings fully swept. Care is needed on the landing approach as the small wings mean the speed has to be kept high, I wouldn’t want to try landing it if the wings jammed in the fully swept position!  Ron is using his new Multiplex radio on the Tornado and the wing positions are set using Flight Phases which means simply flicking one switch slowly moves the wings and automatically sets the rates, expo, and trims to whatever has been chosen for the Phase it’s in. 

 
Ron is also using the Multiplex telemetry and has fitted a current sensor that displays various info on the transmitter screen.  One of the functions acts like a fuel gauge and sounds an alarm when the battery reaches a pre-set level, warning him it’s time to land.  I am using the same system on my Multiplex, and Steve Montague uses similar telemetry on his Spectrum DX8, and Andy Smith on his Hitec Eclipse… it’ll never catch on, it’s just toys.
 
Ron found he had a problem with carrying several models and transmitters from the car to the patch but came up with a novel approach that seems to work well:

 
If you have read Nick’s Blackbushe Report you’ll know that Viv Burgess splashed the cash at the 4-Max store and emerged with a bag full of chargers, motors, batteries etc. (His wife Vicky tells me he spent almost £10! ).  Viv tends to fly larger models but has now converted both his almost new PT-19 and his Chipmunk to electric power with seemingly few problems, I hear there a some large 4-strokes up for sale…
 
Must dash now, the sun’s out and I’m off flying  🙂
Colin Cowplain

Well I’m sitting here watching the rain bucketing down yet again so I thought I might as well tell you what’s been happening at the patch recently. Things have been a bit quiet since my report in March, the long spell of almost perfect weather turned into wet & wind for much of the time but we have still managed to fly a fair bit and several new models have appeared.
When my Hobby King Sportjet first flew it was disappointingly slow. I had fitted the supplied undercarriage and was using 4 LiFe cells (A123’s). The model was designed for a 4s lipo and I thought the slightly lower voltage of the LiFe cells wouldn’t make a huge difference…wrong!  Steve Montague lent me a 4 cell lipo to try and the power difference was amazing, so I added a fifth cell to my A123 packs and hacked the existing battery box around to make it fit. It took off from the patch ok but didn’t look like a jet should with wheels hanging down, plus I kept having to straighten out the flimsy u/c legs, so they had to go.  The C of G was where it was supposed to be but it needed up trim and inverted flight needed a lot of down elevator so I started adding lead to the tail. Eventually I arrived at a point where inverted only needs a sensible amount of down. I have been tweaking rates and expo to get it to my liking and now it flies really well.  Flat out speed is now almost identical to Wonky’s Alpha Jet so there have been quite a lot of fast ‘formation’ low passes. Sooner or later there will be a bang followed by an awful lot of polystyrene beads blowing away downwind, watched by two dejected ex jet pilots!
Staying on EDF’s for a moment, Ron Vears, spurred on by the success of his Alpha Jet, splashed out on an FMS Dassault Rafale from Kings Lynn models. It started off rather like my Sportjet, with wheels and underpowered. It has a 64mm fan (both the Sportjet and the Alpha are 70mm) and is supplied with a 3 cell lipo. It wouldn’t get off the patch so Ron removed the u/c and hand launched instead. It flew but was still underpowered so 4 cells were shoe-horned in and it now flies very well. It looks great in the air and Ron is building up confidence to fly lower and faster!
Meanwhile Jim Hobday has got his Black Horse T-28 Trojan finished. Although the model is sold as I/C or Electric there is no battery access hatch. Not wanting to remove the wings after every flight Jim has made the cockpit detachable and now puts the battery in from the top, surely a mod that Black Horse should do if they are selling it as electric compatible? Anyway it works well and Jim has made a very nice job of it. The test flight proved rather dramatic as the C of G was very rearward, despite being where the instructions stated. After the addition of some nose weight it flew very nicely and Jim just needs some decent weather to get used to flying it.
Multiple Models Montague decided that he needed even more and bought an Eflight Texan on eBay at a bargain price. He confessed that by the time he had bought some expensive retracts along with a UBEC, ESC, more servos etc it was rather an expensive bargain!  The finished model looks great and flies even better, it’s one of those models that just feels right, lovely and smooth but totally aerobatic and scale like. It does however have the Harvard/Texan tendency to drop a wing if the airspeed drops too much. I tested the stall on the first flight and it dropped into a full spin, luckily I had enough height to recover safely.  Once the flaps are lowered it comes in to land beautifully, but it definitely needs to be treated with respect.  Steve was also tempted by a Seagull Edge but due to several holidays in Florida he has only been able to fly it once. It flew fine and when he eventually returns I think he will really enjoy it.
Finally a new I/C model! Viv Burgess has put together one of the new Seagull Giant Scale PT-19’s. It is 80″ span, powered by a 120 four stroke, and weighs in at over 11lbs. Viv test flew it and it took off beautifully and flew in a very scale like manner. After enjoying it for a few minutes he let me have a go (big mistake!) and I did a few circuits and gentle aerobatics. Unfortunately the motor cut on the landing approach over over the valley and I couldn’t make it back to the field. Luckily the damage was pretty minor, the wing pulled off but only the centre section mounting was damaged and Viv says it has gone back together easily…phew!  I’m afraid I forgot to take any photos of it but will do so next time.
All we need now is for some decent weather to fly all these new models again, roll on summer. 
So, a blonde fighter pilot was flying in a two ship one day. She was flying her heading just fine, when all of a sudden her wingman called, “We have Migs coming in at 6 o’clock!” She quickly took a look at her watch and said, “It’s okay! It’s only 5:30”!