Patch News – September 2023
The bullocks came and went but the only time they were really bothersome was when Chairman Gordon Bennett sent out an email to all members saying they were no problem at all. Who knew the bullocks could read and were even on the member list?!
I’ll begin with something away from the patch, the two day Popham Model Show which is run by the BMFA Southern Area. Popham Airfield is a great location for a model show with plenty of room for flying, trade stands, marquees for boat and train displays, a bring and buy section, and all the usual catering stands. There is free parking and the airfield is only 25 miles from Petersfield so it’s ideal for PAM members.
Last year the show was excellent with lots of displays by top pilots and a lot of trade stands to browse, the event was definitely growing in size and popularity so members were looking forward to an even better show this year. But sadly this time the show was a real disappointment to most of us. For some reason the organisers had changed the date and the chosen weekend clashed with other model shows at Headcorn and Much Marcle which meant that pilots and trade stands had to choose which event to attend and Popham lost out to the other more established shows. I went on the Saturday with Dougal Entendre and Leo and we bumped into several other PAM members and quite a few ex-members as well but all were saying the same thing, there were almost no trade stands to browse.
There were some very nice models being flown by some excellent pilots and overall the flying side of the show was pretty good but the assortment of models was much reduced from last year. One of the flying slots was for electric foamies and I think there were about a dozen in the air at once, maybe a few more, which was quite entertaining but I took offence to the commentator describing them as ‘ceiling tiles’!
I thought it was a bit odd to basically insult the sort of models that the majority of the spectators present probably fly every weekend. We don’t all want to fly large scale petrol models or turbines although we do enjoy seeing them at the shows. Dougal on the other hand found it rather amusing so maybe I was being over sensitive, those who know me will be aware that I’m a shy, introverted, easily upset sort of chap…
Young Leo was determined to spend some money at the bring and buy and eventually settled on a rather nice Salto electric glider, more of which later. The other club youngster Charlie was also hoping to bag a bargain but was sadly disappointed to find there was almost nothing left to buy when he arrived at around lunchtime. Charlie’s mum Nadine said it was good for her but bad for Charlie! So overall the show was a bit of a let-down for most of us, let’s hope that next year the organisers revert to a weekend that doesn’t clash with other events and it’s better attended by the traders.
There were a few new models flown in September and the first I’ll feature is Gordon Bennett’s MX2. Both Dougal Entendre and 1066 have one of these foamies and they are good, tough little models for practising 3D stuff without breaking the bank. Both of theirs came from HobbyKing but as the HK warehouse in the UK had closed Gordon had to scour the internet where he found one for sale in China and then waited 3 months for it to arrive.
Needless to say no sooner had the model arrived than HobbyKing announced the opening of a new UK warehouse and one of the items on special offer is the MX2! But it’s on back-order and not due until the end of October so maybe Gordon got it right after all.
This is what Gordon says: I’ve watched Dougal and 1066 do amazing things with their MX2s and decided I wanted a piece of the action. I know I can’t fly it like them, but they do seem to have a lot of fun with quite an inexpensive model so I tracked one down. It’s an interesting beast, mainly foam and foam sheet over some balsa reinforcing. It’s light of course and I think this helps it take the inevitable knocks. I had a look at Dougal’s model as mine arrived with no instructions and I wanted to check how he’d set his up. Massive control throws seemed to be the answer. He’s got specially extended servo arms that give huge deflections. I didn’t think I’d need all that to start with so just went with the biggest servo arms I could find in my spares box. The kit only takes a couple of hours to put together, it’s basically glue in the wings, tailplane and control surfaces. I got the servos, powertrain etc. as a bundle and things seem ok so far. For those that like to know what’s under the bonnet it’s an 1100Kv motor, 10×4.7 prop, 40A esc and 3S 1600 lipo. 
Dougal tells me I’ve fitted the ‘slow flight’ prop, news to me. I played around with where to fit the receiver (superior Spektrum since you ask) battery and esc and didn’t really come up with a suitable answer. Dougal said he’d had to do a lot of hollowing out to fit a 2200mAh lipo. Without any hollowing there was enough space for my 1600 lipo but then nowhere for the esc, so I decided to leave it dangling and post it into the canopy, which is then held in place by a tongue and a couple of magnets. It’s a bit fiddly but seems OK.
The first flight (Friday) went surprisingly well all things considered. The wheels are tiny and on a flimsy bit of wire so I didn’t even bother trying to roll off the patch and went for a hand launch instead. I’d dialled in 55% expo and max throws. She needed a bit of elevator trimming and that was it. Inverted needs a tiny push. Knife edge will take a bit of getting used to as I don’t need much throttle and only a little rudder. It’s all very different from my Acrowot. While packing up and chatting to Dougal I suddenly realised I’d connected to the outer hole on the elevator control horn so wasn’t getting maximum throw. This needed to be sorted at home as I needed to ream out the correct hole. So, second flight was on Sunday was with new and improved elevator throw. When I say ‘improved’ I should perhaps say terrifying and near uncontrollable. I limped around the circuit with huge altitude and pitch changes even though I was only breathing on the stick. With sweat dripping off my brow, I landed ASAP and dialled in some throw reduction and more expo. This has made it flyable, but I’ll need to try a few more tweaks as I learn to fly it. I have absolutely no idea how to do all the spinning, humpy bump etc., malarkey but I’ll still have fun trying to master a four-point roll. There is definitely a long way to go. Gordon was kind (stupid?) enough to let me have a flight with the MX2 and I found it to be a good flying model that’ll do whatever the pilot wants it to do. I’m not really into 3D like Dougal and 1066 but found I could knife-edge and prop hang it fairly easily so I’m sure Gordon will quickly get into all that stuff. If you’d like one for yourself HobbyKing are listing it in the UK warehouse at a back-order price of just £64.86 at the time of writing but you will have to wait until the end of the month, maybe longer.
Speaking of Gordon, towards the end of the month I was innocently flying my beautiful Hornet carefully around the sky, minding my own business, when Ghastly Gordon decided to smash his manky old Mig-29 straight into the Hornet! And then, just to rub salt into the wounds, he did a victory roll overhead while I was picking up all the pieces. Nasty man!
Mind you I found two videos this month which prove beyond doubt that we’re all rubbish at flying these things. I’ve combined them both so take a look, it’s less 40 seconds long:
As I’ve said above HobbyKing have announced the opening of a new UK warehouse this month after pulling out of the UK back in October 2021. They say the reason is that the guy who started the company many years ago was taking a step back and wasn’t willing to invest in new products etc. but now some new investors have come along and are pushing development of projects that had been shelved and are expanding the whole set-up. Although the UK warehouse is already open there is currently virtually no stock but they are taking back-orders and much of it is at very good sale prices. A container is due to arrive mid-October so they are saying orders will be sent out towards the end of October.
As soon as I saw the offers I jumped in and quickly ordered 3 x 3 cell 60C 2200mAh lipos and 3 x 4 cell 60C 2200mAh lipos which cost just under £70. HobbyKing work in dollars so although prices are shown in GDP the actual amount you pay will alter slightly with the currency conversion on the day the payment goes through. My order for six lipos showed at £67.93 on the order but was £69.87 on my credit card statement so be aware the price will alter slightly, sometimes up, sometime down. I suppose there is a slight risk with back-ordering from a company that has almost zero stock but at those prices I decided it was a risk worth taking. Hopefully by the time I write the next Patch News I’ll be able to tell you that my order has arrived. Over the years there has been a lot of controversy over HobbyKing, some people hate them and complain constantly about lack of customer service etc. but others (including me) have had few problems and on the rare occasion I’ve needed to deal with their Customer Services I’ve always been sorted out quickly and fairly.
In September Mini-Mike treated himself to a very nice L-39 Albatros from Arrows Hobby.
That’s the same company that manufactures the Red Arrows Hawk that Mike already flies and the Vipers that Gordon and 1066 both fly regularly. Arrows Hobby also produce the T-33 Shooting Star that Chas owns although I’ve only seen that fly once so far.
All of these models feature the same 50mm fan and 2627 4500kv motor so should have a similar performance with only the ducting and drag on the airframe making a difference. 
Mini-Mike’s Albatros flies very well although he says it’s not as fast as his Red Arrows Hawk, presumably because the fuselage is not as sleek. It comes fitted with the fan, motor, 30A esc, 3 digital servos and unlike the others in the range, a 6 axis gyro. It looks great in the air, very smooth and scale-like, no doubt helped by the gyro,. You can see it in this month’s video. There is also a 50mm fan Avanti coming from Arrows Hobby…tempting!
On 23rd September Dougal and I went down to Lee-on-Solent to watch a flying display along the seafront. It was part of the Lee Victory Festival, a ticketed three day event that took place on Solent Airport, formerly HMS Daedalus. The Saturday morning had perfect flying conditions and we were able to park up easily and find a prime spot to watch the display which began with a Fairey Swordfish, part of the Royal Navy Historic Flight.
After displaying for a few minutes it was chased off by a Messerschmitt Bf108 which then did its own display. But then a Spitfire roared in and gave chase until the pilot managed to shoot the 108 which then trailed lots of smoke before disappearing over the channel.
Then a Hurricane joined the victorious Spit and they displayed together for the finale.
Dougal and I both filmed some of the action and I’ve made the footage into a short video:
As I said earlier young Leo bought himself a second-hand Salto at the Popham Model Show bring and buy. If I remember correctly he paid £80 for it which seems good for a largish electric glider that’s complete and ready to fly. It was built from a Wik kit and I’ve scoured the internet for some information but found very little. Apparently it’s an H-101 Salto (Loop) and Wik produced the kit in about 1975 so it’s pretty old.
It is 2.3M span and has a fibreglass fuselage and sheeted built-up wings. I don’t think they made an electric version so presumably Leo’s has been converted and it has been fitted with a high Kv motor and a small folding prop. It looks very smart and, as you can see in this month’s video, it flies well so it was definitely a good purchase.
Woody also bought himself an electric glider in September but he bought a new one, a Max Thrust Aggressor Sport. There’s already several of these in the club and they are excellent performers, they are good for aerobatics, will fly in strong winds, and glide pretty well. 
Woody bought his from Model Shop Leeds where their website says this: The Aggressor range of gliders offers high performance in more ways than you think. They have great high-speed stability both under power and also on the glide. Constructed from our new super smooth EPOFLEXY with carbon spars in the wings and fuselage giving a very strong airframe. The Aggressor Sport is at home both on the field or the slope where with the high-performance brushless power system you can either hunt out the lift or power through F3A style aerobatics. The model features high-speed servos throughout and even has a metal geared one on the all-moving tail to give you a very precise and accurate tail. With a 1.5 metre wingspan using a 3 cell 2200mAh pack you will be able to get the model into pretty much any car easily. If you really want to extend the ability of the Sport why not order up the Thermic wing extension to extend the wingspan by an additional 600mm to transform the model into 2.1 metre thermal hunter. Chas bought the Thermic wing extension for his Aggressor but I don’t think I’ve seen it fly with the extension in place. 1066 has a Max Thrust Lightning, the predecessor of the Aggressor so he was ideally suited to do the trimming flight for Woody and he had no problems at all.
Bob the Builder was lucky enough to have a flight in a microlight early in September after a visitor to the field turned out to own one and offered Bob a flight that evening.
Here’s Bob’s report: Sunday morning I went to fly my models not knowing that 12 hours later I would be in the air myself! I tried hang-gliding 50 years ago and gave up after 2 crashes. It was completely uncontrolled then and quite risky, things have changed a lot since then. Proper flexible wings have been developed along with reliable engines have been used to produce modern Microlights making the whole thing a lot safer.
You can see from the pictures that the only flight controls are a control bar in front of the pilot and a throttle control. Moving the bar shifts the weight of the fuselage relative to the wing, side to side for turns, forward and backward for up and down.
Really simple and very little to go wrong. It was perfect conditions, dry, warm and no wind. After a suitable briefing by my excellent pilot, Julian James, I got in the back seat strapped in, put the helmet on and checked the intercom was working. After running the engine to get the temperature and pressure correct we taxied out to the runway opened the throttle and we were away in a south westerly direction for a 54 minute flight. The route look us over Winchester Hill, over the M27, down to the coast, over the Solent to Ryde on the Isle of Wight, back to Portsmouth, up the A3 to Butser, then to Stroud and over my house, before heading north west back to the landing field and a safe landing.
I was amazed at how safe I felt, there was never a moment’s anxiety. Views were magnificent and a wonderful feeling of freedom to move in 3 dimensions, just like a bird. Would I do it again, yes please! So if ever you a chance for a Microlight flight go for it. Bob sent me photos and lots of film so I’ve made an edited highlights version of the video:
If you want to see the whole flight filmed by Julian’s on-board camera you’ll find it HERE
Now for some action photos, this month with a few of Kryten’s great photos from August:
Video time now, this month with footage by myself, MacFly, and Dougal. 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
I was sick on my flight to Munich with Lufthansa last week, I blame the airline food.
It was the wurst…
Colin Cowplain Patch News – August 2023
The rather strange summer weather continued in August when it could best be described as variable. We lost a few flying days to wet weather but at other times it was perfect.
The mixture of rain and sunshine meant the patch grass grew a lot and several mowing sessions were required, we even mowed twice one week There were some bullocks in the field for some of the month but they paid little attention to us and were rarely any bother.
I rather like this photo of bullocks, Bob the Builder, and Dwayne Pipe. Perhaps we should explain to Dwayne that the mower cuts better when all four wheels are on the ground!
The bullocks seem to enjoy standing on the box and the lid was rather battered and was leaking so Chairman Gordon Bennett and 1066 strengthened it with a layer of chequer plate. At the same time Woody and I replaced the electric fence wire which was starting to deteriorate. Gordon and Woody also did some mower running repairs and servicing but later we found that the older mower refused to run at anything above idling speed.
Several of us failed to fix it but Chas volunteered to take a look and he’s now got it sorted.
Quite a few new models were flown in August, the first being the Wasp E2K belonging to Page Boy who has recently returned to the club. The Wasp is primarily designed as an electric powered pylon racer to compete in the E2K class but it also makes a good sport model, 1066 has been flying one regularly for quite a while now. It’s available in kit form and has a built up fuselage and veneered foam wing of 900mm span. This Wasp is actually Page Boy’s second one, the first one had the wing rip off which terminated the flight suddenly and permanently! But it had already had a good few flights so Page Boy wasn’t too upset and decided he’d enjoyed it enough to put another one together.
The motor is a 1500kv Tornado Thumper 3536 which swings an 8×6 APC prop. He’s fitted an 80A Hobbywing speed controller and uses 2600mAh 50C 4 cell lipos to power it all. The Wasp only uses three servos, the two aileron ones are Hitec HS65MGs (metal gears) and the elevator servo is a Hitec HS85MG, these are small and light but powerful enough to take the loads achieved in pylon racing. Page Boy used HobbyKing covering film and the completed model weighs in at 2.4lbs. So how does it go? Very quickly! To me it looked a bit faster than 1066’s but maybe that’s just because I’ve got used to 1066’s having seen it fly lots of times. So what we need now is for both of them to be flown together so we can compare. Come on chaps, get it together and have a proper race, you know you want to!
Next up is another foamboard special from Dwayne Pipe who has written all about it:
F35 foam board- what could possibly go wrong? One of the joys of model aircraft modelling for me is making a new model. I know you can go and buy a ready to fly model and get it to work first time (If you are lucky) but making a new model from scratch and flying it beats the out of the box item every time. Having demolished my Sea Vixen, I fancied a different challenge. A model no one else had in the club.
I chose the F35 multipurpose fighter because I had seen a pair doing a low pass over the Lake District while on holiday last year and they looked great in the air. The design was a variation on the foam board fighters we have been flying for some time, but I thought I would make it in Correx as it was stronger than the foam board we normally use and because I had a couple of sheets spare. I drew out the plans, cut the board and glued it together with hot melt. (Hot melt sticks really well to Correx). It was covered in Fablon (remember that stuff from the 1960s). With it ready to fly Andy launched it into space. 
The result was disastrous. The plane was overweight, underpowered, the C of G was miles too far back and the servo on the elevator refused to work while flying but was great on the ground. A few more attempts tinkering around with the motor, propeller, and C of G, all I succeeded in doing was destroying the airframe.
As they say “back to the drawing board”. I had already made the plans so this time I went back to good old Hobbycraft foam board. The model was kitted out the same, although I bought three new servos this time. Andy launched it again and surprise, surprise, the model was way too tail heavy. The old saying is “if you keep on doing what you’re doing you will keep on getting what you’re getting”.
I use an online computer program “Aircraft centre of gravity calculator” from RC Planes online. Over the years it has worked really well with all my home-built models. The foam board models don’t have an airfoil and as the wings are flat the angle of attack provides the lift. The program uses the wing and tail area to calculate the C of G. The F35 is a unique shape as the wing and tail virtually morph together and there is a large amount of lift generated by the front of the plane forward of the wing, which is unusual. 
Adding the area in front of the wing into the program shifted the C of G forward over 2 inches. I moved the battery position to achieve this. This time she flew beautifully, the only problem now is the pilot. The hassle is part of the process but there is a real buzz when it works out at last. For those who like the technical stuff, the model has a wingspan of 30 inches, a 2200 Kv motor pulling a 6×4 prop and a 25 A Esc. The Correx version had a flying weight of 800 grams, the foam board a flying weight of 550 grams. Thanks for the excellent report Dwayne. It looks great in the air as you can see in this month’s video.
I finally got around to putting together one of the four foamboard models that I’ve bought and then ignored for months. I bought it back in January when I was browsing the AliExpess website and spotted it for just £11.12 plus £2.23 VAT, too cheap to ignore!
How bad could it be for that price? The kit only contains the foam parts, no carbon stiffening rods, no control linkages, and no instructions. I was rather surprised when it turned up in jiffy bag with no protection at all but all the parts had survived the trip from China without being damaged. It’s available in several colour schemes and is sold as an SU-27 but the yellow and black one that I chose says Hornet on it, presumably named after the insect rather than the F-18 Hornet as it also has what I guess are Hornet head outlines.
It also says Chevrolt (not Chevrolet) so it’s all rather confusing. The outline shape probably matches an SU-27 slightly more closely than an F-18 but I decided that mine was going to be an F-18 so I angled both fins out slightly. It went together easily using both hot-melt glue and cyano and I used some carbon rods for spars that I’d salvaged from the wreck of my SU-27 and I also added some carbon strips to the fins after I had glued them in place as they seemed a bit floppy. I added a rudder as all the foamboards seem to need one for high alpha manoeuvres. I fitted a 2306-2200kv motor and a very cheap 30A speed controller which lasted three flights before it burnt out and was replaced by a better one.
I wasn’t sure where the centre of gravity should be so I made a guesstimate and added a little nose-weight. For the first flight I fitted a three cell 1400mAh lipo and it flew perfectly, barely needing any trim at all and it handled very nicely. I have since opened up the slot where the battery fits so I can also use 2200mAh packs and I’ve also removed the nose-weight and glued it to the tail instead. It is still available on the AliExpress website but at the time of writing the price has risen to £23.86 with free postage but it will add 20% VAT to the total making it £28.63. I’m very happy with the Hornet, it really is much nicer to fly than my Yak-130. You can see some of the first flight in the video.
Peter F has been a member for a while now and his flying has come on in leaps and bounds since passing his ‘A’ cert back in December. He’s definitely earned himself a Patch News pseudonym so from now on Peter is MacFly, the Mac being taken from his middle name.
I spotted this little grasshopper trying to hitch a ride on my Yak-130 one nice August day:
On the subject of my Yak-130, that nasty Bennett bloke attacked it with his Mig-29 but came off worse and we later found part of Gordon’s leading edge on the edge of the patch. 
Later in the month Woody’s Raptor decided to have a go at my Yak and chewed a bit off the fuselage without getting any damage to his Raptor. I’ll remember that one Woody!
Bob the Builder has been at it again, building I mean. He calls his new model Bob’s Twin Bitsa, so called because 95% of it is from bits he already had in his workshop. The Bitsa uses the 1200mm span wings from his late lamented Sonic Modell Binary twin (the same model that Dougal uses for FPV) complete with the two 1100kv motors spinning contra-rotating 8×6 propellers. The wings are fitted with ailerons and also two position flaps.
The fuselage is Bob’s own design and is made from foamboard and plywood and he’s covered it with packing tape. It houses two 30A speed controllers, one for each motor, which he has arranged to give differential thrust via the rudder stick. The tailplane is made of balsa and the fin is foam, they look very much like Splot parts to me so maybe they are also salvaged parts. The receiver is an FR Sky S8R that has a built-in gyro and Bob can adjust the gyro gain from his transmitter. The Bitsa can fly on either 3 or 4 cell 2200mAh lipo packs and on 3 cells the motors produce 400W and that rises to 700W on 4 cells. With an all up weight of just 38oz and a wing loading of 17oz per sq. ft. that’s plenty of power.
Dougal did the test flight and trimmed the Bitsa on a day with strong winds and reports that it will climb vertically on 3 cells and after five minute flights it still landed with 75% left in the battery. Bob is very pleased with the Bitsa and is now experimenting with the settings on the gyro, differential thrust, and flaps. Well done Bob, please don’t break it! The Bitsa can be seen being test flown on it’s first flight by Dougal in this months’ video.
We were pleased to welcome Simon Patrick as a prospective new member in August.
Simon is already an RC flier has several models but hadn’t flown for several years.
On his second visit to our patch Simon flew a Precision Aerobatic Katana MD.
Despite having not flown for a long time Simon was fine and soon back in the swing of it.
Kryten made it to the field several times in August and as well as enjoying flying his E-Flite Apprentice and Max-Thrust Riot he managed to snap some excellent action shots for us:
It’s video time now, this month with some footage shot by myself and Dougal Entendre but mostly by MacFly. He must have a very steady hand as he takes great video with his phone. 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 is supposedly a true story:
On a flight from Alaska to Tokyo, the flight engineer went back into the passenger cabin.
An elderly woman passenger stopped him and asked him what the temperature was.
‘It’s 70 degrees, madam,’ he replied, adding, ‘But outside it’s 30 degrees below zero.’
‘Young man,’ the woman demanded, ‘What were you doing outside?’
Colin Cowplain
Patch News – July 2023
Following on from the hottest June since records began July turned out to be one of the wettest Julys on record. There were a few reasonable days but for most of the month if it wasn’t raining there was a strong wind or both. Chairman Gordon Bennett sourced a nice new mower for us to replace the old green one which has since been condemned. Dougal Entendre gave 1066 some helpful instructions “That’s called a handle, hold it just there.” 
We’ve kept the old yellow one as it serves as a useful second machine to speed things up. 
As expected the bullocks returned to the field once all the rain had made the grass grow long enough for them to feed. The usual herd appeared briefly early in the month but a couple of weeks later some more arrived. This herd was a different breed to the usual ones and we were pleasantly surprised that they didn’t appear to be nearly as inquisitive as the others. The young ones are normally quite a problem for a few weeks until they get used to us but these barely bothered us at all and were gone again after just a few days anyway.
After a rather smashing June Peter F has treated himself to a Max-Thrust Ruckus to replace his Max-Thrust Riot. He chose the Ruckus partly because many of the parts are interchangeable with the Riot so he already has a stock of spares should the need arise.
The Ruckus has a wingspan of 1380mm, comes with two 9g and two 17g servos, and weighs around 1500g without the battery. This is what Max-Thrust say about it: After the success of the Riot, we have been constantly asked for a follow-up model that builds on all the best attributes of the Riot but in a low-wing model. We think we’ve nailed it! Not only does the Ruckus fly superbly it looks gorgeous too. Capable of flying on either a 3 or 4-cell Li-Po the Ruckus can be set up to be a tame first low-wing plane or turn the control throws up and fly every aerobatic move you can think of, it will even prop hang! With a wingspan of 1380mm the Ruckus is happy flying in all conditions and will handle the wind with ease and will quickly become your model for all occasions.
We worked hard on the design to make sure the model was tough and could put up with the abuse you will throw at it but without adding too much weight, thanks in part to the tough EPOFLEXY construction and clever build structure featuring an internal ply skeleton in the fuselage for added strength, just like the Riot.
1066 did the initial trimming flight for Peter which went perfectly and Peter is now happily flying it without the need of further help. Peter is using a receiver with a built in stabiliser and is gradually adjusting the settings to get the ideal balance for his level of flying.
He let me have a go and I found with the stabiliser in full stability mode the Ruckus would only fly large circuits around the field, it didn’t allow any tight turns, but that’s ideal for beginners. Peter is well passed that stage so is using the stabiliser in the intermediate mode which smooths out the bumps but still allows a bit of fun when he wants it. As you’ll see in this month’s video the Ruckus looks good in the air and Peter is flying it well.
I know I shouldn’t laugh but someone sent me this recently and it did make me smile:
This was a NATO E-3 AWACS in Greece in July 1996. Apparently on the take-off run the crew thought they heard a thud (possible bird strike?) and decided to abort the take-off, Unfortunately they soon discovered that there wasn’t enough runway left to stop. Luckily all aboard survived although the Canadian Flight Engineer had a few broken ribs.
Early in the month Norwegian Nick flew a second-hand electric glider that he’d bought at the Wings & Wheels show in June. He said lots of other prospective buyers looked at the model but rejected it because it doesn’t have any ailerons, just rudder and elevator.
Nick was told it’s a Red Devil which was built from an RCM&E plan but he can’t find any trace of a plan called that. I’ve just done a quick internet search and I can’t find any sign of it either so if anyone has any knowledge of what it might be please let Nick know.
The fuselage is a pod and boom type and the wings, tailplane and fin are all of built up balsa rib construction. The model is covered in red transparent Solarfilm which was patched up with Sellotape when Nick bought it. He has done quite a lot of tidying up of it already but says he’s probably completely re-cover it once he’s happy that it flies well. He isn’t sure what the motor it is but runs fine on a 2200mAh three cell pack.
On the day that Nick flew it there were moderate winds and it was fine but he thinks it would do really well in calmer cloudy weather. It looks to be a good all rounder to me.
Many members have pen names that are used in Patch News and many (but not all) have some sort of logic behind them, such as Mr S Hastings being known s 1066, it’s obvious really. I always thought the S stood for Steve but in July it turns out it’s actually Smasher! Poor 1066 didn’t have a good July, starting with his foamie HobbyKing MX2 which buried itself fairly comprehensively. He’s not sure what happened, everything was working ok after the crash so maybe it was pilot error but he doesn’t think so. It was pretty bad but 1066 should be able to repair it. Then later the same morning he did a heavy landing with his HobbyKing MXS and ripped the undercarriage out. It’ll be repaired fairly easily but it was annoying. But then at the next flying session he was doing a fast low level downwind pass with his ST Models Blaze when he got a couple of inches too low. The damage was pretty bad and as the model is a bit old and tatty 1066 might not bother repairing it. So that’s the proverbial three in a row, surely nothing else would go wrong. Or could it!
Just a few days later, when he wasn’t even present, he suffered a severe case of hangar rash when his extended reach hedge trimmer fell on his Cirrus from a great height.
The Cirrus is a great flier so hopefully he’ll be able to repair it ok. Somebody is trying to tell you something 1066, roll on August when normal service will be resumed…hopefully!
During the evening of Wednesday 12th July we had the annual Chuck Glider competition which was ably run by the club Competition Secretary Dwayne Pipe.
Earlier in the day the weather had been wet and windy and I was unsure the comp would go ahead but the rain stopped, the wind gradually decreased and the evening ended with a glorious sunset. I snapped Peter F as he launched his catapult glider in the evening sun.
There were two classes to enter, the normal hand launch and a catapult launch using a catapult supplied by Dwayne to keep everything equal. Most people entered both classes, often using the same glider for both. Pretty much any model is allowed in the competition, it’s all just a bit of fun, and there were several stock bought foam ones entered.
Gordon Bennett felt the need for speed and had bought a Tornado which flew ok but I think it would have been better if the wings weren’t fixed in the fully swept position!
I really like this photo of Nadine with a look of steely determination on her face while Gordon looks intrigued but her son Charlie looks half asleep. It’s a teenager thing!
I think I can safely say that we all enjoyed the evening and our thanks go to Dwayne for keeping everything running smoothly. The Hand Launch section was won by Colin Cowplain with Dougal Entendre a close second and Chas third. In the Catapult Launch competition Dwayne Pipe was first by a large margin, Peter F second, and Woody third.
I’ll include some more action photos of the event later in this Patch News.
Towards the end of the month Dougal Entendre dug out one of his old models, a Skyartec Mini Skyfun, and got it flying again: Looking back through old editions of Patch New I found that I last tried the Mini Skyfun in November 2021 (yikes! was it that long ago??).
Despite having tried 4 different ESCs, 5 different motors and 2 different battery packs, I consistently had problems with the motor cutting out in flight.
Not surprisingly I came to the conclusion that the airframe was possessed by a malevolent spirit, and left it to adorn a shelf in the workshop. Unbelievably, I found that neither the BMFA nor the CAA keep a register of aviation-approved exorcists, so I was going to have to approach the problem differently. The one other thing which had remained constant was the receiver, a SKY-AP301. I had been reluctant to change this because the servo connectors were the small JST-type, but in order to use a 6-channel Devo Rx I finally accepted that I was going to have to solder new connectors on.
Only once the soldering iron had warmed up did I realise that the servos had 5 wires instead of the normal 3! It turns out that the AP301 has the servo amplifiers inside the receiver, thus allowing the servos themselves to be smaller. This meant airframe surgery to remove the existing servos and replace them with some slightly larger 3-wire ones.
I took the opportunity to hollow out the equipment bay a bit more, so the Mini Skyfun can now take a 3s 1000mAh pack. I’d put in a little reflex on the elevons, expecting the bigger battery to cause the CG to move forward, but found that I needed full down trim on the first flight in the new configuration. I removed the reflex by adjusting the pushrod lengths, and the second flight was much better. On both flights I came down with 60% remaining after 5 minutes, so I’ll try going down to 850mAh packs next time. This should move the CG back a tad, so I shouldn’t need quite so much down held in for inverted flight. I wonder why the receiver caused the Mini Skyfun motor cutting problem, low voltage detection maybe? Anyway it’s now flying really well and it’s in this month’s video.
Remember ex-PAM member Dan Handley, also known as Page Boy? He was a member for a good few years but deserted us to join another club that has a strip more suited to the larger EDF models he was flying at the time than our small patch. But now he’s seen the error of his ways and has re-joined PAM. He sent me a photo of his latest build, something that is eminently suitable for our small patch, a Wasp E2K pylon racer. It looks like Page Boy ran out of orange film and had to resort to yellow for the tail feathers!
It’s the same as the one 1066 flies so there should be some interesting times ahead. It’s actually Page Boy’s second Wasp, he built the first one whilst still a PAM member but I don’t think he ever flew it at our patch so presumably it must have met its’ demise at the other club. Welcome back Page Boy, don’t go wandering off again!
This month I’ll leave you with some photos taken during the Chuck Glider competition:
Video time now will footage by Peter F, Gordon Bennett, Dougal Entendre, and myself. Please watch the video full-screen, it’s so much better with small models flying about:
If the video won’t play for you please click HERE
Tower: “Flight number YX7345, it looks like one of your baggage doors is open.”
The Captain quickly scanned all the panels for warning lights but found nothing.
“Ah, thanks Tower, I think you’re looking at our APU door.” (Auxiliary Power Unit).
Tower: “Okay, YX7345, you are cleared for take-off.”
Captain: “Thank you Tower, cleared for take-off, YX7345”
But then, during the take-off roll a few minutes later:
“YX7345… Er… It appears that your APU is leaking luggage…”
Colin Cowplain
Patch News – June 2023
At the end of May the weather was hot and dry but windy and in June it was a case of more of the same. It was certainly hotter than many would have wanted and the wind caused a few problems but many PAM members flew regularly anyway. The patch was mown a few times but with the dry conditions the dandelions that grew more than the grass.
We had some excellent turnouts on the better days, not all those present are in this photo.
But a few of us flew on the last day of the month and it was as if winter had returned. 1066 snapped this photo of me wearing shorts but also a winter jacket and fingerless gloves!
We took the opportunity to warm ourselves up by trimming back the undergrowth around the parking areas using a cordless hedge trimmer that Bob the Builder had brought along.
Recently 1066 bought himself a second-hand project and he finally got it flying in June. Here’s his tale: About 3 months ago a model popped up on Facebook Marketplace, it was a Fiesta-V thermal soarer. The description said the model would be ready to fly with a little ironing and your own receiver, which was a bit of a stretch as some of the covering was completely missing! The seller was in Gosport and the asking price was £60.00. I did fancy having a floater for the summer but I felt the asking price was a little high, and I could not be bothered to drive to Gosport, so I gave it a miss. Over the next few weeks the price kept dropping, so when it reached £30.00 I offered £20.00 which was accepted, plus there was the added bonus that it could be taken to Waterlooville for me to collect.
When I got the model home, closer inspection showed the fuselage had been repaired in many places and was very fragile, the covering on the underside of the wings had many splits patched up with loads of Sellotape, the motor was an old brushed Speed 600 (thanks for pointing that out Andy) but it did have the correct speed controller with built in BEC, and there was no wing joiner.
As I had some covering in the shed, the decision was made to completely remove all the original covering, which turned out to be the right decision as it revealed internal wing damage, however this was easily repaired and the wings recovered.
Attention now turned to the fuselage which was strengthened, filled, and repainted with a tin of spray picked up in the Range, I promise I did not have a piece of the covering with me but the resulting match could not have been better.
Feeling pleased with my progress I decided to check all the electrics worked, I know what you’re all saying, ” I would have done this first” and you would have been right, because the motor or speed controller was not working, as I have never used this type of setup before, I decided to replace both components. I now had to find a way of fitting a brushless outrunner (from stock). The resulting fix is far from ideal, but it will allow me to remove the bulkhead and replace the motor if the 1000 KV one fitted does not have enough power. In hindsight this would have been much easier and would have looked a lot better if it had been done along with the fuselage repairs, and not after everything had been painted. But on a more positive note all the servos did work.
Next problem was the operation of the V Tail elevator/rudder controls, the original had a very neat ball link system concealed within the back of the fuz. I think the original owner had tried to replace one of the elevators, but had managed to produce two left hand halves! Plus the original one still in place had been damaged, so I decided to make two new elevators using the torque rods from the originals, But when it came to fitting the new elevators to the model I discovered that the two homemade torque rod/ball link assemblies were very slightly different, guess who lost that 50/50. This was very frustrating, and meant I had to make two more elevator halves, this was made more annoying because I did not have any trailing edge stock, more carving and sanding. Having learnt my lesson, this time I tried fitting the tailplane before the elevators were covered, this turned out to be an incredibly difficult process, with very little access to the ball links, in fact it was so difficult I never actually achieved it. My next move was to cut off a small portion of the rear of the fuz for better access, I could now get the ball links to fit, but now found they were so loose that I was not happy to use them in flight. I was determined to use as much of the original linkages as possible, mainly because I did not have anything else in the shed and did not want to spend any money LOL.
My next move was to cut away a bit more of the fuselage, fit control horns, and bring the pushrods out at the side, however this had another surprise, as one pushrod was piano wire and the other was carbon! Finally I needed a wing joiner, so my thanks go to Olav for supplying the necessary material. All of the above could have been avoided if I had done things in the correct order, had fully surveyed what I had before starting, and been willing to spend a bit more money 🙂 I am no builder, and we all hate repairing, but I have really enjoyed saving what I think is a very smart model from the bin, and all with a total spend of £25.00, I am very happy with the result, just hope it flies OK.
Since sending me the above report 1066 has flown the model so I asked how it went but his one word reply was unprintable! But then this: Lots of issues, I was always a bit surprised to have ailerons on a wing with polyhedral, they were as effective as a chocolate fire guard. I had not realised there was a bit of a twist in the left wing, flying straight almost needed full right aileron and rudder, rudders not the best as it is a V-tail. Plus it was too windy. One plus, it does have just enough power. The wing has now been straightened and the ailerons now have huge differential settings and have been mixed with rudder. I also found the left wing a bit heavier than the right, so this has now been balanced. Because I didn’t have a wing joiner I assumed there would be dihedral on the centre section as this gave the best joint between the wings so for the next flight I have taken this out which should make the ailerons work better. The next flight will be on a calmer day.
Thanks for that 1066. I must say that the model looks very smart and in the video it looks to be flying well but the video doesn’t show the struggles for control that 1066 was having on the transmitter! STOP PRESS: 1066 has just reported that having corrected all the things he found wrong he’s flown it again and now the Fiesta V flies really well with lots of potential for some great thermal soaring. So all that effort has proved to be completely worthwhile now that it’s up and soaring like an eagle, just don’t break it!
Peter F treated himself to a new model in June, an Edge 540 by FMS. The all foam model is just 750mm wingspan and is ‘Plug n Play’ as it comes ready fitted with the motor, esc, four 5g servos and a gyro. The Edge requires 1300mAh 2 cell batteries of at least 20C.
This is from the website: FMS has miniaturized the ultra popular 1300mm Edge 540!
Don’t let the small wingspan mislead you, the FMS 750mm Edge 540 is as much a beast as its older brother! Courtesy of the large control surfaces and high power-to-weight ratio, even the most advanced aerobatic manoeuvres can be performed with pinpoint precision. Thanks to the small wingspan and a take-off weight of only 390g, the 750mm Edge 540 will fly just about anywhere! No detail was overlooked in the design of this aircraft- a latch-type canopy will easily put up with even the most violent manoeuvres; while an oversized battery compartment makes installing batteries a breeze.
Adorned with an attractive blue-black trim scheme, the Edge 540 looks fantastic in the air! Power comes from a 2212 2250KV brushless motor with a Predator 20A ESC, giving the Edge 540 all the power you’ll ever need. Want a fly-anywhere aerobatic machine? Look no further than the FMS 750mm Edge 540! Peter asked me to do the test flight during which I played with the gyro settings. It’s an FMS Reflex V2 Flight Controller and has three settings, Stabilised, Optimised, and Off. In Stabilised mode it limits the angle of bank and pitch and recovers to straight and level flight when the sticks are released. Optimised allows for full 3D flight but counteracts wind gusts and smooths out the flight. With it Off you’re on your own! It seemed to work very well and in Stabilised mode it wouldn’t to do anything other than fly around gently, no aerobatics were possible.
I found Optimised the perfect setting as with it Off the plane was a real handful and I quickly switched back to Optimised. Peter soon took over control and managed the rest of the flight but it was definitely twitchier than the models he’s used to flying. At another session later in the month Peter found it was too windy for him to control the Edge and it crashed, breaking the propeller and cracking the starboard wing root. But repairs have now been completed and Peter has flown again on a less windy day although he’s still finding it very twitchy. Turns the rates down a bit Peter until you get more used to it.
Dwayne Pipe had an unusual and interesting problem at the field one day this month while attempting to fly his Splot XL and he’s kindly written a report about what he found: Dwayne Pipe’s very short analysis of an aircraft failure.
There is no such thing as an accident, or at least that was what my previous employer claimed in his safety lectures. Aircraft incidents are 95% are due to pilot error. 5% are due to poor maintenance and faulty equipment installed by the plane’s owner.
This example illustrates my point:
My Splot XL developed a strange behaviour. Ground checks were fine but on take-off the rudder pulled sharply to the right and the plane ground looped and crashed.
After detailed field investigation including the extensive combined wisdom of most of the committee, we hadn’t a clue. They thought it might be a mix error in the transmitter.
I reprogrammed the transmitter, exchanged the receiver, no better.
Like many a tricky problem the reason was a combination of my mistakes.
After the last major plane disassembly (We call that a crash Dwayne!) the motor had to be dug out of the field. It was full of prime Hampshire mud and even after stripping down and hosing through it ran noisy and rough, but it ran, so I reinstalled it.
I had to replace the prop and a well-known model shop were selling the right size, cheap. When it arrived the centre hole was 1mm out of true. I complained but was ignored.
I managed to balance the prop eventually, but the combined motor and prop ran like a bag of nails in a spin dryer.
The third item in the equation was one of HobbyKings’ finest £4 servos which had been in the plane for about 7 years and over 250 flights. Due to the abuse that the plane had experienced at the hands of its pilot, it took it into its head to come out in sympathy and lose contact with its feedback pot whenever the vibration of the replaced motor and prop went beyond about 50%. The servo with no feedback went full in one direction until the vibration stopped when it operated as normal.
Solution: Replace the servo, motor and prop and don’t be such a cheapskate in the future.
Haha, I love the ‘don’t be such a cheapskate’ Dwayne, I’ll try to remember that!
Gordon Bennett bought a new foamboard F-22 Raptor in June, I’ll let him explain:
The Raptor was a ‘Woody Special’. Somehow he got delivered three of them so he flogged the extra aircraft to Mr Palmer and myself for 30 quid. (Not me Gordon, I bought mine from AliExpress, I think Woody kept the other one for himself as a back-up).
Not bad considering that’s everything you need to complete the model (except talent).
It didn’t come with any instructions but I had a good look at Woody’s completed model and went from there. The fuselage is just two pieces of foamboard doubled up for strength, the wing has a carbon fibre spar. It’s odd though as Woody’s model has two spars, one mid-wing and one more rearward, maybe I’ll add a length of dowel if the wing needs more stiffness but it seems ok at the moment. The included motor is a 1400KV powered by a 30A ESC. I’m using a 3S 1600 battery which gives about a 5-minute flight. 
The battery fits in a slot cut out of the underside of the fuselage, I thought this might lead to a weakness so I grafted in a short length of balsa to act as a stiffening keel. Two 9g servos operate the elevons but the pushrods are too light. They’re fine when they’re in tension, pulling down elevator but when pushing they just bow out. It doesn’t take much airflow over the control surface to do this so I’m going to have to sort this at a later date.
Woody has linked in the ailerons on his model to operate in tandem with the elevons and this would shorten the linkage length. It was a bit blustery on the first flight and lots of trim was required but all in all she seemed ‘about right’. C of G was a complete guess but nothing drastic happened so we’ll call it ok. It’s not exactly fast but what do you expect for 30 quid! It won’t take long for it to get into combat mode with Mr Palmer so I’m not going to spend lots of time perfecting it as Palmer will just ram it at the first opportunity. 
He took out Woody’s Raptor on Wednesday with his Yak, maybe I’ll try and fit a small cannon or other weaponry. No I didn’t! There was a minor collision on a downwind turn which neatly removed one of the fins from Woody’s Raptor. I landed my undamaged Yak and then grabbed Woody’s transmitter as he was struggling and landed his Raptor. The wayward fin was retrieved and re-attached and the Raptor is now flying beautifully again.
Towards the end of June Mini-Mike took himself off to the Wings & Wheels Model Show at North Weald and while browsing the trade stands was tempted by a Max Thrust Riot.
There are several Riots in the club and they perform well, a good alternative to a Wot4. Mike flew his the following Sunday but was rather disappointed by the lack of power.
It seems odd as mine has always been fine, certainly not overpowered but adequate, it won’t prop-hang but it’s not far off. Mike says that apparently Max Thrust have recently reduced the prop size and now say that it can be flown on 4 cells as well as the original 3 so maybe that’s it. Although Max Thrust say it can take 4 cells they haven’t altered the size of the battery box, the depth of which was already very tight for some 3 cell packs. So there you go Mike, you’ll have to either fit a larger prop or hack the battery box around a bit!
My wife and I were on holiday in Shropshire for part of the month and while we were there Woody kindly pointed out that the Weston Park Air Show International was on nearby. Well it would be rude not to go wouldn’t it? We went along on Friday 16th to avoid the major queues and crowds and spent the day watching lots of excellent flying and browsing the trade stands. The weather was hot and sunny with light winds so perfect for flying.
Several international individuals and teams were present but I expect more arrived to fly on the Saturday and Sunday. The event includes some full-size aircraft displays but we didn’t see any on the Friday although we left around 3.30pm so we may have missed them. 
There was a Bristol Scout from Shuttleworth on the flight-line but it didn’t fly for some reason, it only did a taxi run. It was nice to see it and to hear the rotary engine but a flight would have been better. The light wind was across the strip so maybe that was the reason.
I spotted this van parked up amongst the traders, I wonder which dealer owned it?!
I took quite a lot of photos at the show so here’s a general selection for you:
I also shot some video, it’s not the best quality but should give you an idea of the sort of displays we saw. Unfortunately for you I was too busy enjoying the jets to film many:
Patch News video time now this month with footage by me, Dougal, Gordon, and Peter. Please watch the video full-screen, it’s so much better with small models flying about.
If the video won’t play for you please click HERE
It was the young pilot’s first day and he was struggling in his light aircraft.
Control tower: “Can you give me your position?”
Pilot: “I am next to a cloud that looks like a lion.”
Control tower: “Can you be more specific?”
Pilot: “Simba…”
Colin Cowplain
