Patch News – July 2018

There seems little point starting this Patch News in the usual manner of talking about how the weather treated us…every single day was hot and sunny, too hot for many of us! Of course the grass has barely grown at all so there’s been no work for the Friday Afternoon Rural Trimming Society (FARTS) to do.  The bullocks made a brief appearance before returning to the lower field but barely approached us anyway, I think it was too hot for them to bother.

A few PAM members attended the Southern Area BMFA Southern Gala at Middle Wallop on 7th July. Dougal Entendre flew his Mini Blitz and large Spad, and I flew my little Sharkface. I’ve included some footage of Dougal’s Spad flying in this month’s video, it’s an impressive model. There were some interesting models present and I was particularly taken by Mike Spencer’s Swannee, a model that I can remember being a free plan back in 1966.The Swannee was designed for single channel radio with ‘rudder only’ control and it was very unusual in that it was a low winger, almost unheard of for rudder only. At the time I was as school with current PAM member Kryten and as his real name is Graham Swan he felt obliged to build one! I was desperate to have a radio set but couldn’t afford one from my pocket money so my parents said I could either go on the two week school trip to Italy or have the radio set, you know which I chose! Kryten and I each bought an RCS Guidance System made by Radio Control Specialists Ltd, I think the cost was around £17. Although we both sold the radios many years ago Kryten still has the box and instruction pamphlet from his and he was good enough to send me some photos. Those were the days! Mike Spencer’s Swannee is 3 channel, rudder, elevator, and throttle, and of course it has an electric motor instead of a small glow-plug or diesel engine. For control he uses a modified RCS 10 channel (for a maximum of 5 surfaces in 2 directions each) reed set. Reeds set were what wealthy people used before modern ‘proportional’ radio sets were invented and instead of sticks they had sprung loaded toggle switches for each control. To turn left you pushed the aileron switch to the left in a series of pulses to achieve the radius of turn you wanted. Mike’s set has been converted to 2.4GHz but retains the reed switches and the model flew well, unlike Kryten’s original single channel version that he recalls as being awful!

Back to our patch now and Page Boy brought along his Dawn Flyer to test. The Dawn Flyer was designed by Lindsay Todd who describes it as ‘a latticework lightweight that summons the spirit of aviation’s pioneering age’. It was featured in RCM&E in July 2013 and Page Boy bought the plan and CNC cut wood parts from Sarik Hobbies. He has fitted a Turnigy 3536 1250Kv motor coupled to a 3 cell 2200mAh NanoTech lipo via a Hobbywing 40A esc. The servos are Turnigy MG14 9g digitals. As you can see he has made a lovely job of building the model and covering it in Solartex, it really does look amazing. So how did it fly? Beautifully of course, but no need to take my word for it, you can see it in the video later.

Next up is Bob the Builder’s latest creation, a Dragon! It seems his New Zealand based grandson loves dragons so when Bob saw a plan for a Bat in the May 2016 RCM&E he made some changes to make it more dragon like. The main change was to do away with the normal tailplane and fin, opting instead to design his own V-tail. He added half table tennis balls for eyes and has fitted LEDs under them and also fitted LEDs in the mouth.The Dragon wingspan is 36″ and the flying weight with a 2200mAh 3s battery is 2kg.  The Hobbyking 2836 1400Kv PropDrive motor is fed via a 40A esc and swings a 9×6 prop. The Dragon is all balsa construction, the fuselage is covered with glass-cloth and Easykote, and the wings are film covered. Originally the whole model was black apart from one half of the V-tail which is red but as I discovered on the first flight the orientation was a major problem.There is no dihedral at all and the all black wing proved very difficult to see. As you can see in the video the first flight only lasted a few seconds before I lost orientation. Fortunately the damage wasn’t too bad and Bob added some white trim on the underside of the wings for the second flight. Orientation was much better and the Dragon flew well although I think it could still do with a bit more trim to help. Overall is now flies nicely and is certainly different, it looks good in the air. All Bob needs to do now is fly it in the dark so the lights can be seen…

Here is the latest of many that 1066 has fiddled won in the Big Raffle, an Evans Volksplane VP-1 from HobbyKing.This balsa built-up electric monoplane has a detailed instrument panel inside an open cockpit, pilot bust, and control surfaces with large counterbalances built in. Here’s what Hobbyking has to say about it: Enjoy simple, traditional flying that has lasted generations. The Volksplane design was first created by aeronautical engineer William Evans in 1968 and has delighted hobbyists ever since. This yellow and grey US Version is made of lightweight balsa and plywood, featuring a printed PVC covering. The 62.9” span Volksplane is an almost ready to fly kit from VQ models and some assembly is required, although the parts count is low. 1066 has fitted an NTM 4250 650Kv PropDrive motor which swings a 13×6 prop, and uses a 4 cell lipo via an 80A esc with a separate BEC. He said it was horrible on the first flight but then realised what he’d done. To set the control throws he had simply copied over the settings of another model on the transmitter without thinking too much. The model he had copied was one of his 3D machines so he was flying with 90% expo on the ailerons, about 60% too much for the Volksplane! Once he’d sorted out the settings properly it was much nicer to fly as you can see in the video.

Earlier I talked about Page Boy’s Dawn Flyer but he also had a maiden flight with his FMS Edge 540. He actually brought the Edge up to the patch in July 2016 but didn’t fly it and didn’t bring it out again until now. The 1320mm span model is made from EPO foam and weighs 1.7kg with its 4 cell Turnigy NanoTech 2650mAh battery. It comes ready fitted with an FMS3948-750Kv motor, a Turnigy Plush 60A esc, and 4 x 17g metal geared digital servos. Unusually it all comes with a 3 bladed 13×5 prop and matching spinner. The Edge flew perfectly well as expected but it seemed to lack the power you’d expect (and need) for the all the usual 3D manoeuvres.I’ve watched the FMS marketing video of the Edge and it has loads of power, certainly more than Page Boy’s. As it comes with all the powertrain already fitted the only think we could think of was that Page Boy’s batteries aren’t up to the job. Has anyone got any high C rated 4 cell packs that he could try?

Page Boy also had a couple of flights with his Dynam Hurricane in July. He hasn’t flown it for a while and in the meantime has replaced the retracts with some much sturdier metal ones from HobbyKing. They worked perfectly and I shot some video of the flights which I’ll include next month.

The latest club member, Mike Critchley, has been practising hard for his BMFA ‘A’ cert since joining PAM.  Mike is a member of MVSA and is used to flying gliders but wants to fly power models so he’s bought a Wot-4 Foam-E.The Wot-4 is probably the perfect trainer for him but he also has an electric Multiplex Easy Glider that he’s been flying at the field, obviously a man of great taste and impeccable style!I’ve been impressed by Mike’s commitment, in July he had flight after flight just doing figure eights in preparation for the test. He’s gained second place in the Climb ‘n’ Glide comp for ‘A’ cert holders even before taking the test. But on Sunday 22nd July he took his test, even though it was probably the busiest Sunday this year with lots of pilots watching, and passed with flying colours. Dougal conducted the test and once Mike had passed the flying section Dougal gave him a good grilling on the questions. All went well and Mike is now the proud holder of his ‘A’ cert.

We welcomed two more new members in July, Matt Takhar and Niki Weatherley. Both already have their BMFA ‘B’ certs but hadn’t flown for a few years before joining us at the patch a couple of times during July. To get back into flying they both bought Wot-4 Foamies and Max Thrust Lightnings but they are now down to one of each! They have joined up and they will be a welcome addition to our membership.

If you read the last Patch News you’ll have seen the Chris P Bacon carelessly ‘lost’ two models within the space of a few days. Well now he has a replacement, a Ripmax Bolero, a model that is billed as ‘a high performance fun-fly aircraft with huge control surfaces for 3D flight.’ Apparently it was designed by some bloke called Alan Wood. Let’s hope it’s not our very own Woody earning a bit of extra dosh on the side! The model comes as an ARTF so the purchaser has to supply their own powertrain, servos etc. The Bolero is 59” span and the finished weight should be around 3080g (6.8lbs). Chris P has used the same motor etc. that had powered his Wots Wot including the 5 cell lipo. He asked me to do the test flight and the Bolero was good, it flew just as it should although Chris P had sensibly set the control throws towards the low end of the scale so it wasn’t too lively. After some minor trimming I passed the transmitter to Chris P but he very quickly passed it back to me and he’s now practising more with his Cougar 2000 before trying the Bolero again!

The last new model I spotted in July was an EDF Hawk belonging to Norwegian Nick. I thought it was the same as the one that Dougal flies but looking at the HobbyKing website I think they are different models. Dougal’s is a 950mm span T-45 Goshawk with a 64mm dia fan but Nick’s is a 990mm span BAE Hawk with a 70mm dia fan. Oddly the BAE Hawk is described as Red Arrows but it comes with a US Navy colour scheme! The other major difference is that Dougal’s flies extremely well and Nick’s doesn’t…well not yet anyway.Dougal’s Goshawk comes as a Plug ‘n’ Fly so the motor and fan are already installed. Nick’s model came with a fan supplied but he has fitted a ChangeSun 10 bladed fan, not sure if he has the recommended motor or not. Both models are designed for 3 cell batteries but Nick’s just doesn’t seem to have enough power to fly and is going to need 4 cells. I think the high blade count of the fan means it needs more power to spin at an efficient speed. But the aborted attempt at flight did virtually no damage so hopefully it will fly properly very soon.

On Thursday 12th July we held the annual chuck glider competition at Buriton before the usual club meeting. It’s always a popular event and there were 11 entries this year. One entrant was a PAM member from around 35 years ago, Peter Mason. I remember Peter but I doubt any other club members knew him other than Don of course. Peter was an art teacher and he designed and painted the club logo featuring a Marsh Harrier. He brought the original along with him and presented it to Dougal for the club, a nice thing to do I thought.It was great to see Peter again although sadly he is struggling with Parkinson’s Disease and is far from well. But he had a valiant attempt at the comp with a couple of chuck gliders that presumably were getting on for 40 years old. Peter is coming to the club meeting on 9th August when he will run a quiz on general aviation for us all, please try and make the meeting. Back to the chuck glider comp now, the first three places were taken by Colin Cowplain, Percy Vears, and Tony Neil. Thanks to Dwayne Pipe for running the comp and recording all the times. Kryten was on hand to take photos, here’s a selection: Catapult King is named because of his model launching prowess but it didn’t seem to go quite right with his chuck gliders. I think it was down to lack of trimming rather than poor throwing but he was unimpressed with their performance and decided to stamp on them! Perhaps we need to rename him Wrecker Richard…Speaking of comps, don’t forget to have a go at the ongoing fun-fly comps that run all year. There are various tasks to try and there are classes for A cert and B cert holders to give everyone a chance. Full details of the tasks and the latest scores can be found on the Competition page of the website. I can’t help noticing that at the moment in the Max Glide event the top 3 scores for the A cert holders all beat my B cert time. Hmmm…must try harder!

Video time now:

Please watch the video full screen, it’s so much better with small models flying around. If the video won’t play for you CLICK HERE

This month’s ‘joke’ is actually a true tale, a conversation between Dougal and myself. Whilst flying alongside each other one day Dougal’s transmitter suddenly started making intermittent beeping noises:

“Why’s your transmitter beeping, is it the low transmitter battery warning?”

“Dunno, I’d better land and check it out.”

A few minutes later he returned and took off again.

“So what was the beeping?”

“Well there’s this knob on the transmitter…”

“I know that…!”  End of conversation.

Colin Cowplain