In the June edition of Patch News I said that the June weather hadn’t been up to much and that maybe July would be better. It was, much better! Much of the month was hot and sunny and we had a new UK record temperature towards the end of the July. The great weather meant some good turnouts at the patch and the Farts have been cutting the grass regularly, although it hasn’t grown much this month, and the patch is now in superb condition.
The bullocks moved out early in July and haven’t yet returned but I doubt it will be long. Captain Slow has been missing his favourite, number 73, so 1066 snapped this keepsake and sent it to him via the WhatsApp group:
The first new model I’ll feature this month is this profile Edge 540 in Castrol colours. It belongs to Dougal Entendre and was put together by his son Cameron from a kit that Dougal bought several years ago.
I was away on the day that Dougal tested it and the only information I have is that “it flew ok”. All I can go by is the photos but I have to say that it’s one of the ugliest models I’ve ever seen! I Googled it and found several photos of the full-size original and I think that’s pretty ugly as well so it must be the colour scheme.
The same day the Edge 540 flew Woody brought along a much prettier model, his new E-flite F-15.
This is what the E-flite website says: The E-flite® F-15 Eagle 64mm EDF jet is a replica of the world-renowned air superiority fighter flown by the U.S. Air Force. It’s equipped with a 4S-compatible brushless motor and a 40-amp ESC that are matched to an 11-blade fan to deliver fantastic speed, thrust and a turbine-like sound. The factory-installed power system and servos help make it quick and easy to assemble the lightweight yet durable EPO airframe with bolt-on wings so you can be flying in less time than it takes to charge a battery. Optional-use fixed landing gear with a steerable nose wheel is included so you can taxi, take off and land on runways, or you can leave the landing gear off for improved performance plus easy hand launches and landings on grass. You can also fly with or without the wing-mounted drop tanks and missiles depending on the look and handling you prefer. And it all adds up to deliver one of the easiest to enjoy and easiest to fly Eagle models ever!
Woody bought the Bind N Fly version that comes with a Spektrum receiver with AS3X gyro and Safe Select technology: This is the first high-performance F-15 model equipped with exclusive Spektrum® AS3X® and SAFE® Select technologies. AS3X works behind the scenes to smooth out the effects of wind and turbulence to deliver a locked-in feel that makes it seem like you’re flying a much larger jet. Optional-use SAFE Select offers pitch and bank angle limits along with automatic self-levelling that can be turned on and off at the flip of a switch making this the easiest to fly Eagle yet! And if you don’t want to enable the SAFE Select features, simply bind the receiver normally and only AS3X will be active.
Dougal did the test flight and with the Safe technology switched off and a 4 cell lipo the F-15 didn’t get away from the launch, the thrust just seemed to push it down more than up elevator could overcome. So Woody changed to a 3 cell lipo to save nose weight and move the centre of gravity rearwards a little and Dougal managed to get it away from the launch and flying nicely. Since then I’ve flown it several times and found that with Safe switched on it goes away from the launch easily but is then a bit too limited in roll to fly with any fun. So I’ve been turning Safe off straight after the launch and flying it normally when it performs really well. It will happily cruise around on half throttle and has plenty of power for the more exciting stuff on full throttle so I can’t really see why you’d want to use the suggested 4 cells. Woody has flown it with Safe switched both on and off and found it’s certainly easier to handle with it on but it will really only fly quite large circuits around the field as the roll is limited a bit too much.
I’ve found that the fan alignment isn’t quite right and opening the throttle pushes the nose down which is ok in normal flight but makes landing slightly awkward, you have to be prepared that when you shut the throttle the nose will go up and you need to add some down elevator. It might be possible to correct it with an elevator/throttle mix but we haven’t tried it yet. It looks great in the air and my only complaint is that it’s too quiet! You can barely hear the fan at all and it’s much quieter than many prop driven electric models. See it for yourself in this month’s video.
Captain Slow lived up to his nickname in early July when he launched Dougal’s Tomahawk pusher motored model, he didn’t move his hand away quickly enough and his knuckle was nicked by the propeller.
Fortunately it wasn’t serious, it could have been much worse, but it does serve as a warning to be extra careful when launching pusher models. It also proved the worth of the first aid packs that all members are issued with.
You do have yours with you at the patch don’t you? They are of little use left in the car…
While I’m on the subject of Captain Slow I’ll show you what he’s done to one of the fins on his foamboard Mig-29.
We’ve been enjoying lots of really close formation antics with the foamboard jets, they’re almost indestructible and are very cheap anyway. With their mid-mounted motors even if the planes nudge each other the props rarely touch anything but on one occasion Captain Slow’s Mig obviously climbed up into the path of my SU-27.
I find the abusive adornment totally uncalled for when I was the completely innocent party…possibly…
On 11th July Dwayne Pipe ran the annual Chuck Glider Competition at Buriton recreation ground before the start of the club meeting. The comp is always popular and we had a reasonable turnout on the warm and almost windless evening. There were six rounds flown with the total time of all six flights producing the score, no discards allowed.
The winner of the comp, obviously the most prestigious, demanding, and skilful comp of the year, was Andy Palmer (Colin Cowplain) with Mark Agate (Dougal Entendre) second, and Percy Vears (Ron Vears) a very close third.
We were pleased to see Mike Critchley visit the field after being absent for a few months while he was ‘working’ at sailing around the Caribbean and Norway. As you can imagine we were all very sympathetic to the poor chap!
He brought along a new Multiplex EasyGlider for me to trim out and I discovered that it didn’t need a single click of trim on any surface. Mike already had an EasyGlider when he joined the club but I think he damaged it and decided to treat himself to a new one. As well as flying with us Mike also flies with MVSA and the EasyGlider is an ideal model for slope soaring as well as flat field flying.
Back to Captain Slow now, he’s actually finished assembling his Sonic Modell Mini Skyhunter, that must be a record.
He bought the model from Banggood where it is available from their UK warehouse so there’s no waiting for shipment from China, no import duty to pay, and less risk of it being damaged in transit. I pictured it last month in its ‘naked’ state but now it’s complete and flying. The Skyhunter is 1238mm span and is moulded from EPO foam with carbon fibre tail booms. Captain Slow has fitted a Turnigy Aerodrive SK2826 1130kV motor and runs it on 3 cells although he actually fits two 3 cell 2200mAh packs to get the correct centre of gravity. There is loads of room for two packs and he could connect them in parallel to double the flight time but it flies for ages on just one anyway.
The first flight was fine until I asked Captain Slow to do a nice low and slow pass for me to video and he discovered that it tip-stalls quite easily. It took everybody by surprise, not least of all Kryten who had a close-up view of the Skyhunter while Captain Slow regained control! But no harm was done and the centre of gravity has since been moved forward which has largely tamed the tip-stall. The model is designed as an FPV platform so no doubt Captain Slow will be fitting his gear into it very soon.
Gentleman Jim has bought a Parkzone Wildcat. Yes I know he’s already got a Parkzone Wildcat but now he has a new one. Jim bought the first one at one of the Blackbushe model shows a few years ago for a much reduced price.
If I remember correctly it was just the foam parts, no motor, esc, or servos were with it so he sourced those himself. It flew very well right from the start and has served him well despite having a few minor hiccups along the way. When Jim asked me to launch it in July I thought he’d done some general tidying up and repainted it but apparently not, he’d seen that Sussex Model Centre had some new ones so he splashed the cash and treated himself.
I believe this one was Plug and Play, so it came complete with everything except the receiver and battery. The motor is described as a 480 size brushless outrunner of 960kV and it has plenty of power for the 975mm span model. So how does it fly? Er…just the same as Jim’s first one really, very nicely indeed. See it in action in this month’s video.
Dougal Entendre has put together another model to further his FPV flying experience, a Skyartec Skyfun.
It’s Dougal’s second Skyfun and the cockpit is from his original one which has been kicking around in his loft for a few years. You can tell it’s old, that yellow tinted canopy isn’t tinted, it’s just old! Following the cutting of Captain Slow’s hand Dougal was concerned about launching the pusher motored Skyfun safely so he decided to make a take-off dolly. He spotted a child’s toy trolley at the local tip, dug deep, and parted with a whole £1 to secure it.
After many long hours of engineering design he finished up with this, the All-Terrain Tranny Agate Trolley Dolly:
Does it work? No! You can see the attempts in the video, so far none have been successful but it’s provided loads of fun for us. However, the Skyfun hand launches perfectly well and nobody has caught the propeller although Captain Slow hasn’t launched it yet… One of the trolley dolly attempts knocked the FPV camera off it’s mounting so Dougal taped it out of harm’s way inside the discoloured canopy but found the view wasn’t quite clear enough to fly FPV!
The Skyfun flies well, it’s fast, agile, and much nicer for FPV than the Tomahawk. But Dougal has to be careful when chasing other models, the speed difference can be great as he found when he almost bashed Basher Bob’s Calmato.
Don’t worry Dougal, for a small fee Patch News will blame Basher Bob (or anyone else you’d like) every time.
Chuck Berry has built a Sukhoi SU-27 and joined the foamboard jet jockeys. Well almost, he had a problem with the linkages prior to flight so it hasn’t actually flown yet but Chuck has since sorted the problem so it will fly very soon.
The mid-motored jets have highlighted the fact that many people are unsure which way round the prop should be mounted. The golden rule is that the lettering on the always faces the nose of the plane. It doesn’t matter if the prop is a tractor or pusher, or if the motor is at the front, middle, or back of the model, the lettering ALWAYS faces the nose. The direction of rotation obviously depends on the type of prop but the golden rule never changes.
Chuck has busily accumulating a set of FPV gear and has bought one of these, a ZOHD Dart from Banggood.
It looks like it could be a bit of a handful to me but it gets good reviews so I hope I’m wrong.
I’ve also been flying a new model in July, a Volantex Ranger 1600 that came from HobbyKing. I bought one for the big raffle a few months ago and was impressed by what I saw in the box. It has a plastic fuselage and foam wings and tail, reinforced with carbon spars. The 1600mm wings simply clip in place and are easy to remove for transport.
The model comes ready fitted with a 2212 1400kV motor, a 30A esc and four 9g servos so all you need is a receiver and battery. The suggested lipo is a 3 cell 2200mAh but I’m using some old 3 cell 4000mAh packs and, reading the reviews, some people are using even bigger packs. It’s designed to take FPV gear but is an excellent flier anyway if you don’t want to fly FPV and will do all the usual aerobatics. I fitted mine with an undercarriage as I want to try some FPV landings with wheels (I’ve only belly landed FPV up to now). Adding the UC was an easy mod, I simply cut a hole in the underside, fitted a ply plate with hot melt glue, and screwed a wire undercarriage to the plate.
It works well and the Ranger is good for touch and go’s as well as loops, rolls, inverted flight and so on as you can see in the video. I haven’t had a chance to fit the FPV gear yet but will get it done in the next few days.
The Ranger is available in various sizes, HK only list the 1600 and 2000 versions but Banggood also have them with 1200, 1380, and 1980 wingspans, and those the last three come fitted with undercarriages included.
Woody got bored with his old Wot Trainer trainer when he damaged it a while ago and passed it over to Captain Slow who has now repaired it and re-motored it with an AXI 2820/10 that he’s has since about 2003.
The model needs some nose weight so Captain Slow uses two 4 cell 2200mAh packs in parallel giving a capacity of 4400mAh. With an 11×7 propeller the motor pulls 40A and produces 620W. The Wot Trainer has a 1660mm span and a 270mm chord so there’s plenty of wing area to carry it’s 3kg weight and it will cruise around at half throttle.
Dougal snapped this photo of 1066 at a flying session that I missed. Later I asked 1066 what had happened and he said the battery suddenly died when he was prop-hanging at very low level. Well he would say that wouldn’t he!
I don’t have much in the way of flying shots this month but here’s an FPV one from Dougal which he describes as a close encounter of the inverted kind, one from Captain Slow of Dougal’s new Edge, and finally a Paritech Viper that has absolutely nothing to do with the club but I found it on another website and I simply love it!
Video time now and this month it includes contributions by Dougal Entendre, Captain Slow, and 1066. Please watch it full screen, it so much better with small models flying around:If the video won’t play please click HERE
When I returned from holiday, my suitcase didn’t arrive in the baggage area so I went to the lost luggage office.
I explained to the woman there that my case hadn’t turned up on the carousel. She smiled sweetly and told me not to worry because they were trained professionals and that I was in good hands.
“Now,” she asked, “has your plane arrived yet?”
Colin Cowplain
