Patch News – July 2025

July was a great month for the club with lots of good weather and great flying enjoyed by the members. As there was little rain the grass barely grew so we only needed to mow once in July.  The sheep have gone for now as there’s not enough grass for them to eat.
As is usual for July, the annual Chuck Glider competition was run mid-month. You’ll find the Competition Secretary’s full report on the event a little later in this Patch News.

First up of the new models is Woody’s lovely foamboard Typhoon that he’s built using the plans from the RC.tohme.net site which you’ll find HERE. The website says to use Depron but Woody has built his from Hobbycraft foamboard, leaving the covering paper on.
Woody first fitted the Typhoon with a drone motor but the power seemed a bit marginal so after the first flight he swapped the motor to a Turnigy 2212/10. I don’t think the swap made a lot of difference really but it has enough power although certainly not excessive. The speed controller is 30A and Woody is using the usual 3 cell 2200mAh lipo packs.
Woody has finished his in the scheme of a specific RAF Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft, one that is painted in a D-Day commemorative livery. This aircraft, serial number ZJ913, is nicknamed “Moggy” due to the way the letters “FM-G” are arranged around the roundel, resembling “FMOG”. The livery is based on the Hawker Typhoon of 257 Squadron, coded FM-G, flown by Pilot Officer Denzel Jenkins on D-Day. Last year was the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings, and the aircraft was part of the RAF Typhoon Display Team.
Woody has made a cracking job of it and it looks great but, oddly for Woody, he hasn’t added any lights, surely a first?! The first flight was ‘interesting,’ Woody asked me to trim it out which I quickly did once it had gone away from the launch. All seemed fine for the next couple of minutes but then it lost radio contact and it dived left into the ground.
Woody had previously had a couple of unexplained crashes but had fitted the Typhoon with a different receiver so the transmitter became the prime suspect. The transmitter was a Multiplex Cockpit 7 that I’d sold Woody second-hand a good few years ago. I’ve looked through some old photos and found that I was using the transmitter at least fifteen years ago so it hasn’t done too badly. It still works but there’s obviously an intermittent problem, maybe just the aerial connection or similar. Anyway, Woody decided to bite the bullet and bought himself a new Radiomaster transmitter which is compatible with his Multiplex receivers (and various other brands) so after some repairs to the model we tried again. Woody has now flown various models using the Radiomaster with no radio troubles so it seems the transmitter was the problem. The Typhoon is now flying well and it looks great in the air. You can see it in this month’s video which includes Moggy diving into the deck!

In the May Patch News I reported that Dwayne Pipe had begun repairs of his Folland Gnat following some fairly severe crash damage and in July he brought it along to test fly.
He discovered that, despite his best efforts, the wing incidence wasn’t the same on both wings which resulted in a built-in left turn that was too much to be trimmed out.
Dwayne got the Gnat down safely twice without any damage so he’s now taken it back to the workshop for a bit of re-jigging. There’s a lot to be said for designing and building a model from scratch, it means almost anything can be fixed and got back in the air.

Next up is a Dougal Entendre’s Durafly Rare Bear Reno Racer that came from HobbyKing.
So, what is the model based on? Rare Bear is the nickname of a highly modified Grumman F8F Bearcat aircraft that has competed in the Reno Air Races, specifically in the Unlimited class. It’s known for its speed and has set many performance records for piston-driven aircraft, including the 3 km World Speed Record of 528.33 mph set August 21, 1989, which still stands in this class. Over many years of racing Rare Bear has been painted in various colour schemes including the gold and white livery that Dougal’s is finished in.
Here’s what HobbyKing say about the model: Do you feel the need for speed? Then this great-looking, extremely fast Rare Bear Reno Racer from Durafly is for you. It is supplied as a Plug-N-Fly model with minimal parts count, so assembly is quick and simple. There is no gluing required, just one screw holds the tail components in place, and 1 screw for the wing. Battery and radio access is via the large magnetically held canopy hatch, so radio installation and battery changes are very easy and straightforward. Durafly has captured this amazing turn of speed with their Rare Bear, on the stock 4S setup with the supplied 8×5 propeller, speeds of around 110mph are easily achievable. But the Rare Bear is not all about speed; slow it down, and it handles beautifully. The controls work well, right down to the very predictable stall, the Rare Bear is just a joy to fly with no nasty tendencies. Back to when flying at speed, on the stock 4S setup, it flies like it is on rails, and gives that locked-in feel while performing aerobatics, huge loops, and long, smooth knife-edge flight are just a breeze to carry out. The build quality and attention to detail are typical Durafly, it is just fantastic. The Rare Bear is a hand-launched model and belly lander, so underneath, the fuselage and the wingtips are reinforced with tough plastic to take the knocks and bangs. Additionally, glass fibre reinforcements are on all the control surfaces, which really stiffen them up to stop any flutter at high speeds, and the foam hinge line is reinforced with a clear flexible adhesive. The fuselage is also reinforced inside with glass fibre rods running along the length of each side for added strength. It has a solid plastic firewall, stiff pushrods with ball link connectors for positive control, and the scale mouldings include a dummy exhaust and radiator intake. This Plug-N-Fly model is supplied with a pre-installed 3536-1700KV brushless motor, a 60A Aerostar LITE brushless ESC, 4 x metal-geared 9g servos, and an 8×5 propeller. Once it is assembled, all you require is a 4ch or more transmitter and receiver, and a 4S (14.8V) 1800~2200mAh 40C minimum LiPo battery. Unfortunately, when Dougal first unboxed the model he found one of the aileron servos was faulty so he replaced it, but the first time he brought it to the field there was a problem with the replaced servo glitching so he couldn’t fly. Checking it out at home he found it was getting very hot so he’s now binned it and has fitted another from his stock. He got onto HobbyKing who sent two replacement servos but they were plastic geared ones, not metal, and the plane definitely needs metal geared servos. Once the servo saga was sorted I filmed the first attempt at flight which didn’t go quite to plan! Chas’s launch was fine but the Rare Bear torque rolled hard left and it cartwheeled right in front of me.
Amazingly there was no damage so Chas launched it again, this time with Dougal using less throttle. Although it rolled left again Dougal was prepared for it and the plane got away safely, and on subsequent flights Dougal has found that half throttle is the absolute maximum power when launching. Once safely away the performance is amazing, Dougal only uses full throttle for very short bursts as it’s so fast! He says it’s really nice to fly and doesn’t seem to have any nasty characteristics. The video includes the first launch and then some of the flying but it’s too fast for me to get much decent film of it.

As I mentioned earlier, July is Chuck Glider Competition time and our Competition Secretary Dwayne Pipe got everything arranged for the event to be held in the evening of 9^th July at the Buriton playing fields. Here is Dwayne’s report: The annual chuck glider competition was held this month, and as usual in the middle of July the conditions were perfect. We had nine people turn up and all took part in the competitions. In the standard Chuck glider category it will come as no surprise to learn that Colin Cowplain won with a significant lead over everybody else. His consistent times are part of the key to his success as his overall time of 58 seconds this year was almost the same as his time last year of 56.1 seconds. Second place was won by 1066 who entered for the first time and had a creditable time of 38 seconds and Tony Neil came third.
We also had the Catapult glider competition as well, and for this the results were completely different. Dwayne Pipe came first with a time of 79.1 seconds,  and Colin Cowplain second with a time of 53.4 seconds and Dougal Entendre third. Everyone seemed to have a good time.  I would recommend for next year that you get lots of practise in trimming your aircraft before you turn up on the night.
Thanks for the report and for arranging and running the comp Dwayne. I’ve added some brief clips of the flying to this month’s video, with the best flight I’ve included being one of mine (obviously!). I’ll add some photos of the evening to the Action Shots section below. It’s always a fun evening and everyone seems to enjoy it, including dog walkers etc who seem bemused by a bunch of (mostly) old men chasing little balsa wood toys around!

At the field one day 1066 mentioned that he’d spotted a Volantex Phoenix for sale on Facebook Marketplace and that it would be perfect for Woody who was looking for a replacement for his Max-Thrust Aggressor. After lots of persuasion by others Woody agreed to check it out and Captain Slow took him down to Portsmouth to take a look.
It turned out that the seller was a guy who had previously sold 1066 a model that had turned out to be a very good buy so he was known to be an honest, decent seller.
The model advertised was a Phoenix Evolution that has a wingspan of 1.6m but also comes with an additional centre section that can be fitted which takes the span up to 2.6m.
I have an older version Phoenix 1600 and can vouch for its excellent flying characteristics; it’s a reasonable glider but is also excellent for aerobatics. The Evolution has a slightly different wing shape to mine but looks to be basically the same model apart from having the extra wingspan available that would obviously increase its gliding capabilities greatly. Woody reckons the Phoenix has never been flown so with the seller asking just £65 for it, just needing a receiver and battery, it was a great deal. Dougal did the initial trimming while I filmed and the Phoenix flew perfectly, with Dougal saying it was really nice to fly. Woody quickly took the controls and was very happy with the way that it handled.
I haven’t had a chance to fly it myself yet but I doubt it’ll be very different to mine.

Dwayne Pipe has been building again, this time he’s built a Dancing Wings Piper J3 Cub from a kit given to him by 1066. Here’s Dwayne’s rather sad tale of how the building went: Dancing Wings advertise a 1.2 metre Piper J3 cub as a balsa construction kit. The price of between £80 to £90 on the face of it seems reasonable, and one of our illustrious members forked out and bought it. (It’s alright Dwayne, we know it was 1066!)
According to the blurb in the instruction manual: The Piper J3 cub was the most popular commercial aircraft of the 1930s? Barely 7 yards long and instantly recognisable in its yellow and black paint scheme, this nostalgic favourite became the foremost trainer of the era? Eventually training 80% of the United States military pilots by the end of World War 2.  A new Cub was rolling off the assembly line nearly every 20 minutes and many of these beloved aeroplanes are still around today.

The quality of the wood was appalling, the instructions confusing and the kit seems to be designed by someone who has never actually flown the plane. On the positive side the laser cut parts fit together well. 1066 started to build it and realised it was going to be a challenge with no guaranteed success. So, he gave it to me, and two months later after a lot of frustration and redesigning large parts of it, the Piper cub is ready to fly.
The Dancing Wings model has a wingspan of 1200mm, a length of 725 mm and an alleged flying weight of 750g. Mine actually has an all-up weight of 1100g.
I fitted a 30A esc, a 1000kv motor and a 10×6 prop (now changed to a 9×6 prop).
Progress to date. It refused to take-off from the ground due to severe ground looping.
A hand launch showed that the control surface deflections in the instructions are far too high and the planes first flight lasted about ten seconds with moderate damage.
Repairs have been made, larger wheels fitted, a new smaller prop installed.
The challenge continues.

The moral of this story is don’t buy a Dancing wings kit unless you have a lot of experience building balsa planes and unlimited patience. Thanks for the report Dwayne, it’s a great shame the quality of the kit was so bad and that so far it hasn’t flown properly.
I filmed the first three attempts at flight so far, you can see them in this month’s video. Since then Dwayne has had a couple more attempts and is gradually getting  the problems sorted but at the time of writing the Cub still has some way to go before flying properly.

This month the action shots were taken during the annual chuck glider competition.

Video time now, this month with footage shot by me, MacFly, and Dougal Entendre. Please watch the video full-screen, it’s so much better with small models flying around.
If the video won’t play for you please click HERE

Final Funny:
Two hunters from Ireland were on holiday in Canada and they hired a pilot to fly them to hunt moose. Over the next couple of days they bagged six between them.
As they started loading the plane for the return trip home, the pilot tells them the plane can take only three moose. The two men objected strongly, saying “Last year we shot six moose and the pilot let us put them all on board and he had the same plane as yours.”
Reluctantly, the pilot gave in and all six were loaded. Unfortunately, even on full power, the little plane couldn’t handle the load and went down a few minutes after take off.
Climbing out of the wreckage, Paddy asked Mick “Have you any idea where we are?”
Mick replied, “I think we’re pretty close to where we crashed last year.”

Colin Cowplain