Patch News – June 2013

There’s a lot to talk about this month even though I had a week off camping in Cornwall.
I’ll start with some good news, we thought we’d lost Burly Turley at the start of the month but we’ve found him again!  Apparently he’d wandered over to the track to collect the windsock and we couldn’t see him. Thankfully the field has now been cut and all is well again!
When George and his men cut, turned, and cleared the hay they worked round us so they didn’t interrupt our flying.  PAM is extremely lucky that the farmer and his workers are so considerate towards us.
 
We now have lots of the little EPP combat models flying.  There seems to be quite a difference between the P51 and ME109 with the P51 seeming to fly best.  Mine has now had 51 flights and I love it, despite its light weight it will fly in really strong winds, it’s as docile or as mad as you could want, and has no nasty vices.  The 109’s seem to vary quite a lot, Steve 1066 has had lots of trouble getting his to fly properly but Chairman Ron’s seems pretty good. Apparently Herr 1066 has been sneaking off in the evenings for test flights and it’s flying better now. I’ve flown several of them now and both Woody’s and Multiple Models Montague’s are better with the rudder and ailerons coupled. Unlike the P51 the 109 comes with the wings already joined and the carbon stiffeners fitted to it’s not easy to alter the dihedral, personally I think they need more to make them turn properly.

Some of us have tried combat using 2M of twine and a 5M paper streamer. It’s very difficult to get cuts but at the moment I’m leading Wonky Wiltshire 3 cuts to 1. I must have caught Wonky’s twine on one cut as his streamer ended up right through my leading edge!

Smiffy and I also had a fight with streamers on but he viciously flew his wing into my prop!  Fortunately his wing just needed a bit of sticky tape and mine needed a new prop, then we were off again.  I think the pressure got to him and he dumped it (made excuses about flat battery etc but we know the truth Smiffy) but he got away with very little damage.
So far none of the ME109’s have got as far as flying with streamers… 1066 almost did but when he, Wonky, and myself did a mass launch his streamer wrapped round his neck and yanked the 109 out of the sky!
MMM actually started off with a P51 but ‘modified’ it a few times and it wouldn’t fly right so he replaced it with a 109 as the P51’s are out of stock. So he now has a 109 powered by a P51 motor, bet that would have been interesting in the war.
 
The Texan that Woody bought at Blackbushe last month is now flying very nicely.  It does have the full-size trait of tip stalling if the speed gets too low so Woody will have to be a bit careful on the landing approaches but it doesn’t do it until it’s going pretty slowly so hopefully he’ll be ok.

Nick has put lots of new photos in the Gallery section which include some flying shots of the Texan, it looks great. Don’t forget, check out the Gallery.
 
Wonky has sorted out his ST Models DG-1000 motor glider now. When he first flew it all went well until the battery ran flat and the radio quit at the same time as the motor! Fortunately the plane just landed itself with no damage. He’s now changed the electronics and sorted that problem, but the motor retraction servo failed so he wasn’t able to tuck the motor away on the glide. Third time lucky then Wonky…

I finally remembered to take a photo of Mark Agate’s HobbyKing Skyfun. It’s very fast but also slows up nicely for landing so a good all-rounder. Mark has fitted a much hotter motor than the standard one but he seems to get long flights so it must be a pretty efficient motor/airframe combination. Its worth watching Mark’s discus launch, works well if a bit unconventional!
 
Mark has also brought along his shiny new EDF T-45 Goshawk, another one from HobbyKing. He sensibly declined to test flight it in the 20mph winds last week so we are looking forward to seeing it take to the air when conditions are better.  It’s a nice looking model and I’m sure it will fly well.
 
Chairman Ron has been flying his Spitfire again, now fitted out with E-Flite servo less retracts.  The model is a Parkzone Mk IX Spit that already flew very nicely but now looks so much better in the air with the retracts fitted.

 
Andy “everything I own is bigger/better/more expensive” Smith seems to be determined to arrive at the patch with more equipment than everybody else.  As you can see in this photo he evens brings his comfort blanket along!  The other day he was talking about adding a tent as well in case it rains, presumably to put all that gear in while he goes off to get the low loader! Well bad news Smiffy, you’ve been outdone for once, look at what Bob McBride is turning up with these days! The only thing I don’t understand is with all that electric power available why on earth is he flying I/C? I suppose someone has got to, although I hear a rumour his next model is electric.
 
 
Chris Hard is continuing his theme of flying wings and this week has been flying his latest, a Radjet 420.  It’s yet another one from HK and the 420 figure is the wingspan! It comes conveniently complete in its own carry box and it’s not until you see Chris holding it that you realise just how small it is. We all watched the first flight carefully, expecting it to be a hairy little beast, but in fact it flew very smoothly and with no problems other than seeing it. Chris has fitted a tiny receiver that is range limited to about 300M but with such a tiny model 300M is plenty far away enough!
  
 
Gentleman Jim brought his latest model along on Wednesday, a Zlin 50L.  I won’t say who is selling them, it’s getting boring now!  The Zlin 50L is a follow on to Jim’s E-Flite Pulse XT that has served him so well for quite a while now and should make a good next step.  I test flew it and it showed its aerobatic pedigree, I think it’s going to be a great model. The full-size Zlin first flew in the mid-seventies and won many world class aerobatic competitions until around the late eighties when it was edged out of top level competitions by the Sukhoi SU-26. They continued to build them right up until 1995 and many are still being used by top aerobatic teams. So we are expecting great things Jim…
 
 
Norwegian Nick and his son Shaun came to the patch today and flew both the A-4 Skyhawk and a smaller version of the Fantrainer that Nick has been flying recently. Good to see some models beautifully built from old fashioned balsa and covered in doped tissue.
 
 
Rather off topic but while we were down in Cornwall we visited a new museum at Newquay Airport/RAF St Mawgan. It’s called Classic Air Force and it only opened at Easter this year. It seems to have been reborn from Coventry based Classic Flight which was part of Air Atlantique, and as it’s so new they are still bringing many aircraft in. It’s classed as a living museum i.e. almost all aircraft can and do fly. It’s based in one of the hangers that used to house Nimrods and currently has: Anson, Twin Pioneer, Percival Prentice, 2 Rapides, 2 Jet Provosts, Chipmunk, Vampire, Venom, 2 Meteors, Dove, Hunter, Harrier, BAC-111 and several more. They give flights in the Rapides, Chipmunk, and even the Prentice. The website www.classicairforce.com is very good and shows planned aircraft movements so you can plan your visit to fit in with interesting flying. While we were there one of the Meteors flew in from Coventry.
 
We were able to get right up to it and even have a chat with the pilot. Because it’s relatively new and small the museum is very friendly and the staff are very happy to chat and show you everything.  As seniors our entry was only £6.60 each including a Gift Aid supplement and paying the supplement gave us 50% discount in the excellent shop and café. Both the shop and café prices were very reasonable so the 50% discount meant there were some real bargains! So if you are visiting Cornwall I recommend you drop in, you won’t regret it.
 
The crew of a US airliner made a wrong turn during taxi and came nose to nose with another aircraft, the furious ground controller (a female) screamed: “[Callsign] where are you going? I told you to turn right on ‘Charlie’ taxiway; you turned right on ‘Delta’. Stop right there” Continuing her verbal lashing of the embarrassed crew, she shouted: “You’ve screwed everything up. It’ll take forever to sort this out. You stay right there and don’t move until I tell you to. You can expect progressive taxi instructions in about a half hour and I want you to go exactly where I tell you, when I tell you, and how I tell you. You got that?”
Naturally, the frequency went very quiet until an unknown male pilot broke the silence and asked: “Wasn’t I married to you once?”
 
Colin Cowplain