Patch News – June 2014

As most of you will know I’ve recently spent two weeks on holiday in Cornwall. This means that not only is this issue very late but also I missed out on quite a lot of what actually happened in June.  So now I’m faced with a bit of a dilemma, should I stretch out the info I have got or should I simply invent stuff? You know the sort of thing: Multiple Models Montague failed to buy any new models in June, Steve 1066 Hastings finally cracked hovering, Burly Turley didn’t speak for three consecutive minutes… no I’m just being ridiculous now, better stick to the truth!

I’ll start with some info that Dougal Entendre (Mark Agate) kindly sent me. You may remember that in the May Patch News I posted a photo of 1066’s broken Extra, with Steve showing his pleasure at having his picture taken. Well the damaged model was passed on to Mark who made a beautiful job of the repairs.

However, apparently 1066 didn’t pass on his ‘slow and low high alpha’ skills and after only a few minutes the Extra decided to stop flying! Mark now knows that slow and low high alpha flight requires large and rapid applications of throttle at the correct moment, or the model just stops and falls.Unfortunately the resulting damage proved terminal for the airframe although the hardware was fine so it wasn’t a total loss.

Dougal had also suffered another loss earlier in the month but at least I was present to enjoy it! His little Spad had a mid-air with a larger model (I forget who so I’ll say it was Bob Hill, he seems a likely candidate).

As the Spad was so small and light it was bound to come off badly in any collision but it was a shame to see it meet its end like that.

Onto happier things now, a couple of new models had their maiden flights. First off was Viv Burgess’s with his new PT-19 (Boeing Stearman) from HobbyKing. It’s a PNF (plug n’ fly) so comes complete with motor & prop, speed controller, and 4 servos. All you need to add is a receiver and a 4 cell lipo pack and for under £90 you have a 1200mm span scale trainer from World War Two.

I can confirm it’s a lovely flier, Viv was kind enough to let me have a go. It has loads of power, more than is scale in fact, and will do all the aerobatics you could expect from a biplane trainer.

The second new model was a Splot built by Gentleman Jim Hobday. Yes built, from a plan, from real balsa wood!The Splot was designed back in the 1980’s by ex PAM member Graham Head and his original was powered by an OS20 four stroke, the latest thing in those days. Graham designed it as a quick and easy model to build, hence the unswept 36” span wing with no dihedral. It turned out to be a very good all round sport model and modellers started fitting bigger and bigger engines, the OS25FSR being a favourite. With an excellent power to weight ratio it was great for ‘fly for fun’ competitions and PAM members had great success with them. Sussex Model Centre even kitted them for a while.I had an electric version several years ago, back in the days when it needed a heavy 10 cell Nicad to make it perform decently. Since then of course things have moved on a lot and now they fly very well on a 3 cell lipo, which is what Jim’s uses. He’s made an excellent job of it and sensibly included a hatch on the fuselage underside to make battery changes easy. It flies just the same as the I/C powered ones always did but without the noise and oily mess. Desperate Dan has offered to run off some copies of the plan if you’re interested in having a go at one.

We had a couple of old timers turn up the field the other day… and they were both flying Junior 60s!John Reynolds model is powered by an elderly OS20 I/C motor and the airframe is covered in Solartex, very smart it looks too. The other Junior 60 belongs to Dave Campling and the airframe is pretty elderly but John has replaced the original I/C engine with an electric motor. The power train actually came straight from a Wot 4 Foam-E and it powered the model very well. The covering is original and shows the stains of its I/C powered past.Both models were controlled by 35meg radio which somehow seems more appropriate than 2.4ghz although 27meg single channel would be even better. Of course the original was free-flight but the addition of radio saves an awful lot of running around! It was good to see the models flying together…took me back to…well before I was born I think! By the time I started modelling in around 1962 the Junior 60 had been replaced by the Super Sixty and then, a few years later, the Mini Super came along.

Cyano Steve had a slight mishap with his large Velox early in June. As you can see the model suffered a broken fuselage but no doubt Steve will soon have it repaired. When a pilot pushes the envelope as much as Steve does mishaps like this are bound to happen now and again.

Control: “AF1733, You are on an eight mile final for 27R. You have a UH-1 three miles ahead of you on final; reduce speed to 130 knots.”

Pilot: “Rogo’, Frankfurt. We’re bringing this big bird back to one-hundred and thirty knots fer ya.”

Control: (a few moments later): “AF33, helicopter traffic at 90 knots now1 1/2 miles ahead of you; reduce speed further to 110 knots.”

Pilot: “AF thirty-three reining this here bird back further to 110 knots”

Control: “AF33, you are three miles to touchdown, helicopter traffic now 1 mile ahead of you; reduce speed to 90 knots”

Pilot (a little miffed): “Sir, do you know what the stall speed of this here C-130 is?”

Control: “No, but if you ask your co-pilot, he can probably tell you.”

Colin Cowplain