Patch News – June 2016

Well so much for ‘flaming June’, it seemed more like April showers to me. Never mind, summer will be along in July…I hope. We had a bit of a problem with the mower a couple of Sundays ago and with the patch already in need of a cut and growing very quickly I thought we were going to be in trouble for a while. But I’m pleased to say our Chairman Percy Vears took immediate action to get it sorted and the patch is now in excellent condition again. Farmer George is letting the rest of the field grow for hay so it’s now pretty long all around the patch, but I don’t imagine it will be long before he cuts it. Take note of the grass length around the patch in this month’s video, it’s amazing how much the field grew in just 3 weeks. Still, we mustn’t complain, later in the year this might be happening for a while:

If the video above won’t play for you CLICK HERE

I’m sure you’ll want to join me in congratulating Tim ‘Modelling’ Clay and Lucy who got married on Saturday 25th June; we wish them all the best for a long and happy marriage.So what’s it got to do with Patch News? Well before the wedding Tim said he was sorry he hadn’t been flying much lately, he’d been really busy with all the wedding arrangements, but once the wedding is out of the way he’ll be at the field every week. Yeah yeah, dream on Modelling, see you around Christmas!

Early in the month Stanley Knife brought along his new Black Horse Models Wilga.The full-size Wilga was produced by Polish company PZL from 1962 until 2006 with over 1000 being built in many different versions. The one Black Horse have modelled is a 35A (no, that’s not how much current it pulls!) which was a mass-produced basic variant for sports aviation. It was fitted with glider towing hook, and was produced from 1968. It was fitted with a radial engine and the wingspan was just over 11M (36½ feet).The Black Horse model spans 1,720mm (67.72 in) and weighs just under 4kg (around 8½ lbs). Stanley has fitted a Turnigy Aerodrive SK3 motor from HobbyKing and says it produces almost 1300W on 5 cells swinging a 16×10 prop. I think it must be the 5045 500kv motor that is rated for 5 to 7 cells.It certainly has plenty of power for the Wilga and the model stooges around beautifully on less than half throttle most of the time, only requiring more power to perform some gentle aerobatics.I recorded some of the first flight but managed to mess up and missed the landing (which was very good incidentally) and it can be seen in this month’s video at the end of this Patch News.

Also in the video is some footage of 1066 flying his Piper Cub/Grasshopper that I featured last month. He seems to have got the undercarriage sorted now and he did some circuits and mild aerobatics just for me to record.

Gentleman Jim has been flying his re-born Splot recently. Originally flown back in June 2014, Jim’s Splot performed well but eventually suffered what appeared to be some fairly minor damage. While undertaking the repairs Jim found there was more damage than first realised so decided to build a new fuselage instead of repairing the original one, and then went the whole hog and re-covered the rest of the model as well. It looks great now, personally I prefer the new colour scheme, and it flies just like it always did.There are now more Splot plans available if anyone wants to build one, speak to The Squire and he’ll relieve you of £3.50 in exchange for one. I know there are several already underway but the more the merrier. Have a chat with Gentleman Jim, Percy Vears, or Basher Bob for further info on the power set-up they’ve used.

Wonky Wiltshire is always good for providing us with a laugh and he didn’t let us down this month. He turned up with a Radjet 800, an 800mm span foam flying wing from HobbyKing.The website mentions a Plug’n’Fly version but only lists the Almost Ready To Fly version, and that’s the one Wonky bought. It comes with an 1850kv motor and a 6×4 prop but you have to provide your own speed controller and two 9g servos. It uses a 3 cell 1300mAh lipo which many of us already have. It’s not unlike the Wingnetics that several of us fly but it has a pusher motor, is a little larger, and is a true flying wing in that it doesn’t have a separate elevator. This means you must use a transmitter that has elevon mixing, but virtually all transmitters have that these days. It’s easy enough to hand launch and the pusher prop doesn’t bite you as you let go!Wonky’s first flight went very well, the thing really shifts, quicker than a Wingnetic I think, so you need to be careful not to let it get too far away. The amusement came when I picked it up to launch it for the second flight…and one wing fell off! Well not quite but very nearly, it certainly would have if it had got airborne!I’m not sure what kind of glue Wonky used but it obviously wasn’t quite up to the job. Reading the comments on the website the most common suggestion seems to be for thick cyano and kicker. Anyway, by the following Sunday it was all sorted and screaming around with no problems at all. HobbyKing also sell a Radjet 420 which, unsurprisingly, is 420mm span. Chris Hard, lover of flying wings in general, has one and it flies just as well as the 800 version but disappears even faster. If my memory serves me correctly Chris also has an 800 so we might see two of them flying together one day.

Have you spotted the PAM transmitter hog at the patch? Yes Dougal Entendre has bought yet another transmitter, and yes, it’s another Walkera Devo. He’s now got so many Devo receivers it would mean a major upheaval and huge cost to switch brands. I think he’s working on the premise that each time he buys a transmitter it comes with a receiver so he’s saving money; at least that’s what he tells Angie. The latest purchase is a Walkera Devo F12E 5.8 GHz 32CH Dual Transmission FPV Radio System Transmitter, wow, that’s quite a name!Basically it’s a ‘normal’ 2.4 GHz 12 channel transmitter with a 32 channel 5.8 GHz FPV (First Person View) image receiver built into it. It has a 5” full colour screen that in normal use displays all the usual tx functions such as rates, servo reversing, mixing and so on. But if you fly FPV is displays the image from the camera on the screen so you can fly looking at the screen rather than using a separate pair of FPV goggles. Dougal says that at the moment he’s not intending using it for FPV but that may change in the future. As you’d expect with a 12 channel transmitter it can do just about everything ever dreamed up plus a few more things besides, and it has telemetry so if you equip your model with the right sensors it can display all the information you want from the model in real-time on the screen. The screen has a shield around it to stop the sun’s glare and reflections; it doesn’t show very well on my offset photo but is fine when viewed from straight ahead. Once he’d satisfied himself that he’d got everything set correctly Dougal flew various models with it last Sunday and everything seemed to be working perfectly. Here’s a photo of Dougal trying to switch it on!So there you are, if you want a transmitter that can do absolutely everything including FPV all you need is a Devo F12E…oh, and a degree or two in electronics and computer programming. And yes, Dougal has.

One model that hasn’t quite made it to the patch yet is Gorgeous Gary’s new Midget Mustang. Gary is a recent convert to the joys of electric power but has now had quite a few flights with the Acro Wot that he converted to electric. He is slowly getting his head around working out which motor, prop, esc, and battery combinations are needed to power different models and by doing a conversion on the Acro Wot he learnt a lot more than he would have by simply buying something already set up with electric power. He’s chosen the Black Horse 1000mm span Midget Mustang as his next model.

It looks absolutely fantastic, sleek and purposeful with a great colour scheme, although I’m not sure those spats will last too long on our patch. It’s designed for electric power from the start but Gary still had to source his own motor etc. Having used as OS electric motor in the Acro Wot he decided to stick with OS, this time choosing an OMA-3820-1200-W. I’ve looked at the motor specs on the OS website and it’s capable of delivering up to 1000W on 4 cells and on 3 cells the output stated is between 529W and 945W depending on the prop. Black Horse reckon the weight is around 3lbs so it’s certainly not going to be short of power! I also had a quick look on the forums and there is talk of the correct CG being at around 80mm not the 100mm stated in the manual and that it needs weight in the nose to achieve this so going for a bigger and heavier motor than they recommend is probably no bad thing.

So there we have it, an over-powered tail-heavy racer with wheel spats…what could possibly go wrong?!

Speaking of things going wrong, this month we saw two unfortunate incidents which caused ‘modifications’ on take-off. One was due to the owner forgetting to change the model memory over to the correct model and not noticing the ailerons were reversed, the other was following a repair and presumably a servo swap or similar as, it too, attempted flight with reversed ailerons. It’s very easy to be smug when others make mistakes but this is something we’ve all done at some time or other. Including me? Yes…twice.

It’s shocking to see models damaged unnecessarily like that when the answer is so simple, check the DIRECTION of movement of all the controls, not just that they move, before EVERY flight.

The last new model that I spotted in June was yet another 3D machine from 1066.This one is a 1230mm wingspan YAK 54 from HobbyKing and it’s another in the range of EPP skinning over a balsa/ply frame. Using this type of construction means the finished model can have a ‘proper ‘ shape, not just a profile fuselage, and yet it’s still extremely light and very strong. This photo from the HobbyKing webpage shows the construction well. The cowl assembly is simply held on by a couple of magnets!

A few years ago we wouldn’t have believed a 48½” model could weigh just 1220gms (2lbs 10zs). I used to put batteries weighing 2lbs in a 4ft model! Although it’s obviously strong enough to withstand all the 3D stuff thrown at it I’m not so sure about crash resistance or ease of repair. Not that 1066 will ever need to repair anything on the model obviously…ever…

Chris P Bacon has been off to visit a couple shows lately, the ones at Long Marston and Weston Park, and he was good enough to send me a few photos. This selection is mostly from Weston Park.

Has our Gorgeous Gary decided to go back to using small I/C motors again?

This Mustang appears to be owned by a Petersfield Aero Modellers member.

Chris P says he thinks this one is Smiffy’s latest model.But I know the truth, I’ve already seen Smiffy’s latest model under construction!

Please watch the video full screen, it’s so much better with small models flying around. If the video above won’t play for you CLICK HERE
In occupied Holland the Germans built a decoy airfield that led to a tale that has been told and retold ever since by veteran Allied pilots.

The German “airfield”, constructed with meticulous care, was made almost entirely of wood. There were wooden hangars, oil tanks, gun emplacements, trucks, and aircraft.

The day finally came when the decoy was finished, down to the last wooden plank.

Early the following morning, a lone RAF plane crossed the Channel, came in low, circled the field once…and dropped a large wooden bomb.

Colin Cowplain