Patch News – March 2023

March was an interesting month for PAM members, unfortunately mostly for the wrong reasons! Having decided at the December AGM to start holding quarterly meetings after three years with none we held a social meeting on 1^st March at the Seven Stars in Stroud.
It went very well with about a dozen members attending for a general catch up and natter and it was good to see some faces that we’d hardly seen since the start of the pandemic. We’d waited much longer than the regulations required to hold a meeting because we didn’t want to risk anyone catching Covid but guess what happened…in the following few days almost half of the attendees went down with it! They then spread it on to their wives/girlfriends/boyfriends etc. but fortunately, as far as I know, nobody was seriously ill and all have now recovered. But looking on the bright side, it could have been very much worse, I could have got it! I’m not sure quite how I avoided it as the people on both sides of me went down with it but not me.  Not that I’m complaining… Colin Complain? Never!

The sheep that had arrived in February were gone by the middle of March but with several members struck down with Covid the first half of the month was rather quiet although a few of the Covid free ones did manage to fly on a few occasions. Towards the end of the month everybody was back to good health and raring to go but the weather was rubbish on several of our usual flying days so overall was there was rather less flying than usual.
Some of the FARTS mowed the patch one Friday afternoon and Chairman Gordon Bennett kindly took the mower back over to the box when we’d finished. It wasn’t until we returned to fly the following Sunday morning that we realised he’d taken the mower back to the box but hadn’t actually put it away and it was sat next to the open box looking rather lonely. Fortunately the members of the public who had walked along the track in the meantime must have been either very honest or completely blind and all was well!

Gordon redeemed himself by going off to the States for a ‘business trip’ and managed to include a visit to the Florida Jets, a four day event which is billed as the world’s largest RC jet event with no less than six flight lines running each day. Following that he dragged himself over to Arizona where he inadvertently stumbled across the Arizona Warbirds & Classics fly-in, another four day event which is hosted by the Sun Valley Fliers. That’s the sort of ‘business trip’ we would all happily undertake and I’ve already volunteered to carry his bags if he goes again next year! Gordon took lots of photos and has written this for us:
Back in the depths of winter I was flicking through my copy of Model Aeroplane News (MAN) when I spotted an advert for ‘Florida Jets’. I like MAN as the articles are very ‘American’ compared to RCME and I enjoy the different perspective. The ad conjured up images of sunshine, palm trees and…. jets! Not only that, Arizona Warbirds and Classics was later in the same week. It had to be done.
Due to other commitments, I could only attend Florida Jets on the Wednesday, the show’s first day. I got to Lakeland a day early and got down to the Museum of Aviation (the base for Sun & Fun). It’s a great mid-size exhibition and had a couple of unusual outdoor exhibits in particular a FY2 Sea Dart and an XFV-1 Salmon.
The Sea Dart was the only supersonic seaplane and XFV-1 is clearly something Dougal or 1066 should build a model of and get hanging.
The next day I was up bright and early and found myself as virtually the only spectator on a windswept, cold, rainy day at Paradise Field. Between the rain showers I trudged past the models hiding in their tents and met a load of super friendly RC aviation nuts displaying their planes.
I’ve put together a short video so won’t go into too much detail here but watch out for the Raptor, a model with amazing scale detail (cockpit with active displays etc).
In the tent next door I heard English accents and met Ali Machinchy and his son. Being a relative newcomer to the sport I didn’t have a clue who he was but he was super kind and put up with my stupid questions. I was chuffed to bits that he was a big Spektrum fan (!) and only realised the full picture when I later googled him.
The sun broke through mid-morning and we were off. In fact, it was Al’s 18-year-old son who was the first airborne, totally unphased by a pretty stiff crosswind. It was an open event so a few professional displays and then everyone else just flying when they wanted, which turned out to be all the time. The standard of flying was spectacular as you’ll see.

On Friday I made it to Phoenix, Arizona and from there a 30-minute drive to Sun Valley Flyers out in the desert. Now don’t get me wrong, I love our 30m patch and its beautiful views down to the IOW. But it’s hard not to be impressed by the sheer scale and quality of the facility they’ve built. The advantage of space means a peppercorn rent from the City Council, also the club has had a super strong 250-person membership for decades. Hence spending $80,000 to tarmac the runway was only part of the ongoing improvements.
Arizona Warbirds and Classics was also an open event. There were a few organised spots like ‘let’s get as many WW1 aircraft as possible into the air at noon’ and a few stops for particular displays like the Sukhoi but other than that, endless fantastic aircraft being brilliantly flown.
I used to be ambivalent about whether a model should have a pilot in the cockpit. Having seen the amazing scale models and flying techniques it was easy to think you were seeing full size. If a model didn’t have a pilot in situ, it suddenly didn’t feel right.
There were so many highlights, a scratch-built Dornier 335, an A10, a 12 year old superbly flying an L39 Albatross and the WW1 gaggle. But for me, the Sukhoi with its vectored thrust and the pair of massive Sabres in ‘Skyblazers’ livery were outstanding.
Thanks for that Gordon, we’re not at all jealous! With his very best Film Director’s hat on Gordon shot plenty of video and has produced a five minute extravaganza for us to enjoy:

While Gordon was sunning himself in the States, back in the cold and damp of Hampshire Dwayne Pipe brought along a new own design F-22 Raptor to fly. Dwayne used the same basic principles of the foamboard jets that he’s designed and flown such as his Sea Vixen but this time he’s ditched the Hobbycraft foamboard and built it from a sheet of  Correx.
For those who don’t know Correx is the twin wall plastic board that many estate agents use for their signs and more importantly it’s the stuff lots of us used to make our planes for the Delta Challenge way back in 2015. Just look at all the young blokes in the photos below!
Anyway, back to Dwayne’s Raptor and you can see the Correx section pretty well in some of the photos, he chose the material because it’s extremely strong and easy to work with. Although it is heavier than foamboard it’s completely waterproof, no problems with peeling paper on damp grass. Dwayne used hot melt glue for the construction, which works well on Correx, and he fitted a Turnigy Aerodrive D2826/6 2200kv motor, a 30A speed controller, and four 9g servos to move the waggly bits. There’s no mixing required on this one, it’s just straightforward ailerons, elevator and rudder controls. When I first saw the Raptor I thought Dwayne had painted it but it’s actually covered in Fablon. Remember Fablon? It’s a thin sticky back vinyl that first came out in the sixties and I haven’t seen it for years but a quick Google showed that it’s still alive and kicking and is available in a huge range of colours and finishes. It can be found on eBay and Amazon as well as from B&Q and Homebase etc. It’s certainly heavier than iron on films and I don’t think it will shrink with heat but it’s probably good for solid surfaces that don’t have any compound curves. It will be interesting to see how durable it turns out to be. So how did it fly? Erm…well…so far not very well! Dwayne had used an online calculator to determine the centre of gravity, something that he’d used before and found it worked well. But the first two or three attempts at flight showed that the centre of gravity was much too far back so Dwayne fitted a larger battery as far forward as possible for the next attempt. This time it was much better and managed a couple of rather hairy circuits before…err…’landing’.
The flight showed what needs to be done and Dwayne headed off back to the workshop to make a few changes to the plane and the control movements but it will be back shortly and I think it will be fine after a few modifications. Sadly only Dwayne and I were at the field that day and I was chief launcher so I wasn’t able to capture any video for you to enjoy.

The next new model to appear in March was also an F-22 Raptor but this one is a foamboard version built by Woody. He was really happy with how his Su-27 from Ali Express flies and while browsing the site up popped the Raptor complete with the motor, three propellers, 30A esc, and two servos for just £23.48 with free postage!
Because it comes from China Ali Express have to add tax but it’s still only £28.29. Woody has made a really nice job of putting it together and the finished model looks very smart. Obviously he’s added some lights but only two on this plane, one on each wingtip.
The motor that’s included in the package is an A2212/10T which is 1400kv rather than the 2200kv motors most of us fit to our foamboards so it needs an 8x 6 propeller instead of the usual 6×4 that we use. Before it flew we were a little concerned that it might be underpowered but it flies really well, not quite as fast as most of the foamboards but there’s plenty of power and it will climb almost vertically. Woody was unsure about the centre of gravity position but it turned out to be spot on and the Raptor is a delight to fly.
I liked it enough to order one for myself! You can see Woody’s flying in this month’s video.

Away from foamboards now and back to Gordon Bennett who has bought himself an E-flite P-51 Mustang. Gordon was browsing the adverts and saw that there was a new version of the E-flite Mustang available in the States and it was much cheaper than in England.
He had a friend in the US military who was able to get things posted to England very cheaply so it seemed only right to ask him to order one. After a bit of a delay due to the US military not wanting to fly any package containing lithium batteries (which it didn’t!) the model arrived safely. This is what E-flite have to say about it: This updated version of the E-flite^® P-51D Mustang 1.2m delivers outstanding warbird appeal whether flying or just standing still. It’s now finished in the iconic “Cripes A’Mighty 3rd” trim scheme of George E. Preddy Jr., the top P-51 Mustang ace during World War II who downed six planes in a single day. This replica features a variety of scale details including moulded-in panel lines, a pilot figure, four-blade propeller and more. Plus, its functional flaps and retractable landing gear add to the scale flying experience. The 3S and 4S compatible power system includes an upgraded 70A Spektrum^™ Avian^™ Smart Lite ESC, and the BNF^® Basic version is equipped with an AR631 receiver to deliver real-time telemetry data along with AS3X^® and optional-use SAFE^® Select technologies.
Best of all, no glue is required for final assembly so you can have it ready to fly in less time than it takes to charge a battery! And the 1.2m size allows for easy storage and transport without disassembly, or the one-piece wing can be removed and reinstalled quickly for even greater convenience. So, whether you’re an intermediate or advanced pilot, this P-51D Mustang has the details, features and heart-stopping performance—along with incredible handling at low and high speeds—you need to experience what piloting a legendary thoroughbred is all about.
Gordon asked me to do the initial trimming and once I’d managed to stop the nose trying to peck into our patch the Mustang took-off and flew perfectly. The telemetry wouldn’t shut up, it kept saying something about low battery which was very unnerving with a brand new expensive model that wasn’t mine (bl****y Spektrum!). While trying to find the retract switch I inadvertently switched the gyro to ‘child’ mode but I didn’t realise until I tried to roll and it fought back and stated resolutely upright! Once Gordon had switched that out I handed the transmitter over to him for the rest of the flight. Despite the dire telemetry warnings nothing untoward happened and after a few minutes of gentle flight Gordon landed the P-51 safely. He is rather worried about the brand new lipo so will be checking it out before the next flight. You can see some of the flight in this month’s video.

The last new model this month belongs to young Leo and it’s yet another foamboard.
But this one is a bit of an unusual model as it’s a J-31. What’s a J-31 I hear you ask?
Well it’s a Chinese aircraft made by Shenyang which is sometimes known as an FC-31 and it looks pretty similar to an F-22 Raptor, some say it’s a copy. Leo’s model is another of the range from Ali Express and it came with the same electronics pack as Woody’s F-22 with an A2212/10T 1400kv motor, three 8×6 props, a 30A speed controller, and two servos.
It flies extremely well, most of these foamboards seem to fly better than a flat plate of foam should be expected to fly and Leo has been demonstrating how he can fly it inverted at ridiculously slow speeds. Take a look at it in the video and prepare to be impressed by it.

For the monthly ‘action’ shots this month I’ve taken stills of some of the lovely models from Gordon’s video. The first one is of a Yak 130, the same as mine so I’ve included mine to see if you can tell the difference. No? OK, I’ll give you a clue, mine has the wheels up:

Video time now which this month includes footage shot by Peter F, Captain Slow, Dougal Entendre, and myself. 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

A man was sitting in a Heathrow bar when he noticed a beautiful woman. He thought “Wow, she’s gorgeous, must be a flight attendant. But which airline does she work for?”

Hoping to pick her up, he leant over and uttered the BA slogan: “To Fly. To Serve?”
She gave him a confused look and he immediately thought “No, she doesn’t work for BA”.

He remembered another slogan and leaned towards her “Something special in the air?”
He got the same confused look. Another no, so he crossed American Airlines off the list.

Next he tried the Virgin Atlantic slogan “Everyone can take on the world?”
This time the woman turned to him and snapped “What the **** do you want?”

The man smiled knowingly, slumped back in his chair, and said… “Ah yes, Ryanair”.

Colin Cowplain