Patch News – May 2025

I was away for the last week of April and much of May so I missed most of what was going on at the patch. Fortunately both MacFly and Dougal Entendre took lots of photos and video as well as keeping me informed of the various events that I missed, thank you both.
The May weather was very mixed, at the start of the month the unusual easterly winds carried over from April, then there was a spell of glorious sunshine with light winds, and then more normal windy and showery weather returned towards the end of the month.
As there’s been little rain the grass hasn’t grown much but the dandelions have flourished! The last Sunday of May was unflyable due to strong winds, but Woody went along and mowed the patch all by himself, that’s a lot of mowing for one person, Woody you’re a star!

On 25^th April, just before I went away, Dot (Simon Cottam) took and passed his BMFA ‘A’ test. Dot has recently joined PAM and returned to flying after a break of around fifteen years, and had in fact passed the test previously, but BMFA were unable find it in their records. Of course things have changed a lot in fifteen years with all the new regulations so Dot was keen to take the test again and make sure he was up to date with everything.
Having watched him flying since he joined us it was clear that Dot is a very capable flier and he sailed through the test with no problems at all, easily the best candidate that I’ve taken. Well done Dot, now it’s time to start practising for your ‘B’ test!

Another event that occurred on the same day was sadly not so good but it did cause a lot of evil laughter amongst all those present. Gordon’s Freewing Grumman Panther has had a rather short and chequered history up to now. It’s proved to be tricky to get away from a hand-launch and has been damaged a couple of times when it’s failed make it, although once up to speed and safely away it flies beautifully. Like all EDFs, with no propwash over surfaces, the pilot has little control until the speed builds up, and that takes a few seconds. Gordon has been toying with the idea of borrowing Dwayne Pipe’s launch ramp and bungee but, having repaired the damage from the previous failure but not added a bungee hook, he decided to try one more hand-launch. He also decided to hand me the transmitter and do the launching himself. There was a nice breeze blowing so a hand-launch should surely be alright, what could possibly go wrong?! Gordon gave it a perfect throw, nice and level, directly into wind, and the Panther sank very low to the ground, slowly gathering flying speed, straight as a die, and just starting to climb when…it met the fence box!

Fortunately (I think?) it hit the box straight on, not with one wing, so the damage wasn’t as bad as it could have been and hopefully Gordon will soon have it back in one piece, and I’m guessing, with a shiny new bungee hook ready to be launched from Dwayne’s ramp.

Thinking of Dwayne Pipe, when I returned from my travels I heard that Dwayne has been unwell. I wrote to wish him well and in his reply he included this: You may remember I spectacularly disassembled my Folland Gnat in April. I have used the last month to rebuild most of it. I hope to get it up to the patch soon. Regards to all the midweek flyers.
We’re all looking forward to seeing you back at the field and flying again soon Dwayne.
Oh, and by the way, Gordon says please can he borrow your launch ramp?!

Also at the end of April a rather unusual event occurred, Dougal Entendre crashed!
Here’s what he says about it: I had a bad day. 2nd flight of the Edge, I tried to enter a knife-edge spin, but it went wrong and I ended up in a fast spin. When I tried to pull out it didn’t seem to respond, and it went in hard, about 3/4 of the way to the car park.
There was a puff of smoke, so I legged it over to the wreckage, most of which was about 3 feet away from the burning batteries and ESC. The cells went off one after the other, and each time one went, it shot out flames about a foot long. I stayed with it until all the flames had subsided and I was sure the grass wasn’t going to catch light.
I then returned with my phone to take pictures of the burnt mess, and used the shovel to dig up the motor and charred remains of the ESC. The servos and Rx are OK, but everything else is a write-off. Fortunately I have an untouched kit for another one!
That’s a great shame Dougal but we look forward to seeing the next one when it emerges.

The first new model to feature this month is Mini Mike’s Soar Ahead Sailplanes Blob.
The Blob is a 40” span model that was originally designed as a slope soarer but was then made available as I/C powered and now electric. SAS ceased trading a long time ago but the designs are now kitted by NJR Modelling where the I/C or Electric Blob costs £86.99.
Mini Mike says the kit was a little strange to build as you have to build the fuselage onto the wing rather than slide the wing into the pre-built fuselage as you would normally. This resulted in Mike’s having a slightly bent rear fuselage, not that’s it’s noticeable.
Mini Mike has fitted his with an Overlander 3536/05 1500Kv motor and an Overlander 50A speed controller. He’s using a 9×6 propeller and the new Shorty 2200mAh 3 cell 50C lipos from HobbyKing. He says they are lighter than the standard size ones and get the centre of gravity closer to the correct position. Mike has used JX metal geared servos and there are only two so the Blob must just use one centre mounted servo for the ailerons.
The covering is Ripmax Aero heat-shrink film and very smart it looks too. So, now for the all-important question, how does it fly? I haven’t seen it fly myself yet but, as you will see in this month’s video, it looks to be excellent, fast and smooth, nice one Mike.

The Popham Model Show took place on the weekend of May 10th and 11^th. Sadly I missed the show this year as I was away but several members went and reported it was excellent, with great weather and more trade stands than last year. Dougal Entendre took lots of photos for us, including one of some pilots, I have no idea why he concentrated on these!
I’ll include some more of Dougal’s Popham photos towards the end of this Patch News. Dougal splashed out and left the show with a model, here’s his report: I picked up a Wasp E2K racer in the bring-and-buy at Popham, just like 1066’s red one, but this one’s blue.
I only paid £50 for it, fully equipped (bind-and-fly), so it was too good to miss.
The drawbacks were relatively minor: a slight crack in one fuselage side near the LE, which had been well repaired, and the Rx was Spektrum! Also there’s no battery hatch, so it’s a case of removing the wing to change the battery, but it’s only one bolt.
I added a stripe and decal to the wings, as I didn’t fancy my chances of retaining orientation with a plain light blue model! I bought a couple of Nihewo LiPos for it, 4s 2200mAh 100C, currently £47.49 for two on Amazon. I then bound my Radiomaster Tx to the Rx, set up quite small throws (as recommended by the seller), and was ready to go. I went off with about 3/4 throttle to avoid torque issues. 1066 launched it and it climbed away rapidly, with only a little aileron trim required. Once I’d gained some confidence I opened up the throttle and listened to it whistle! No issues with the AR6210 Rx – it covered a lot of sky without any problem. It’s a big grin model for remarkably little cost.
The motor is an Overlander T3536/05, 1500kV, with an 8 x 6.5 prop. The ESC is a Red Brick, but it’s glued in (what kind of psychopath does that?!) and I can’t read the label. My first flight was 5 minutes, but I only had 10% left in the pack, so I dialled it down to 3 and a half minutes for the second flight, and came down with 33%.
Thanks for that Dougal, the Wasp certainly looks good, and fast flying in the video.

Another new model that flew in May was 1066’s Voltigeur. This is the second Voltigeur that’s been owned by a PAM member, the first one being Cream Egg, but I’m not sure that one is still flying, I seem to remember he had a rather ‘abrupt arrival’ a while back! I’m sure that won’t happen with 1066, he’s much more experienced with aerobatic machines.
1066 bought his Voltigeur secondhand on Facebook Marketplace for just £125,  a real bargain as the current new price is over £200. The plane was still in it’s box and 1066 thinks it has never flown. It was a case of being in the right place at the right time as the seller was within walking distance of where 1066 happened to be when he spotted the ad.  The Voltigeur is a 1220mm wingspan EPO moulded 3D model from HobbyKing who say this about it: The Voltigeur is a well-known performer and we’ve just taken it to the next level. Flying the Voltigeur is a dream, using the recommended 3S Lipo battery for aerobatics and sports flying it handles like a trainer, docile, and extremely predictable. Everything from rolling circles, waterfalls, inverted harriers, and blenders, nothing will stop the Voltigeur. We have improved the drive train to provide even more power (1900g thrust), better efficiency, and cooler running with a 5% lower temperature). To help with the extremes of 3D flying the servo arms have been beefed up and the landing gear has been improved with carbon fiber legs. No more applying stickers as they are factory-fitted too. There is even a bigger, better ESC access hole for more airflow.
Want even more power? Then fit a 4S battery. You will notice straight away the extra speed and power, you’ll be able to use that extra power and quicker throttle response during your maneuvers. This added power will make your pop tops, rifle rolls, and all the extreme 3D moves that much more aggressive, ideal for experienced 3D pilots.
The Voltigeur is a true aerobatic performer and an extreme 3D flying machine. Construction is from lightweight EPO foam and features large control surfaces coupled with masses of power. Perfectly balanced with a mid-mounted full symmetrical wing, large battery compartment, composite glass fiber wing tube, metal gear high-speed servos all around, and all electronics pre-installed. Orientation is not a problem with the highly visible and unique color scheme. The HobbyKing info above is for the Mk2 version and 1066’s is presumably the Mk1 version. He is currently using a three cell lipo which seems to be enough judging by how the Voltigeur is performing in the video, it looks good.

Returning home from St Kitts we walked out and boarded the plane in bright sunshine but then, as we taxied out, the heavens opened and the rain was torrential as we took-off.
The first leg of the journey is just a short twenty minute hop to Antigua where we landed in sunshine. All the passengers stayed aboard while lots more got on, and the Boeing 777 was fuelled for the Gatwick flight. While we were on the ground I was able to visit the cockpit and was chatting to the crew when two British Airways maintenance guys turned up.
The Captain explained that the windscreen wiper on his side was rubbish and he couldn’t see a thing when we took-off but fortunately the Co-Pilot could! They then wound open the cockpit side window and a maintenance guy hung out of it and changed the wiper blade.
The Captain said if they had waited to change it at Gatwick if would have involved a cherry picker, a mountain of paperwork, and a delay! When they’d finished the Captain told me “Boeing made a great aircraft but they used windscreen wipers from an old Ford Fiesta!”

I was back home in time to test fly the last new model to fly in May, Woody’s XFly Glastar.
The 1233mm wingspan Glastar is a smaller version of the 1500mm span Tasman and other than the size they look identical, although the Tasman has flaps but the Glastar doesn’t.  Both Bob the Builder and John Warren fly Tasmans and they appear to be excellent models. Woody’s Glastar is an attractive little model and it proved to be a delight to fly, no problems at all and I soon handed the transmitter over to Woody to enjoy it for himself.
It seems like an ideal model for our field with its large wheels and totally benign handling.
You can see how it flew on it’s very first flight in this month’s video.

Instead of the usual ‘action’ shots here are some of Dougal’s pics from the Popham Show:

Video time now, this month with footage shot by 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:
When a British Airways Boeing 737 touched down at Frankfurt airport the Air Traffic Controller was obviously in a bit of a  frivolous mood and he transmitted:
“Speedbird 123. Nice landing Captain, but a little left of the centre-line I think.”
Quick as a flash, the BA Captain replied in a cool, suave English accent:
“Roger Frankfurt Tower. Perfectly correct. I am a little to the left of the centre-line. And my co-pilot is a little to the right of it.”

Colin Cowplain