Patch News – November 2013

Sorry I’m so late with Patch News this month, I blame Christmas shopping & events, trips to London, grandchildren, and dealing with my late father’s affairs, not necessarily in that order. You can just blame me.  The larger photos proved popular in the last Patch News so I’ll continue with them until the webmaster complains about the space they use.

There wasn’t an awful lot to report until the end of November when the  shops had ‘Black Friday Sales’ and we had ‘Experts turned Idiots’!  More of that later…

Our new treasurer Nick Squire obviously didn’t take offence at my mickey taking in the last edition of Patch News, he was back flying again in November. I took this picture just as he was told that the meeting on 19^th December will be ‘club subs night’ and members will be showering him with money.

In the New Year I advise you to check your BMFA memberships carefully whilst admiring Nick’s Caribbean holiday snaps!

Speaking of memberships we were shocked and saddened to hear that Hapless Harper won’t be renewing for 2014. Several people remarked that I’ll have nothing to write about but I wouldn’t be so cruel. Although I did hear that certain trees let out a huge sigh of relief when they heard the news.  But joking apart Mick has been a great member for many years and we will miss him from both the patch and the meetings.  I remember the first day he approached the club when we had a stand at a hobbies event at the Grange Centre in Midhurst.  He said he wanted to build a specific type of R/C model and of course we all thought “Here we go, another nutter that wants his first model to be a Spitfire”.  But Mick went one better, he wanted a Lancaster! Now you have to remember this was a long time ago, before ARTFs, before foamies, before large models, before even 35meg let alone before 2.4gig, and well before electric power. We explained about single engined high wing trainers etc and he listened carefully before agreeing to join and promised to build a trainer…then a Lanc!

One of Mick’s first models was beautifully built and finished Cessna (high wing and trainerish). Unfortunately despite only being 54” span it weighed about 10lbs due largely to the 25 coats of perfect while paint. It was rapidly christened Midhurst White (after a house brick not a butterfly) and was soon sold on, but not before winning a local concours event. Mick tells me that he brought it along to a club meeting and I said I’d never seen a model using lead as a covering material before. That doesn’t sound like me at all…does it?

Mick went on to build many many models with varying degrees of success, one being a Splot, a high wing sport model designed by club member Graham Head. The wing was flat (no dihedral) and being 36” span meant it could be built from stock lengths of balsa without having to make any joints in the spars etc. This made for a very strong wing, they were almost indestructible. Except Mick’s… he was flying it one day and the wing folded in half resulting in a rather sudden arrival. We were all flabbergasted that he’d managed to break it in the air until we examined the wreckage and saw the two servo mounting holes he drilled straight down through the spar. Obviously we barely mentioned it!

But build a Lanc he did, in fact several, first I/c powered and then electric.They all flew but with varying degrees of success, as Mick was always able to come up with new things to go wrong, things that never happened to anyone else. But despite problems Mick always came back for more and always wanted to try something new. He was (I think) the second person in PAM to switch to electric power, he had one of the first EDFs, and above all he was an excellent builder. Mick produced many superb models, bounced back from problems with a smile and a new challenge, and always enjoyed (I hope) being the butt of our jokes.Despite his decision not to renew his membership I sincerely hope Mick will drop in and see us at the patch and at Buriton now and again.

John Warren has been flying this biplane for several months now, I think I mentioned ages ago that John had resurrected it after many years of retirement and converted it from I/C to electric.Apparently the last time it had flown was down at the old IBM club at Havant when I discovered it had a reluctance to turn in either direction! It only has rudder & elevator controls, ailerons would probably make a big difference, but it flies pretty well and can be enough of a challenge to make it interesting.  John’s had many flights with it and says he prefers it to his trainer because it’s that bit harder to fly. His next model is almost ready to be tested, another biplane but this time a scale model, a ‘proper’ balsa model built from plans, designed for I/C but John has converted it to electric. What is it? You’ll have to wait and see, watch this space!

Next up is new member Richard Bennett’s Cloud Fly from HobbyKing. Not sure why but it seems to be listed as an AXN Floater-Jet on the HK site, bit odd when it’s neither a float plane nor a jet.Anyway it’s a pretty little electric powered glider with a high mounted pusher motor so there shouldn’t be any problems with broken props or bent shafts. Steve 1066 Hastings has taken Richard under his wing so I’ve not flown the model much but it seems to be a good training model and Richard is coming on well with it.

Gentleman Jim Hobday has just finished a new model, a Grumman Wildcat no less.  Jim bought it at the Blackbushe Model Show in 2012 so he hasn’t exactly rushed constructing it (mind you I’ve got models I’ve been building for 20 years so perhaps I should shut up!).It’s a Parkzone model and I think it might have been a replacement airframe as it wasn’t in a box when Jim bought it and it didn’t come with a motor or any servos, ESC etc.  It certainly looks nice and the Parkzone models all seem to fly well so I have high hopes for this one.  All being well December Patch News will have a report of its first flight.

Discus Launch Gliders (DLG) are something we don’t see much of at the patch but Desperate Dan has being chucking this one around recently.It’s an Apollo 1550 from HobbyKing and the 1550 is the wingspan. It comes as an ARF so it’s fully covered, has a fibreglass fuselage with built up balsa and lite-ply wings, you just need to install your radio gear and give it a chuck. Dan hasn’t achieved any long flights that I’ve seen up to now but November is hardly the time of year for low level thermal activity. It certainly shows great promise and I reckon come the spring it should really show what its performance is like. It’s around £51 from the UK warehouse so not bad value when compared to the 900mm span Binary DLG with carbon reinforced wings at £125.

So onto the ‘Experts turned Idiots’ day I referred to earlier. Must have been something in the air I reckon, all the so-called experts seemed to be doing dumb things while the beginners were having no problems at all!

First off Cyano Steve missed the patch when he landed, a very rare occurrence these days. He then had to endure all the usual “We’ll get Roland to drag the patch over about 10 feet for you” etc comments.  How childish…  Then a little later we had a threesome, I was flying my SportJet, Wonky Wiltshire flying his Alpha Jet, and Mark Agate flying his Fun 3. First Wonky did a duff launch and knocked the nose off the Alpha Jet, but apart from that it was fine so he re-launched. Then we got into the bit of flying flat out screaming low passes over the patch in formation with Woody providing accompanying music from Top Gun on his mobile.  It’s all very well but there’s always some smart arse that has to go just that little bit lower. I was fine over the patch, but omitted to pull up when I reached the long grass at the end! The SportJet did a mild cartwheel and knocked the nose off. The resulting cheer from the pits was incredible, I’m sure it exceeded the 82db limit!Then, a few minutes later, I decided to fly the little EPP Mustang to reassure myself I wasn’t really an idiot. Turns out I was! I was doing the weird tumbling spins that I often do but somehow got disorientated and buried it. Fortunately it was far enough away that not too many people noticed, and the damage was pretty minimal.  I then decided it was time to beat a hasty retreat only to have Nigel Bastard Baker remark “Ok look, I’m taking two undamaged models home and you’re taking two broken ones”.  I’ll remember that Baker, I’ll remember!

Then…just as I arrived home my mobile vibrated and I opened up this photo.

Yup, as I was driving away Wonky got disorientated with the Alpha Jet and buried it big time! Like I said, something in the air that day…

A man is sitting in a plane which is about to take off, when another man with a dog occupies the empty seats alongside.  The dog is sat in the middle, and the first man is looking quizzically at the dog when the second man explains that they work for the airline. The airline rep said “Don’t mind Rover, he is a sniffer dog, the best there is, I’ll show you once we get airborne and I set him to work.”

The plane takes off and levels out when the handler says to the first man, “Watch this.” He tells the dog, “Rover, search.” The dog jumps down, walks along the aisle and sits next to a woman for a few seconds. It then returns to its seat and puts one paw on the handler’s arm. He says “Good boy.” He turns to the first man and says, “That woman is in possession of marijuana, so I’m making a note of this, and the seat number, for the police who will apprehend her upon arrival.” “Fantastic!” replies the first man.

Once again he sends the dog to search the aisles. The dog sniffs about, sits down beside a man for a few seconds, returns to its seat and places both paws on the handler’s arm. The airline rep says, “That man is carrying cocaine, so again, I’m making a note of this, and the seat number.” “I like it!” says the first man.

Once again he sends the dog to search the aisles. Rover goes up and down the plane aisle, and after a while sits down next to someone, and then comes racing back and jumps up onto the seat and craps all over the place. The first man is surprised and disgusted by this, and asks “What the heck is going on?” The handler nervously replies “He just found a bomb!”

Merry Christmas to all, hope to see you at the patch very soon.

Colin Cowplain