Patch News – October 2013

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             Patch News? What news? The weather was pretty awful for much of October and unfortunately personal commitments prevented me from attending some of the sessions even when the weather was suitable, so I’m afraid I have little to report. I’ll make up for it with some larger than usual photos!

Farmer George found a use for some of us one morning, that must be a first! It makes a change from George and his men doing their best to enable us to carry on flying while doing their work all around us. As we assembled planes down by the barn we were asked to form a line to guide the sheep from one field to another. There were all the usual comments about pretty ones but Hapless Harper didn’t seem to understand the joke, he said they were all pretty!

On one of the decent Sunday mornings newly seconded treasurer Nick Squire showed his face for a change. It was all very nostalgic, not only did he turn up with an I/C powered model, it was controlled with a 35meg radio! He attracted a lot of attention, all the old school fliers gathered round muttering things about the good old days, while the younger ones looked confused and asked questions such as “Why are you using a battery powered electric motor to start that noisy dirty thing?” and “What’s that long chrome tube sticking out of the transmitter, and why is there a peg on it?” How quaint!

The combat fun continues with more Mustangs appearing, they have proved excellent in the strong winds we’ve had recently. Bash ‘Em Bob and Hapless Harper are pictured immediately before launching into another sortie. I’m sure one of them should have been a German plane but they appeared to be perfectly happy to fight Mustang against Mustang!
One morning just Desperate Dan and I showed up, unsurprising considering the dubious weather conditions, and while we flying a magnificent rainbow appeared. I landed my model with the intention of taking a photo of Dan’s Wot 4 Foam-E with the rainbow as a backdrop but of course it had all but gone by the time I was ready. Hopefully you can just about see the remains of it in the photo. Dan’s plane is also there but it’s barely a dot!

In the last edition of Patch News I talked about Dan but had forgotten to take a mug shot of him. I’ve now done it, hopefully you’ll see why I call him Desperate Dan! As you can see he was checking the wind speed, it was only gusting 27mph that day, perfectly flyable! Apparently last Sunday it was gusting 32mph but the hardy (foolhardy?) still flew.

Also in the last Patch News I reported that Mark Agate had revived an old I/C model in order to take his BMFA Examiner’s Certificate but he had problems with both the motor and the radio. Since then he has converted the model (a Fun 3) to electric power and fitted 2.4GHz radio. Mark was kind enough to email a photo and the conversion information, this is what he said:

It’s been given a 21st century makeover with Devo 2.4GHz gear and electric power, as you can see in the attached photo. I test flew it at the patch today in extremely blustery conditions (Dan’s meter reported a 32-knot gust!), and I was really pleased with it.

The motor is a Turnigy 3542/6 1000kv running from a 3300mAh 4s pack, with a Hobby King 70-80A speed controller and an 11-7 prop. This seems to give the same or better power than the old 40 IC engine, but the whole plane is a bit lighter now (partly because I was able to remove half a church roof of lead from the tail), so the performance is even more sprightly. Needless to say, it’s also much quieter.

You’ll notice that I carefully built a precision mounting box to get the motor thrust line correct, and certainly didn’t just saw up an old lump of 2×2, no siree.

Thanks Mark, it’s always good to get information from the owner, it’s usually correct, unlike the rubbish I make up!

A group of airline passengers missed a connection flight and had to wait for another plane.  They all waited patiently except for one man who treated the ticket agent very rudely. “I had an aisle seat reserved and I’d BETTER get an aisle seat when we get on another plane,” he ranted and raved.
A few minutes later the ticket agent announced that there would be room for everyone. “And, sir,” she said, addressing the rude fella, “I’m happy to tell you that I was able to get you an aisle seat, sir.”
The man, still muttering, picked up his carry on, grabbed his boarding pass, and headed through the door.
The agent continued, “And I’m also pleased to announce the rest of you will be seated in First Class.”
 
Colin Cowplain