Patch News – October 2017 | Petersfield Aero Modellers

Those of you who read Patch News last month will know that it only covered the first half of the month as I was away on holiday for the second half. So this edition will cover six weeks of flying and includes the new Kung Fu club models so there should be lots to keep your interest. There is a bonus of two videos this month, one covering the usual flying at the field, and the other just featuring the Kung Fu maiden flights. The videos include footage taken by Dougal Entendre, Catapult King, Captain Slow, and Percy Vears, thanks guys.

The bullocks returned to the field and, with the help of torrential rain, pretty much destroyed our lovely new patch. However, Dougal had a chat with farmer George and they have now gone again, hopefully until springtime. So the old farts (Friday Afternoon Rural Trimming Society) have been busy once again and the patch is now recovering quickly. 1066 bought a roller for the club and with the help of Captain Slow has filled it with concrete and completed the first rolling. We are in the process of moving the patch a few metres (again!) to avoid the worst of the mud bath created by the bullocks, a task that should have been completed by the time you read this. Rolling the patch requires a lot of effort but seems to be doing the trick and we should have a decent patch over the winter months.Dwayne Pipe snapped this shot of Norwegian Nick doing the mowing while Cream Egg and Colin Cowplain are flying. Chris P Bacon is acting as safety spotter. I have to say that it’s always the same members that turn up and do the work; the members that complain that the patch isn’t suitable for the models they want to fly are often noticeable by their absence. If you aren’t happy with the patch, don’t sit at home moaning, come and do something about it!

Just before I went on holiday Percy Vears took his Vulcan to the Chichester club site at Thorney Island and I was able to take it for its first two flights. On our previous visit to Thorney we had discovered problems with low voltage from the ubec so Percy fitted a higher current one and this time everything worked perfectly. The Vulc needed a bit of trimming on the first flight but once sorted it flew very well and both flights were completed without a hitch. Percy shot a bit of video and I’ve included it in this months’ video at the end of the blog.Well done Percy, building a model with four ducted fans powered by two battery packs, and full retracts was no easy task but you made a beautiful job of it. I look forward to the next time we get a chance to fly it.

Dwayne Pipe has recently rebuilt his Acro-Wot with a longer nose to enable the removal of all the lead it needed to achieve the correct centre of gravity. He also took the opportunity to give it a nice new colour scheme and smarten it up generally. With the lead removed the model is now lighter than before and flies even better. It should prove to be an ideal choice for the blustery winter months at Chidden Down.

Norwegian Nick finally got round to flying his Eze Twin that I first featured in Patch News back in June.It’s an interesting model which features a profile fuselage flanked by two ducted fan units. It was built from a free plan by Nigel Hawes in the January 2010 edition of the RCME mag. The Eze Twin features all balsa construction and is glass clothed all over except the tailplane and fin which are tissue covered. The wingspan is 40” (1015mm) and the all up weight is 2lb 8oz (1135gms). Nick has fitted two ChangeSun 64mm 12 blade EDF units with 3200kv inrunner motors, and two 60A speed controllers. The model flew extremely well and it looked as if Nick was soon very comfortable with the handling. As you’ll see in the video he was happily doing fast and low passes for the camera and all went well until the landing. He was unlucky and just caught a wingtip on the edge of the long grass around the patch which spun the model round and snapped the profile fuselage. Given how well it flew I’m sure Nick will soon have the Eze Twin repaired and flying well once again.

I snapped this photo of one PAM member the other day:Who do you know that drives to the field in his slippers and wears different trousers on each leg…we do have some strange members in the club these days!

While I was away on holiday I missed Dougal Entendre talking about his lovely new Spad S.XIII at a club meeting, and also its successful first flight at the field a few days later.The ARTF model was produced by Maxford USA and this is what their website says about it: The SPAD S.XIII was a French biplane fighter aircraft of World War I, developed by Société Pour L’Aviation et ses Dérivés (SPAD) from the earlier highly successful SPAD S.VII. It was one of the most capable fighters of the war, and one of the most-produced, with 8,472 built. The S.XIII was flown by famous French fighter pilots such as Georges Guynemer and Rene Fonck, and also by Italian ace Francesco Baracca. Aces of the United States Army Air Service who flew the Spad XIII include Eddie Rickenbacker (America’s leading ace with 26 confirmed victories) and Frank Luke (18 victories). The project to design a radio controlled SPAD XIII was started in late 2009. Our version is based on pilot Jacques Raphaël Roques’ SPAD XIII of the WWI French Air Service, SPA48, Aircraft Serial Number S1893. This ARF is designed for gas, glow or electric, and it comes with an adjustable engine mounting box and a motor box. It is true to scale to the full scale SPAD XIII. Dougal’s Spad was a Christmas present from his wife Angie; he must have been really good last year! At 1/5^th scale the Spad is 1727mm (68”) span and weighs around 6kgs (13lbs) so to power it Dougal chose a Turnigy Aerodrive SK3 – 6364-245kv brushless outrunner which swings an 18 x 8 propeller at about 6000rpm. He uses two 5800mAh 4 cell Zippy Compact lipos in series (8 cells) linked to a Robotbirds Pro-80 amp Brushless ESC V4 Opto HV speed controller. He also fitted a separate high voltage BEC to ensure the radio gets the voltage it requires.To really finish the model off Dougal purchased the optional extra Vickers machine guns and the completed model now looks superb. Catapult King filmed the first flight which went perfectly, the only problem occurring afterwards when Dougal removed the batteries and the plywood that the Velcro is stuck to delaminated!

We can always rely on Bob the Builder to provide us with some entertainment and this month was no exception. He had a bit of a trimming problem with his Splotel which resulted in an ‘unscheduled arrival’ shortly after taking off and unfortunately something must have punctured the lipo.The result was a lot of smoke but no flames so there was no further damage. Surprisingly only one of the lipo cells actually burnt and it didn’t spread to the two remaining cells. Anyone want to buy a slightly used two cell lipo…?

Captain Slow has finally finished his latest model, an Obelix slope soarer designed by Chas Gardiner which was a free plan in RCM&E back in January 1983. I think that was when Capt. Slow started building his… Anyway, it took a while as he decided to make it electric powered rather than a slope soarer. It’s mostly blue foam, built more or less as per plan although things have moved on since 1983 (even Capt. Slow!) so he fitted an aileron servo in each wing rather than one central servo with cables to the ailerons. He also extended the pod rearwards to give more battery room and avoid the need for lead at the rear. For the powertrain Capt. Slow decided to use the same setup that he’d used in his Zagi, a PELIKAN Ray B2845/09 motor, and a PELIKAN Ray R40A esc, both of which came from Puffin Models. It’s fitted with a 6x4E prop, which draws 23.5 amps from a 3 cell 1500mAh lipo.The first flight didn’t exactly go to plan; the Obelix did a quick loop and ‘arrived’ about 5 metres behind the launch point. There was a bit of damage but Capt. Slow has already repaired it so now it’s probably just a case of sorting out the amount of reflex required and getting the centre of gravity correct to get it flying properly.

A couple of other new models had their maiden flights at the end of October. I’ll feature them here but you’ll have to wait for next months’ Patch News to see the video of their first flights. The first to fly was my HobbyKing F-16 that was reduced to a bargain price in one of their weekly offers. It’s a 670mm (26”) span EPO foam Plug ’n’ Play model.Not exactly my idea of Plug ‘n’ play but it comes ready fitted with a 6 blade 64mm fan unit, a 4800kv outrunner motor, a 50A speed controller, and 4 servos and it was on offer for just £45.53! What’s a chap supposed to do, it just had to be purchased! When it arrived I was a bit surprised about how big it was, a span of only 670mm sounds small but the length is 1035mm and it’s actually quite large. The instructions are just a label on the end of the box!The model comes with an undercarriage but it has tiny wheels that would be hopeless on our patch so I didn’t fit it, an F-16 would look odd flying with its wheels down anyway. There is a pre-fitted servo for nose wheel steering but it’s not possible to remove it without destroying the model! It turns out to be a bit of an odd model, I think it must be a clone from another manufacturer as there are a few oddities. The HK page says it has elevons (all moving tail) but you can add aileron control by fitting an additional two servos (not supplied). The wings have the servo holes and hinge lines moulded in but I didn’t bother with ailerons. The tailplane halves have pre-moulded elevator hinge lines and control horn mountings but they aren’t used as the whole tail moves. The model is also sold as an ARF without any of the electronics and it says it’s for a 70mm fan but the PNP version comes with a 64mm fan. It also says the decals are factory applied, they aren’t, and the ones on each side of the fin are a right pain to apply, especially the side that has the rudder servo pre-installed. So, all in all, I was little unsure as to how well it would fly, but I needn’t have worried, it went away from a hand launch well and needed almost no trimming. It’s got enough power and isn’t noisy, is fine without ailerons, and flies like it’s on rails.

The other late October arrival was Stanley Knife’s lovely Junkers CL.1 that is produced by Seagull Models.The Junkers is an unusual choice, I’ve never heard of the CL.1 but I have to say it’s very nice. Dougal said it will be better when Stanley fits the top wing and I can see what he means, I suppose it must have been one of the first low wing monoplanes produced and it does look rather like a bipe that’s missing the upper wing.This is what Seagull say about it: The CL.I will immediately catch the eye of W.W.I aircraft lovers and it’s not difficult to see why. Festooned with period character and large enough to really make an impression, this 69” span model of the 1917 ground-attack monoplane takes 10 – 15cc engines, uses 4 channels and takes 5 servos. In other words, it’s an uncomplicated, sturdy, everyday flyer that would make a perfect first scale model. Finished in authentic matt Oracover and sporting all the fussy detail you’d expect – not least machine guns, bracing wires, engine / radiator detail, and cockpit coaming – it’s ripe for club scale competitions and the perfect canvas for weathering and adding further scale refinements. Stanley has fitted a Purple Power 1500W 63mm motor from 4-Max that swings a 17 x 8 prop. The 120A speed controller is a bit bigger than is required, the motor pulls around 47A from an 8 cell 4000mAh Turnigy pack and has more than enough power for the 3.8 kilo (8 1/2lb) model. The first flight went perfectly, the model has great presence in the air and showed no nasty tendencies at all.

I snapped a photo the other day for all the ‘less than expert’ fliers out there. If you ever feel that you break things on a regular basis but the ‘experts’ never do, have a look at this: On the left is Dougal Entendre’s Slick minus the undercarriage that he neatly removed when he landed short of the patch, and on the right is 1066’s SBach with the right hand aileron hanging off following a low pass ‘incident’!Note that they were both embarrassed and Dougal tried to hide his loss with white tape in the hope that we wouldn’t spot the absent undercarriage, and 1066 tried to push the aileron back into place but it wouldn’t stay put!

Now for the main event of October, the Kung Fu competition. The Kung Fu was chosen as this years’ club model as it is a very simple Depron flying wing that is quick and easy to build and can use equipment that many of us already have kicking around. At the club meeting on 5^th October a total of eleven Kung Fu’s were presented although one of them was a control-line version! The models were judged in three categories by all members present, Most Original Design, Best Looking Model, and Least Likely To Fly. The winner of the first category was 1066, purely because he was the only person who couldn’t follow the plan properly. Best Looking Model was Colin Cowplain (his Kung Fu was quite nice as well). Least Likely To Fly went to Woody, a choice that proved to be totally correct! Dougal had two Kung Fu’s, one a normal R/C, the other a control-line version, both of which were actually built by his son Cameron. The following Sunday eight of the eleven models turned up in time for the photos, The Squire arrived a bit later, and Catapult King couldn’t fly until the next day. So, at the time of writing, it’s just Norwegian Nick’s Kung Fu that hasn’t yet flown as, due to us changing the competition date, Nick was away on holiday. Bob the Builder flew first and other than a bit of elevator trim it went perfectly. Throughout the morning the others all flew, the amount of elevon reflex being about the only thing that needed adjustment on most of them, very little was required. Not sure if that’s down to the Kline-Fogleman stepped wing section or not but it seems odd that a flying wing needs very little or no reflex. They’ve turned out to be nice smooth models to fly. The only one to have problems was Woody’s, the first two attempts resulted in very small loops back to the launch point! But this has since been resolved, removal of the reflex and moving the centre of gravity forward being the main factors, and it’s now flying well. As the second photo below shows even Woody flies it fairly low! Later Dougal tested the Cameron/Dougal control-line Kung Fu (with RC throttle operated from a radio controlled car handset) and found it also flies well, amazing well really.The following day was rather murky when I test flew Catapult King’s Kung Fu. It went beautifully and was very fast, right up to the point when one of the elevons tore off, just leaving a bit of flapping covering on the right hand side! Fortunately it came down with no further damage and Catapult soon had it mended and flying again. The first flights of the RC Kung Fu’s can be seen in the Kung Fu Special video but the control-line one is in the usual monthly video. But first, a few flying shots snapped by Kryten: STOP PRESS: Chris P Bacon and Colin Cowplain had a ‘coming together’ over The Valley of Death! Chris P Bacon did well to fight his damaged Cougar back and land on the patch but my F-16 just spiralled into the valley. The replacement parts for the F-16 have been ordered. I don’t think either of us were to blame, it was just one of those things, but who should be accused? Will it be Basher Baker or Palmer the Impaler?