Patch News – September 2014

September has been a lovely month for flying, and the good weather brought out lots of new models. But before I get on to them, an apology, in last months’ Patch News I wrongly named Wonky Wiltshire as the owner of the orange and white Slick, it does of course belong to Steve 1066 Hastings.

The trouble is there are just too many Slicks in the club now, and September saw yet another having its maiden flight. This one is Dougal Entendre’s; I know that’s correct, he’s holding it!  After about two hours dripping on about it being too windy Mark eventually gave in to our nagging and flew it.No surprises at all, it flew beautifully just as they all do, and within the first couple of minutes he was trying the usual 3D manoeuvres.

Mark mentioned to me that he’s noted my comments about his Evil Pigeon in last months’ Patch News; I said he should be charged with failure to take due care & attention of a raffle prize. Well he has now converted it back to its original Easy Pigeon form but says it’s so boring to fly now that he’s going to sell it! Anyone want to buy a very tame 3 channel electric glider?

We’ve recently been joined by a young French guy, Nicolas Humeau. He is currently living and working in England and is already a competent modeller and flier so he sought us out. Nic has flown with us a few times now and has been reading the BMFA Handbook so is looking forward to taking his ‘A’ cert very soon. Fortunately his English is perfect; I don’t think he’d get much luck trying to get any of us to speak French! His joining PAM must have halved the average age of the membership so he’s a very welcome addition indeed.

Gentleman Jim Hobday recently got tempted by an electric glider at Sussex Model Centre. It’s an Art-Tech ASK-21 which is fully moulded in EPO foam with carbon spars in the 2 metre span wings. So far it’s only had a couple of flights but it seems to be pretty good although it will tip stall if the speed drops too much. I think with a bit of effort the tip stall can be tamed, but probably it’s mostly a question of getting used to the characteristic rather than being afraid of it.Like the full-size ASK-21 the model is fully aerobatic and should be a lot of fun to fly. With his Pulse, Wildcat, Splot, and now the ASK-21, Jim has quite an airforce!

The popularity of 3D models is growing all the time and Tony Neal is now flying a 3D Hummer.Unsurprisingly it’s another one from HobbyKing and it’s an EPP 1000mm span profile model that weighs under 500gms, so it only needs a small amount of power to do the 3D manoeuvres we have come to know as ‘normal’! The model comes as a kit only, with none of the electronics included so Tony had to add his own motor, esc, and 4 servos, as well as the usual receiver and suitable size battery. As it’s so light it only needs 2212 1000kv motor and a 3 cell 1000/1300 lipo pack, the same as many of us are already using in the little Mustangs, ME109s, Mini Spirit gliders, and in my case the EDF Gripen, and my new Stearman.The profile fuselage is stiffened with some full length foam side cheeks that prevent the flexing seen on other versions of the model. Tony is new to this 3D lark and is still getting to grips with it but from what I’ve seen so far he’s doing very well and the model is obviously very capable, so if you fancy trying 3D flying with something that is cheap and close to unbreakable get yourself a Hummer.

A very similar model that made its PAM debut in September is Steve 1066 Hastings’ Gee Bee. Again, it’s from HobbyKing, it’s a 1000mm spam EPP 3D profile machine, comes as a kit only, and it only needs low power. It’s slightly heavier than the Hummer and the website says it needs a 2217 motor and 1200/1500 3 cell pack.To me this one really does look like a packing case! The wing is almost just a slab of foam and the fuselage isn’t much more stylish, but it flies remarkably well so who am I to knock it?At least 1066 tried not to make the model look any uglier than it already did!

Two new warbirds graced the patch this month, an unusual Skyraider from Smiffy, and a lovely Spit from Mower Man Ron (BTW, I must just say a massive ‘Thanks Ron’ on behalf of all members, we really appreciate your mowing efforts even if we don’t mention it much).

I’m not actually sure if the Douglas Skyraider qualifies as a warbird, but it first flew in March 1945 so that’s near enough for me.Andy Smiths Skyraider is a Starmax model and is 1600mm (63”) span, quite large for a model made from EPO foam. It’s very well equipped with E-Flite electric twist & turn retracts, a steerable retracting tail wheel, flaps, and huge scale airbrakes on the fuselage sides.The motor is an NTM Prop Driver 50-50 580kv swinging a 14 x 8 wooden prop. The motor is linked to a Turnigy 80A HV esc and a 4400mAh 6 cell lipo. Smiffy has added some scale cockpit detail and a Freewing V1 sound system.It flies beautifully and the sound system sounds great on low passes. Smiffy’s first landing wasn’t good but the model survived and further landings were perfect. I took some video snips which I’ve have edited together, unfortunately the only landing I recorded was the first one! You can watch it here: Skyraider video

Ron’s Spitfire is the Kyosho I/C one which he has converted to electric. At 1440mm (57”) span the model is 1/8^th scale and the weight with an I/C engine is around 2.5Kg, I don’t suppose Ron’s electrified version is very different.The motor Ron used is a Turnigy G60 500kv with a HobbyKing 80A esc and is powered by a 5 cell Zippy Compact 4000mAh battery. This set up provides loads of power and most of the flight can be done on around half throttle.The model has electric retracts and split flaps as standard and Ron has added a MrRCSound V4.1 sound system with a TT-25 Transducer. The transducer takes the place of a speaker and is much lighter, the whole system only weighs around 180gm. As well as the Merlin engine sound the system also produces the sound of the Spits machine guns!Kyosho actually produce an electric version of this model but Ron bought his before he realised the sensible way to go!

Another I/C to electric conversion we saw this month was Mike Smiths’ venerable Cougar 2000. I’m not sure how old the plane is but Mike seems to have been flying it for a long time. He’s taken the plunge and converted it to electric, using a Turnigy Aerodrive SK3-3548 840kv motor and an 11 x 8 prop which gives the model 170 watts per pound. The battery is a Turnigy 4s 3300mAh pack.It certainly flies well and has loads of power, more than the I/C motor did for sure. It looks as if it would have been a fairly straight forward conversion although Mike is going to try to make the battery pack removable without needing to remove the wing every time.

Bob Hill has built a Splot…except that he hasn’t. He has built a Splot fuselage but has fitted the cut down wings and tail from a defunct Seagull Decathlon and calls it a Splob.Some unkind chap (and for once it wasn’t me) said he didn’t need the P, I’m sure I don’t know what they meant! Bob has fitted a Turnigy Prop Drive 35-48 1100kv motor and uses a 3 cell lipo but had a bit of trouble getting the CG in the right place (that’s what you get for not using the correct wings and tail!) and had to add some nose weight.But other than that it’s fine and flies just like a ….well just like a Splot.

Dan Bennett (Desperate Dan) surprised us after the last club night by flying a Wot 4 Foam-e in total darkness. He’s fitted it out with strips of red, green and white LED lights that he connects to the balance plug on his usual 3 cell lipo. He found it was difficult to land without being able to see the ground so Dan has also fitted a really bright light under the fuselage that he switches on just to light the ground when he lands.He seemed to be flying it without too much trouble and he let me have a couple of flights with it as well. I must say I found it easier than I expected and didn’t have any orientation troubles at all. He tried to get 1066 to have a go as well but Hesitant Hastings was just too chicken!

Finally, if you wonder what some of your fellow members get up to in their ‘private’ lives watch this: Oh dear!

In a famous SR-71 Blackbird story, Los Angeles Centre reported receiving a request for clearance to FL 600 (60,000ft). The incredulous controller, with some disdain in his voice, asked, “How do you plan to get up to 60,000 feet? The pilot responded, “We don’t plan to go up to it, we plan to come down to it…” He was cleared…

Colin Cowplain