Patch News – September 2015

This will be rather an odd edition of Patch News as I’m off on holiday (yeah yeah, I know…again!), so it won’t include the last week of September. My aim is to complete this before I leave and, wi-fi permitting, to publish it on the website on the first of October. Hopefully others will make notes and take photos of what I miss which will mean I’ll have plenty to write about in October.

The much hoped for Indian summer hasn’t really materialised and we have had some truly awful weather. But there have also been some good days and we’ve managed to fly quite a lot, both midweek and on Sunday mornings.

I’ll start will an update on my Cri-Cri. I have moved the main wheels forward even further and added more up thrust to the motors, both in an attempt to cure it’s reluctance to take-off. It seems to have worked although the wheels are probably a bit too far forward now as it has a tendency to sit on its tail rather than the nose wheel! But it manages to get off every time which was the aim. I have added a rudder as, having given up on the supplied nose wheel steering, I couldn’t steer it on the ground, and it also needs rudder to keep it on track in looping manoeuvres.Of course the tendency to sit on its tail has not been helped by the weight of the extra servo, linkage, and the rudder itself. However, it is now flying much better and it’s growing on me…slightly. JP kindly took some flying photos for me this month so you are rewarded with seeing the Cri-Cri in the air.I have since added a pilot as the huge cockpit looked ridiculous empty, especially on those low fly-bys. It’s just a profile pilot but it looks much better in the air than before. When making the pilot I decided only the best would do…JP also took a couple of photos of young Monty doing his landing practice; both Monty and dad JP are doing very well. These photos show just how accurately Monty is landing now.

Wonky Wiltshire made a welcome return to the field this month and trotted out all the usual excuses, wife, kids, work etc. but we know the truth, it’s all to do with lots of holidays, an Airstream caravan, and a new rib (that’s a rigid inflatable boat to you landlubbers).Phil has bought a Durafly EFX Racer, the same as Modelling Clay’s, but fortunately in the alternative yellow colour scheme. Like Tim’s, it flew well from the start and is a good, smooth, fairly fast sport flier. I suspect it won’t be too long before Wonky feels the need to fit it with 4 cells instead of the 3 cells it’s flying on at present.The EFX can be seen flying in THIS MONTHS VIDEO.

I featured Richard King’s F22 Raptor last month, details of which were supplied by Dougal Entendre. Dougal said it was made of Correx but I was convinced it was the Flite Test F22 which is supposed to be made from foam board. Richard (BarracKing?) kindly supplied some information on the model and it turns out that both Dougal and I were correct. It is built from the Flite Test plan but rather than use foam board BarracKing used some Correx he had left over from the Delta Challenge. That made it rather heavier than the foam board versions but it flies well.He’s added working twin rudders so should be able to do lots of strange manoeuvres once he’s got used to flying it. BarracKing was using a 1000kv motor with a 9 x 6 prop and it flew fine but needed a little more speed, so he’s now fitted a 2000kv motor and a 6 x 4 propeller. It is faster now but certainly not ballistic, I wonder if a 6 x 6 prop might be better? I’ve no idea what battery or speed controller he is using so maybe a 6 x 6 would be too much for it. Anyway, he was good enough to let me have a go with it with the original motor and I thought it handled nicely, much better than I expected really. I look forward to flying it with the new motor soon.Like Barracking, I have a sheet of Correx left over from the Delta Challenge, I could just get tempted. Good on you Richard, it’s good to see something a bit out of the ordinary, keep on experimenting, we love it! Want to see it in action? Watch THIS MONTHS VIDEO.

Jeremy Stuttard sent me a link to a weather station in Clanfield that belongs to the Hampshire Astronomical Group. It’s not one I’ve seen before and is especially useful if you want to know what the current wind speed is at Clanfield. I assume the weather station is at the same site as their telescopes on Hinton Heights, and if that’s correct it’s fairly high up on the downs and within a couple of miles of our patch so it’s likely to give a good indication of the conditions at the patch. It should be handy for all of you but will probably be especially useful to members on the Petersfield side of Butser hill. To view it CLICK HERE

You are probably all bored with reading about the many Spirits/Kinetics that are being flown in the club now but here’s a little more info for you. The Spirit motors don’t seem to last too long and aren’t available as spares from HobbyKing. But Kinetic motors are available and seem more durable, although you need to buy the Kinetic folding prop at the same time, the Spirit prop won’t fit. It’s also a good idea to buy the Kinetic motor mount, it makes it easier to fit the Kinetic motor to the Spirit and it strengthens the nose and adds some cooling holes at the same time. Dougal Entendre has tried a variety of motors and speed controllers in his Spirit, most of which haven’t lasted very long at all because they overheat so badly. However, he’s now fitted a Kinetic motor but didn’t buy the Kinetic motor mount (they cost about £2, obviously too much for Dougal!) so he has made up his own alternative nose strengthening/cooling pieces.I’ve seen neater jobs but they work well at both nose strengthening and cooling so I won’t complain too much. Dougal simply cut the pieces from very thin ply (milliply, about 0.015” I think) and glued them round each side of the nose. Cheap, simple, and effective, job done.

He also added a larger rudder in an attempt to be able to perform Hanno Screws and suchlike. If you don’t know what a Hanno Screw is you probably can’t do one!

I mentioned at the start that the weather has been pretty bad and it’s meant that even on sunny days the field has been very wet underfoot. This has produced some interesting variations of sartorial elegance! Here Captain Slow demonstrates his solution to the hot knees/wet feet problem.I probably shouldn’t say too much, my own crimes against fashion occur all too frequently!

Basher Bob has been at it again! In September, not only did he collide with Dougal Entendre, he caused another mid-air at the same time! Yet again Basher was flying his Kinetic and this time he came into contact with Dougal’s Slick. Both models suffered some damage but fortunately both were repairable. But the amazing thing was that as Bob and Dougal collided, Captain Slow and 1066 tried to see what the bang was whilst avoiding the bits, and they too collided! Fortunately the damage was minimal to both models and they landed safely with no further damage.

I included a photo of Basher Bob’s Parasail last month and this month I took one of the ‘workings’. The original design doesn’t have any elevator control, it relies instead on the speed of the motor to make it climb and descend. This obviously has limitations, especially in windy weather, so Bob has added a sliding bar mechanism to imitate the weight shift control used on full-size hang-gliders.It’s never going to be as precise as the elevator on a normal model but it certainly gives much greater control than previously and allows Bob to fly it in stronger winds than was possible before. It can be seen in action in THIS MONTHS VIDEO.

The big news of September has to be the Delta Challenge. Steve H (1066) came up with the idea of members building deltas, the only rules being that they should use a flat plate wing of a set size and shape, and that they must not be revealed to others until the club meeting on 10^th September, before being flown on 13^th September. It turned out to be a hugely popular challenge and 15 deltas were brought along to the meeting. Most were the correct size and shape but a couple were definitely undersized! A form was passed round for everyone to vote for their favourite model in various categories and the winners were:

Most creative – Dan Bennett           Best Finish – Andy Palmer            Why Did You Bother – John Warren

Most Scale – Alan Wood               Probably Won’t Fly – Dan Bennett              Most Effort – Nick Sivertsen

And the winner of the trophy, the Best Overall – Tony Neal.  Congratulations to Tony, he produced a great model.

Incidentally, the trophy was a build it yourself kit of parts cut from Correx!

So the next stage was the flying on the following Sunday. Unfortunately Dan Bennett, Keith Evans, & Ron Vears couldn’t make it but the other 12 were there and they all flew (or at least made a fair attempt!). Woody was late arriving with his Vulcan delta so missed being in the photo.The main problem seemed to be having too much reflex so some only flew a circuit before landing for adjustments but all except Stanley Knife (Viv) and John Warren flew pretty well. Stanley’s seemed to need the movements reducing and the centre of gravity moving forward but I’m sure it will be fine when sorted. John’s probably just needs trimming by someone more experienced, and then it will be ok. 1066 damaged his delta later with some over exuberant flying and has now modified it into a Mark 2 version. The big surprise for me was Woody’s Vulcan lookalike which flew very well, very steady and nice to fly. Dougal Entendre’s delta was fitted with a retractable nose wheel which worked perfectly. The plane took-off well, retracted the wheel, and flew very well before lowering the wheel again and landing back on the patch. I videoed some of the first flights and attempts, if you’d like to see it click on DELTA DAY.

On the Sunday following the first delta flying day Desperate Dan turned up to test fly his fearful looking twin motored biplane delta, remember he won the Probably Won’t Fly award. Before the attempt we were laying bets as to how far it would get before crashing, my own guess was about eight feet.Well, we were all proved wrong, it just went away from the launch beautifully and flew perfectly with no trimming required, amazing! I have decided that in honour of his remarkable achievement Desperate Dan should be renamed Top Man Dan. I have included some of Top Man’s flight and also some more video of the initial Delta Day in THIS MONTHS VIDEO. Some of the material was provided by BarracKing, thanks Richard. There will be more photos and video of the event available at a later date and will be given out on CDs to anyone that would like one.

We were pleased to be joined at the patch one Sunday by Tim Clay’s dad Shaun. As well as being Chairman of the Eastbourne and District Model Flying Club Shaun and is a very experienced modeller and flier, it was good to meet and fly with him.As Tim’s nickname on here is Modelling Clay it seems only appropriate that Shaun should be nicknamed Play Doh! We look forward to having him fly with us again in the future.

“Dad, what’s the propeller on the front of the plane for?”   “It’s a fan to keep the pilot cool son”

“I don’t think so Dad!”   “Well watch him sweat if it stops going round!”

Colin Cowplain