Patch News – September 2016 Part One

Ok, this is going to be shorter than usual as I’m away on holiday before the end of the month. All being well you’ll be able to read this on 1^st October while I am in Mexico. This was the sunset the other night, taken from the hotel reception.

I’ll probably write a September Part Two Patch News when I’m home which cover the unveiling of the 2016 Club Build models and their subsequent flying (and probably some crashing!). I hope some of you will have taken photos and video of the flying for me to use. I’ll fly own model, the Euro Fun-Fighter, as soon as possible in October. Meanwhile, here’s a photo of it before judging at club and subsequent flying.

September saw some good flying weather and we had some great turnouts on Sunday mornings.Lots happened early in the month so I have plenty to write about, but little time to write it! In this month’s video I’ll include the footage from August that I had mislaid. It includes the maiden flight of Modelling Clay’s Acro Wot.

First up this month is the latest formation team to form in the club, the Flock of Seagulls.The team consists of Basher Bob and Woody flying their Seagull Swifts trainers.As you can see they have been flying a fairly loose formation, but then with Basher’s reputation for mid-airs who can blame Woody for keeping his distance!

At long last Captain Slow has got his Durafly Auto-G autogyro finished and he flew it earlier this month.It was very much an unknown entity but as Captain Slow flies both fixed wing and helis we figured he should be ok with something that’s a mixture of the two. He spun up the main rotor, then opened the throttle, and the gyrocopter ran gently into the breeze and took off perfectly. If I remember correctly it needed a lot of down elevator trim but then appeared to be flying very nicely, although Captain Slow said it was dropping a lot in the turns. He was having trouble with orientation and after a couple of minutes it came down close to the lower track. Fortunately there was little damage and the required spares were soon ordered from the HobbyKing European warehouse.Captain Slow had a few ideas, such as moving the C of G forward a little for the next time out. He muttered something about possibly losing too much head speed in the turns but it was largely gobbledegook to my simple fixed wing brain! He tried again a couple of weeks later but with similar results, although he is gradually finding the problems and making adjustments. Both flights can be seen in this month’s video at the end of this Patch News.

Terribull (I’m pleased to report that he hates his nickname, excellent!) has now completed his scaled up version of his Weekender that I featured last month. He’s called it Weekender Plus and unlike the smaller one it’s four channel so it has no dihedral and has ailerons as well as rudder.Some of you will have seen it at a recent club meeting when Terribull brought it along and gave a short talk about it.It flies very well, a fairly typical club Sunday flier type; personally I think Terribull should add an undercarriage, that would make it perfect.

The long awaited Sea Vixen from Norwegian Nick has flown at last. I featured the unfinished ducted fan model way back in the April 2013 Patch News. Nick built it from the Chris Golds’ plan and it weighs just 623grams ready to go. It’s pushed along by a couple of 32mm ducted fans supplied by ex-PAM member Derek Knight who is the force behind KP Aero Models based in Rowlands Castle. The fans are linked to a couple of 10A speed controllers and the maximum current is 18A giving around 200W. Nick used a bungee launch and the model shot away beautifully, needing a little down trim to counteract a slightly rearward C of G. It was flown with a 3 cell 770mAH battery but next time Nick will use a 1000mAH which will move the balance point a little further forward as well as give a longer flight time. Some of the first flight can be seen in this month’s video but please bear in mind it’s not easy to video a small fast moving Sea Vixen.

Another new model that flew in September was Basher Bob’s beautiful DH82a Tiger Moth. Basher has spent the last eight models building the 1400mm span biplane from the HobbyKing laser cut kit and he reports that the kit was mostly pretty good although he did make a few changes along the way. Surprisingly the kit doesn’t include a full-size plan, just a series of exploded diagrams, but because the parts are all laser cut it simply clicks together and as long as it’s done on a nice flat building board the lack of a plan isn’t a problem. Basher chose to finish the model in the colour scheme of the full-size Tiger that has visited the field a couple of times and, as you can see, he’s made a lovely job of it.I neglected to note the details of the power set-up etc. but I remember that it uses a 4 cell lipo and the model weighs around 6lbs. I had the pleasure of doing the test flight and am happy to report that it went without a hitch, it takes off and lands very nicely and in between flies just like a Tiger should, lovely low passes and gentle aerobatics being the order of the day. Basher has now had a couple of flights with it but is still getting used to having to fly it in under power for the landing so the one on the video isn’t perfect but no doubt he’ll soon get it sorted.

The final new model to feature this month (well in Part One anyway) is another from Terribull. It’s a Fizza, built from a Nigel Hawes plan. It’s a four channel model that has a wingspan of 32” and it only weighs around 14ozs. It’s a fairly simple pylon race style model with a solid flat-plate sheet wing and Terribull has made an excellent job of the build and finishing.I was asked to do the first flight and it flew very well, just a bit of aileron trim needed to get it flying straight and level. Having trimmed it out I did a few basic aerobatics with no problems and then offered the transmitter to Terribull so he could complete the flight. He declined and said I could complete the flight. Big mistake! I carried on enjoying flying the model when suddenly, bang, a mid-air with Chris P Bacon’s Cougar 2000! Lots of pieces fluttered down, mostly from the Cougar, but the wing must have been knocked round on the Fizza and I couldn’t stop it going in. Chris P was a bit more fortunate and manged a controlled landing although there was quite a lot of damage to the Cougar. The Fizza got away fairly lightly but the prop adaptor was bent in the crash and there was a bit of a lump missing from the wing leading edge that obviously occurred in the collision. It was a great shame but these things do happen occasionally. Anyway, Terribull has now repaired the wing and fitted a new prop adaptor and it’s flying well again. I think Chris P’s Cougar will take a little longer to repair, maybe it will never happen. There was just one strange thing about this episode…Basher Bob was stood in the pits watching!

Gorgeous Gary sent me a photo of an interesting item he spotted in Nesbits auction room in Southsea. It’s a Martin Baker ejector seat from a DH Vampire that’s been chromed and had buttoned upholstery fitted presumably to make a comfortable talking point in your living room. Sorry about the reflections.Personally I’d have preferred it in its original condition. Anyway, it’s valued at £4000-£6000 if you fancy it, but the auction was on 7^th September so you’ve probably missed your chance.

I’m sure most of you will know that a group of us paid a visit to Vulcan XM655 at Wellesbourne early in September. It was a good day and when I was looking at my video later I couldn’t help noticing the look of Rusty G (Graham Swan) sat in the crew area immediately behind the cockpit. This still is taken from the video:I couldn’t help thinking he reminded me of someone… Rusty said it was because his jacket was Red and he was Dwarfed by the size of Vulcan! Is it just me or should he now be called Kryten?! Let me know what you think.

Please watch the video full screen, it’s so much better with small models flying around. If the video above won’t play for you CLICK HERE

That’s all for now, check for Part Two later in the month.

Every time I go through airport security and am forced to remove my shoes, I’m grateful Richard Reid is not known as the Underwear Bomber.

Colin Cowplain.