Patch News – March 2014

At last! We’ve had some decent flying weather in March, let’s hope April follows suit. It’s been variable and some days have been cold and windy but others have been perfect. Sadly the mowing problem hasn’t been solved yet but I’m sure it will soon be sorted.
I’ll start off this month with my latest toy, a little Saab JAS39 Gripen from HobbyKing. I was ordering a few bits & pieces and got tempted…

It’s about £48 for the plane already fitted with a 50mm fan, the motor, 2 servos, and speed controller, so all that’s required is a receiver, battery, and a little glue. The recommended battery is a 3 cell 800mAh lipo so I ordered a couple whilst hoping the 3 cell 1000’s I use in the Mustang would fit. Flight times are only around 3 minutes on the 800’s so I was happy to find I could indeed fit the 1000’s in which extends the flight times to around 4 minutes.

Before I flew it I read lots of reviews etc online and (as always) found both good and bad comments, but mostly bad. The instructions state the ailerons need about 7 or 8mm of reflex, I think some people must either ignore instructions or just think they know better! I set the reflex and C of G where the instructions said and its first flight went with no problems at all. I had to add a little lead to the tail to achieve the correct C of G, even with the receiver and battery as far back as possible and have since added a little more but apart from that I’ve altered nothing. Some comments said “keep the speed up on landing”, I’ve no idea why, it comes floating it at a crawl and has no vices at all. I’ve had around 25 flights now and have only had one problem; on one flight there was suddenly an odd noise from the fan, I thought it had thrown a blade. I got it down ok and found it had lost all 5 blades! As supplied the motor wires are held in a groove in the top of the duct by a piece of fibreglass tape. The tape had come off and got eaten by the fan!

I was unable to find a replacement 5 blade fan but Giant Shark had a 6 blade fan and housing for less than £3 so I ordered a couple of those. I kept the original housing and, with slight modification, fitted just the new fan. It flies just the same and maybe has a touch more power than before. So I’m very happy with it, it looks great both on the ground and in the air, flies well, and was cheap, perfect!
 
As I mentioned last month several members are now flying the HK Sportjets, they’re excellent fliers and a lot of fun. We’ve been fooling around with formation flying which has proved a bit hit & miss, mostly miss, but Gentleman Jim managed this great shot when we all briefly got it together recently.

 
On the subject of formation flying, John Warren and Bob Hill decided it would be nice to fly John’s Albatross and Bob’s SE5A together. ‘Together’ turned out to mean both were somewhere in the south of England but with a bit of luck you might spot both planes ‘together’ in this months’ video. You’ll find the link towards the end of this Patch News.

John might have been rubbish at formation flying with Bob’s SE5A but he got pretty close during an attack on Cyano’s new Crack Yak!

 
March saw the return to flying of John McEvoy, a welcome return. John chose a very windy day to have his first flight for about eighteen months but had no problems at all. His Spacewalker has one of those quaint old fashioned dirty noisy smelling things up front but flies (and sounds) a treat. Now get and take your ‘A’ test John!


 
Tony Neal also turned up with a couple of I/C models one day, his P51 Mustang and his PC9. The PC9 had an ‘aborted’ take-off, followed by an ‘interesting’ take-off, but once it was up and trimmed all was well. Both take-offs are in the video at the end of this Patch News.


Tony also flew the Fast Forward that was one the club raffle prizes. It flies well but as you’d expect its definitely not a stooge around model, it keeps the adrenaline flowing!

 
Steve 1066 Hastings has been dripping on that he’s never featured in Patch News so I’ll put that right. He seems to have found a cheap source of second hand models, cast offs from Cyano Steve. 1066 is into the same 3D flying as Cyano so is happy to take any models that Cyano no longer requires.

He is pictured clutching an Extra 330S, his latest purchase, and he’s getting it set up to his liking. In the other photo 1066 is working on the 330s and in the background is his 330SC. The SC version is made from EPP foam and as you can see has a slab-sided, almost profile like fuselage which helps give it an amazing knife-edge performance. If you see Steve flying knife-edge right across the field at about 5 feet altitude it’s probably the EPP one, just superb!

 
A new model appeared early in March, another from John Warren. It’s an EPO E-Flite Hawker Sea Fury, and although it’s just 845mm (33”) span it comes complete with retracts. I test flew it and it flew beautifully although the retracts with tiny wheels just weren’t up to our rather rugged patch.

Sadly the model was perhaps a step too far for John, or rather a flight too far away, as John soon discovered that small models disappear rapidly and orientation becomes a problem.

The damage from the resulting crash was fairly extensive but I’m sure the repairs aren’t beyond John’s capabilities so hopefully the model will fly again. From the little flying I did with it I would definitely recommend the E-Flite Sea Fury but it would probably be best to stick to hand launching and belly landing.
 
Meanwhile, alongside his larger models, Cyano Steve has been flying a Twisted Hobbys Crack Yak 55. It’s a 32” EPP model that looks as if it should only fly indoors but Steve assures me it’s an outdoor model. Twisted Hobbys (no that IS how they spell it) actually do the Crack Yak, and several others, in Standard, Lite, and Supa Lite versions.

I assume Steve’s is the Standard version as it flies outdoors although it’s certainly not up to windy conditions on a hilltop field!  Steve has a fair size garden so he can fly the Crack Yak there when he doesn’t have time to drive to the field. However the garden is surrounded by some fairly large trees…
 
We had a ‘first’ at the field in March…not only did Nick Squire fly his first electric model, it was also his first on 2.4 GHz, and his first foamie! It’s yet another of the EPP P51 Mustangs but it’s not a new model at all, Nick bought the model and radio from Hapless Harper. This means it’s been put together well and flies excellently.  The photo was taken after Nick’s first flight with it and the big smile shows he was happy with both electric power and 2.4gig.


 
Last Sunday saw Mark Agate flying his Skyfun. The model has flown a lot and has had several different motors and speed controllers. Mark has been experimenting with reverse thrust by using an esc intended for use in an R/C car. The results have certainly been ‘different’ but Mark has found that slowing the Skyfun to almost zero means that gravity takes over and it heads vertically down albeit at a slow speed. Lack of air over the control surfaces, which are only elevons in this case, means there is little control to do anything except fall.  Mark uses a discus launch to get it airborne without making contact with the prop and the technique usually works well. However the first attempt on Sunday went a little awry and the ground bit the model. I’m think there was probably a little unseen damage as although it got away safely on the second attempt it hadn’t been flying long when the canopy became detached. Losing the canopy isn’t usually a major issue on a model but it obviously upset the aerodynamics of the Skyfun as it proved unflyable. Mark was kind enough to send me a photo of the resulting damage and says the model will now be retired.

For a video of some of the planes I’ve mentioned see here: March 2014 Video  This month Ron’s grandson Eddy leads off with an excellent take-off, which is then followed by various aircraft on various days and in various weather conditions,  listen to the wind noise in some of the shots! It ends with Nigel baker showing us how to land an Acro-Wot…
Thanks are due to Richard King as he contributed some of the video this month.  Richard’s  own flying is improving rapidly and he has now done several excellent landings under the guidance of mentor Mark. The landing of his model in the video was NOT done by Richard, that was Mark trying to show how close he could fly to the camera…!
 
No Patch News is complete without a mention of Smiffy. We all know his mantra is More; more equipment, more expensive, more complicated, in fact more anything! When he turned up recently part of his field equipment was a large flight box labelled on each end with ‘4S 4000’.

I queried why and he explained it’s so he knows what batteries are in the box. I foolishly asked if he changed the labels when he uses different batteries, but no, Smiffy has a different flight box (with labels) for every different battery pack he uses!
 
What’s the difference between a female flight attendant and a jet engine? At the end of a flight the jet engine stops whining!
Colin Cowplain