Well I’m sitting here watching the rain bucketing down yet again so I thought I might as well tell you what’s been happening at the patch recently. Things have been a bit quiet since my report in March, the long spell of almost perfect weather turned into wet & wind for much of the time but we have still managed to fly a fair bit and several new models have appeared.

When my Hobby King Sportjet first flew it was disappointingly slow. I had fitted the supplied undercarriage and was using 4 LiFe cells (A123′s). The model was designed for a 4s lipo and I thought the slightly lower voltage of the LiFe cells wouldn’t make a huge difference…wrong!  Steve Montague lent me a 4 cell lipo to try and the power difference was amazing, so I added a fifth cell to my A123 packs and hacked the existing battery box around to make it fit. It took off from the patch ok but didn’t look like a jet should with wheels hanging down, plus I kept having to straighten out the flimsy u/c legs, so they had to go.  The C of G was where it was supposed to be but it needed up trim and inverted flight needed a lot of down elevator so I started adding lead to the tail. Eventually I arrived at a point where inverted only needs a sensible amount of down. I have been tweaking rates and expo to get it to my liking and now it flies really well.  Flat out speed is now almost identical to Wonky’s Alpha Jet so there have been quite a lot of fast ‘formation’ low passes. Sooner or later there will be a bang followed by an awful lot of polystyrene beads blowing away downwind, watched by two dejected ex jet pilots!

Staying on EDF’s for a moment, Ron Vears, spurred on by the success of his Alpha Jet, splashed out on an FMS Dassault Rafale from Kings Lynn models. It started off rather like my Sportjet, with wheels and underpowered. It has a 64mm fan (both the Sportjet and the Alpha are 70mm) and is supplied with a 3 cell lipo. It wouldn’t get off the patch so Ron removed the u/c and hand launched instead. It flew but was still underpowered so 4 cells were shoe-horned in and it now flies very well. It looks great in the air and Ron is building up confidence to fly lower and faster!

Meanwhile Jim Hobday has got his Black Horse T-28 Trojan finished. Although the model is sold as I/C or Electric there is no battery access hatch. Not wanting to remove the wings after every flight Jim has made the cockpit detachable and now puts the battery in from the top, surely a mod that Black Horse should do if they are selling it as electric compatible? Anyway it works well and Jim has made a very nice job of it. The test flight proved rather dramatic as the C of G was very rearward, despite being where the instructions stated. After the addition of some nose weight it flew very nicely and Jim just needs some decent weather to get used to flying it.

Multiple Models Montague decided that he needed even more and bought an Eflight Texan on eBay at a bargain price. He confessed that by the time he had bought some expensive retracts along with a UBEC, ESC, more servos etc it was rather an expensive bargain!  The finished model looks great and flies even better, it’s one of those models that just feels right, lovely and smooth but totally aerobatic and scale like. It does however have the Harvard/Texan tendency to drop a wing if the airspeed drops too much. I tested the stall on the first flight and it dropped into a full spin, luckily I had enough height to recover safely.  Once the flaps are lowered it comes in to land beautifully, but it definitely needs to be treated with respect.  Steve was also tempted by a Seagull Edge but due to several holidays in Florida he has only been able to fly it once. It flew fine and when he eventually returns I think he will really enjoy it.

Finally a new I/C model! Viv Burgess has put together one of the new Seagull Giant Scale PT-19′s. It is 80″ span, powered by a 120 four stroke, and weighs in at over 11lbs. Viv test flew it and it took off beautifully and flew in a very scale like manner. After enjoying it for a few minutes he let me have a go (big mistake!) and I did a few circuits and gentle aerobatics. Unfortunately the motor cut on the landing approach over over the valley and I couldn’t make it back to the field. Luckily the damage was pretty minor, the wing pulled off but only the centre section mounting was damaged and Viv says it has gone back together easily…phew!  I’m afraid I forgot to take any photos of it but will do so next time.

All we need now is for some decent weather to fly all these new models again, roll on summer. 

So, a blonde fighter pilot was flying in a two ship one day. She was flying her heading just fine, when all of a sudden her wingman called, “We have Migs coming in at 6 o’clock!” She quickly took a look at her watch and said, “It’s okay! It’s only 5:30″!

Chairman Mick’s RC Lander Hawker Hunter made it’s first appearance last weekend, and very nice it looked too. Mick has removed the retracting undercarriage having decided hand launching and belly landing would be better on our field. This has saved some weight and as it has a 6 cell pack powering a 70mm fan we were all confident it would go well. It climbed away beautifully from Steve 1066′s launch and after a few clicks of trim it was flying very nicely. I flew it for a few minutes and did some basic aerobatics and all seemed good so I handed the tx over to Mick. He flew around gently for a couple of minutes before the always expected ‘Harper Holocaust’ occurred…the motor suddenly quit! I got it down with just a slightly squashed nosecone, but the motor was obviously not well. As yet Mick doesn’t know what happened to it but has bought a HET Typhoon replacement so the Hunter should be flying again very soon.

Andy Smith brought along a very sleek looking Century Max Thrust Vortex to join the hairdryer set. Unfortunately it failed to get away from my hand launch (it wasn’t my best but it wasn’t that bad, honest!) and sustained a bit of damage but Andy says it will return very soon. To continue his bad luck his Parkzone Trojan had a slight midair touch with Steve’s fun-fly and lost half it’s tailplane. Andy got it down ok so repairs should be swift.

Bob's Electric Pilatus PC9

Bob Hill has converted the ex PAM raffle prize Pilatus PC9 to electric power and it has shown the usual excellent Seagull flying qualities. The electric conversion is a total success and Bob is getting used to flying characteristics before exploring the aerobatic capabilities.

Phil's Phase 3 F16 (Before)

Phil's Phase 3 F16 (After)

Spurred on by the success of his Alpha Jet Phil Wiltshire bought a Phase 3 F16. It has a 64mm fan running on a 3s lipo and uses an all moving tailplane rather than the usual aileron and elevator set-up. The first and second flights went without incident and by the third one Phil was getting confident and gradually getting the rates and expo to his liking. But there was a sudden motor stop after only a couple of minutes, and Phil managed a safe deadstick landing. Investigations found nothing wrong and we could only think that the esc had got too hot and cut the motor so Phil tried again. The same thing happened again, a sudden motor cut after a couple of minutes but unfortunately this time Phil was heading rapidly towards the deck at the time and ‘abrupt contact’ occurred! Phil was unsure if he lost the radio at the same time as the motor or not, it all happened too quickly. Unfortunately it was a write-off (well it was after Phil ripped all the gear out of it!). On a brighter note he passed his A cert last week, well done Phil!

Ians Typhoon

The long awaited Typhoon that Ian Hewlett has built from Brian Taylor plans flew on Monday for the first time. Ian has made a lovely job of the model that features flaps and retracts and it powered by an OS120 pumper. The first flight went well with no problems apart from some minor problems with the u/c doors and he went away a happy man promising to sort the doors for next time.

Nick's Fan Trainer

Nick Sivertsen tested out his new Fan Trainer on Tuesday. It uses a 3 bladed Cox propeller in a shroud rather than a multi-bladed fan but it seemed to produce plenty of thrust on 4 cells. Nick struggled a bit with very sensitive ailerons but otherwise it was great. Nick got it down safely and will cut down the aileron movement before the next flight.

Andy P.

Untitled from Steve Hastings on Vimeo.

Untitled from Steve Hastings on Vimeo.

Lots of flying this week, it was a bit misty first thing most mornings but it burned off quickly and Thursday in particular was glorious.
 
The EDF fad continues apace and at various times over the past two weeks we have seen a Grumman Cougar, two DH Vampires, two Dassault Alpha Jets, a Mig 15, and my Twister, all flying very well. Steve Montague’s 4 cell Lander Cougar is very smooth to fly and pretty fast, possibly faster than Phil Wiltshire’s smaller 3 cell Art-Tech Alpha Jet, we need to fly them both together to find out.  Tony Neal’s Vampire flew on Sunday, it’s the Durafly one from HobbyKing, as is Steve Montague’s. Steve has tested the durability several times and it keeps coming back from the dead! Tony has since had a problem with his, whilst bench testing it he discovered just how much suck the fan has…the FOD it ingested destroyed the fan and motor!  Ron Vears’ J Power Alpha Jet had it’s first three flights today, all totally successful, it went very well with it’s 70mm fan and 4 cell 2200 pack. Ron is sensibly taking it gently with his first EDF but by the third flight he was confident enough to fly it from hand launch to landing (on the patch) with no help.  Steve’s Mig 15 flew well but proved to be very frail. It was (note past tense!) made from EPS rather than the much stronger EPO which tends to deform on impact but can be easily reformed with hot air/water/steam and re-glued with hot melt.  The next new EDF to take flight should be Mick Harper’s Hawker Hunter. It’s a Lander one and Mick will be using 6 cells in it. Judging by the 4 cell Lander Cougar it should go very well indeed.
 
New member Des Evans brought along his Hawk Sky foam electric ‘glider’ on Wednesday. Des is in the very early stages of learning to fly and caused much amusement with his valiant attempts! He made progress though and is getting there slowly, although unfortunately the model decided to run for cover in the valley of death on it’s second flight and suffered minor nasal damage. No, it wasn’t me teaching him at the time!
 
It was good to see Geoff Berry flying again in the week, although he confused us all as we were leaving the field, he was seen with an assortment of cloths and a spray bottle cleaning a load of oily gunge off the model… weird.  Oddly, when John McEvoy came up a couple of times this week he seemed to suffer from the same problem…!  Our Chairman turned up at the patch today, had several flights with his Yak, and went home without breaking anything again…now this is starting to get boring Mick   ;-)

Andy P.
 

Thought you’d like to see some pics I took this morning of Steve Montague’s Vampire. It’s the HobbyKing one, Tony Neal also has one on order.  It was very windy this morning but the plane handled it with no problems. It has electric retracts and amazed us all by taking off from the patch even though the grass is a bit long as the moment, though of course the strong wind was a big help with lift-off. It might struggle in light winds but will probably be ok in the summer when the grass is shorter anyway. Had 3 flights, all about 5 mins long on it’s 4 cell packs. All landings were ‘wheels down’ and apart from minor movement of the nose leg mounting on the 3rd flight the retracts worked well. It even sounded very nice with a Vampire jet ‘whine’, not loud but nicely realistic.

On the EDF front Phil Wiltshire’s Alpha Jet also successfully flew on Sunday. It is a 3 cell model with no landing gear so hand launch/belly land, produced by Art Tech. It flew very well and Phil and I managed a bit of ‘formation’ flying with the 2 EDFs, great fun. I forgot to take any pics of Phil’s model but I have attached one of it from the SMC site.

Hope to fly again tomorrow, the winds should be lower… 

Cheers
Andy

Not sure if Andy Palmer was after another award.
Here are a few pics of sunday, Andy said it was a quiet morning… wonder why ?