C/LCombat
by phil cartier You can reach Phil Cartierat 34 Sweet Arrow Dr, Hummelstown, Pennsylvania 17036, or via e-mail at
philcartier@earthlink.net
PHOTOGRAPHY: PHIL CARTIER
This is a real combat plane. Phil was in San Diego over Labor Day weekend and took a tour of the Air Museum. The McDonnell-Douglas F-4 Phantom IIwas the
C
ombat has changed quite a bit the last 10–12 years. AMA Fast Com- bat has pretty much disappeared, following AMA Slow which died
about 20 years ago. While it is a lot of fun to fly a 120 mph Combat model, the lack of new engines makes it hard for anyone new to get into the event. Combat flyers never really give up so the events have changed. F2D Combat, the international class used
for the World Championships, has more or less taken the place of AMA Fast. An up-and coming knock-off that is finally getting some traction uses the AMA Fast rules with just one F2D legal plane. This event has the ad- vantage of using the very high performance F2D planes with the simplicity of the AMA rules. Actually, various groups have been running 15 Fast, as it has come to be known, for quite a few years, since before the FAI re- quired mufflers and the 4mm venturi. The older .15s (Nelson, Rossi, even Fox)
could run very fast on high nitro and 52-foot lines. The performance was even more berserk than the .36 planes with lap times running 2 seconds or less. Typical modern F2D equipment turns lap times around 2.4 seconds, very comparable to the .36 powered planes. With the tighter turns and smaller circle the maneuver angles and performance are nearly identical. Chris Gay, Combat Event director at the Nationals last year, substituted F2D Fast, running it after the F2D event. It was well- attended and a lot of fun. The changes Chris made to the Nats schedule tripled the entry, making the Nats one of the best attended
34
front line fighter bomber in Vietnam and remained in service through the 1991 Gulf War where it was used against radar installations and for reconnaissance.
contests of the year again. Of course, run- ning a full slate of events helped a lot. Chris is planning a slightly different schedule for 2012 to try and get more F2D entries. Several other contests have since added
F2D Fast as a second event, running the Fast event on Friday and the F2D event on Saturday and Sunday. It makes an attrac- tive addition that has a good chance of draw- ing some extra entries. Since most of these events are filled in by out-of-town pilots fly- ing in the extra day is a cheap way to get more flights in.
The Stratmoor club of Detroit, MI hosted
the 2011 Team Trials for the 2012 World Champs. There were 24 entries, minus a few of the usual names. The US team for 2012 is:
Allen Deveuve Andrew Nadien Cary Minors
Alternates: Josh Ellison
Rich Lopez, Lou Scavone Ed Bryzs, Andy Mears Bob Mears
Junior: Rylan Rich }
8-1 7-1 6-2 6-3
4-3
Don Williams launches an F2D ship for Richard Stubblefield in the F2D Fast event. It was a lot of fun with Don Cranfill going 6-0.
FEBRUARY 2012
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