Don’t count on experience to carry you through. I have a fair amount but made an embarrassing mistake at the last meet. Af- ter putting up a few test flights the day be- fore I’d noticed the fuel bottle in the pit box was low. “I’ll take care of that when I get home”. Hah. The next morning I thought of filling the fuel bottle, but we had to get everything out to run the contest. I’ll use the excuse that I was running the contest and got a bit distracted.
Ringmasters rule. Craig Campbell dug to the bottom of the barrel and pulled out an old Ring (above) at Brodak’s. It didn't stand a chance against a Combat wing, but it got him through another round. At the 2012 Nats not only was the flying wild (below), the weather was too. Fairly heavy gust winds prevailed, with a constant threat of thunderstorms. The changeable cloud cover made following the planes and seeing cuts difficult.
By luck I had the first match, which helps because two of us usually end up trading Circle Marshal duties. I’ll get the fuel before my next match. Match two, the second syringe goes slurp. Fortunately my borrowed pit crew had brought his pit box and I could beg a syringe of fuel. All I need- ed since we had a midair two minutes in. After running around I completely forgot the fuel, but I did get right out to the circle for the next match. Go to fuel up and nada. So I had to trot across the field and refill the stupid bottle. The moral of the story: fix easy things immediately. They never fix themselves. F2D news: The 2013 Team Trials will be held the weekend before Combat at the US Nationals—July 13–14, with a rain date of July 15. Support the F2D team. The best way is to enter the Team Trials. We need an entry of at least 38 flyers in order to qualify for some AMA support. There were 37 en- tries in 2009, and I believe 31 or 32 in 2011. The entry fee is $125, $25 for the program, and $100 for the Team Trials. The entry deadline is July 3. Contact Colleen Pierce at AMA, phone 765-287-1256, ext. 252 or e- mail
cpierce@modelaircraft.org. It may not be a tax deductable charitable contribution, believe anyone flying F2D doesn’t need charity, they need counseling. It will add to your fun flying Combat though. That brings up another point. Even if you can’t get to many contests, or there are few fliers close by, consider joining the nearest club. It will help keep you in touch with fliers all around. Most clubs are happy to add you to their mailing list as an associate member. The newsletters are fun to read. Be sure to sign up on some of the online sites that get into Combat.
Flyinglines.org has been around for years and covers the Northwest, a hotbed of Combat activity.
Yahoo Groups has several Combat orient- ed message boards. The oldest is probably combat-l, started around 1990 by my friend Iskandar Taib when he was still in the US at the University of Indiana. He’s now back in Malaysia. Like all internet sites, the cross posts can get pretty caustic at times, but ig- nore that, or put in a damper comment if needed. Another site is
clcombat.info hosted by Preston Briggs. Also take a look at stunt
hangar.com. It features Stunt, but has sepa- rate message boards for all the control line events. Last but not least is the Miniature Aircraft Combat Association (MACA) at
www.maca.hobby-site.com:3535 hosted by James McKinney.
FLYING MODELS 33
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68