Mears, second; Andy Minor, third; Lou Scavone, fourth and Yaro Melnikov, from Canada, took fifth.
The Juniors ended up with Rylan Ritch in first place; Austin Minor, second; Braden Parker, third and Alexandra Nadein, fourth. For F2D Fast the number of fliers dwin- dled to 16 but some new faces showed up. Adam Kobelt, from Australia, came with his new wife, Emma (née Phillips). They spent some time in Las Vegas after the wedding and came to the Nats for some flying fun. After some good-natured hazing Rylan Ritch started doing some real Combat ma- neuvering and discovered that it didn’t re- sult in an instant crash. During the F2D fly- ing his pit crew had been coaching him to stay safe and only fly level.
Yours truly added some other excitement by sticking a hand into a prop resulting in some bloody cuts. Many thanks to Howard Williams for getting me to the emergency room. We missed a lot of the action, but we got back in time to see the finals match. Adam Kobelt took first place with a convinc- ing win. Brian Stas, from Massachusetts, took second while his flying partner, Neil Simpson, took third and Bob Burch took fourth.
Speed Limit Combat flew on Thursday, using Midwest rules, no midair rule. Fifteen fliers showed up including four Juniors— Chris Carter, Rylan Ritch, Joe Strickland, and Marquis Thurman. It’s a great way to learn how to fly Combat. The event went off smoothly. Rylan Ritch started doing some real Combat flying and won his matches. It was enough to win first place, followed by Neil Simpson in second, Brian Stas in third, and Bob Burch in fourth.
Chris Carter and Marquis Thurman, from Texas, flew their World War II ships which looked great in the air.
Friday saw nine fliers in Half-A. The field of planes was more varied with Jeff Daw- son’s Sonic Chicken foam plane taking first of seven fliers in the hands of Rylan Ritch. Rylan really opened up in this event with a
Andy Minor takes a bite out of Yaro Melnikov in round nine of Nats F2D. Down to six fliers, every cut counts, but this one. Pieces of streamer only, please.
couple of clean kills and good maneuvering. Neil Simpson came in second, and Richard Stubblefield took third, both flying mini F2D planes. Most of the engines were Foras and Profis. The Fora seems to have an edge with the newest aluminum finished version the best.
Saturday’s AMA Fast Combat was a small event with only five entries. The day started gloomy and damp. I wasn’t about to fly with a bum right hand. The action was fast and exciting as usual. Mike Evans got a quick kill on Wayne McDaniel. Wayne got in too close and—zip, zip—Mike got a kill. Ron Colombo and Brian Stas had a long match. Ron got up first but Brian had starting prob-
lems. He got up and Colombo came down with over three minutes left, so he had to go back up. In the melee Brian got a cut, a kill, and then a midair.
And then the rains came, a sudden really heavy downpour. After an hour or so it let up and flying resumed. Mike Evans had shutoff malfunctions and lost to Neil Simpson. That left Neil a round behind. The rain came back and in the soggy tent Ron conceded the first place match to Brian, since Brian had al- ready beaten him. That put Brian in first with a 3–1 record. The other three were tied at 1–2. Mike Evans used a dextrous coin flip for third, Neil Simpson came in fourth, and Wayne McDaniel, fifth.
Howard Williams and Adam Kobelt give Ryan Ritch (at left) his just desserts for winning Speed Limit Combat. Amazing, the winners never seem to see it coming. F2D Fast winners (above): Adam Kobelt of Australia placed first, Brian Stas and Neil Simpson, both from Massachusetts placed second, and third respectively, and Bob Burch of Illinois placed fourth.
FLYING MODELS 41
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