The fi rst Western Associated
Modelers (WAM) contest I
attended was in the early 1960s
at Frank Youell Field in Oakland,
California. This fi eld was the fi rst
home of the Oakland Raiders football
team. I was attracted to the grass fi eld
where the Combat events were being
held.
The fi rst event that day was 1/2A
Combat Open, where pilots were
grouped by their skills. The models I saw
were Top Flite Combat Kittens, Baby
Flite Streaks, and numerous homemade
designs that were mostly powered
by Cox Tee Dee and Holland Hornet
.049s. In those days, some of the pilots
were using hard metal tanks for either
pressure feed or suction.
There were one or two pilots who
were using pen bladders to force-feed
fuel to the engines. These pen bladders
were not durable and would burst if
overfi lled. It looked as if the competitors
were having plenty of fun chasing each
other’s streamers with these small
models and engines. The WAM pilots
always fl ew for cuts because there was a
no-kill rule.
I knew I would have to save some
money and buy a 1/2A Combat setup.
I eventually found a used Tee Dee
mounted on a Baby Flite Streak for $8.
It took me a while to get the enginestarting
procedures mastered, and I often
spent hours trying to fi re the engine with
a weak dry-cell doorbell battery.
After I started attending more
contests, I saw other pilots with goodfl
ying models. Gordon Delaney, from
Utah, showed up at a San Francisco
contest with a miniature version of a
VooDoo, running on crankcase pressure.
He later developed some cute 1/2A
Challenger models.
Jeff Hollfelder
from Castro Valley,
California, built
1/2A Splinters
with bulges in the
wings that accommodated babypacifi
er fuel tanks. The models
were fast and turned tightly. Jeff
gave me one that I wore out
from so much fl ying.
Alex Sinkevitch, of the San
Francisco-based Flying Tigers
Club, built Sneekers for 1/2A
use. Ed Bridant modifi ed 1/2A
Snappers for use in Combat.
Norm McFadden used an ugly,
rectangular 1/2A for several
years and scored an impressive
number of wins. I would guess
that this model is still hidden in
his garage.
I got a rib pattern from a local
Stunt pilot and built a short,
squatty model that I named
Kometa 1. It was rock solid and
fl ew well, and I ended up using
the same model for an entire
fl ying season. This motivated
me to design another model
called the Li’l Snip (published
in Model Builder magazine,
February 1974), which was
sold to Midwest Models for kit
production. I then built the 1/2A
Matador (published in Model
Airplane News, September 1976)
and 1/2A Samurai (published in
Model Airplane News, February 1979).
Meanwhile, across the country, “Dirty”
Dan Rutherford, from the Seattle area,
was building Dirty Beaver and Golly
Gee Whiz models. Dan liked his models
to be touchy, and after the 1977 Nats in
Riverside, California, a group of us went
to San Diego to fly at Mission Bay.
Dan allowed others to try out his
Golly Gee Whiz models. He put me on
the handle and I found it so touchy that
I planted the airplane right away. Dan
had a great laugh and so did all of the
other pilots who were watching.
Dan paid close attention to detail
when building the model, such as
making sure the Cox heads were flat
and fit flush on the cylinders. He also
was not afraid to run the Tee Dee on
50% to 65% nitro fuel.
In Texas, Steve Fauble was designing
1/2A models on what was called the
Whetstone, and he also shrank Howard
Rush’s Nemesis design. In Southern
California, Steve Hills was developing
the use of foam wings and incorporating
them in his 1/2A SlySir design. I was
unfamiliar with foam building and
cutting until I met Steve and his flying
partner, “Sneeky” Pete Athans. I spent
many afternoons and evenings building
models with them. Steve gave me
permission to draw the plans to the
SlySir and to submit an article to MA,
which was published in March 1984.
In the quest for more power, Fred
Baldwin designed a 1/2A engine called
Shuriken. These engines were beautiful,
with red anodized crankcases and a
sleek shape. They sold for roughly $175,
which was expensive for a 1/2A engine.
Getting them to run properly was tricky.
The motors would tease with one good
run, followed by a few sour ones.
Fred sponsored a few $1,000 contests
in Los Angeles and gave away a number
of his engines. The Shuriken spent a
short stint on the market.
The Russian Cyclon factory, under
the direction of Alexander Kalymikov,
developed a 1/2A engine that essentially
killed the use of Tee Dee engines
and even the 35-foot lines that were
required by the rules. The Cyclon was so
fast on 35-foot lines, that even the best
pilots were getting dizzy and unable to
fl y precise and quality Combat. This is
when High-Performance 1/2A Combat
on 42-foot lines was invented. Today, it is
diffi cult to fi nd 1/2A competitions listed
on contest calendars.
Until approximately 1984, 1/2A
Combat was fl own unoffi cially, or with
locally designed rules. I am to blame for
making 1/2A Combat an offi cial AMA
rulebook event, because I proposed the
rule. Having experienced tremendous
success with unoffi cial 1/2A Combat at
the AMA Nats, I believed that it would
draw plenty of interest throughout the
country.
Cox Hobbies was a wonderful sponsor
for the unoffi cial event and always
provided the organizers with generous
donations of engines, parts, T-shirts, and
other goodies.
The WAM pilots in the San Francisco
Bay area always had 1/2A as an offi cial
rulebook event and even awarded the
season’s top pilot the Perpetual Trophy
1870 W Prince Rd Suite 4
Tucson, AZ 85705
[email protected]
Electric Jet Factory serving EDF enthusiats since 1998
We're Nothin' But Jet!
at the club’s annual awards banquet. The
trophy was fi rst awarded in 1964 to Steve
Loyal of the San Francisco Flying Tigers.
March Madness
The 2012 competition season kicked
off in Phoenix with the March Madness
contest at Esteban Park in Tempe,
Arizona. Lance Matassa organized
an F2D Fast contest for Friday and
convinced 14 pilots to compete. Andy
Mears won the contest, with Tom
Siegler fi nishing in second place. Chuck
Rudner was third. The only drawback
to fl ying for kills on Friday is that your
timing, thinking, and refl exes suffer the
following day when the goal changes
to taking little cuts, rather than fl ying
aggressively for a cut on the string.
All of the 2012 US Combat team
members attended. Andrew Nadien,
Alan DeVeuve, Cary Minor, and
alternate Josh Ellison, wanted to get
some serious practice early in the year
so they would be ready for their World
Championships trip to Bulgaria in
August.
Andrew Nadien was on fi re and went Specializing in 26cc &
Larger Civilian Scale ARFsLarger ARFs
All our ARF's are laser cut balsa and
plywood. Fiberglass cowls and some
with fi berglass bodies.
Complete hardware kits.
www.TexasRCPlanes.com
936-829-2477 • 200 Judd St., Diboll Texas 75941
undefeated throughout the contest. I
managed a second-place fi nish. Alan
DeVeuve placed third, followed by
Chuck Rudner in fourth.
Alan DeVeuve is an amazing builder,
and the models he will take to Bulgaria
will be light, strong, and fast. Andrew
makes well-designed, high-performance
muffl ers.
Tom Seigler uses the Nekhay shutoffs
that have the ability to shut down on
demand with a strong yank on the lines.
I tried my fi rst one in April. I had to deburr
and bend some of the wires to get
them to work. Contact Vasyl Yuvenko
for information about how to buy these
shutoffs.
Don’t forget to join the Miniature Aircraft
Combat Association (MACA).
Edition: Model Aviation - 2012/07
Page Numbers: 129,130,131
Edition: Model Aviation - 2012/07
Page Numbers: 129,130,131
The fi rst Western Associated
Modelers (WAM) contest I
attended was in the early 1960s
at Frank Youell Field in Oakland,
California. This fi eld was the fi rst
home of the Oakland Raiders football
team. I was attracted to the grass fi eld
where the Combat events were being
held.
The fi rst event that day was 1/2A
Combat Open, where pilots were
grouped by their skills. The models I saw
were Top Flite Combat Kittens, Baby
Flite Streaks, and numerous homemade
designs that were mostly powered
by Cox Tee Dee and Holland Hornet
.049s. In those days, some of the pilots
were using hard metal tanks for either
pressure feed or suction.
There were one or two pilots who
were using pen bladders to force-feed
fuel to the engines. These pen bladders
were not durable and would burst if
overfi lled. It looked as if the competitors
were having plenty of fun chasing each
other’s streamers with these small
models and engines. The WAM pilots
always fl ew for cuts because there was a
no-kill rule.
I knew I would have to save some
money and buy a 1/2A Combat setup.
I eventually found a used Tee Dee
mounted on a Baby Flite Streak for $8.
It took me a while to get the enginestarting
procedures mastered, and I often
spent hours trying to fi re the engine with
a weak dry-cell doorbell battery.
After I started attending more
contests, I saw other pilots with goodfl
ying models. Gordon Delaney, from
Utah, showed up at a San Francisco
contest with a miniature version of a
VooDoo, running on crankcase pressure.
He later developed some cute 1/2A
Challenger models.
Jeff Hollfelder
from Castro Valley,
California, built
1/2A Splinters
with bulges in the
wings that accommodated babypacifi
er fuel tanks. The models
were fast and turned tightly. Jeff
gave me one that I wore out
from so much fl ying.
Alex Sinkevitch, of the San
Francisco-based Flying Tigers
Club, built Sneekers for 1/2A
use. Ed Bridant modifi ed 1/2A
Snappers for use in Combat.
Norm McFadden used an ugly,
rectangular 1/2A for several
years and scored an impressive
number of wins. I would guess
that this model is still hidden in
his garage.
I got a rib pattern from a local
Stunt pilot and built a short,
squatty model that I named
Kometa 1. It was rock solid and
fl ew well, and I ended up using
the same model for an entire
fl ying season. This motivated
me to design another model
called the Li’l Snip (published
in Model Builder magazine,
February 1974), which was
sold to Midwest Models for kit
production. I then built the 1/2A
Matador (published in Model
Airplane News, September 1976)
and 1/2A Samurai (published in
Model Airplane News, February 1979).
Meanwhile, across the country, “Dirty”
Dan Rutherford, from the Seattle area,
was building Dirty Beaver and Golly
Gee Whiz models. Dan liked his models
to be touchy, and after the 1977 Nats in
Riverside, California, a group of us went
to San Diego to fly at Mission Bay.
Dan allowed others to try out his
Golly Gee Whiz models. He put me on
the handle and I found it so touchy that
I planted the airplane right away. Dan
had a great laugh and so did all of the
other pilots who were watching.
Dan paid close attention to detail
when building the model, such as
making sure the Cox heads were flat
and fit flush on the cylinders. He also
was not afraid to run the Tee Dee on
50% to 65% nitro fuel.
In Texas, Steve Fauble was designing
1/2A models on what was called the
Whetstone, and he also shrank Howard
Rush’s Nemesis design. In Southern
California, Steve Hills was developing
the use of foam wings and incorporating
them in his 1/2A SlySir design. I was
unfamiliar with foam building and
cutting until I met Steve and his flying
partner, “Sneeky” Pete Athans. I spent
many afternoons and evenings building
models with them. Steve gave me
permission to draw the plans to the
SlySir and to submit an article to MA,
which was published in March 1984.
In the quest for more power, Fred
Baldwin designed a 1/2A engine called
Shuriken. These engines were beautiful,
with red anodized crankcases and a
sleek shape. They sold for roughly $175,
which was expensive for a 1/2A engine.
Getting them to run properly was tricky.
The motors would tease with one good
run, followed by a few sour ones.
Fred sponsored a few $1,000 contests
in Los Angeles and gave away a number
of his engines. The Shuriken spent a
short stint on the market.
The Russian Cyclon factory, under
the direction of Alexander Kalymikov,
developed a 1/2A engine that essentially
killed the use of Tee Dee engines
and even the 35-foot lines that were
required by the rules. The Cyclon was so
fast on 35-foot lines, that even the best
pilots were getting dizzy and unable to
fl y precise and quality Combat. This is
when High-Performance 1/2A Combat
on 42-foot lines was invented. Today, it is
diffi cult to fi nd 1/2A competitions listed
on contest calendars.
Until approximately 1984, 1/2A
Combat was fl own unoffi cially, or with
locally designed rules. I am to blame for
making 1/2A Combat an offi cial AMA
rulebook event, because I proposed the
rule. Having experienced tremendous
success with unoffi cial 1/2A Combat at
the AMA Nats, I believed that it would
draw plenty of interest throughout the
country.
Cox Hobbies was a wonderful sponsor
for the unoffi cial event and always
provided the organizers with generous
donations of engines, parts, T-shirts, and
other goodies.
The WAM pilots in the San Francisco
Bay area always had 1/2A as an offi cial
rulebook event and even awarded the
season’s top pilot the Perpetual Trophy
1870 W Prince Rd Suite 4
Tucson, AZ 85705
[email protected]
Electric Jet Factory serving EDF enthusiats since 1998
We're Nothin' But Jet!
at the club’s annual awards banquet. The
trophy was fi rst awarded in 1964 to Steve
Loyal of the San Francisco Flying Tigers.
March Madness
The 2012 competition season kicked
off in Phoenix with the March Madness
contest at Esteban Park in Tempe,
Arizona. Lance Matassa organized
an F2D Fast contest for Friday and
convinced 14 pilots to compete. Andy
Mears won the contest, with Tom
Siegler fi nishing in second place. Chuck
Rudner was third. The only drawback
to fl ying for kills on Friday is that your
timing, thinking, and refl exes suffer the
following day when the goal changes
to taking little cuts, rather than fl ying
aggressively for a cut on the string.
All of the 2012 US Combat team
members attended. Andrew Nadien,
Alan DeVeuve, Cary Minor, and
alternate Josh Ellison, wanted to get
some serious practice early in the year
so they would be ready for their World
Championships trip to Bulgaria in
August.
Andrew Nadien was on fi re and went Specializing in 26cc &
Larger Civilian Scale ARFsLarger ARFs
All our ARF's are laser cut balsa and
plywood. Fiberglass cowls and some
with fi berglass bodies.
Complete hardware kits.
www.TexasRCPlanes.com
936-829-2477 • 200 Judd St., Diboll Texas 75941
undefeated throughout the contest. I
managed a second-place fi nish. Alan
DeVeuve placed third, followed by
Chuck Rudner in fourth.
Alan DeVeuve is an amazing builder,
and the models he will take to Bulgaria
will be light, strong, and fast. Andrew
makes well-designed, high-performance
muffl ers.
Tom Seigler uses the Nekhay shutoffs
that have the ability to shut down on
demand with a strong yank on the lines.
I tried my fi rst one in April. I had to deburr
and bend some of the wires to get
them to work. Contact Vasyl Yuvenko
for information about how to buy these
shutoffs.
Don’t forget to join the Miniature Aircraft
Combat Association (MACA).
Edition: Model Aviation - 2012/07
Page Numbers: 129,130,131
The fi rst Western Associated
Modelers (WAM) contest I
attended was in the early 1960s
at Frank Youell Field in Oakland,
California. This fi eld was the fi rst
home of the Oakland Raiders football
team. I was attracted to the grass fi eld
where the Combat events were being
held.
The fi rst event that day was 1/2A
Combat Open, where pilots were
grouped by their skills. The models I saw
were Top Flite Combat Kittens, Baby
Flite Streaks, and numerous homemade
designs that were mostly powered
by Cox Tee Dee and Holland Hornet
.049s. In those days, some of the pilots
were using hard metal tanks for either
pressure feed or suction.
There were one or two pilots who
were using pen bladders to force-feed
fuel to the engines. These pen bladders
were not durable and would burst if
overfi lled. It looked as if the competitors
were having plenty of fun chasing each
other’s streamers with these small
models and engines. The WAM pilots
always fl ew for cuts because there was a
no-kill rule.
I knew I would have to save some
money and buy a 1/2A Combat setup.
I eventually found a used Tee Dee
mounted on a Baby Flite Streak for $8.
It took me a while to get the enginestarting
procedures mastered, and I often
spent hours trying to fi re the engine with
a weak dry-cell doorbell battery.
After I started attending more
contests, I saw other pilots with goodfl
ying models. Gordon Delaney, from
Utah, showed up at a San Francisco
contest with a miniature version of a
VooDoo, running on crankcase pressure.
He later developed some cute 1/2A
Challenger models.
Jeff Hollfelder
from Castro Valley,
California, built
1/2A Splinters
with bulges in the
wings that accommodated babypacifi
er fuel tanks. The models
were fast and turned tightly. Jeff
gave me one that I wore out
from so much fl ying.
Alex Sinkevitch, of the San
Francisco-based Flying Tigers
Club, built Sneekers for 1/2A
use. Ed Bridant modifi ed 1/2A
Snappers for use in Combat.
Norm McFadden used an ugly,
rectangular 1/2A for several
years and scored an impressive
number of wins. I would guess
that this model is still hidden in
his garage.
I got a rib pattern from a local
Stunt pilot and built a short,
squatty model that I named
Kometa 1. It was rock solid and
fl ew well, and I ended up using
the same model for an entire
fl ying season. This motivated
me to design another model
called the Li’l Snip (published
in Model Builder magazine,
February 1974), which was
sold to Midwest Models for kit
production. I then built the 1/2A
Matador (published in Model
Airplane News, September 1976)
and 1/2A Samurai (published in
Model Airplane News, February 1979).
Meanwhile, across the country, “Dirty”
Dan Rutherford, from the Seattle area,
was building Dirty Beaver and Golly
Gee Whiz models. Dan liked his models
to be touchy, and after the 1977 Nats in
Riverside, California, a group of us went
to San Diego to fly at Mission Bay.
Dan allowed others to try out his
Golly Gee Whiz models. He put me on
the handle and I found it so touchy that
I planted the airplane right away. Dan
had a great laugh and so did all of the
other pilots who were watching.
Dan paid close attention to detail
when building the model, such as
making sure the Cox heads were flat
and fit flush on the cylinders. He also
was not afraid to run the Tee Dee on
50% to 65% nitro fuel.
In Texas, Steve Fauble was designing
1/2A models on what was called the
Whetstone, and he also shrank Howard
Rush’s Nemesis design. In Southern
California, Steve Hills was developing
the use of foam wings and incorporating
them in his 1/2A SlySir design. I was
unfamiliar with foam building and
cutting until I met Steve and his flying
partner, “Sneeky” Pete Athans. I spent
many afternoons and evenings building
models with them. Steve gave me
permission to draw the plans to the
SlySir and to submit an article to MA,
which was published in March 1984.
In the quest for more power, Fred
Baldwin designed a 1/2A engine called
Shuriken. These engines were beautiful,
with red anodized crankcases and a
sleek shape. They sold for roughly $175,
which was expensive for a 1/2A engine.
Getting them to run properly was tricky.
The motors would tease with one good
run, followed by a few sour ones.
Fred sponsored a few $1,000 contests
in Los Angeles and gave away a number
of his engines. The Shuriken spent a
short stint on the market.
The Russian Cyclon factory, under
the direction of Alexander Kalymikov,
developed a 1/2A engine that essentially
killed the use of Tee Dee engines
and even the 35-foot lines that were
required by the rules. The Cyclon was so
fast on 35-foot lines, that even the best
pilots were getting dizzy and unable to
fl y precise and quality Combat. This is
when High-Performance 1/2A Combat
on 42-foot lines was invented. Today, it is
diffi cult to fi nd 1/2A competitions listed
on contest calendars.
Until approximately 1984, 1/2A
Combat was fl own unoffi cially, or with
locally designed rules. I am to blame for
making 1/2A Combat an offi cial AMA
rulebook event, because I proposed the
rule. Having experienced tremendous
success with unoffi cial 1/2A Combat at
the AMA Nats, I believed that it would
draw plenty of interest throughout the
country.
Cox Hobbies was a wonderful sponsor
for the unoffi cial event and always
provided the organizers with generous
donations of engines, parts, T-shirts, and
other goodies.
The WAM pilots in the San Francisco
Bay area always had 1/2A as an offi cial
rulebook event and even awarded the
season’s top pilot the Perpetual Trophy
1870 W Prince Rd Suite 4
Tucson, AZ 85705
[email protected]
Electric Jet Factory serving EDF enthusiats since 1998
We're Nothin' But Jet!
at the club’s annual awards banquet. The
trophy was fi rst awarded in 1964 to Steve
Loyal of the San Francisco Flying Tigers.
March Madness
The 2012 competition season kicked
off in Phoenix with the March Madness
contest at Esteban Park in Tempe,
Arizona. Lance Matassa organized
an F2D Fast contest for Friday and
convinced 14 pilots to compete. Andy
Mears won the contest, with Tom
Siegler fi nishing in second place. Chuck
Rudner was third. The only drawback
to fl ying for kills on Friday is that your
timing, thinking, and refl exes suffer the
following day when the goal changes
to taking little cuts, rather than fl ying
aggressively for a cut on the string.
All of the 2012 US Combat team
members attended. Andrew Nadien,
Alan DeVeuve, Cary Minor, and
alternate Josh Ellison, wanted to get
some serious practice early in the year
so they would be ready for their World
Championships trip to Bulgaria in
August.
Andrew Nadien was on fi re and went Specializing in 26cc &
Larger Civilian Scale ARFsLarger ARFs
All our ARF's are laser cut balsa and
plywood. Fiberglass cowls and some
with fi berglass bodies.
Complete hardware kits.
www.TexasRCPlanes.com
936-829-2477 • 200 Judd St., Diboll Texas 75941
undefeated throughout the contest. I
managed a second-place fi nish. Alan
DeVeuve placed third, followed by
Chuck Rudner in fourth.
Alan DeVeuve is an amazing builder,
and the models he will take to Bulgaria
will be light, strong, and fast. Andrew
makes well-designed, high-performance
muffl ers.
Tom Seigler uses the Nekhay shutoffs
that have the ability to shut down on
demand with a strong yank on the lines.
I tried my fi rst one in April. I had to deburr
and bend some of the wires to get
them to work. Contact Vasyl Yuvenko
for information about how to buy these
shutoffs.
Don’t forget to join the Miniature Aircraft
Combat Association (MACA).
