kills. The idea was to tune up for the next
day’s F2D contest. It worked out well, and
Tom Siegler was happy with his firstplace
finish in the end.
Tom has been importing F2D and 1/2A
models, lines, propellers, handles, and
other odds and ends from Ukraine. It is
top-quality equipment. If you are
interested, contact Tom via E-mail at
[email protected].
Former big-money-meet winner Greg
Machen finished in second place. He was
a California resident but has moved to
Phoenix.
It is that time of the year when we start
fooling around with Cox Tee Dee
.049/.051 engines in Southern California
in preparation for our annual Beach
Brunch and Fly/Last Kill of the Year
event. This year Martyn Cowley, former
editor of the British Aeromodeller
magazine, will join the festivities. He has
been out running his Tee Dee engines in
the hopes of putting it to the “colonists.”
Flying Tee Dee engines on 35-foot
lines sharpens your reflexes and seems
quicker that FAI F2D or even Fast
combat. You have to stay focused all the
time—not that there is any time to relax
when you fly F2D or Fast Combat.
The good thing is that with Tee Dee
engines and rubber propellers on foam
models, you seldom break equipment. It
does happen from time to time, but the
crash is rarely fatal for the model or
propeller.
There are still plenty of used Cox Tee
Dee engines to be purchased for
reasonable prices at swap meets or from
people who have moved on to other facets
of the hobby. If you decide to try Tee Dee FAI F2D Combat equipment has come a long way
March 2006 129
Also included in this column:
• An F2D contest in Phoenix,
Arizona
• Cox Tee Dee .049/.051
engines are still viable
• Consider a trip to the
World Championships!
[[email protected]]
Control Line Combat Rich Lopez
Phoenix F2D contest winner and his pit crew (L-R): Chuck Rudner, Mark Rudner, and
Mike Willcox. Chuck and Mike are members of the 2006 US F2D team.
The 1/2A winners (L-R): Greg Machen, second; Tom Siegler,
first.
Richard Stubblefield (L) and Mark Rudner do battle for first and
second place at the Phoenix contest.
INTEREST IN FAI CL Combat—F2D—has been growing
across the country among competitors and sport flyers. The
availability of equipment and ease of its use probably has
something to do with that. There are few motor sports in the
world in which someone whose is interested can just go out and
buy inexpensive competitive equipment.
I can remember the early days of F2D at the World
Championships when all the competitors built their own models
and the availability of the engines was spotty at best. At the 1982
World Championships in Sweden, Tom Fluker Jr. managed to
win F2D with Fox .15 engines that Duke Fox custom-made for
him. These limited-production Fox .15s are
highly sought after by collectors.
Duke used a .35-size crankshaft in a
.15 crankcase. This engine had one ball
bearing and a bushing for the front of the
crankshaft. Tom’s dad still had to do a
tremendous amount of work to these
engines to make them perform at their
peak.
The propellers Tom used were
specially built by Bill Lee, who made a
mold and then laid them up. I am sure Bill
went through the growing pains associated
with trying something new. Getting the
right mixture of fiberglass resin and
carbon-fiber reinforcement material no
doubt took several attempts.
The rest of the pilots who had an
interest in F2D had to rely on what was
available in the hobby shops, which was
usually wood or nylon mass-produced
propellers. I still have some of the
propellers I carved and shaped for my Fox
and SuperTigre .15s. I would cut down
Tipan 7 x 4s a little at a time, until the
engine gave good power.
You had to like tinkering with engines
to get maximum performance, and even
then they were prone to parts failure. I
would grind on the cylinder liners and
then send them out to Bob Oge to have
them chromed. Some of the local fliers
would grind on the crankshafts to enlarge
the hole so more air and fuel would go
through. We soon learned that there was a
limit to how much metal could be
removed.
All that tinkering was fun at the time,
but it did cause frustration. The pilots with
better connections, such as a machinist,
were at a distinct advantage compared
with the regular hobbyist.
These days it is possible for even the
novice to have top-quality, reliable
engines, models, and propellers, all of
which can be purchased. This gives even
the casual Sunday flier access to
equipment that could be competitive at the
international level.
Although the playing has been leveled
in terms of equipment, there is still a large
gap in pilot skill. There are very few state
(country)-sponsored pilots left, with the
notable exception of the Chinese. The
level of dedication and time an individual
is willing to commit will probably
determine who the next World Champions
will be. Luck may have a bit to do with it
as well.
130 MODEL AVIATION
Early in November Steve Stewart and
company hosted an F2D contest in
Phoenix, Arizona, that required all the
contestants to assist with judging and
some of the contest operations. It seemed
to work out well, and everyone seemed
willing to participate.
Trying to run a full-blown twomodels-
per-contestant F2D contest
requires a great deal of people power.
You have the additional requirement of
fuel management at F2D events that
usually requires at least one individual to
keep track of fuel bottles and their
distribution.
Also, each competitor is required to
wear a color of the streameridentification
vest. That by itself does
not require a specific official, but it does
necessitate someone to be mindful of the
vests’ locations. In the future more and
more contests will require that
competitors be asked participate in
contest operations.
There were quite a few out-of-state
participants at this contest, and they
traveled from as far away as
Massachusetts, Ohio, Texas, California,
and even Mexico. Mark Rudner is doing
graduate work at MIT (the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology),
but he found the time to fly out to
Arizona to get in some Combat and took
first place in the process.
Richard Stubblefield is still amazing
in his competitive desire and his ability
to finish near the top at almost every
contest he attends. “Stubby” was the
second-place finisher. He says he
competes better when he eats rattlesnake
meat the night before. It is on the menu
at several restaurants in Phoenix.
Lester Hury finished a respectable
third. Leonardo Silva, Alan Deveuve,
Greg Hill, Alan Green, and Mike
Willcox had some good matches, as did
Mike “Grasshopper” Skinner of Ohio.
The Friday before the contest there
was a fun 1/2A event run according to
some interesting rules. We used a oneminute
F2D-type start, had four-minuteCombat, make sure you keep the ball-andsocket
joint on the piston snug and have
plenty of oil in your fuel.
I run an aftermarket Nelson glow-plug
adapter that is available from Doug
Galbreath for approximately $10. I do add
a cylinder head shim or two because the
adapter adds quite a bit more compression
that the stock Tee Dee glow heads.
I once counted the number of runs on
one of these glow head/plug combinations.
I got 52 before the plug burned out using
25%-nitromethane fuel.
It is crucial that you keep your Tee
Dee engines clean and well oiled when
they are not in use. It usually takes just a
little prime with a hot battery to bring
them to life even after a year in
hibernation.
If you have never been to a Control Line
World Championships, consider traveling
to Spain this July to support your US
team. The atmosphere of friendship
among the pilots is an example of what
global cooperation should be; the
equipment is magnificent, and the free
flow of information is unparalleled.
Competitors at this level are always
willing to explain how they do things and
what materials they are using. The
friendships made at world competitions will
last a lifetime, as will the memories.
Edition: Model Aviation - 2006/03
Page Numbers: 129,130,131
Edition: Model Aviation - 2006/03
Page Numbers: 129,130,131
kills. The idea was to tune up for the next
day’s F2D contest. It worked out well, and
Tom Siegler was happy with his firstplace
finish in the end.
Tom has been importing F2D and 1/2A
models, lines, propellers, handles, and
other odds and ends from Ukraine. It is
top-quality equipment. If you are
interested, contact Tom via E-mail at
[email protected].
Former big-money-meet winner Greg
Machen finished in second place. He was
a California resident but has moved to
Phoenix.
It is that time of the year when we start
fooling around with Cox Tee Dee
.049/.051 engines in Southern California
in preparation for our annual Beach
Brunch and Fly/Last Kill of the Year
event. This year Martyn Cowley, former
editor of the British Aeromodeller
magazine, will join the festivities. He has
been out running his Tee Dee engines in
the hopes of putting it to the “colonists.”
Flying Tee Dee engines on 35-foot
lines sharpens your reflexes and seems
quicker that FAI F2D or even Fast
combat. You have to stay focused all the
time—not that there is any time to relax
when you fly F2D or Fast Combat.
The good thing is that with Tee Dee
engines and rubber propellers on foam
models, you seldom break equipment. It
does happen from time to time, but the
crash is rarely fatal for the model or
propeller.
There are still plenty of used Cox Tee
Dee engines to be purchased for
reasonable prices at swap meets or from
people who have moved on to other facets
of the hobby. If you decide to try Tee Dee FAI F2D Combat equipment has come a long way
March 2006 129
Also included in this column:
• An F2D contest in Phoenix,
Arizona
• Cox Tee Dee .049/.051
engines are still viable
• Consider a trip to the
World Championships!
[[email protected]]
Control Line Combat Rich Lopez
Phoenix F2D contest winner and his pit crew (L-R): Chuck Rudner, Mark Rudner, and
Mike Willcox. Chuck and Mike are members of the 2006 US F2D team.
The 1/2A winners (L-R): Greg Machen, second; Tom Siegler,
first.
Richard Stubblefield (L) and Mark Rudner do battle for first and
second place at the Phoenix contest.
INTEREST IN FAI CL Combat—F2D—has been growing
across the country among competitors and sport flyers. The
availability of equipment and ease of its use probably has
something to do with that. There are few motor sports in the
world in which someone whose is interested can just go out and
buy inexpensive competitive equipment.
I can remember the early days of F2D at the World
Championships when all the competitors built their own models
and the availability of the engines was spotty at best. At the 1982
World Championships in Sweden, Tom Fluker Jr. managed to
win F2D with Fox .15 engines that Duke Fox custom-made for
him. These limited-production Fox .15s are
highly sought after by collectors.
Duke used a .35-size crankshaft in a
.15 crankcase. This engine had one ball
bearing and a bushing for the front of the
crankshaft. Tom’s dad still had to do a
tremendous amount of work to these
engines to make them perform at their
peak.
The propellers Tom used were
specially built by Bill Lee, who made a
mold and then laid them up. I am sure Bill
went through the growing pains associated
with trying something new. Getting the
right mixture of fiberglass resin and
carbon-fiber reinforcement material no
doubt took several attempts.
The rest of the pilots who had an
interest in F2D had to rely on what was
available in the hobby shops, which was
usually wood or nylon mass-produced
propellers. I still have some of the
propellers I carved and shaped for my Fox
and SuperTigre .15s. I would cut down
Tipan 7 x 4s a little at a time, until the
engine gave good power.
You had to like tinkering with engines
to get maximum performance, and even
then they were prone to parts failure. I
would grind on the cylinder liners and
then send them out to Bob Oge to have
them chromed. Some of the local fliers
would grind on the crankshafts to enlarge
the hole so more air and fuel would go
through. We soon learned that there was a
limit to how much metal could be
removed.
All that tinkering was fun at the time,
but it did cause frustration. The pilots with
better connections, such as a machinist,
were at a distinct advantage compared
with the regular hobbyist.
These days it is possible for even the
novice to have top-quality, reliable
engines, models, and propellers, all of
which can be purchased. This gives even
the casual Sunday flier access to
equipment that could be competitive at the
international level.
Although the playing has been leveled
in terms of equipment, there is still a large
gap in pilot skill. There are very few state
(country)-sponsored pilots left, with the
notable exception of the Chinese. The
level of dedication and time an individual
is willing to commit will probably
determine who the next World Champions
will be. Luck may have a bit to do with it
as well.
130 MODEL AVIATION
Early in November Steve Stewart and
company hosted an F2D contest in
Phoenix, Arizona, that required all the
contestants to assist with judging and
some of the contest operations. It seemed
to work out well, and everyone seemed
willing to participate.
Trying to run a full-blown twomodels-
per-contestant F2D contest
requires a great deal of people power.
You have the additional requirement of
fuel management at F2D events that
usually requires at least one individual to
keep track of fuel bottles and their
distribution.
Also, each competitor is required to
wear a color of the streameridentification
vest. That by itself does
not require a specific official, but it does
necessitate someone to be mindful of the
vests’ locations. In the future more and
more contests will require that
competitors be asked participate in
contest operations.
There were quite a few out-of-state
participants at this contest, and they
traveled from as far away as
Massachusetts, Ohio, Texas, California,
and even Mexico. Mark Rudner is doing
graduate work at MIT (the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology),
but he found the time to fly out to
Arizona to get in some Combat and took
first place in the process.
Richard Stubblefield is still amazing
in his competitive desire and his ability
to finish near the top at almost every
contest he attends. “Stubby” was the
second-place finisher. He says he
competes better when he eats rattlesnake
meat the night before. It is on the menu
at several restaurants in Phoenix.
Lester Hury finished a respectable
third. Leonardo Silva, Alan Deveuve,
Greg Hill, Alan Green, and Mike
Willcox had some good matches, as did
Mike “Grasshopper” Skinner of Ohio.
The Friday before the contest there
was a fun 1/2A event run according to
some interesting rules. We used a oneminute
F2D-type start, had four-minuteCombat, make sure you keep the ball-andsocket
joint on the piston snug and have
plenty of oil in your fuel.
I run an aftermarket Nelson glow-plug
adapter that is available from Doug
Galbreath for approximately $10. I do add
a cylinder head shim or two because the
adapter adds quite a bit more compression
that the stock Tee Dee glow heads.
I once counted the number of runs on
one of these glow head/plug combinations.
I got 52 before the plug burned out using
25%-nitromethane fuel.
It is crucial that you keep your Tee
Dee engines clean and well oiled when
they are not in use. It usually takes just a
little prime with a hot battery to bring
them to life even after a year in
hibernation.
If you have never been to a Control Line
World Championships, consider traveling
to Spain this July to support your US
team. The atmosphere of friendship
among the pilots is an example of what
global cooperation should be; the
equipment is magnificent, and the free
flow of information is unparalleled.
Competitors at this level are always
willing to explain how they do things and
what materials they are using. The
friendships made at world competitions will
last a lifetime, as will the memories.
Edition: Model Aviation - 2006/03
Page Numbers: 129,130,131
kills. The idea was to tune up for the next
day’s F2D contest. It worked out well, and
Tom Siegler was happy with his firstplace
finish in the end.
Tom has been importing F2D and 1/2A
models, lines, propellers, handles, and
other odds and ends from Ukraine. It is
top-quality equipment. If you are
interested, contact Tom via E-mail at
[email protected].
Former big-money-meet winner Greg
Machen finished in second place. He was
a California resident but has moved to
Phoenix.
It is that time of the year when we start
fooling around with Cox Tee Dee
.049/.051 engines in Southern California
in preparation for our annual Beach
Brunch and Fly/Last Kill of the Year
event. This year Martyn Cowley, former
editor of the British Aeromodeller
magazine, will join the festivities. He has
been out running his Tee Dee engines in
the hopes of putting it to the “colonists.”
Flying Tee Dee engines on 35-foot
lines sharpens your reflexes and seems
quicker that FAI F2D or even Fast
combat. You have to stay focused all the
time—not that there is any time to relax
when you fly F2D or Fast Combat.
The good thing is that with Tee Dee
engines and rubber propellers on foam
models, you seldom break equipment. It
does happen from time to time, but the
crash is rarely fatal for the model or
propeller.
There are still plenty of used Cox Tee
Dee engines to be purchased for
reasonable prices at swap meets or from
people who have moved on to other facets
of the hobby. If you decide to try Tee Dee FAI F2D Combat equipment has come a long way
March 2006 129
Also included in this column:
• An F2D contest in Phoenix,
Arizona
• Cox Tee Dee .049/.051
engines are still viable
• Consider a trip to the
World Championships!
[[email protected]]
Control Line Combat Rich Lopez
Phoenix F2D contest winner and his pit crew (L-R): Chuck Rudner, Mark Rudner, and
Mike Willcox. Chuck and Mike are members of the 2006 US F2D team.
The 1/2A winners (L-R): Greg Machen, second; Tom Siegler,
first.
Richard Stubblefield (L) and Mark Rudner do battle for first and
second place at the Phoenix contest.
INTEREST IN FAI CL Combat—F2D—has been growing
across the country among competitors and sport flyers. The
availability of equipment and ease of its use probably has
something to do with that. There are few motor sports in the
world in which someone whose is interested can just go out and
buy inexpensive competitive equipment.
I can remember the early days of F2D at the World
Championships when all the competitors built their own models
and the availability of the engines was spotty at best. At the 1982
World Championships in Sweden, Tom Fluker Jr. managed to
win F2D with Fox .15 engines that Duke Fox custom-made for
him. These limited-production Fox .15s are
highly sought after by collectors.
Duke used a .35-size crankshaft in a
.15 crankcase. This engine had one ball
bearing and a bushing for the front of the
crankshaft. Tom’s dad still had to do a
tremendous amount of work to these
engines to make them perform at their
peak.
The propellers Tom used were
specially built by Bill Lee, who made a
mold and then laid them up. I am sure Bill
went through the growing pains associated
with trying something new. Getting the
right mixture of fiberglass resin and
carbon-fiber reinforcement material no
doubt took several attempts.
The rest of the pilots who had an
interest in F2D had to rely on what was
available in the hobby shops, which was
usually wood or nylon mass-produced
propellers. I still have some of the
propellers I carved and shaped for my Fox
and SuperTigre .15s. I would cut down
Tipan 7 x 4s a little at a time, until the
engine gave good power.
You had to like tinkering with engines
to get maximum performance, and even
then they were prone to parts failure. I
would grind on the cylinder liners and
then send them out to Bob Oge to have
them chromed. Some of the local fliers
would grind on the crankshafts to enlarge
the hole so more air and fuel would go
through. We soon learned that there was a
limit to how much metal could be
removed.
All that tinkering was fun at the time,
but it did cause frustration. The pilots with
better connections, such as a machinist,
were at a distinct advantage compared
with the regular hobbyist.
These days it is possible for even the
novice to have top-quality, reliable
engines, models, and propellers, all of
which can be purchased. This gives even
the casual Sunday flier access to
equipment that could be competitive at the
international level.
Although the playing has been leveled
in terms of equipment, there is still a large
gap in pilot skill. There are very few state
(country)-sponsored pilots left, with the
notable exception of the Chinese. The
level of dedication and time an individual
is willing to commit will probably
determine who the next World Champions
will be. Luck may have a bit to do with it
as well.
130 MODEL AVIATION
Early in November Steve Stewart and
company hosted an F2D contest in
Phoenix, Arizona, that required all the
contestants to assist with judging and
some of the contest operations. It seemed
to work out well, and everyone seemed
willing to participate.
Trying to run a full-blown twomodels-
per-contestant F2D contest
requires a great deal of people power.
You have the additional requirement of
fuel management at F2D events that
usually requires at least one individual to
keep track of fuel bottles and their
distribution.
Also, each competitor is required to
wear a color of the streameridentification
vest. That by itself does
not require a specific official, but it does
necessitate someone to be mindful of the
vests’ locations. In the future more and
more contests will require that
competitors be asked participate in
contest operations.
There were quite a few out-of-state
participants at this contest, and they
traveled from as far away as
Massachusetts, Ohio, Texas, California,
and even Mexico. Mark Rudner is doing
graduate work at MIT (the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology),
but he found the time to fly out to
Arizona to get in some Combat and took
first place in the process.
Richard Stubblefield is still amazing
in his competitive desire and his ability
to finish near the top at almost every
contest he attends. “Stubby” was the
second-place finisher. He says he
competes better when he eats rattlesnake
meat the night before. It is on the menu
at several restaurants in Phoenix.
Lester Hury finished a respectable
third. Leonardo Silva, Alan Deveuve,
Greg Hill, Alan Green, and Mike
Willcox had some good matches, as did
Mike “Grasshopper” Skinner of Ohio.
The Friday before the contest there
was a fun 1/2A event run according to
some interesting rules. We used a oneminute
F2D-type start, had four-minuteCombat, make sure you keep the ball-andsocket
joint on the piston snug and have
plenty of oil in your fuel.
I run an aftermarket Nelson glow-plug
adapter that is available from Doug
Galbreath for approximately $10. I do add
a cylinder head shim or two because the
adapter adds quite a bit more compression
that the stock Tee Dee glow heads.
I once counted the number of runs on
one of these glow head/plug combinations.
I got 52 before the plug burned out using
25%-nitromethane fuel.
It is crucial that you keep your Tee
Dee engines clean and well oiled when
they are not in use. It usually takes just a
little prime with a hot battery to bring
them to life even after a year in
hibernation.
If you have never been to a Control Line
World Championships, consider traveling
to Spain this July to support your US
team. The atmosphere of friendship
among the pilots is an example of what
global cooperation should be; the
equipment is magnificent, and the free
flow of information is unparalleled.
Competitors at this level are always
willing to explain how they do things and
what materials they are using. The
friendships made at world competitions will
last a lifetime, as will the memories.