Author: Rich Lopez
Edition: Model Aviation - 2011/09
Page Numbers: 129,130
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Remembering the good old days of CL Combat

Rich Lopez [[email protected]]

FAST COMBAT RULES for F2D

It appears there is much interest in the hybrid Fast Rules/F2D event. This could be attributed to the ease of organizing and running a competition using the AMA Fast Combat rules, in comparison to a full F2D competition.

The operation of the Fast Rules/F2D competition requires fewer judges and mechanics. Judging can be done with as few as two people and one mechanic per pilot. In the “heyday” of CL Combat—the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s—contests were held across the country, nearly every weekend during the flying season. This was likely because of the simplicity of contest operation.

A contest could run smoothly with a batch of stopwatches, a bag full of streamers, a bit of paper or matching index cards, an empty field, and a handful of blood-thirsty competitors. Most competitions, including the AMA Nats, used a single-elimination format. A large field of as many as 64 entrants was routinely reduced to the top four.

The downside to single-elimination competitions was that participants often traveled long distances and then lost in the first 30 seconds of a match. For such fliers, the trip to the contest was not rewarding in terms of flying time. Double-elimination competitions were created to address this problem and to give each pilot more flying time.

With the “kill” feature of the Fast Combat rules, reflights were nearly nonexistent and there was no dispute about who won the match. Triple-elimination competitions with large jackpots followed. These gatherings drew many competitors and began to spring up across the country.

The “granddaddy” of these events was the Bladder Grabber in the Seattle, Washington, area. Other notable events included:

  • Los Angeles – the “Money Nats”
  • Vacaville, California – the “Cuts and Kills”
  • Houston – the “Combat Classic”
  • Chicago – the “Duke Fox Memorial”
  • Riverside, California – the “Riverside Combat Challenge”
  • Tucson, Arizona – the “Top Gun”
  • Las Vegas – an attempted competition often blown out by desert winds

Dick Howe sponsored an annual event for Slow Combat and offered prizes.

All of the aforementioned competitions, except the Bladder Grabber, have disappeared. Perhaps the power and speed of the Nelson .36 engines in the hands of an aging pool of Combat pilots became too much. Possibly, the killer instinct was gone along with the youth of these once fierce young adults. Maybe it was the difficulty in finding Combat equipment or hobby shops. Or, perhaps, it was the rapidly disappearing flying sites and the lack of modeling clubs that caused the events to end.

I would guess that all of these, along with changing personal and family priorities, caused those competitions to disappear. The former renegade Jive Combat Team of “Dirty” Dan Rutherford, Phil Granderson, and Howard “Mr. Clown Suit” Rush, for instance, moved to Precision Aerobatics (continuously doing the same tricks with a model). They have gone from wearing warlike dashikis to white pants and golf attire.

The first really big competition featuring the Fast Rules/F2D format came in 2004 at the AMA Nats, just after the World Championships in Muncie, Indiana. I planned and advertised the competition and its $3,000 prize nearly a year in advance. We drew 51 entries from around the world and ran the competition double-elimination.

The prize money was from donations, as were the engraved sterling silver tankards. AMA provided wall plaques for the top seven finishers. I would estimate that was the last time we had so many competitors in a United States Combat competition.

Trophies and Awards

I have several boxes of old bowling-type trophies cluttering my garage. While these were great to receive, these awards are now in the way. I would prefer a wall plaque that lists the competition and can easily be displayed. Large wall plaques also are bothersome. Engraved sterling silver tankards make handsome displays on the mantle or on a desk and often double as pen and pencil holders.

I still make small wall plaques for the annual Beach Brunch and Fly gathering that I host. Perhaps the photo of these will inspire you to create your own and host a Fast Rules/F2D contest.

More 6mm Muffler Data

By now, most have conducted test flights on a variety of 6mm mufflers and recorded the data. My first attempts with 6mm mufflers included modifying existing Fora and Zalp mufflers.

Russ Hester, a regular flier at Whittier Narrows in California, made inserts for his engines. The inserts were press-fit in, and then set in place by flaring the internal end with a tool similar to a center punch. The modifications took a while, but worked and stayed intact.

One of our former regulars, Dave Cam, came by the field and it piqued his interest. He is a machinist by trade and I convinced him to make inserts for my mufflers, which were all accurate and worked well. I used the mufflers at the March Madness Combat event in Phoenix.

Richard “Stubby” Stubblefield has a low-cost, simple solution for his mufflers. Stubby mixes J-B Weld, puts the exit end of the muffler in the mixture, waits for it to harden, and then drills the muffler out to 6mm.

Don Jensen’s attempt to J-B Weld a washer to the back end did not work; the washer blew away as soon as the engine fired up. Tom Siegler used a longer expansion-chamber-type muffler he obtained from Igor Dementiev of Moldova and it worked well.

The new Fora engines on the Viko and Yuvenko websites have a long, thin muffler similar to the Dementiev unit.

Several new types of mufflers are available from many sources. Some vendors include:

  • Viko Models (Ukraine)
  • Vasyl and Victor Yuvenko (Ukraine)
  • Alberto Parra (Spain)
  • Mike Willcox (USA)

There is more experimenting that must be done to determine the ideal shape and size. Propellers play a huge role in the performance of an engine, and finding the best for 6mm mufflers requires many outings and much data collection.

New England Cup

Mark Rudner, Greg Wornell, Brian Stas, and others will again host the New England Cup contest on August 6 and 7 in Kingston, Massachusetts. This was a fabulous competition last year and you shouldn't miss it.

Dreiländerpokal competitions

I will give a full report on how the American volunteer group of Andy and Bobby Mears, Allen Deveuve, Tom Siegler, and I performed in Sweden, Denmark, and Germany in my next column. All competitions have the maximum number of 50 contestants. The Sources list contains a website that will give you the results before you see my next column.

Sources

Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.