Another summer, another World Championships in the books
By Mark Rudner
[email protected]
Event overview
The 2014 Control Line World Championships were held in Włocławek, Poland, August 9–16. This contest was special for me because it marked the 20th anniversary of my first time on the team as a junior in Shanghai, China, in 1994. Much has changed since then, but many of the faces are still the same.
As competition neared, Team USA looked strong. The team was selected at the Team Trials in the summer of 2013.
Team USA
- Josh Ellison
- Richard Stubblefield
- Mark Rudner
- Sasha Nadein (Junior team member)
Josh has been training hard and is one of the toughest pilots in the country; he burned through roughly 10 gallons of fuel preparing his airplanes and himself for the championships. Richard Stubblefield is one of the most consistent fliers to ever wiggle the handle—when he steps into the circle, you can count on a good, hard fight.
We set a record with approximately 140 years of combined combat experience between us, but when it came time for the rubber to meet the road, none of us could get much traction.
Preparations and setbacks
To help with final preparations, my dad and mechanic, Chuck Rudner, flew to Copenhagen, Denmark, a week before the competition. Ten new models had arrived, so we had our work cut out for us trying to get them trimmed before the trip to Poland. The wind was intense all weekend (that’s the rule rather than the exception in Denmark), but there was no rain and we managed to get all of the airplanes straight with time to spare.
Barely a week before the competition, disaster struck. Josh Ellison got a spider bite that landed him in the hospital. Although he wanted to make his first World Championships, the doctors strongly advised him not to travel, and he stayed home for proper treatment. The first alternate, Andy Minor, could not attend on such short notice.
My dad, who was already en route to Poland, was also our team’s second alternate pilot, but because Josh’s problem occurred after Chuck left for Europe, Chuck had no equipment with him to fly. Josh graciously gave all of his top-of-the-line, ready-to-go equipment to his mechanic, Allen DeVeuve, to take to Poland for my dad to use. Big thanks to Josh and Allen for pulling that off!
As soon as Allen arrived with Josh’s equipment, he and my dad prepared airplanes to test. Meanwhile, I hitched a ride from Copenhagen down to Włocławek with Henning Forbech of the Danish team. Henning and I have shared some nice training sessions since I moved here; it’s interesting to practice with different people, and Henning frequently has good and helpful observations.
Competition highlights
With the revised lineup of Chuck Rudner, Richard Stubblefield, Sasha Nadein, and me, Team USA still looked great on paper. In competition, however, results were mixed.
- Sasha Nadein had a good showing in her World Championships debut: one win, two losses.
- Richard Stubblefield looked solid but didn’t get the breaks he needed.
- My dad gave Igor Trifonov (three-time World Champion) a real run for his money in a hard-fought match in round two. Igor won, but afterward was out of breath and said he never expected that a 66-year-old could fly like that!
With Team USA out after three rounds, we turned our attention to supporting other friends in the contest.
Radik Magzianov (flying on the Israeli team, based in Miami) had airline trouble—the airline lost his equipment on the way to Poland. He managed to scrape together a full set of gear and continued, looking strong, but in a heartbreaker his helmet’s chin strap detached after he had the win sewn up, resulting in disqualification. Radik is on a good path and will surely come back stronger.
Alex Prokofiev (from New Jersey) turned up the heat with some of the most impressive flying of the contest. He’d been training hard and keeping his equipment in top form. He even told me last winter that after a big snowstorm he spent an hour shoveling a path to the circle so he wouldn’t miss a weekend of flying. Despite that dedication, a sequence of strange events stopped his ride just short of the podium.
Coming down to the final three, Henning Forbech (Denmark) flew Rudi Königshofer (Austria) for a berth in the finals. Henning had flown well all week and looked good coming into the match, but midway through Rudi’s model cut Henning’s lines. It became clear that Henning’s fuel shutoff had failed to engage, the airplane flew out of sight, and Henning was disqualified.
In the final, Stanislav Chornyy (Ukraine) put on a fine display and captured his second World Championship title. Rudi and Henning had a flyoff for silver and bronze. Henning came back with a vengeance and captured the silver; Rudi took home the bronze, aided by the help of Aleksey Topunov of Chicago, who was there as his mechanic.
Issues and looking ahead
Some issues with the rules were exposed—particularly the meaning of "intentional" regarding stepping out of the circle—which will have to be clarified before next season.
The next Control Line World Championships will be in Australia in 2016. If you want to get there, start preparing now. See you at the team trials!
Sources
- Control Line World Championships 2016 — www.worldchampionship2016.org
- Miniature Aircraft Combat Association (MACA) — www.maca.hobby-site.com:3535
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
