RADIO CONTROL COMBAT
Greg Rose, 1312 NW 196th St., Edmond OK 73003
The RC Combat Nationals held in Muncie, Indiana, is in the record book, and we are approximately halfway through the 2004 RC Combat Championship Series. The idea for an RC Combat series was the brainchild of Lou Melancon, who is president of the Radio Control Combat Association (RCCA) SIG.
2004 Championship events (scheduled)
- Lone Star State Championship — Paris, Texas
- Havoc Over Hamilton — Hamilton, Ohio
- Dixie Southern Fried Combat — Atlanta, Georgia
- Great Lakes Combat Championship — Lennox, Michigan
As I write this, the Slow Survivable Combat (SSC) extravaganza marathon in Richmond, Indiana, and the RC Combat Nationals were just completed, so now should be a good time to see where we stand in the events.
Lone Star State Championship — Paris, Texas
The opening event in Paris, Texas, was huge, with 69 pilots showing up for the meet.
Open B (53 pilots)
- 1st: Lee Liddle (Texas)
- 2nd: Eric Wenger (Oklahoma)
- 3rd: Mike Fuller (Indiana)
Scale Combat (20 pilots)
- 1st: Kirk Adams (Maryland)
- 2nd: Don Howard (Oklahoma)
- 3rd: Mike Fredricks (Wisconsin)
SSC (provisional, 62 pilots)
- 1st: Eric Wenger
- 2nd: Lee Liddle
- 3rd: Danny Vaught (Arkansas) — narrowly beat Mike Fredricks by 10 of 2,324 points
Havoc Over Hamilton — Hamilton, Ohio
Thirty-two combat fliers battled high winds and each other both days of Havoc Over Hamilton in central Ohio.
Open B (21 pilots)
- 1st: Mike Fredricks
- 2nd: Brian Gilkey (Michigan)
- 3rd: Don Veres II
Scale Combat (14 pilots)
- 1st: Kirk Adams
- 2nd: Brian Gilkey
- 3rd: Don Veres II
SSC (24 pilots)
- 1st: Chris Quinn (Tennessee)
- 2nd: Kirk Adams
- 3rd: Brian Gilkey
Dixie Southern Fried Combat — Atlanta, Georgia
The Dixie meet drew 34 fliers. SSC was the most popular event.
Open B (23 pilots)
- 1st: Michael Willcox (California)
- 2nd: Lee Liddle (Texas)
- 3rd: Larry Killingsworth (Georgia)
Scale Combat (10 pilots)
- 1st: Andy Panoncillo (Indiana)
- 2nd: Mike Willcox
- 3rd: Kirk Adams
- 1st: Brian Gilkey
- 2nd: Scott Gilkey
- 3rd: Rick Wise
- 1st: Brian Gilkey
- 2nd: Scott Gilkey
- 3rd: Don Veres II
- 1st: Brian Gilkey
- 1st: Chris Quinn — 3,540 points
- 2nd: Kirk Adams — only 48 points behind Chris (less than half a cut)
- 3rd: Lee Liddle — three cuts away from Kirk
- 1st: Eric Wenger
- 2nd: A. J. Seaholm (Missouri) — newly married
- 3rd: Mike Fredricks
- 1st: Lee Liddle
- 2nd: Brian Gilkey — exactly 100 points (one cut) behind Lee
- 3rd: Don Howard — less than one cut away from the competition
- Midwest Championships — Waverly, Nebraska (site most famous for Lake Fredricks that dominates the flying field)
- Jetero Field meet — near Houston, Texas (notable for bees; honey is strictly banned at the site)
- Pearl Harbor Classic — Palomar, California (final meet of the season)
The Great Lakes meet enjoyed good weather. Although only 10 pilots attended, nearly every pilot flew in all three classes.
Open B (8 pilots)
Scale (7 pilots)
SSC (9 pilots)
Brian Gilkey swept the Great Lakes event with first place in all three categories.
SSC provisional and Richmond Probusters event
As of this writing, SSC is still provisional. A special event had to be arranged to fly the class in coordination with the Nats. The Richmond, Indiana, Probusters — in many ways the premier RC Combat club in the United States — hosted the special one-day SSC contest the day before the Nats. Twenty-eight fliers participated.
RC Combat Nationals — Muncie, Indiana
Less than 24 hours and 70 miles away, the RC Combat Nats began.
Open B (33 competitors)
Scale Combat (17 fliers)
Upcoming events and final notes
It's been an exciting Championship Series so far. At this point we have three more 2004 events to go.
In all, it looks as though the 2004 Championship Series will be a great success!
That's all for this issue. Until next time, build straight, fly Combat, and be sure to check your six! MA
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
