RC Combat
Greg Rose, 1312 NW 196th St., Edmond OK 73003
NORMALLY IT WOULD take wild horses to keep me away from the Paris, Texas, RC Combat meet. As it turns out, wild horses or a house fire seem to work equally well.
Four days before the Paris meet I had a major house fire that almost completely destroyed my home. The first thing I want to do is thank all of you in the RC Combat community who have expressed your concern. We were fortunate that the fire occurred without loss of human life, and although the process is not hassle free, insurance will cover anything in the house.
One interesting difference between RC fliers and non-RC fliers showed up in conversations after the fire. Non-RC fliers wanted to know what started the fire; RC fliers wanted to know if I used Li-Poly batteries!
No, I didn't use Li-Poly batteries (although all my Electrics were in the house). The problem was a simple kitchen fire that found a way to get really big.
Combat-wise, the good news is that my fleet was in the unattached workshop and was not affected by the fire. However, the bad news is that my workshop is now being used for storage while we rebuild the house, so I may not be able to fly in many meets this season.
Last weekend I went to a Slow Survivable Combat (SSC) meet in Texas, and it drove me crazy to sit one out and only take pictures. I promised myself I would at least catch some of the later meets this season.
Speaking of photographs, I decided to use the loss of my trusty—but now very rusty—35mm camera as an excuse to vault myself into the 21st century and go digital on the photos. From this column forward, I will deal solely with digital pictures, which is an entirely new area for me. Please bear with me as I become accustomed to the differences, such as the variation in shutter-response times!
That's enough about the fire; let's get on to that great SSC meet in Texas.
I took my new digital camera and went to the second annual SSC Combat meet held by the Texoma R/C Modelers at the Pete Darter RC Flying Field in Sherman, Texas. Twenty Combat fliers showed up for this SSC-only event—an excellent turnout, especially considering the weather which featured dark gray skies and a stiff wind that finally started to fade later in the day.
Something different for this meet was the club's use of a handicap system to entice new Combat fliers to mix it up with some of the more experienced pilots. The raw scores were reported to the Radio Control Combat Association, but the club worked a handicap into the scores—as much as 250 points per round. That is equal to 2½ cuts per round added to an inexperienced flier's score. That's a big help in a 10-round event!
Did the handicap work? As far as mixing up the standings a little, it worked fairly well. For enticing inexperienced fliers to participate in matches with Combat veterans, it worked great!
Four of 20 fliers were Combat newbies—that's 20%! Another 25%–30% only had a small amount of Combat experience, so it looks as though the handicap system was a great success for everyone involved!
The event itself was great. Initially, 10 complete rounds were flown in three heats; later two heats per round were flown when the number of available airplanes dwindled as the event proceeded. At least it was easier to grab a judge in the later rounds!
Some big names such as Lee Liddle and Eric Wenger showed up to play, and the number of fliers worked out perfectly. With or without a handicap, Eric Wenger walked away with first place. He averaged slightly more than 505 points per round, despite having a midair with his father Evan. It's rumored that they still can't agree on who hit whom, but they can agree that they each have one less airplane.
In second place—again with or without a handicap—was Lee Liddle. Lee averaged slightly more than 457 points per round to grab a hard-fought second place.
Lee participated in one of the highlights of the event in the eighth round, when his streamer became the focal point of young Shane Connolly and his Cobra. Intent and focused on the prize in front of him, Shane latched onto Lee's tail and followed him down to the deck trying to get a prized piece of streamer. Only a few feet off the ground, Shane broke away for a second in midfield.
To tell you the truth, I hadn't paid much attention to the Texoma R/C Modelers' midfield windsock and its supporting pole. It's not very tall, it's really skinny, and it would be hard to hit. Apparently Shane Connolly hadn't really spent a lot of time thinking about the windsock pole either. I'm willing to bet that few of the pilots had.
In an excellent demonstration of physics, Shane proved that the pole and the airplane could not exist in the same space at the same time by whacking the pole right on his model's wing root. Shane was left with an asymmetric model that looked like one of those CL Speed airplanes plus a number of little pieces scattered about midfield.
He let his prey get away that time, but we'd better watch this guy. If he can latch onto Lee's tail 3 feet off the ground, he can latch onto anyone's tail!
In addition to providing the entertainment for everyone, Shane also posted his best score ever. His 2,112 showing—3,612 handicap score—put him in eighth place in raw scores and sixth place using the handicap system. Placing one spot ahead of Shane in raw and handicap scores was his dad Bo Connolly.
In raw scores, third and fourth places went to Dane McGee and Pat Willcox; using the handicap system, it was Pat in third followed by Dane in fourth. Regardless, they flew great meets, with Dane grabbing eight cuts in one round! Bob Leone, who came in fifth in raw scores (and 12th in handicapped standings), also flew an eight-cut round!
It was a great meet at a great flying site—except perhaps for that one skinny, little pole at midfield—and everyone seemed to have a great time!
Until next time, fly safely, fly Combat, unplug your toaster when not in use, and always be sure to check your six! MA
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
