Control Line: Combat
TEN YEARS AGO this time of year, I was attending the British Nationals for the first time. That was back in my more serious days of flying Combat. This included a lot of Fast and Slow and some novelty models powered by .15s. I sure like those little .15-powered models that you could load into your glove compartment (since the trunk and rear seat were already taken over by the "real" airplanes). What I saw in England was a new way of flying Combat. It was flown under FAI rules, and there were a lot of rules. It was the closing days of a Combat we'll not likely ever see again. It was different because the better man almost always won. The luck factor hardly ever played a part, and when it did, it only shifted the ultimate honors amongst a small group of top fliers.
Control Line: Combat
LAST YEAR, I missed one of the greatest contests of all time, and I promised myself I'd make the next one for sure. The contest I was looking forward to wasn't the AMA Nationals or the World Championships-but the Bladder Grabber IX in Kent, WA. There are other good contests, but this has turned into the premier Fast Combat meet of the year. Look at its credentials: triple-elimination Fast Combat with 35 entries and over $5,000 in merchandise awards furnished by Carver Corporation. You can see why it's worth it to fly out to Seattle from other Combat hot spots like Texas and Detroit.
Reno 1984 Nats: CL Combat
SAVED! The Combat events could have easily turned into another fiasco like that experienced at Riverside in 1977. The reason would have been another unacceptable flying site. The "nice" site that was located at Stead where the other Control Line events were held was not available because of a softball tournament. An alternate site was located near the airfield, but it consisted of dirt, rocks, sagebrush, red ants-and more dirt! Event Director Rich Lopez negotiated some flying space in the same area that the RC Helicopters were using, and all was resolved-at least until Wednesday afternoon, when it was decided that the site would have to be moved again.
Control Line: Combat
HOW COME? By now most of you have looked through the World Championship results and discovered that the U.S.A. Combat team didn't blow everyone away. Since there was only one winner, there are at least two reasons each for the other 41 contestants to be eliminated, since it was a full double-elimination contest. For the many spectators that attended the Championships, it was obvious that some of the contestants were just plain lousy or used really substandard equipment. Some of the pilots apparently treated Combat flying as a hobby, even at WC level, and they were subjected to an early retirement.
CL World Championships
THE UNITED STATES hosted its first-ever Control Line World Championships September 17-22 at Westover Air Force Base in Chicopee, MA. The U.S.A. teams sported spiffy new uniforms, but by the end of competition many felt like they were all dressed up with no place to go-except back to the drawing boards. The U.S.A. Aerobatics Team still retained its championship status, but the individual champions in Combat and Aerobatics lost their crowns. Even though some of the U.S.A. team members were disappointed with their performance, it was a capably planned, well-run, and thoroughly enjoyable meeting of the best in competitive modeling.
