Control Line: Combat
Charlie Johnson
Bladder Grabber (Premier CL Combat Event)
The premier CL Combat event, the Bladder Grabber, will be held at the Boeing Space Center in Seattle, WA, July 7–8. The triple-elimination Fast Combat tournament will feature the cream of the crop going for $5,000 in merchandise. Last year several former national champions, as well as the reigning world champion, competed.
This meet is sponsored by Carver Corporation, which donates the high-tech stereo components awarded as prizes. Howard Rush is once again acting as contact/promotion person. Call (206) 823-6018 for information on the meet and accommodations.
Seguin, TX Meet
There is also a giant meet at the 1981 Nationals site in Seguin, TX, featuring just about everything you’d find at a Nats. Unfortunately for Fast Combat pilots, this meet is the same weekend as the Bladder Grabber. Except for a few who fly to distant meets, the drive from Texas to Washington State is unrealistic, so one meet shouldn’t affect the other.
Nationals in Reno
Our Nationals will be held in Reno this year, which should prove interesting for several reasons. First, the altitude should affect the power and performance of all models. I’ve never flown a Combat model above 3,000 feet, but mile-high fliers from Denver warn us we’re in for a surprise. Be sure to bring a few different fuels and some props with wider blades, more pitch, and larger diameter. The right combination is yours to find.
Rich Lopez will be Event Director this year, so organization should be first class. The basic judge/helper corps has already been selected, but there’s always room for more help. Call Rich at (213) 670-1656 if you want to volunteer.
The events are tentatively scheduled as full double-elimination. The jury system will again be used: a five-man panel will be selected before flying starts, and when a protest is filed three of the five will be selected to form the jury.
The flying site is reportedly very nice. It is less than a quarter-mile from the other Control Line events and shouldn’t have any “freeway” traffic through our area like last year.
Cox will once again sponsor 1/2A Combat, which will be run on Thursday and feature the same nice prizes as in the past. The unofficial 1/2A event has drawn almost as many entries as the official events and has always been a lot of fun.
CL World Championships (Westover AFB)
The CL World Championships will be held at last year’s Nationals site (Westover AFB, Chicopee, MA), September 17–22. Volunteer help is needed. Contact Micheline Madison at AMA HQ if you’re interested: (703) 435-0750. We want to make this a well-run championships—the Europeans expect professionally run meets, and it will take a lot of work and planning.
FAI judges will include:
- Rich Lopez (USA)
- Richard Evans (England)
- Guido Michiels (Belgium)
Besides volunteering, you can help the three current team members and the World Champion by bringing spare models and flying practice Combat with our big four. I’m sure they’ll be glad to try one of your models, and you’ll get the experience of Combat with the best in the world. Westover is so large that finding extra practice circles will be no problem.
Combat Training Kites (Mackey’s Trade Wind Kites)
While attending the grand opening of the Whittier Narrows Control Line site, I met Charles Mackey, a long-time CL aficionado. He markets a neat combat kite through Mackey’s Trade Wind Kite Company, P.O. Box 2698, Mission Viejo, CA 92690. These aren’t run-of-the-mill kites—they fly a lot like an FAI Combat model.
Rich Lopez and I decided they’d make wonderful trainers for Combat: almost indestructible, require no building time, and can be flown where noise is a problem or when it’s too windy for serious test flying. These two-line monsters must be flown to be appreciated, and you must know how to fly a two-line model—or you’ll end up in the ground just as fast as a greenhorn with a Combat model.
We flew kite-against-kite. For defense-only, a kite could give a powered model fits. Its offensive capabilities are limited because it flies best in the downwind third of the circle, but in the right hands it might score an upset. Besides sharpening reflexes, it builds arm and wrist strength, which is important in Fast Combat where models pull hard enough to wear you down after many flights.
Racing fliers will also like these kites because they can practice whipping. The kites retail for $24.95 and come with approximately 100 ft. of Kevlar lines (which you should unwind periodically if you do many loops in one direction). I let some non-modelers try my kite to see if they could fly it; it looks like the training period is about the same as for a regular model—except you can crash lots of times without damage. I suspect that once you can fly the kite you could also fly the powered model.
Russian-Style Motor Mounts and Plans
The Russians used neat metal motor mounts at the Poland CL World Championships. Myles Lawrence made a few sets for himself based on those Russian mounts. Rich Lopez followed up by having several hundred sets cast. These are well-finished mounts allowing about a half-inch change in engine location for balance purposes.
Ordering details:
- Mounts: $8.50 plus $1.00 postage and handling per order
- Extra spacers: $1.50 each
- Special requests: mounts available undrilled and untapped, or with only the front holes drilled and tapped
Rich also has plans for his Fast Combat model and the FAI-size model at $3 per set, postage included.
Engine Update
The engine Bob Oge set up (mentioned in my May 1984 column) continues to run well and is 100 to 1,000 rpm faster than its stock sister engine, depending on prop and fuel. It’s taken longer to accumulate hours than I thought—putting 8–10 runs on a Fast Combat model is about my limit for a day. I’ve been logging 30–40 minutes of air time with the FAI and about the same with the kite.
Neither engine is hard on plugs, and they’re not even temperamental with some of my odd rebuilder (pin method) plugs found at the bottom of my flying box (there was so much junk in there most people didn’t think there was a bottom!). The engine Oge had has far superior compression—no surprise since the liner is chromed and the piston carefully fitted. I believe starting is enhanced by the good fit. It’ll be interesting to see how the fit holds up when the usual ration of dirt is run through the engine during some unscheduled pit stops.
Contact
Charlie Johnson 3716 Ingraham St. San Diego, CA 92109 Phone: (619) 273-6530
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
