Control Line: Combat
Charlie Johnson
Top Twenty
TOP TWENTY. Every year the Miniature Aircraft Combat Association (MACA) compiles a list of the top 20 Combat pilots in the U.S.A. The list is made up of MACA members only, so it requires sifting through a lot of contest results in order to eliminate winners who are non-MACA (if there are any such to be found). Many of us had recommended including non-MACA fliers in the Top 20, but the MACA membership has voted against the idea time after time. I'm in favor of giving credit where it's due, even if someone places on the list without being a MACA member (but we'll probably spell your name wrong, anyway).
MACA Top 20 Combat Fliers for 1985
- Richard Stubblefield — 191 points
- Don Cranfill — 174 points
- Michael Willcox — 157 points
- Paul Smith — 141 points
- Jerry Sabin — 112 points
- Tom Fluker — 102 points
- Eric Parker — 102 points
- Gary Byerly — 86 points
- Wayne Foster — 76 points
- Gary Frost — 74 points
- Larry Driskill — 69 points
- Gil Reedy — 66 points
- Rich Lopez — 65 points
- Ed Brzys — 60 points
- Jerry Capuano — 60 points
- Phil Cartier — 57 points
- John Salvin, III — 57 points
- Clayton Smith — 55 points
- John Stubblefield — 52 points
- Bud Bodzioch — 50 points
- Dan Miles — 49 points
- Bob Oge — 45 points
- Lou Scavone — 45 points
- Pat Willcox — 44 points
- Bob Dalton — 42 points
- Norm McFadden — 41 points
There appear to be more than 20 because of ties and the inclusion of Bob and Norm as alternates, but of the over 300 MACA members, these pilots have won most of the gold.
As I understand the scoring for the Top 20, there are points for the number of rounds required to earn your place. Of course, the more contests you fly the better your chance of placing. A win-minus-loss system, if it were possible, would give a truly accurate picture of the top fliers' winning percentages. Probably the results would change very little regardless of the system used.
A bunch of things delayed getting the Top 20 and the Bladder Grabber winners into print. Both the deadline for submitting my column and the need to publish the '86 Nats stories caused the delay.
Bladder Grabber (BG)
Well, you've seen the Top 20, so now I'll turn to the Bladder Grabber, which is certainly the Big Daddy of all Combat meets. With 48 entrants from all over the country flying a triple-elimination contest for $8,000 in prizes, the BG is news!
Almost 160 matches were flown between noon on Saturday and Sunday evening with very few problems and only a couple of rematches. John Salvin was the Event Director, and he deserves high marks for the fine job. The weather was touchy with moderate temperatures.
Oh! You want the winners? Michael Willcox defeated all of the Open fliers and came away with enough Carver Corp. store equipment to make papa Pat Willcox have to rebuild his house. Michael has learned all the right moves and really deserved the win. If you look at the Nats results you'll see that Michael flew well with the Open contestants and placed in several events.
Fellow Texan Richard Stubblefield placed second, behind the kid, and Howard Rush was third. He was followed by another Northwest flier, John Thompson. Mike Petri from the San Francisco area placed fifth. People seem to keep coming back year after year, and this year's entry list was about double that of the Nationals.
Product Notes
Fox Mfg. sent me a half-dozen of their new Four-Cycle Special glow plugs for testing. Although they're designed for use in four-stroke engines, they are claimed to be very good in two-stroke units, too. I slipped two of the plugs into good-running Glow Combat engines at the Nats and their unsuspecting owners never noticed. The plugs kept running as before.
This weekend I'll find some "rad-running" engines and try the plugs. We've all had those flameout runs or the "burbles" on short maneuvers. A "good" engine will run with a plug you've relegated with a pin, but a poor engine usually won't make it unless the battery is permanently attached to the plug.
The other product was a very nice control handle from Sagan Industries which they call the Pro-Grip. It works well, is comfortable in your hand, and doesn't break when you toss it on asphalt. It is also possible to get a double-handed grip on it if you fly Racing events or poorly trimmed Combat models that pull a lot.
I'm really used to the feel of a Hot Rock handle, so it took a little getting used to, but the Pro-Grip was much better from the start than that "other" handle with the knife-edge grip. (Hot Rock handles have been out of production for a bunch of years.) The line spacing on the handle can be reduced for 3/4A flying or for training new pilots. Both the plugs and handle look like good things to try and should be available through normal dealers. (Or, look for an ad in the MACA Newsletter.)
Stealth Combat
Fanfare, please! And now an event for Everyman: Stealth Combat! Stealth Bombers are all the big thing now, although I guess a Stealth Combat model would give the Event Director fits trying to find it in your crash. The concept is for local flying only; unofficial Combat at the grassroots level.
The model can be any Slow Combat model that everyone in your area has access to. It may be a Carter SC-2, a Lite Streak, a Phantom, or any number of good-flying airplanes. The wing has to be fairly good-sized because we're going to add some accessories.
Regardless of the model chosen, everyone must use the exact same design and power plant, and the dry weights must be the same. The engine should be a mildly tuned Stunt-type with a muffler (that's what makes it a Stealth). Most manufacturers make a nice engine/muffler combination similar to the OS .35. Use nylon props, very mild fuel, and a two-wheel gear so you have an easy towed or released model for solo flying—or two you can race against a friend.
Most of the people I've told about the concept have immediately thought of ways to hop up the combination. Don't think about extracting more performance; instead, try to make the models dead even. Theoretically, a slightly better pilot would have the first full five minutes to chase his opponent and finally get a cut or two. Model or engine performance would have nothing to do with winning matches; pilot skill, cunning, and patience would become everything.
So far this is just a concept, but I have a couple of SC-2s and an OS .35 and a K&B to try. The muffler will be the only way we'll be able to fly any type of Combat plane in this metropolitan area, and I think I'll further disguise it with some tassels like they put on kites—and maybe even a stationary kite or two in the air for more camouflage.
The nylon prop will save money over the wood variety, and if you use a 10-6 it has plenty of flywheel effect to help start the engine. The prop and gear also help when you ricochet off the ground during matches. The object is to keep the cost per match low and the life-expectancy of the model high.
In areas where noise is still not a problem, the VooDoo/Fox combination (I've mentioned it before) would give a little more performance, whereas a full-bodied model would give better protection to the muffler, would balance better, and has the ability to use a stooge for launching.
Flying style would also need modifying. Stealth Combat won't be any more fun than the other variety if practically every match ends in a midair. My suggestion would be to start off slowly doing wingovers, playing leapfrog, and using other simple maneuvers. Stand right next to your opponent, and don't run around or flap your arms.
If you use more wrist action in flying, you'll be able to fly consecutive loops around your opponent's lines without getting tied up. This is the style that looked so impressive during the diesel days in Europe, where they'd do 20 consecutive insides followed by the same number of outsides to keep the lines clear. All this without running a 100-yard dash around the circle and wildly waving their arms, then snagging opponents' lines and locking them together during a tangle.
If I ever had a formal contest using such models and flying style, I think adopting the Cartier Five-Round System would be the best bet. Everyone flies at least five rounds, and the points from all matches are added together with the highest combined score placing first. With such mellow models and pilots tuned for fun, it might be possible for every pilot to fly 10 matches in a day.
In the Cartier System you sit down for the day after two midairs, and both pilots are out completely if either model is cut away. These may be very harsh rules, but banzai-type flying has to be strongly discouraged or the event will just be another 70-mph midair meet.
I've had very little experience with muffled Combat engines, so if there are others flying with mufflers who have a good engine to suggest, please let me know so we can all make smart purchases from the start.
Charlie Johnson 3716 Ingraham St. San Diego, CA 92109
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
