Control Line: Combat
Charlie Johnson 3716 Ingraham St. San Diego, CA 92109
New gear and offers
The first offering of the fabulous Steve Hills Arrowplane comes from The Core House. Send them $15.95 and you'll get the wing cores, plans, and a carbon/glass arrow shaft. Shipping and handling per order $3, and a really nice catalog is available for merely a buck more. If you don't have The Core House's address written on the wall of your shop, get out your felt‑tip marker and copy this down:
- The Core House, 760 Waltonville Rd., Hummelstown, PA 17036.
Gotcha series models are still available, with the 460 Gotcha and 460 Gotcha Deluxe being very popular around Fast Combat circles.
Winter is the best time to get your orders in for kits for the coming season. All the manufacturers report booming business, with Doc's Generix facing a backlog because of all the custom work they do.
Tips and shop stories
A tip I picked up in one of the newsletters concerned cutting foam cores. The person said he had dispensed with using nichrome wire and was using .012 or .014 music wire, because it cut more easily and was inexpensive. Now you know what to do with all of your old Scale Racing lines.
Duke Fox tells a story about how he asked an employee to make up a set of flying lines. The guy found the roll of platinum wire used to make glow plug elements and made a very expensive set of lines out of it.
Houston Classic recap
I expected to have some wonderful pictures from the Houston Classic, but it got rained out Sunday afternoon — when I finally had a chance to get the camera out.
The model that Greg Hill is holding in the picture is the one used against Don Cranfill in one of the best Combat matches I've ever seen. Greg turned right around and flew another match with Mike Petri that was almost as exciting. Unfortunately for Greg, he lost both matches.
Mike Petri was flying in the next round when he got a strong electrical shock and crashed his model. Within 20 minutes the storm was going full force, and the field was under a foot of water.
This was the first major meet to be rained out and a real shame, because things were going so well.
Upcoming events
- January 13–14, 1990 — Tucson, AZ. The Arizona contest will be the first thousand-dollar meet of the 1990 season.
- Money Meet — Los Angeles (date to follow).
- Bladder Grabber and Texas Classic — to close the season.
About half the people I talked to about the idea of a formal Combat tour seemed to be in favor, while the other half seemed to want just to let things roll along naturally. Nature seems to have done pretty well with four major meets. The Nats falls in line with some big-time prizes; money would be what a dedicated flier could ask. As is the case with the Free Flight community, the Nats is esteemed about third or fourth in line behind the other special meets. It seems that the Nats should really have a very important role in determining the true National Combat Champion.
Journals and historical resources
Remember the scene in The Graduate where the guy tells Dustin Hoffman about plastics? If he'd been a modeler who'd glimpsed the future he would have said carbon fiber. Many of us haven't seen, or are not aware of, two journals that I believe are great documentation sources for those interested in aircraft manufactured from the early 1900s to about 1940.
The two journals are:
- WW I Aero (covers planes from 1900 to 1910), and
- Skyways (covers planes from 1920 to about 1940).
Both journals are published quarterly by World War I Aeroplane, Inc. They are intended for use by aviation enthusiasts of all types, including full-scale builders, historians, museum curators, collectors, restorers, and the modeler who wants more than just restoration information on early vintage aircraft.
In addition to the two journals, World War I Aeroplane has a 40-page Master Materials List that tabulates an inventory of full-scale (not model airplane) plans of both planes and engines. Some of the plans are copies of originals, full or partial sets; others are redrawn originals, while still others are developed as correctly and accurately as possible from available drawings, manuals, and photographs.
The journals contain technical drawings, scans of photographs, scale modeling material, information on paint and color, historical research, and many other features of interest. These publications would be a welcome addition to the aviation library of anyone deeply interested in vintage aircraft.
For full details on membership/subscription rates, write to:
- World War I Aeroplane, Inc., 15 Crescent Road, Poughkeepsie, NY 12601.
Composites, materials, and adhesives
Model Research Labs (MRL) and Bradley Model Products would both like to show you the way to high performance through the use of composites.
- Model Research Labs: 25108 Marguerite #160, Mission Viejo, CA 92692 (Curt Stevens at MRL sends out a small book; send a stamped, self-addressed envelope).
- Bradley Model Products: 1337 Pine Sap Ct., Orlando, FL 32825 (Jim Bradley sends a newsletter/information sheet; send an SASE).
MRL had a section on adhesive tests for bonding cured carbon fiber to wood. Adhesives were rated 1 to 10 (10 best):
- Plastis‑Stic (made by PIC): 10
- Plex (made by Pacer): 7
- Some 24‑hour epoxy: 2.9
- Yellow five‑minute epoxy: 1.8
- Model cement: 1.0
When using adhesives on carbon, clean grease and fingerprints off the carbon with acetone or a similar solvent before applying the adhesive. Carbon doesn't do much good if it doesn't stick to what you want to strengthen.
MRL also provided a strength-to-weight chart of building materials (approximate index):
- Balsa / spruce / fiberglass: about 4–5
- Kevlar: 3.82
- Carbon: 3.95
- Carbon fiber pultrusion: 4.85
- Boron: 5.85
Notes:
- Boron is not suggested for casual use — fibers are hazardous and require sophisticated handling.
- These ratings are relative to both weight and strength. Spruce is about three times as strong as balsa, but it's also about three times as heavy. You won't be making 80-layer laminates that require special drills and saw blades to work on.
Useful products and details:
- Carbon tow: comes on a roll and can be used to reinforce spars or many types of joints; like soft, flat string with either 6,000 or 12,000 strands.
- Carbon fiber fabric: unidirectional material with all the carbon aligned in one direction; threads of S‑glass are woven across to hold it in place.
- S‑glass: successor to regular fiberglass and about 45% stronger. Available in a 3.5‑oz cloth and a new ultralight 0.5‑oz version that is lighter than silk.
- Kevlar cloth: very tough but not very rigid. Available in lightweight (29 g/yd), midweight (59 g), and heavyweight (176 g) for laying up fuselages, cowls, etc. Kevlar is difficult to cut; special scissors are available through MRL for about $10.
- Kevlar thread (.010 in.): useful for wrapping joints and reinforcing spar assemblies; provides impact and vibration resistance.
- Carbon fiber pultrusion: about 0.035 in. thick with a low epoxy content (~28%), unidirectional. Good for locking spars in foam wings but may be overkill in some applications.
- Mylar covering (from MRL): weighs 3/4 oz. per 1,000 sq. in. Curt claims it is stable and doesn't sag. Current coverings (e.g., FasCal) often lose trim after a weekend in sun or heat; better coverings exist overseas.
Both MRL and Bradley Model Products have many products and information sheets — send them a stamped, self-addressed envelope for fact sheets.
Engine note
The Wisniewski ACG engine is available. The price is going to be $110 per copy. Setups are available through Pete Athans as well as Mike Wisniewski. If you don't already have their numbers, drop me a line and I'll send them — we'd rather have these guys in the shop than on the phone.
I'll be out of the country for the entire month of February, so if you have information or comments, you'd better write fast.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
