CONTROL LINE: COMBAT
Charlie Johnson 3716 Ingraham St. San Diego, CA 92109
Stels .36
The long-awaited Stels .36 is now a reality. The 7-3/4-oz. engine is available for $190 from Engines From Russia, 100 Lowfield Road, Cale Green, Stockport, Cheshire, England SK3 8JR. As you can see from the picture, it is similar in appearance to the Stels .15, which has been a popular engine choice for F2D for some time.
Like the .15, the Stels .36 has twin rear exhausts that make mounting it as easy as mounting a side-exhaust engine, and it is a drop-in fit for the Fox series of Combat engines. The Stels is quite a bit lighter than the Fox, so check the balance.
Features:
- ABC construction.
- 15 mm crankshaft.
- Screw-in backplate and screw-in head insert.
- Uses conventional glow plugs (an insert for the Nelson plug could be adapted; the latest batch of Stels .15s uses Nelson plugs for a little extra power).
- Compact needle-valve assembly that threads into the case with an unusually broad needle-setting range.
After 10 runs using 40% nitro fuel, the Stels turned the test prop at 20,500 rpm, which would keep up with a very good Fox (an excellent Fox would turn it at about 21,000 rpm). Airspeed was a very legal 15.5 seconds, which is in the 116-mph range. The Stels appears competitive with all but the most reworked Foxes. I don't see it powering a Nelson, but we have only 10 runs to go by. Practically speaking, it did win a Combat match or two, and it pulls a model with a streamer very well. From my vantage point on the edge of the circle, it was also the loudest (116 dB), and it set off the alarms in cars parked close by.
Ed Needham, along with his partner Dave Clarkson, runs Engines From Russia.
Stels 1.5cc (.049)
Ed also brought along another new engine in the 1/2A range, the Stels 1.5cc (.049). It is slightly lighter than a Tee Dee and more or less fits the Tee Dee mounts (the case is shaped a little differently; use 2-56 machine screws and you'll be okay). The little jewel is ABC, like its bigger brothers, with an integral chromed brass liner (no separate sleeve). It also has a bushing rather than a ball bearing on the crank for light weight and less trouble. Standard Cox glow plugs are used; high-compression Tee Dee plugs were fitted to the test engines. Preliminary tests showed that with a 5 x 3 prop and 20% nitro it would run 26,000 rpm.
How fast either engine will ultimately run will be settled a long way down the road — most Americans use more than 20% nitro. Think about all the development that's gone into the Fox engine to make it what it is today.
The meet that wasn't
I was expecting to have a glowing report from the Money Nats, but instead there's only disappointment because of the riots we had out here. A year ago, I had hoped for entries from all over Europe and the Soviet Union, but who would have thought that there would be no U.S.S.R. by Money Nats time? We had about 60 entrants lined up for the meet, including fliers from Canada, Mexico, and Great Britain.
Outlaws team member John Hammersley was looking to take the money back to England with him. Allen Deveuve had prepared eight models and some great engines for John to use. The best he got was a practice match down here in San Diego, but we spent a lovely couple of weeks preparing for the meet.
We caught a lot of fliers before they left home, but unfortunately many of the guys had already flown into town when the meet was canceled. I've flown a long way only to be rained out, but somehow the man-made disasters seem worse. We hope that everyone understands that it would have been impossible to fly a meet under the conditions. No one is more disappointed than I.
One positive aspect of the cancellation was that Glen Wells spent a couple of days down here in San Diego with us. He is the owner of GRW Company, whose products have been featured in this column many times. Glen has taken over a large part of the market because he has good stuff and even better service. He now even accepts Visa and MasterCard.
Glen asked me to mention two products that I had overlooked before:
- A stud/washer/prop-nut combination for the Nelson .36 that will save you from having to bore out all your props.
- A fuel bottle you can use in your pit box. It comes ready to go with heavy-duty vents, is well soldered, and there's a filter to keep the crud out of your bladder. This is an easy way to look professional and make pitting easier.
You can reach Glen at (903) 759-3942, or write to him at P.O. Box 1011, White Oak, TX 75693. Talk to almost any guy at a contest, and you'll get a good recommendation for GRW.
Maverick Enterprises and others
Mark Smith was with Glen for the 25-hour trip and brought along some of the items that his company, Maverick Enterprises, makes. Mark and Willie Wiley seem to be doing about 90% of the engine rework these days—with excellent results. Mark showed me a simple remote needle mount that can be used on either a Fox or Nelson, but it wouldn't work on a Stels because of the screw-in backplate. You can reach Mark at (817) 292-6710 to find out about the remote mount, engines, aluminum engine mounts, or any of his top-notch items for sale.
My June 1992 column featured the Forward Models fuel dump that is currently available and is very easy to install. The one drawback is that you will have stuff hanging on the top of your model that can get ripped off in a hard inverted landing.
Steve Hills demonstrated a shutoff that fits on the backplate of a Fox. This ingenious mechanism uses low-cost items like paper clips, some tin stock, a couple of springs, and a bit of soldering. Most shutoffs require a lot of spring pressure to actually pinch the fuel line, and they also require a lot of force to get the thing to trip. Steve's design requires only a light pull to actuate the clamping part, so it doesn't need heavy swing weights and such. It looks straightforward when Steve demonstrates it, but it's hard to explain. In fact, none of us have yet figured out how it works, but it does work every time.
Buyer beware: Soviet engines
With the breakup of the Soviet Union, a lot of Soviet-made engines are finding their way to the U.S.A. The better items cost a fair amount of money. Dan Rutherford has made several trips to Russia to pick up items. Dave Clarkson drove all the way from England to St. Petersburg to get the last batch of Stels and Cyclon engines. It takes time, money, and determination to get the best engines, not to mention the adventure of getting them out of Russia. I wouldn't chance sending money directly to Russia or expect that someone there will be able to mail something to you. There is now a service similar to Express Mail that I've used to Moscow, but you're taking a chance.
It is very difficult to get high-quality Russian engines. If the price seems a little high, think about what it took to put the engine in your hands. It appears that only junk items are still inexpensive over there, but quality will cost you.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
