CONTROL LINE COMBAT
Rich von Lopez 8334 Colegio Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90045
If any hobby or sport is to successfully attract new participants, it must have exposure to the general public, and its equipment must be readily available. The once-flourishing neighborhood hobby shops have given way to the larger, discount market–type stores and to mail-order houses. There are also people who run cottage-industry mail-order businesses offering specialized products for a specific group of consumers.
Greg Carter's Alanplane kit
One such person is Greg Carter. Greg began making his kits available to local Southern California fliers and now produces foam kits for Combat. He took an Alan Devuye design and produced it as the Alanplane kit. I procured one to see if it would suit my 80 mph Combat needs. You won't get fancy packaging with Greg's kit — only a plain brown cardboard box — but the contents are indeed high quality.
- The inboard and outboard wings are precision-cut. The fit of the spars in the spar notches is snug, with no slop whatsoever. Both top and bottom spars are already tapered, eliminating the planing procedure needed when scratch-building a model.
- The groove is cut out where the K-75 fiberglass arrow shaft is located — again, an accurate fit.
- The BT55 rocket tube comes with balsa end caps ready to be glued in. You will need to fuelproof the tube and cut the access hole. The outboard wing comes with a hole cut for the rocket tube.
- The center block comes predrilled for the arrow-shaft boom and cross spar, and for the metal engine mounts. Mark Smith of Maverick Enterprises — 6513 Woodway Drive, Fort Worth, Texas 76133; Tel.: (817) 292-6710 — will gladly sell you a set of quality motor mounts for $15.
- The stabilator assembly comes with a predrilled platform that makes sewing a hinge quick work. The kit includes a long threaded pushrod; you will need to buy a bellcrank to complete the control system.
Greg offers a one-page instruction sheet with tips (including how to sand the curved wingtips to accurate shape). He asks $29 for each kit; a three-pack of kits is also available for $79. Considering the amount of labor that goes into building a quality kit, the price is justified. Call Greg at (818) 446-0097 to order. Greg's address is 912 East Sandra Street, Arcadia, CA 91006.
I suggested to Greg that he add a bellcrank to the kit and offer a deluxe kit that includes covering material and a set of motor mounts.
Whittier Narrows meet and Alexander "Sasha" Gievesky
During the first week in April 1993, there was a gathering of Team Race pilots and mechanics at the Whittier Narrows facility in South El Monte, California. Teams from as far away as Russia, England, and Canada competed in this two-day contest. Normally you would not find Team Race information in this column, but since Alexander "Sasha" Gievesky was present and had a boxload of Stels engines for sale, mentioning this contest seems appropriate.
Sasha is the Roger Penske of FAI Combat, who provides the power plants for two-time World Champion Slava Believ. If you are interested in World Class Combat equipment, listen to Sasha.
Stels engines and Scott Newkirk
Sasha's AMA Fast Stels motors differed from those Don Repp had tested and reported on in my March and May 1993 Flying Models column. The crankshaft changes that Don recommended had been incorporated into this second run of engines. The head button, however, remains the same and needs the modification shown on page 78 in the May 1993 issue.
Each unit costs $170. These motors can be obtained from Scott Newkirk at (206) 774-6456, 560 Paradise Lane, Edmonds, Washington 98020.
Scott has produced some excellent aftermarket parts for Fox Combat Specials for a number of years, but has decided to become the U.S. distributor for Stels. Other Stels products available are:
- .049 at $72
- .15s with the required muffler for 1993 at $200
The U.S. market for FAI .15s is very limited, given that we prefer .35- and .36-powered events. If the rules ever stabilize and quit making equipment obsolete, we might see increased FAI interest in the United States. Personally, I love the way FAI models perform; after the initial investment for engines, the operating and maintenance cost is rather low. Ten-percent-nitro fuel is readily available and cheap. Quality competition props are obtainable for $5 from a variety of sources. It is unfortunate that we do not have more competitions for FAI combat in the USA.
I purchased two .049 Stels and have begun preliminary testing. They are as good as my best Tee Dees and show potential of being much faster. John McCollom says he had one turning a nylon Grish 5 x 3 at 28,000 rpm on 50% nitro and several others at 26,000 and 27,000 rpm. My numbers aren't in that range yet — I am running them on 40%, and they have only a couple of tankfuls of fuel run through them. By my next column they will have been thoroughly tested. Scott plans to make an insert that accommodates a Nelson glowplug.
Fuel shutoffs
Scott is expecting to have an American-designed, Russian-built fuel shutoff for Fast Combat models. They should be in his hands by the time you read this column. The price is $20. Sasha said that he would develop some compact fuel shutoffs that incorporate a needle valve assembly in the same unit. Watch for a bonus to Combat when this is accomplished.
1993 major triple-elimination Fast Combat contests — season review
- Top Gun (Tucson, Arizona):
1st — Rich Stubblefield 2nd — Mark Smith 3rd — Dave Stewart
- Money Nats (Los Angeles, California):
1st — Greg Machen 2nd — Paul Baluch 3rd — Ken Manchester
- Bladders Grabber (Seattle, Washington):
1st — Alan Devuye 2nd — Russ Growers 3rd — Rich von Lopez
- Duke Fox Memorial (Chicago, Illinois):
1st — David Owen 2nd — Iskandar Talia 3rd — Russ Graves
- USA F2D Team Trials (Houston, Texas):
The three-man team selected to travel to Shanghai, China in 1994:
- Chuck Reade
- Ward Owen
- Mike "Emo" Wilcox
Twenty-two pilots battled to make the team. Their work has just begun, as it takes a great effort to represent the United States in world competition.
News Flash: Contact Scott Newkirk for information on the second generation of fuel shutoffs with an integral needle valve assembly. This Russian-made safety device is $30.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
