RADIO CONTROL COMBAT
Greg Rose, 1312 NW 196th St., Edmond OK 73003
SEPTEMBER 30, 1990 — the first Scale US Open RC (Radio Control) Combat meet was held at Milan City Field in Milan, Michigan.
Four pilots showed up for the event and — typical of Michigan in the fall — it rained all day. We stayed at the field for several hours, huddled under the small roof at the radio-impound stand, and waited for a break in the rain that never came.
We talked about the future of RC Combat, and we wondered out loud when we would get our first Nationals (Nats).
Our question was finally answered almost a decade later — the morning of July 5, 2000 — when the first RC Combat Open-class model was launched over the rain-soaked AMA International Aeromodeling Center at Muncie, Indiana.
Despite morning rain for the first two days of the event, the 2000 Nats RC Combat event was a huge success and a milestone for the RC Combat movement.
The unofficial event drew 47 registered pilots for Scale Combat and 28 registered pilots for the Open class event.
The weather forced a reduction in the total number of combat sorties flown. However, the Scale and Open classes had an impressive combined tally of 580 sorties by the end of the event. That’s a lot of flying in two afternoons and one morning!
When the dust had settled (actually, when the puddles had dried), the contest placings were:
- Scale Combat: 1st — Jeff Harvey (Richmond, IN); 2nd — Jerry Virnig (Horicon, WI); 3rd — Mike Fredricks (Beaver Dam, WI).
- Open B class: 1st — Ron Horton (Billings, MT); 2nd — Joe Chovan (North Syracuse, NY); 3rd — Mike Fredricks (Beaver Dam, WI).
At the end of the event, the Radio Control Combat Association (RCCA) presented the official awards for the 1999 combat season:
- Bob Wallace (Avon, CT) — Scale Class 2105 Champion Award (1999).
- Mike Fredricks — Scale Class 2610 Champion Award (1999) and Open Class Champion Award (1999).
- 1999 Grand Champion Award (highest point total in all events combined) — Mike Fredricks.
Congratulations to Mike for his first-place showings in two of three categories and for taking the Grand Champion honor.
A large event like this requires many helpers and supporters. Special thanks to:
- The people who prepared streamers in a corner of the AMA National Model Aviation Museum because it was too wet to make them outside.
- Dave and Karen Sootsman — maintained radio impound and frequency control.
- Todd Anderson — volunteered as line marshal.
- Tracey Newcomer — kept track of scores and set up the score sheets for each round.
- Chris Shepherd — Open Class Contest Director.
- Scott Anderson — RCCA president, Scale Class Contest Director, and event manager.
- AMA Technical Director Steve Kaluf and AMA District VIII Vice President Sandy Frank — for active support.
- The hardworking officers and members of the RCCA — without whom the event would not have been possible.
Nats Combat sponsors:
- AMA
- Air-Kill Products
- Airtronics
- APC Propellers
- Check Six Plans
- Combat Goblin Models
- Combat Wombat Models
- Hat Trick Models
- Hitec RCD
- Pica
- PowerMaster Fuels
- Triple Threat Hobbies
- TufFlight Models
Scratch-Built Beauty
For the first time, it's a tie. Appropriately, both airplanes flew at the Combat Nats, but they represent vastly different construction techniques.
Jim Bodnar of Kettering, Ohio built the German Blohm & Voss BV155B V2 ultrahigh-altitude fighter. Only two full-scale prototypes of this aircraft were built (and the BV155B V3 used a slightly different engine).
The design's span was so long that even reduced a full 10% from 1/12 scale, the model still has a wingspan of slightly more than 60 inches.
Cut from blue foam and reinforced with carbon fiber, the entire model is covered in lightweight fiberglass laminated with epoxy. Despite its size, the MVVS .26–engine-powered model only weighs 2 pounds, 10 ounces. Jim says the rate of roll is surprisingly good for such a long wingspan because of the large aileron area on the design.
The other Scratch-Built Beauty was also a high-altitude fighter design — the Soviet-designed MiG-7, built by David West of Streamwood, Illinois. David is a prolific scratch-builder and designer, and this is believed to be his third design to win the Scratch-Built Beauty award.
David faced a problem a few weeks before the 2000 Nats: he had lost all the airplanes he was planning to take to the Nats at local events. Having previously scratch-built a balsa MiG-7, David modified his design so it could be constructed mostly of Coroplast™ (corrugated plastic).
Coroplast™ has been used in several Open-class designs and has proven sturdy, low-cost, and quick to build. Slightly more than four weeks after he started the design, Dave left for the Nats with three MiG-7 fighters! Each model was powered by a Norvel .25 and weighed approximately 2 1/2 pounds.
"A Russian engine in a Russian airplane," said Dave. "What could be better?"
Not having the ultralong span of the German design, Dave enlarged his plans 5% from 1/12 scale, resulting in a 44.8-inch span and a 31.2-inch length. The highly tapered wings, typical of Soviet fighter designs of the era, have 306 square inches of wing area.
To avoid tip stall on the wing, David's design used a gradual transition to a higher-lift airfoil at the wingtip rather than washout (which is hard to build into a Coroplast™ wing).
According to David, his MiG-7s performed well at the Nats, and one even survived a head-on midair with Mike Fredricks' Ki-64.
Using Coroplast™ in a Scale design drew a great deal of attention at the Nats; so much so that Dave posted his plans on the RCCA website in the "Workshop" section.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
