Monday after driving with Ron Caravona, Ben Morrow, Chris
Quinn, Doug Bailey, and Don Pruitt all night from Paris to
Nashville and then down to Atlanta. While the contest is still
fresh in my mind I will try to give you a feel for what the largest
Combat Contest in the United States is like.
The Lone Star Championships is the first event of the 2004
National Championship Series. Organized and run by Kelvin
"Sandman" McFadden the event is the premier combat contest in
the country. The Paris RC Club did an outstanding job with
registration, technical inspection, radio impound, and
refreshments and we appreciate greatly all that they did. Donald
Niesler of Donald's Hobbies had a fully stocked hobby shop on
site and also handled the construction of the matrix and tallying
the final scores.
For Don Pruitt and I the trip began when we left Atlanta at 3:
30pm on Thursday with 9 SSC planes, two scale planes, and a
ton of support equipment all crammed into the back of my
Montero. 299.7 miles later we pulled into Ben Morrow's
driveway in Dickson, Tennessee where we met up with Ron,
Doug and Chris. By 9:15 we had transferred everyone's
equipment into Doug's trailer. It was filled with 47 planes and a
lot of optimism as we set out in the motor home for Paris. We
drove through Memphis, Little Rock, Arkadelphia and then
Texarkana before jumping off the interstate to take Texas
Highway 82 into Paris.
At 6:15 am Friday we pulled into the Holiday Inn parking lot and
wearily trudged into Denny's for breakfast. We saw Petr Bachan
in the parking lot and asked him to join us. Inside we met John
Stewart and his young son Trent. They had arrived a day earlier
from Chula Vista, California. We also met Chuck Waller of San
Antonio in Denny's and swapped combat stories for a few
minutes. After a hearty breakfast we all headed out to the flying
field.
At the field we unpacked the entire trailer and began putting
planes together and visiting with the pilots who had arrived
earlier. Mike and Lori Fuller were there, as were Jay Fromm and
Bob Loescher. The Arizona group had gotten in earlier and
Proppy Jon Armstrong, Jared "the Family Man" Lee, and Al
Tomlinson were setting up. Later in the morning Larry
Killingsworth and Wayne Voyles pulled in from Atlanta. Bob
Leone and Mark LaBoyteaux had Bill "Cajun" LaBoyteaux in
their pit area and a passel of A10 like planes, 2 P38s and a F7F
Tigercat, and the list of fliers kept on growing all day long.
We test flew, checked out each others equipment, and shared
information continuously all day long. The five prominent
technological advances were:
- Wayne Voyles vacuum formed scale (SSC) fuselage
- Chris Quinn's innovative aluminum rail fuselage for his
Russian IL2 - Lee Liddle's new Cobra evolution of his famous Falcon
- Proppy Jon's mousse cans including some sized for Open A
.15s. - Roy "Which Way is Up" Appleton's new foam wing cores
for SSC Cobras with EPP foam leading edges reasonably
priced and beautifully cut.
Registration and tech inspection were going on all afternoon and
almost everyone at the field had gotten their planes weighed and
inspected in the afternoon. By 6:00 we had tested all our planes,
set our engines, and were ready for dinner. Kelvin McFadden,
Paris Contest Organizer set us all up for dinner at Chiles.
Saturday morning started with breakfast at Dennys and then
arriving at the field by 7:30am. There was almost nowhere to
park a starting stand in the pit area. The flight line was filled from
one of the runway to the other.
The sky was overcast with a threat of rain showers, but the wind
was down, and the forecast for the day included mild
temperatures. As I walked up and down the flight line I ran into
old friends and made new ones. Bill Giepel had driven down
from Wisconsin. Mike Fredricks flew into Dallas and rented a
Sebring convertible that would surely clear his 6' 7" frame with
the top down. The Vaughts from Arkansas, Daniel, dad Craig,
and mom Tricia were all there and by late afternoon the lone
Vaught from Louisiana would be coming in. We also got to finally
meet Victor "the Snake" Shamulus and girlfriend Victoria, from
California, early in the morning.
Joe Thompson, Bert Dodson, Mike McGraw, Pat & Mike
Willcox, and Bo Connelly had made it in from the Houston area.
Travis and Jared Hanson had arrived with Jimbo Bienvenu in
tow. Lee Liddle, Roy Appleton, JP Morere, Cash Hargett, Ron
Koronek, Brandon Chesney and Dad as well as many others had
gotten into town from the North Dallas Area. Eric Wenger and
Don Howard got in from Oklahoma and they brought a bunch of
new fliers with them. I got to meet Eric's dad, Evan, early on
Saturday and like his son he is a very gracious man.
Registration went smoothly and by 10:00 we were ready to start
flying. There were 52 pilots in Open B. Four heats were set up
in each of the six rounds, so there would be 12-13 planes and
pilots per heat.
In Open B there were Avengers, Falcons, Cobras, Piranhas,
Bandits, and a number of other designs. Mike Fredricks used his
Bat Trick wing on a foam fuselage. There were even a couple of
SPADs in the mix. One of the things that sticks in my memory is
George Cleveland putting a 64" GRS Falcon up in heat six with a
Fora .15 against .25-.30 sized ships. He not only kept up with
the larger engine planes, he got five cuts.
A new engine is beginning to make a name for itself in Open B
and Scale 2610. It is the Webra .25 GT. At $80 it is comparably
priced and will turn a MA 9X4 up to 20,000 rpm on 30% nitro
fuel if broken in properly and equipped with a mousse can. Look
for many more fliers using this engine in the future. They are
available immediately from combat flier Wayne Kackley's hobby
shop, Danielle's Hobbies in the Nashville area.
After six hard fought rounds, Lee Liddle took first place In Open
B, with excellent flying skills and the superb Cobra S4. Lee has
changed the airfoil slightly on the Cobra from what he used on the
Falcon and also uses a separate elevator servo. The Falcon is an
Elevon whereas the Cobra is a conventional aileron and elevator
design. Lee uses two servos on the ailerons and one on the
elevator.
The carnage in Open B was surprisingly light. Most folks
attribute this to flying in "big sky" with the Combat Engagement
line pushed farther away from the pilots. At many of the Mid
West flying sites the depth of the field is not as great as Paris
resulting in the planes being flown closer in tighter furballs. There
were certainly furballs all day today but they were larger and the
chance for collisions, while still there, was greatly reduced.
At the end of Open B the Scale 2610 competition was started. It
was late in the day but the plan was to get in 4 rounds of scale
before calling an end to the day. There were 20 pilots in each of
the two heats per round.
As usual I drew Round 1 heat 1 and decided to start the day with
the MIG5 twin. For the first time in my experience a heat was
flown with three different twins entered into it. Ron Caravona
flew an ME110 Destroyer, Mark LaBoyteaux had a P38J
Lightning and I had the Mig. I don’t know how Mark scored
in this round but both Ron and I got two cuts in the match.
There were two other twins at the contest, and one was flown
later in the competition. Charles "Grunherzgeschwader" Warren
had a German FW 189 UHU (Owl), and Lee Liddle had the F82
Mustang twin with dual Cyclon PC4 engines screaming as they
clawed quickly for altitude. Lee did not use the F82, instead
using his AD7 Skyraiders, but Charles did fly the FW189 in at
least one heat.
Ron Caravona also had his Fairey Fulmars from the Mike “Hat
Trick� Enterprises kit. I flew a F4U Cosair as my backup
plane, built from a Wave RC kit. Victor Shamulus had a very
stout ME109, Jared Lee also had a Corsair. Kirk Adams and
Don Howard were both flying new designs in Scale. Kirk had a
Blackburn Firebrand and Don had a fleet of TBD Devastators in
silver and yellow finishes. Petr Bachan had a fleet of Horten IX
flying wings for Scale. They look terrific in the air and are
deceptively fast and agile. As a person who tried to chase Petr I
can assure you the Hortens are very hard to catch in the air.
Everywhere you looked the sky was constantly full of very fast
tight turning fighters.
The most impressive new Scale 2610 designs were those of Mike
Fuller and Chris Quinn. Mike had a B5N Kate with a wealth of
carbon fibre (go figure!) in the nose, while Chris had a small but
very fast and agile IL2 inspired by the now defunct Warbirds Ltd
kit. Both Mike and Chris employed innovative construction to
achieve very lightweight but strong airplanes.
Scale is flown in much larger sky, meaning that the width and
height of the combat box is exaggerated compared to Open or
SSC due to the high speeds of the Scale ships. It takes them
longer to turn and they are flying faster so the area in which
combat is flown is large and furballs are less common than is
pursuit style combat.
We ended Saturday after completing only two rounds of Scale
2610. I think there was more carnage in scale as a percentage of
airplanes lost to rounds flown than in Open B. This is unusual
and unfortunate as the airplanes take longer to build and most
folks have fewer scale backups than they do open ships. I lost my
F4U Corsair in a collision that I never saw coming and still don't
know who it was with. The motor mount pulled through the light
ply firewall and although we tried to repair it Saturday night there
just wasn't enough time to do a thorough repair so it was retired
from competition for the weekend.
During lunch break on Saturday a demonstration round of Scale
2548 was flown. This is a concept for bringing back the "front
line" fighters of WW II and allowing them to be scaled to 48"
maximum wingspan. The ardent and dedicated Cash "Rabbit
Leader" Hargett organized the demonstration. Cash even provided
Mike Fredricks a plane to fly in the demo. For most of us it was
our first chance to see this concept put to practical testing. The
airplanes are slower than Scale 2610 planes and look very good.
Only time will tell if new combat pilots are attracted into the sport
to fly 2548. Possibly existing Scale 2610 fliers will prefer the
rules and allure of 2548. I know Cash is working hard to
promote both demonstrations and limited test contests to develop
the concept along with the help and support of Ed Kettler.
On Sunday we started with two rounds of 2610 Scale. I had lost
the Corsair so I was down to the MIG 5 twin. Mike Fuller had
lost his first B5N Kate so he flew his backup. Mark LaBoyteaux
had made it through two rounds with the P38, and Kirk Adams
was repairing frantically between rounds. Don Howard had lost
one of the new TBD Devastators on Saturday but had two more
to soldier on with.
In the last heat of round four it was Kirk and Don in the lead.
Kirk had been repairing right up to the call for start combat. His
engine balked and he couldn't get it running till most every plane
had been knocked out of the sky. He was finally able to launch
but was in such a hurry to get airborne that he forgot to remove
the flow igniter. I can tell you honestly that a Blackburn
Firebrand really looks funny coasting through the air with the
igniter firmly in place but flies quite well. At the end of the day
Kirk edged out Don for first place in Scale 2610.
After Scale had been finished on Sunday morning we were
greeted with the news that there would be 61 pilots in SSC. In
2003 there were 34 SSC pilots at Paris, and the number was
almost doubled this year. SSC is fast becoming the most popular
RC Combat event on the combat circuit. There would be six
rounds with six heats in each.
The real news for Sunday morning was the weather. It was
considerably cooler than the previous day, the humidity was low,
and the wind was howling at a steady 25 mph with gusts to
30mph. We knew it was going to be a good day when the initial
engine testing showed fliers getting readings of up to 18,800 rpm's.
I was one of the fliers who was "busting out" so I didn't have time
to walk the line and see what was happening to others. With 5%
PowerMaster my oldest OS LA .15 was hitting 18,800 rpm's.
Chris Quinn came over and offered fuel with higher oil content
and that helped a little getting me down to 18,200. Next Chris put
zero percent nitro fuel into the engine and we got down to
17,900. Don, Chris, and I all tried different tachs. We let the OS
heat up for a minute to see where the rpm's would stabilize, they
ended up at 17,900. The only solution was to change the throttle
opening and once we got it set we passed tech inspection by just a
whisper. I understand quite a few folks had to resort to
mechanical adjustments to make rpm limits. As the temperature
and humidity came up the rpm's dropped and by lunchtime I was
able to make the limits with my 5% PowerMaster.
It never fails, I am always in round 1 heat 1 and today was no
different. I got four cuts and was feeling pretty good about
myself till I heard that Daniel Vaught got eight cuts in the same
round. Wow! Looks like it is going to be a tough day of
competition. Since there were five heats in each round there was
time to walk around and see what others were doing during the
contest.
I walked down to watch Eric Wenger fly the AJ Seaholm
designed Avenger 972. Eric was doing ok but he had a bad
engine run. He was trying to stay low and only take the sure
shots. I watched him get two cuts using the power of the wind to
give downwind speed. Upwind he was struggling. As a matter of
fact he was so slow that a competitor swooped down to cut him
but overshot. Seeing his chance Eric popped the Avenger up to
the waiting streamer. His aim was true and he hooked it with a
wingtip, but the other plane's speed was so much greater that it
simply pulled Eric down to the ground. How do you score a mid
air with a streamer? We gave him full flight points but not a cut.
We also busted a gut laughing at the expression his face when a
streamer knocked him down.
The most memorable round for me was the fourth when I drew
Eric Wenger and Lee Liddle in my heat. We all got off to good
starts and I cannot tell you who won the heat, but I can tell you a
little about the five minutes that took ten years off my life. I was
flying a GRS Falcon, Lee had the Cobra, and Eric had his
Avenger. All the planes and engines were performing well. The
wind speed had increased and was blowing very hard right down
the runway.
My streamer was taken early, and without its drag I had plenty of
speed. I had maybe two or three cuts when the only people with
streamers were Lee and I. This is where the battle really with Lee
began for me. Up and downwind we fought, with Eric going after
whichever one of us afforded him the best opportunity for a cut.
The match drifted downwind to the far right and I noticed that
Lee had moved down the flight line and was standing right next to
me. He was pursuing and I was evading he and Eric as best I
could.
I decided to go upwind, and they followed. It looked like a turtle
race. A 30 mph headwind versus with 50mph airplanes is like a
slow motion movie. It seems to take forever to get to the upwind
side of the field. I had a 20-yard lead on Lee and a little bit more
over Eric. I got as far upwind as I could and then turned. The
wind was like a supercharger, I was going so fast that I missed
Lee and he turned and missed me and we continued fighting it out
going downwind. We repeated this scenario three times and
finally on the third upwind leg Lee was out of position and
offered up his streamers and I got one of them.
I remember in the movie Little Giants that the famous brother,
Kevin O'Shea's team, was killing little brother Rick Moranis'
team. At halftime Moranis told his team about the one time he
had beaten his brother in a race. That is exactly how I felt, after
a year of getting kicked, I finally got my cut on Lee and he didnâ
€™t get one on me. It might not seem like much to you, but the
feeling of satisfaction will probably last all year long for me.
At the end of the day it was Eric Wenger who won it all SSC with
an awesome score.
I hope you can make Paris, Texas next year, and Southern Fried
Combat in Georgia this year. I know I have not mentioned the
names of all the fliers, planes, and things that happened. I will try
to do better next time, but for now it is time for sleep. Good
hunting, and best regards, Lou
holding Go Devil
Ben " Hillbilly" Morrow of
Dickson, Tennessee holding
Collectors edition Paris TShirt
in front of his fleet of Down
Home RC Piranhas
Texas holding his Open B
plane. It looks like a cross
between a Gremlin and a
Lethal Weapon, could be a
Dodson Dodger!
LaBoyteaux/Leone A10. Bob
is from the Fort Worth area
and designs and builds with
his brother in law, Mark
LaBoyteaux. We missed
getting a photo of Bob
jumping up and down on his
plane screaming "I hate
you,..."
driving to contest standings, Bob
"Boiler" Loescher hails from
Lima, Ohio and got Jay Fromm's
motorhome to tow his Chrysler
minivan all the way to Texas.
feel the love? Bill "Cajun"
LayBoyteaux of Nacdoches,
Texas being embraced by Ben
Morrow.
America's favorite combat
comedian, Chris "Old
Barracuda" Quinn of Tennessee
with his own design plane.
Dane "Mad Max" McGee
Quinn's shirt to get the phone
number of Wayne Kackley's
Hobby Shop in Tennessee a
source for hard to find combat
items and Webra .25 GT engines.
City, OK built these TBD
Devastators for Scale 2610
McBournie of Denver, Colorado.
The plane he is holding is a
Blackburn Firebrand from a
Wave RC kit
Combat and Americas longest
continuously running combat
competitor, Mike "Dr. Evil" Fredricks
from Beaver Dam, Wisconsin (some
spell that as Damn!)
National Points Champion, Eric
"Wingman" Wenger of Oklahoma
City, Oklahoma.
He hits all the planes shown in the
photo for both Scale and SSC. His
web site is: www.hattrickrc.com
these two great looking Scale
birds at the contest.
Warren, from Orange, Texas with
his FW 189 twin from the now out of
production Warbirds Ltd company.
and Travis "Big Country"
Hanson from Houston and
Lake Charles, Louisiana
with a Raptor.
NSCC, from Sulphur, Louisiana,
Jim "Jimbo" Bienvenu with his
trademark Raptor.
drove all the way from Chula
Vista (that's near San Diego for
you yankees) to compete in Open
B and SSC. What a guy!
Melissa drove 1,255 miles each
way from Virginia. Kirk won
Scale with the gorgeous scratch
built Blackburn Firebrand he is
holding in the photo.
Dawsonville, Georgia (Yankees,
pay attention, that's just north of
Atlanta). Co-Designer of the
Ripper and Slashier Larry finished
in the top twenty in both Open B
and SSC.
B Cobra S4. Lee won Open B,
finished second and SSC and did well
in Scale. He vows the combat cup
will never reside north of the Mason
Dixon line and will only travel north
to be put on display at the Nats to
irritate the yankees.
fabulous Horten IX wings
flown in both SSC and Scale
Louisville, Kentucky. Winner of
most patient RV owner in a vehicle
filled with 6 crazy combat guys.
personalized Polo Shirt, Joe
"Thojo" Thompson of Houston,
Texas.
Arkansas. Daniel started SSC
with an 8 cut round.
"the Snake" Shamulus,
and Victoria of San Diego,
and Wayne Voyles of
Hockston, Georgia.
Evan Wenger. Evan hails from
Dallas, Texas. Wonder if they
talk the week before the Texas
- OU game?