Event

By Phil Cartier

Fast Combat has been growing slowly at the Nats the last few years. This year saw 10 fliers competing. Most of the action has moved to F2D, mainly from the chance at getting on a US World Cup team and the ease of buying and shipping top-performing models at a fairly reasonable cost.

By Matt Neumann (mrstuka@cinergymetro.net)

Gray skies, nothing but gray skies … at least for most of the morning.

Friday is traditionally called top 20 day. It is the day that the top 20 from the Open skill class flyoff to find the top five who will move on to Saturday’s event. It is also the day that, in this case, the top 16 from the Advanced class flyoff to find out who will be crowned the Advanced Class National Champion.

By Phil Cartier

1/2A Combat is a bit like swatting mosquitoes. The planes are small (proportional to Fast Combat aircraft), have very tight turning, and are difficult to see. It’s hard on spectators, buts great fun for the pilots. The planes are scaled down and look like Fast Combat aircraft to the pilots. They just pull a lot less—a couple of pounds instead of 12 to 15 or more. The aircraft are cheaper too.

By Phil Cartier

Speed Limit Combat keeps the speed below 75 mph. A total of 21 fliers turned out, including some who generally don't travel extensively except for the Nats. This year brought out a more-limited range of engines. The list included Fora 15, LA and FP, Fox 36, Nelson, LA 40, and probably one that I missed.

By Tim Stone (stone-tim@sbcglobal.net)

The competition wrapped up Thursday with the running of Clown Race and Sport Goodyear.

Clown Race rules specify a standard design, the PDQ Clown, a 50-plus-year-old design currently kitted by Brodak Manufacturing and PDK. Any engine can be used, up to a .19 displacement. Engine preference has become RC car conversions and FAI combat motors. Unlike other racing events, the winner is determined by who has flown the most number of laps in a specified time period.

By Matt Neumann (mrstuka@cinergymetro.net)

Blue skies, nothing but blue skies … well at least for the morning. The contestants were greeted Thursday morning with a blue sky and very light wind. It was a welcome change from what we have been getting; however, things would change as the day went on.

By Dick Perry (tailhooker@comcast.net)

The Scale Carrier classes, Class I (up to .40 displacement engines) and Class II (.40-.65 engines), competed on Wednesday. In addition to vying for top honors in each class, the contestants were seeking to add enough points to their Profile scores from Tuesday to take home the Eugene Ely Award as the outstanding CL Navy Carrier modeler at the 2019 Nats.

By William Drumm (midair72@hotmail.com)

Day 3 for RC Combat started out beautifully. Only a few clouds painted the sky, and the sun was shining brightly.

GNAT Combat was on the agenda for Thursday. GNAT airplanes are easy to build and are quite rugged because they are built out of coroplast and are all of the same design. They use a .15 engine that is legal for SSC and use the same 8 x 3 propeller without an rpm limit.

By Monte Richard (mrichard@compassengineering.com)

Day 3 of the Nats, our second day of flying competition, went well. We shut down flying at 8:30 a.m. to allow a Learjet to come in and land. The show was worth the slight delay.

The sky was overcast, which kept temperatures cool. All sites started flying and we completed FAI about 11 a.m. Advanced is the longer class and didn’t finish its second round until roughly 1 p.m., just in time for the start of Intermediate and Masters.

By Phil Cartier

F2D Fast is a favorite with some F2 fliers. Any F2D plane from 2010 to present is allowed. They all have the same technical specs. The rules are AMA Fast Combat rules otherwise.

The bugs have been worked out. The planes fly the same as F2D. The shorter line length makes up for the slower speeds. Flying seems just as fast as AMA combat, but the line pull is a lot less. The planes have to be trimmed a little better because they don’t pull 15 or more pounds.