July 17, 2019: CL Combat

By Phil Cartier

The closing day for the F2D Nats went pretty slick right up to the end. Flying started promptly at 8:04 a.m. It ended just before 1 p.m., before the rain came.

The early weather was very nice—about 80° with mild breezes. It got windier before noon, and the last 45 minutes or so were flown with gusts up to 25 mph. Most of the fliers handled it pretty well. The crashes were mainly dead-stick, or when the wind mixed the planes up and the lines tangled.

The final results were thanks to the pilots and workers. Both contributed to a well-run contest and got some real applause. A lot of the matches were real demonstrations of top piloting, with lots of chasing going back and forth.

2019 NATS F2D

1st Richard Stubblefield
2nd Austin Minor
3rd AndyMinor
4th Cary Minor
5th Greg Wornell
6th Rylan Rich

This was probably the smoothest-running event so far. Dave Edwards ran things very clearly and orderly, the judges were always ready, and the pilots and pit crews cooperated to get the matches up quickly.

The flying was excellent, except for those minor little things such as midairs and ground excursions. All the fliers did well, but kudos to Richard Stubblefield (1st). This is the first time that he has won the event. He’s been recovering from surgery on both knees, with lots of complications and setbacks. This time you could see him getting his flying back up to snuff, match by match.

Rylan Ritch(top) tries for a cut on Jeff Rein.

Back row (L-R): Greg Wornell, 5th; Cary Minor, 4th; Andy Minor, 3rd; Anna Minor, Best Junior; Dave Edwards, Contest Director; Austin Minor, 2nd; Arlene. Mears; Matt Brow, judge; Jan Mears, tech. inspector. Front row: Roy Glenn, circle marshal and judge; Chris Gay, circle marshal and judge; Pete Athans, flier and judge.

Austin Minor and Richard Stubblefield mix it up in a big way in the finals match.

Jeff Rein against Rylan Ritch.

Cary Minor launches for Andy Minor.