July 9, 2023: CL Combat

By Charlie Johnson

The final day of the 2023 Team Trials looked to be over by early afternoon, as just a mere twelve contestants remained. The short day turned out to be a very long affair, thanks to a record number of re-flights.

The 2024 team includes Open members Andrey Nadein, Mark Rudner, and Cary Minor, along with Austin Minor as the Junior and Aimee Olson as the female representative.

Mark Rudner had the most direct path, posting a 7-2 record. As with the others, there were no easy wins. Many matches flown over the three days were of World Championship final round quality. Andrey Nadein’s 8-2 record was the result of the computer drawing him to fly against Cary Minor, who was a round behind. Cary was now eliminated in the same round as Dave Fischer (both 6-3), so they had a flyoff to determine who would be the third member of the team. Of course, nothing could be settled without at least one re-flight, but eventually Cary took the team spot and Dave became first alternate.

F2d matches are prone to a lot of ties because both pilots launch at the same time and the number of cuts rarely exceeds two. Ground time due to mid-airs often determines the winning score. This is where an excellent pit crew can help win the match for a pilot. The most extreme case of the “re-flight blues” was in the Andrey Nadein and Austin Minor match. The match was a tie, and it took three re-flights to determine a winner.

The awards ceremony took place around 6 p.m., much to the relief of everyone. The spectators were exhausted from just watching … imagine what the competitors must have felt like![

The final day of the 2023 Team Trials looked to be over by early afternoon, as just a mere twelve contestants remained. The short day turned out to be a very long affair, thanks to a record number of re-flights.

The 2024 team includes Open members Andrey Nadein, Mark Rudner, and Cary Minor, along with Austin Minor as the Junior and Aimee Olson as the female representative.

Mark Rudner had the most direct path, posting a 7-2 record. As with the others, there were no easy wins. Many matches flown over the three days were of World Championship final round quality. Andrey Nadein’s 8-2 record was the result of the computer drawing him to fly against Cary Minor, who was a round behind. Cary was now eliminated in the same round as Dave Fischer (both 6-3), so they had a flyoff to determine who would be the third member of the team. Of course, nothing could be settled without at least one re-flight, but eventually Cary took the team spot and Dave became first alternate.

F2d matches are prone to a lot of ties because both pilots launch at the same time and the number of cuts rarely exceeds two. Ground time due to mid-airs often determines the winning score. This is where an excellent pit crew can help win the match for a pilot. The most extreme case of the “re-flight blues” was in the Andrey Nadein and Austin Minor match. The match was a tie, and it took three re-flights to determine a winner.

The awards ceremony took place around 6 p.m., much to the relief of everyone. The spectators were exhausted from just watching … imagine what the competitors must have felt like!