R/C Combat

Well, it was quite a battle today! I had a lot of fun--more than Mark, I bet. Poor Mark has not had good luck in the combat field yet. (Your day will come!) I had only put two flights on my new Cessna 182 (transformed into a Bird Dog) before I arrived at the field, and I have never flown combat with this group before. I was unclear on the rules, or even if my plane would pull a streamer, but there is nothing like trying something new. Chuck had everything organized--like a good school teacher would--and, after he explained the rules, we were off!

It is very hard to hit 20 ft of streamer at 40 mph. It turns out that it is not much easier to hit 200 ft of streamer! There is a large amount of luck involved, I believe, but I think that with time I could get much better. Will R. taught me combat with control line airplanes a thousand years ago, and it was very challenging working in 2 dimensions; add a 3rd dimension and things get very interesting! I was surprised how clearly you can hear when a plane contacts the streamer. You get points for a touch and more points for a cut, but both are rare.

I don't know who won or what the points were, and quite frankly I don't care. I would be happy with a free-for-all until the 5 minutes were up, but I guess that would be too barbaric or something. I do feel badly for people who place value on their airplanes--not the type of airplane to bring to a combat match. Everyone needs a Junk Yard Wars type airplane to fight with.

And speaking of Junk Yard wars, the date has been set. The Bolivian themed Junk Yard Wars will take place at the Gilchrist farm on Saturday, September the 26th. The events will include Glide Time Aloft, Pylon Racing, Bomb Drop and Combat. Mark your calenders! It will be a great time, I am sure!

Thanks to Chuck for setting up today's combat event! If you want to see a few more pictures of the day, here is a link.

P.S. The Bird Dog is back in the air! How is the Zero doing Mark?