In SSC, you have to have a fucntional carb, and the carb has to be the stock one that came with the engine. In the other classes, you can use just a shutoff if you want, no need for any other speed. A fair number of guys do use bladders with standard carbs, some handle it better than others. (a common trick is to hook up the remote needle backwards, it seems to make it work better under pressure, at least that's what I hear, since I haven't done it myself).

So far, though, I haven't seen a need to go to using bladders in any class. I get engine runs that are fine on normal suction tanks, and I don't 0 rounds due to broken bladders. Given how close many of these contests are, I'm not in a hurry to try something that may cost me a contest at this point.

Oddly enough, bladders are most common in SSC, where there is no power increase, since you can't enlarge the carb throat to take real advantage of the fuel being under pressure. I have no idea if many guys open up their other carbs to get more power on a bladder. If Lee is making his own carbs, I didn't know it, but it doesn't surprise me. It's not allowed in SSC, so he must be doing it in the other classes. He might also just be moding the existing carb. I know he has some Magnum engines, and the Mag carbs need work to begin with.

About the 1/12 scale combat (2610 class), you're right, a really light but powerful .15 would be useful, espeically in the twins. The competitive single engine planes are actually fairly large and to be durable enough, they are actually rather heavy. I'm not sure one of those .15's would really do well. Keep in mind that it pays to be bigger in RC Combat. I'll take my 55" Firebrand over a smaller, faster plane anyday. (The firebrand isn't exactly slow, however)

Yes, there is such a thing as too fast. The streamer is part of it as you said. Also, since the action is farther away and in 3 dimentions, if your closing speed is too high on your target, it becomes very hard to line up on a target. If you're chasing a slower plane, it's often best to throttle down. I was flying some practice this weekend, I had one of my planes running at near-idle in order to catch one guy who was kind of fluttering around.

(a tip I need to remember to try this weekend, if I'm one of the last with a streamer, and the guys chasing me are running bladders (I don't), I need to throttle down. Since they can't slow down, the closeing speed will make it harder for them to get me. Should be fun.)

Out of curiosity, do you have a link to that SC or ASP .15? I just looked at JustEngines, the ASP .15 looks an awful lot like the Magnum .15, espeically the carb. I'd swear it was the same carb, and now that I think about it, I think I heard someone say they do use the same carb. However, the bore/stroke numbers are different on JustEngines for the ASP compared to the Magnum's numbers on Gloabal's website.