Hat Trick

You can post any event you like! Just post whatever rules you will be using also! I hate to miss an event so close! You might even get some of the Indianna flyers to come up also!

John Boren

My Feedback: (1)

I'll remember this for next years event. Doesn't anyone ever look at the contest events in the AMA magazine?

By the way do you have to sign up for the AMA Combat Nationals way in advance or can you just show up? I've never been to one before.

John Boren

Hat Trick

The deadline to register for the nats has passed allready but I think you can still sign up but it will cost you a few more bucks.

Montague

Nats prefers a pre-registration, and as Hat said, that deadline just passed, I think it was June 1st. But if you shoot some email over to the contest folks at AMA HQ, they will get right back to you with what you can do now. I've written them a few times with questions, and I've always recieved an answer promptly. The address is listed on the AMA website. If you can't find it, let me know and I will dig it up for you. (I had it, but since it was so easy to look up, I didn't keep it around to cut-and-paste)

Oh, and do I look in the AMA magizine for contest info? Nope, I sure don't. I look at the RCCA website and I talk to combat pilots in my area. To help co-ordinate the combat action around here, I set up a website for combat in this area (www.MidAtlanticCombat.com). There might be a site for your area. I know there are several site like mine (most with more "stuff" than mine).

Combat kid

Go with foam, and balsa and light ply, much cooler, better, lighter than Spad

John Boren

My Feedback: (1)

I'm in the process of getting my Fight Master 30 kitted. Since I can't count on my wood supplier or laser cutter I'm not sure If I will have the kits done in time before the Nats so I'm not going to see if they would let me sign up late for the event, plus I would still have to build several more of them. If I do get the kits ready I would love to donate a couple kits to the Open B Event.

I have never been to a Nats event. Do they give out donations, trophies, ribbons etc?

Would they allow me to do a demo flight during a lunch break or after hours?

I would even go so far as to let a GOOD pilot fly one of my planes in the contest. If it crashes, Oh Well, I should have at least one more with me, if that one midairs too, well it is called combat. I simply want to get my new kit some exposure. Will she survive a head on midair, NO, she was designed to fly fast and turn tighter then any plane I have ever seen fly and I've been doing this for over 25 years. She weighs 2 pounds 6 ounces RTF. Flies as fast as a quickee 500 plane, Pulls a 30 foot 2 inch wide streamer and still turns on the dime without hardly slowing down in the process. Inside or outside loops are the same, really quick. I thought my 60 powered Fight Master's were the best but the smaller one can eat it alive, and it's even faster to boot. All this performance with a .28 size engine. I will be using this plane in the C class as well in the future.

John Boren

Hat Trick

By all means get to the Nats! It is a great time and a load of fun! You'll meet some of the greatest people in RC and will no doubt learn many valuable lessons. Many have tried the route of giving up armor to increase performance and it does work. But after you see or fly in a few events you'll quickly learn that is also pays to be tough. You don't rack up many points while waiting to go retrieve your debris and you have to spend a tremendous amount of time building planes to keep up with losses if you fly in many contests.
You probably won't believe me! You should come and see for yourself!
Therre will be plenty of time for test flights and demo's before and after the contests. I'm sure there will be some night flying too! It's a real blast!

John Boren

My Feedback: (1)

No, I do in fact believe you, but I also feel that if your there to win, Expecially at a NATS level event, the airplane only needs to last one heat. I used to fly U-Control Combat years ago and even though I never really got good at it I always showed Up with one plane for every round flown. I guess I like to build. Most of the guys in my club beleive in durable planes as does yourself for combat so I understand what you are saying. I guess the real trick is to Not Midair. If I ask nicely will the other contestants not run into my planes, just kidding.

Does the AMA except prize donations for the Combat Events? Have you ever seen prizes given away before at such an event? I know the local events do but again I have never been at an AMA Nationals before.

Will you be flying any where near Chicago in the next few weeks? I would like to hook up with you so I can see what you and maybe others are flying before the NATS.

John Boren

Hat Trick

Sorry but I won't be in the Chicago area in that time. You might check out the Contest Calander on the RCCA site and see if there is anything you could attend. I beleive there is an event in Ohio next weekend. I am thinking about going. Might go to MN instead.
Even with a plane for every heat if you go down from every tap you won't get in enough flying time to do well. Unless your really good at avoiding midairs!

I'm sure RCCA will accept any and all donations for prizes! Contact Phill Rossman. He's running the Nats.

John Boren

My Feedback: (1)

Thanks for the information. In the next couple of days I will try and build new prototype of my wing design but instead of wood I will cut it out of EPP foam on my CNC cutting machine. I can use coroplast for the fins and elevons. It won't be pretty but it should bounce off of other planes better then wood would. Thanks Again

John Boren

thojo

If I had to bring a plane per heat, I would not stay in Combat very long. One of the things I don't like about flying wings, is that if you get t-boned in a heat, the entire plane is gone. With a standard layout, if a wing gets destroyed, you just put on another wing. I would rather take 2 or 3 planes (fuses) and 4 or 5 wings to an event than take 4 or 5 planes, its just alot more build time than bringing extra wings...

John Boren

My Feedback: (1)

I understand partly what you are saying, but since you only have a wing, you don't need to build any fuselages at all. I am beginning to see that servivability in midairs is very important to the current group of combat flyers. I try not to midair but have myself lost three planes in one day of Open Combat. I will just have to build a version of my Fight Master that will survive during a mild midair, since no plane can servive a head on dead center midair no matter what it is made of.

John Boren

Hat Trick

You would be absolutely amazed at what the current crop of combat planes can survive. I've seen some bone cruching midairs that planes have flown out of with minimal damage.

jmayle

During this weekends event, the planes that ruled the sky were often bumped in the air. I thought that taking "enough" wings would make the plane a winner, but I found out last month in Dixie that we could not afford to be on the ground during half of any round. We changed the way we built the new wings and they weighed in just 2 ounces under the max. What did this extra weight do for us you ask? Well we had a total of 9 mid-airs with very little time on the ground. Two of the Love taps were head on, and full throttle. Both produced several flat spins and the plane flew out of one of them. Ashland, Tn was the very best combat meet I have seen in my combat career, it attracted the very best pilots from around the states and it was a game of pursuit. I must say that we missed the three best pilots, Mike Fredricks, Dr. Evil and Hat Trick but we hope to see him for the Misery in Missouri meet on the 28th of this month. All of the big names will be there.

thojo

Yeah, he has quite a split personality!

Hat Trick

Multiple names helps keep the competition confused! Hopefully more confused than me!

Won't make Misery. Gearing up for the Nats.

My planes tend to weigh pretty close to the 3.5# max. With the power we now have available and the large amount of wing area the extra weight doesn't seem to make to much differance in performance. Lighter is generally better for performance but survivability is very important too!

aseaholm

My Feedback: (1)

John Boren,

I've posted an article of the evolution of my combat design on the RCCA website. This article may be helpful for you as you set out to design a new ship.

Here is the workshop section link. The article can be found under the TEAMseaholm Tactics >> V3.0 AVENGER and OPEN B Evolutions links.

RCCA Workshop Section

Here's a direct link:

AVENGER Evolution Article

A.J. Seaholm
TEAMseaholm
[email protected]

John Boren

My Feedback: (1)

Great Stuff. I learn more every day because of people like you and the others who have took time to share their thoughts.

John Boren