Howdy Gents, Well, I am looking for some help. My name is Rich and I am the Founder and Present of the Mavericks' R/C Flying Club. We are a new club in mid Maryland. We have an extremly diverse group. Recently we discussed some activiteis for 2008. Several folks want to try Combat and also pylon racing. I have a GNAT, good for slow combat bad for racing. We are look for a Multi Roll Combat/Race plane. What if any suggestions do you have? Please include pictures and links. We want durability so we are looking at SPADs (I allready went to the SPAD site). Not sure if we want to stay with 15 size or move up to 25 size. Again need your suggestions.[sm=71_71.gif]

Thanks, Rich

Rich,

There's an active group of guys flying SSC combat in MD and VA. If you're interested in guys coming to join you from around the area, you might look at using SSC rules as that will help with guys already having the right gear.

SSC planes all go about the same speed due to the RPM limits, and their durability is well tested. I don't see any reason why you couldn't do racing with the same kind of plane as well, it would actually be a lot of fun, and allow for no-fear low-level racing.

Fwiw, most of the SPADs aren't that great in the .15 size, the foam planes tend to work well. For kits and designs, there are lots of SSC planes that are all about the same in speed, but vary a little bit here and there in speed and turning ability. The Avenger is very good, as is the Phencepost. The Battle Axe is easy to build and customize. And many of us build our own SSC planes because they areally are easy to put together. I sell an occasional kit of my Rapier (I'm NOT in the kit buis, I just sell them once in a while for guys who want them), and Sam, over in Salisbury, MD now has a CNC foam cutter and CNC router he's working with to supply the large combat community out that way.

I think that maybe any of the Open B combat designs available as kits would do well in this dual role. It would be better to take a combat design and race it then to take a racing design and combat it.
Last year I flew my open B battle axe to 1st place in our open class, sport race at my club. I broke my primary plane and used the Battle axe to fill in. You can change the prop to get a little more speed, but the Avenger or battle axe would be excellent choices.
Give these guys a call. They can help you out with kits, mousse cans and great advice!
http://www.airscharnell.com/

As Kirk said, check out the SSC rules. Flying in an organized class where everyone has planes that are somewhat similar is nice.

I prefer the .15-size since the damage is less with the lighter planes than with the .25 size. SSC (.15-size) is also the most-popular class. Check http://www.TreneffRC.com for more info.

Go back to SPAD...and start building the Saturday Night Special. 25 size....very fast...and awesome for combat!!!

The Boys will love it........