After discussion at out last club meeting, someone suggested about trying Combat out. The more I thought about it, I figured why not? I found an Air Devil on Buy & Sell and bought it. Now hopefully a couple of more folks will buy something similar. Questions - I have both a .15 and a .25 ready to go. Which size would be good to start out with. I'm a very experienced pilot, but have not flown this type of plane. I've read the different Combat sites and generally understand the rules for SSC and Limited B. I'm just weighing my options open on where to start (engine wise) to get some flying in. Hopefully, we will get a few more folks from around the Little Rock area that might want to get started also. Any Help?

You will get as many different answers as you get replys on what engine to use and what class to fly. Everybody has a favorite class. ssc or limited b would be fine for a start up, both have pro's and con's. The best advise I could think to give is find out what the other guys at your club want to fly and build for that class. Mixing ssc and limited b ships is doable but you will have more fun if everybody is flying the same stuff. I believe in your region SSC is probably the most flown class if you wanted to consider going to some other events down the road.

There is, or was a grandfather clause in limited that allows for the use of ssc planes in limited class. You could argue that you should start with limited and could use either plane but a 15 size ssc is at a disadvantage in the limited class.

Hi Bassfisher,

In the south-central area SSC is the most common class. The great thing about it is that the airplanes use .15's so the planes don't hit as hard, but they still have plenty of power to maneuver. The planes are built durably so they normally don't get hurt very badly at all and when they do, and repairs are easy - not like on a balsa/ply plane.

We're having a big SSC contest in Jackson, TN on June 21. It's around a 3 hour drive from little rock, which isn't too bad, especially if you travel with a flying buddy. We'd love to have you come fly with us! So far we've got 18 pilots from all over the country signed up, and we're still 5 weeks out.

The best thing to do is make sure you are all flying with similar aircraft. The intent of limiting RPM and weight (as in SSC and LimB) is that it's more about your piloting than how much power you have.

Combat's a blast!

Alex

Alex - I saw your contest, but, Uncle Sam has me tied up that weekend. Maybe later this year or next. As Cpt America said, it will depend on what the other guys in the club want to fly, most likley the .15 size due to the slower speeds. As in flying any class (3D, Scale, etc) its just getting the plane trimmed and learning how to fly it. Since this will be my first venture into this aspect, I know that I will have a lot to learn and hopefully it will become popular in our club. Maybe I'll be able to talk my better half into getting a new .15

Combat is new to me as well. Our club has had a combat event every year and this year I decided to give it a try. Many years ago I won a combat kit, a Flight Master 30, at a fun fly developed and kitted by John Boren and has been sitting in my shop. I tried selling it at a swap meet with no luck. Then I heard we were having a combat contest so I built the kit and powered it with a OS LA 25. Took it out a couple of days ago for a maiden flight and all went well. Yesterday I put in the second flight with this plane to get the feel of it. This thing is fast. Turns on a dine. I didn't even think this goofy looking thing would fly but it does. I didn't like the idea of hand launching it so I build a carrage so that it can be taken off on the ground and leave the carrage and that worked great. Hopefully if the weather clears up today I can get a few more flights on it. Tomorrow is our event and all I hope for is to bring the plane home in one piece. I heard combat is fun, we'll see tomorrow.
Larry

The preceding pic of my plane sure looks nice. First I'll admit, it was a nice flying sport plane but had way to many flaws I could see when flying combat. I "thought" it flew fast till I went up against planes with 60 size engines and I got my tail feathers blown off. The carrage worked as long as the wheels went straight but the flaw there was I had no way of guiding it straight. Once it went off to one side, that was it, then I had to scramble to get the engine started and get in the air within the time frame left. Tried hand launching but that was hard to do, really had to give it a toss or in the ground it went. I finally tried a 40 size engine and that improved it, flying and launching. By the way, as I type this I am missing a chunk of flesh from my wrist because of a bad hand launch. Yesterday after making some changes, something went wrong and at full power, in the ground it went. Next plane will look like hell, be made of any junk I can find and hopefully will take more abuse then this one could take. As for combat, I'm hooked, it was fun.
Larry

I just tried combat this year for the first time. our club has a sanctioned meet every yr and tried it. Man is it fun, most intencse 5 minutes ever. We are doing the Open B class. the SSC would be the best way to start. We are also flying SPADS. the coroplast planes. they are pretty durable and cheap to make. I am going to another meet in two weeks. give it a try, you will like it