What has happened to AMA slow combat I have heard different reports from friends. I had to quit flying combat back in the late 1990's about the same time that Henry Nelson came out with his 36 combat motor I bought two and only used them a few times before having to quit due to ill health, since then I have heard slow combat has about died.
 

AMA Slow became way too expensive.  It was a too frequent case of a total loss per round, chasing knots.  The rules were just terrible, and the enforcement of those was hilariously bad, etc. 

I remember in the 1970s when slow was flown with Ringmasters, Flite Streaks and Busters, etc., using Enya 35s and ST-C35s on suction. It was a great event.

I'm not certain where you were in the 1970's, but in most of Texas, the planes flown were mostly Streaks (if from a major design), plus mostly purpose-built Streak-like clones, such as the original Mongoose, from the late 1960s until AMA slow became official about 1979 or so.  Other profiles besides Streaks appeared in events where they were required, along with some sort of LG, and sometimes a rule against shaft bearings or Schneurle porting, particularly in the very early 1960s. 

Unless absolutely required by contest rules, Ringmasters were so poor in combat that they simply were never used anywhere I flew, except when the Tomcik brothers were starting in competition, and they used them. 

Slow Combat was a GREEE---ATE event.

It was the most popular event in ALL of modelling in the Great Lakes region before the disasterous flyaway shutoff rule (perhaps needed for FAST) was blindly imposted on Slow. 

The entry level instantly dropped from 33 to ZERO.  It was hard enough to get a suction engines to run on a fleet of combat planes.   But the addition of an operational flyaway shutoff to the system was too much technology for a model with such a short lifespan.

The diehards that we are, Detroit Combat Team continues to carry AMA Slow Combat at our two Sanctioned Contests every year.  Some of us who the loved the event keep the ghost alive by cobbling together a few planes with the mandatory shutoffs.

This May we had THREE entries, resulting on ONE good match in which two shutoff-equipped models were made to work.

Next year : F2d gets The Plague.

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Speed Limit Combat is a technical poker game. 
As Ed Brzys said to The Ohio Highway Patrol: "I know the sign says 70 MPH, but what can I really do?"

Amarillo is as far north, I think, as I ever went to any contest before the 1990's.  I think it's farther north than OK City, as well as a lot longer drive from here.  Texans always took their combat events fairly seriously, though. 

From time to time, on a local basis, that type thing has been done.  The several Midwest Warbird kits in the 46-49" span sizes were based on planes flown in such an event, but not with Fox 35 Stunt engines.  Every combat option that required Fox 35s was pretty terrible, until shorter 52' lines were used.  The Mearses, in Lubbock, occasionally fly a warbird event, but engine choice is wide open because speeds are limited to 70 mph (I think it's 70). 

I think that one of the most useful aspects of requiring planes to look like and be painted like warbirds is to use the event's planes choreographed in a "show" for the public on an Open House Day. 

They actually had biplane combat in Chicago in the 80's.  I flew it once with a plane that was loaned out to help build up the entry level.  While a nice theory, there aren't many people who will build a Sig SPAD or D-7 and submit it to destruction.

In Michigan in the late 60's, warbird combat was the standard form of Slow.  It was popular until the event became AMA-ized and most of the limitiations were whittled away, resulting in a product that was fun, but not much slower than Fast.

In the late 80's Fox 35 Stunt combat was big around here.  It was effectively quashed by the AMA broardbrush rule demanding flyaway shutoffs in any event without a speed 75-MPH speed limit.   Ironically, the Fox 35 effectively ensured a 75-MPH limit without the need to perform timings.

Gil Reedy and I did an air show demo of combat.  It was great fun and a real crowd pleaser when my Wildcat managed to get a cut on his slow plane.  We just did nice and easy open maneuvers, not too coreographed, talking to each other so there were no surprises.

Speed limit combat, with local rules for the speed, usually 2 laps in the 6.8-7.3 second range without a streamer, is easy to run and fun to fly.  If you make it a multi-round contest with competition primarily for cuts, and not an elimination tournament where you have to win every match, midairs go way,way down.  I flew and placed in six contests a few years ago with one plane, something like thirty matches.  That makes building a Warbird more or less practical, but still the lightest plane has a big advantage, so they get slimmed down into cartoon P-40's and Zero's that don't look anything like a scale model.

I think most of the folks who fly a lot of combat have found that the fun part is actually flying matches- chasing, turning, fakes, etc.  and hopefully not trashing too much equipment.  The better the planes fly, the more fun it is.  So flying semi-scale warbirds, bi-planes, etc. doesn't do much for the fun of flying combat.  It just adds to the work.

Flying planes with full profile fuselages and some nice decoration does add a lot to spectator appeal for demos.  I've got plans for several designs that can be built with plug-in wings for easy repairs and use better fuse construction techniques for better crash resistance.  At somewhat lower speeds- 60 mph instead of 52 like stunt or 70+ for speed limit combat they fly well and can put on a heck of a show.

I'd never fly a competition with one of those planes(the 48 in. ones), and certainly not with only one plane.  Too much work for the number of crashes.  But flying a demo with another experienced flyer would be fun.  I can build a plug-in wing foamy version with no flaps that will outfly any of the Brodak kits and probably bounce at least once at 60 mph.

           I'm with you Doc. 60 mph should cut down on the number of accidental crashes and I think that if there is a one plane per contestant rule there will be less intensional crashes, add to that the extra work to build the plane and pilots will tend to be more careful. I think that a two loss to eliminate rule would be helpful too. I like it....a good club event.
          After all combat was meant to simulate the real thing when it was started and this would bring a lot more new flyer's back to control line combat.
Larry