Brodak 2017  Combat    Thursday

Everyone was happy the rain held off so we got done well ahead of schedule.  Thanks to all the entries(19), all the contestants(12), the judges(Dennis and Denny and others) and everyone who pitched in to assist.

Clean flying was a highlight of the matches.  Only 3 line tangles hit a few scores.  The top 6 flyers managed all their bonus points.  Going by the scores barely 1 cut separated the top scores. Mike Londke and Louis Lopez probably had the toughest flying.  In other matches the better pilots did a lot of coaching and careful full flying to keep the planes out of the ground.  Learning to fly comat these days is tough because there aren't good, well-practiced flyers in every club.  The only way to learn is to fly.

     Contestant  Score
1   Louis Lopez        2551
2   Phil Cartier         2495
3   Roy Glenn          2396
4   Mike Stinson      2302
5   Mike Londke       2189
6   Fred Quedenfeld 2138

The other scores were lower from missed cuts, the few line tangles, some poor starts, and other mistakes although even the lowest score was well over a 1600 points.

The day before Dennis Adamisin put on a nice demo of Half A sized electric combat.  These are ARF planes(from China, of course).  Dennis ended up with a 2816 1200kv motor with a sturdy 5mm shaft, a 1300 mah battery, and a “power up” speed control from Will Hinton.  The power was programmed to start below 100% and gradually step up until it hit 100% just before cutoff.  Gave the planes a nice, uniform speed with no leans runs or going rich.  The electric also holds up the speed in maneuvers.  The motor automatically pulls more amps from the battery when the prop gets loaded more, giving a very constant speed.

The design needs a few tweaks to beef up the structure for  crashes.  On 42 ft lines the planes fly very nicely, once trimmed, with no bad habits- smooth control, pull well even through gusts of wind.  It seems like a good bet to get younger folks interested.