This is the first part of 3 segments on the Huntersville Combat. Stunthanger file size limit would not allow the complete file to be published.
Part 2 will be a PDF file with pictures.
Part 3 will be a PDF file with Detailed scoreboards and SL match schedule.


GENERAL
Great weekend with clear skies and pleasant weather until Sunday when it turned cold. Attendance was down a little for this contest in comparison with past October contests.

Fifty one (51) contestants combated over the three days with at least an equal number of family and spectators.
Stunt had a total of 71 event entries. Combat had 21 event entries and Carrier had 10 event entries.
Competitors came from as far west as Arizona, Nebraska and Kansas. Northern states included Vermont, Michigan and
Pennsylvania. All of the Southeastern states were represented.

A special thanks to all the contest support people many of whom come to support our club. Without them we could not put on the contest. A number of these people are not club members.

The Saturday night ice cream social and discussion session by the pool were again high points of the weekend.

From the sounds of things everyone had a good time.

We look forward to seeing all of you at our 2016 May & October contests.

COMBAT
General Comments
Combat had 21 event entries, 14 for speed Limit and 7 for 1/2A. This is the most competitors we have ever had. There were 6 new people who had not flown here before (Ron Colombo (MI), Jeff Hanauer (AZ), Steve Stewart (IN), Henry Nelson (PA), Max Flowe (NC), Jason Wright (NC). Max and Jason are local flyers who have just started flying combat.     
These competitors came from as far away as Arizona, Michigan, Indiana and Pennsylvania. Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, South Carolina and Tennessee represented the southeastern states.

MIKE LONDKE was responsible for most of this year's jump in attendance due to his recruiting efforts by phone, email or personal contact. THANK YOU MIKE. I really appreciate his efforts, both before and during the contest, in making this contest the success that it was.
Mike's 7 year old son came to the contest and placed 1st in Basic Flight. Mike also placed 1st in PAMPA Intermediate.

Most notable comment of the day was Ron Columbo yelling "That what I call Combat" after every midair.

Vintage and Fast combat had a number of Vintage models show up and fly for fun. Mike & Larry flew a match with their Combat Cats and mid aired tearing up Mikes cat. Ron & Mike flew a fast match for a short period as those things use up fuel rapidly. Mike had flown a fast ship at 130 at the May contest

A special thanks to all the combat judges, Ron Columbo and Max Flowe who timed and counted cuts for 1/2A. Speed limit was officiated by Alex Givan (Center Marshal), Dennis Hastings and Mike Langiois (Time & Cuts). None of them flew in the event they judged which was a big help. Mike came down to see his friend Max and got drafted to judge.

Larry Davis came back to the Carolinas to fly again in the event he started in the late 90's before he moved to Arizona. I then took over as the event director. Combat has been flown here every year since then.
Larry brought his flying buddy, Jeff Hanauer, with him. Jeff finished 3rd in Speed Limit and 2nd in 1/2A by flying some of the best matched against all of his opponents.

Everyone seemed to have fun and enjoyed the flying.
For some reason we did not do our normal after event dinner at Outback's.

Those staying at the Super 8 motel Saturday night enjoyed the ice cream social provided by some of the stunt flyers and discussion, drinking, session at the pool.

Look forward to seeing all of them back in 2016 for the May and October contests.
At the October contest we will be celebrating our 35th anniversary and we are planning on going all out for prizes with a awards ceremony dinner Sat. night at a local restaurant.
 In 2011 we went to a local BBQ place. Good food and a fun evening. Details later as we are working things out.

Combat - Speed Limit (75mph) 14 Entries
East Coast Format - 4 rounds with cumulative scoring and a bonus of 200 pts for a match that did not have a midair or line tangle causing one or both to hit the ground.
Random draw for the first round and then the highest scoring pilots are matched. We avoid matching pilots who have flown each other.

Started about 9:30 and finished the four rounds by about 5:00+/-. Having dedicated judges really helped moved matches along. This combined with the cooperation of next up pilots & crews who were ready to get on the circle when the previous match ended..

Ron Columbo had 4 clean matches and won all for his matches to finish 1st.
Highest scoring match was between Phil(687pts. 2 cuts) and Jason (783 pts. 3 cuts). This was Jason's his first contest and had the top score after 2 rounds. He was awarded the outstanding rookie award. He had a friend's wedding to attend that afternoon and had to leave. Look forward to seeing him in the future.

Lots of good flying . Round one had 2 midair's which seem to settle everyone down as rounds 2 & 3 had only 1 midair each.

At the end of round 3 there were only 167 points separating the top 6 positions. The stage was set for some aggressive  flying and points collecting.

The 4th round had 2 midair's involving 4 of the top 6 flyers which changed the final standings.
Round 3 Standings 1st-Don, 2nd-Mike, 3rd-Ron, 4th-Dave, 5th-Jeff & 6th-Steve.
Don(1-1641) and Dave's(4-1586) midair dropped them to 2nd and 5th.
Ron (3-1610) and Jeff's(5-1477) clean match moved them up to 1st & 3rd.
Mike(2-1613) and Steve's(6-1454) midair moved them down to 8th and 10 for the biggest  loss of points. This was due to a very early midair limiting their airtime points (79 to 50).

Alex Givan (NC)               Center Marshal
Dennis Hastings (DE)       Judge Cuts & Time
Mile Langlois (NC)            Judge Cuts & Time

Pl    Name (Sate)                  Airplane        Engine         Score
  1  Ron Columbo (MI)        Russian RTF   For a 15        2109
  2  Don Stoneman (VA)       Russian RTF   Max 25LA     1886
  3  Jeff Hanauer (AZ)          Viko RTF         Max 25LA    1880
  4  Larry Davis (AZ)            Yankee Nipper Max 40LA    1868
  5  Dave Morris (GA)            Mezjlik RTF     Max 25LA    1773
  6  Phil Cartier (PA)              Gotcha SL       Max 25L      1740
  7  Ken Cook (PA)                Gotcha SL       Max 25LA    1735
  8  Mike Londke (TN)           Russian RTF   Max 25LA    1692            ACE Award for Most Cuts - 5
 9  Shawn Cook (PA)            Gotcha SL       Max 25LA    1602
10 Steve Stewart (IN)          Foam                Max 25LA    1504
11 Howard Shenton (SC)    Russian Kit       Max 25SF     1426
12 Max Flowe (NC)              Gotcha SL       Max 25LA     1395 (First Contest)
13 Henry Nelson (PA)          Cotcha SL        N 15              1335
14 Jason Wright (NC)          Gotcha SL        Max 25LA      1225 (First Contest)  Outstanding Rookie Award. Flew only 2   
                             Rounds as he had to go to a wedding in the afternoon.



Combat - 1/2A (PB .061's Allowed) 7 Entries
Started out as an alternate match format which evolved into a full double elimination when we realized we had the time to do it.
Started about 2:30 and finished by about 5:30 +/-.
Again having dedicated judges helped keep the matches moving.

The first round had two matches ending in kills (Shawn / Dave & Don / Larry). No more kill were made until Mikes kill over Jeff. Lots of good flying but mostly low airtimes as the 1/2A's are hard to start and fly so quickly the ground seems to jump up and grab them or they tend to find the same airspace to fly in. 

Mike lost his first match to Jeff and then went on to win the next 4 matches to take 1st place with  a Kill win over Jeff.
Best match of the day was between Mike (4:13at & 1 cut) against Shawn (3:37a/t & 1 cut). I think Shawn hit the ground, got back up but could not get the 2nd cut for a win.
Jeff avenged an earlier loss to Dave by defeating Dave, by 12 points, for 3rd place in a VERY close match.

Ron Columbo (MI) Judge Cuts & Time
Max Flowe (NC) Judge Cuts & Time
 Did not get model id's so it's the best guess by Mike & Me

Pl     Name (ST)                Airplane          Engine     Score
1  Mike Londke (TN)          Russian RTF     Pro 049      4-1
2  Jeff Hanauer (AZ)         Russian RTF      For a 049   4-2
3  Dave Morris (GA)          Russian RTF      Pro 049       3-3
4  Don Stoneman (VA)      Gladiator             For a 049    2-2
5  Shawn Cook (PA)          Ltl Hacker Mod   For a 049   1-2
6  Larry Davis (AZ)            Gnat (Foam)       For a 049    0-2
6  Steve Stewart (IN)        Russian RTF       Pro 049       0-2