Neil invited me to come along on his trip down to Middlesex NJ for the Middlesex Modeller's spring Super Slow and 1/2A Combat contest on April 14th.

Well, it was a lot of fun. There were about 10 pilots for the two events. It's great to see the guys from NJ, Delaware, and PA. Lots of good matches in both 1/2A and SSC. I didn't get much practice in this spring, and it showed in starting my 1/2a engine. Or not starting, as was the case. Ran like a champ in the pits before and after the match, but no joy in the circle. It ran out the prime but I missed it taking off the fuel pinch and couldn't restart the bugger. I wasn't the only one showing a bit of rust with the little engines, but most others had better luck and there were some good matches. Quite a variety of 1/2A engines - Cyclon, Fora, Norvel, and even a Picco conversion (from r/c truck engine).

Super Slow was more fun. No problem starting and plenty of good matches. I managed to take off most of Louis Lopez's outboard wing in our first match (sorry Louis!). We had a good match going until Louis stuck his wing in my prop. Next two matches I flew against Dave Edwards and then Larry Wilks. Both were solid matches. In the final round, I flew against Shawn Cook. We had a great time chasing each other around the sky, until we flew into a line tangle. I couldn't keep my ship out of the ground, which ended up costing both of us. If I remember correctly, Shawn came in 2nd place and I came in around 6th. Sometimes my finishing place in the contest doesn't match up with the amount of fun that I had. From a fun perspective I feel like I came in first place!

Thanks to Middlesex Modeller's for hosting a great contest!
Chris

              Chris, thanks for the update. I do enjoy seeing the contests on the forum. I know you and Neil had a looooong drive to get there and I certainly would like to reciprocate and do the same. I enjoy watching Shawn fly and he truly likes doing it. We lost a 1/2A but with some ingenuity, hopefully all will be well again. Ken

Great day of action. Sorry I dont have links, but there are 2 gopro videos on youtube. search for rob97cr250 and they are on his channel. COOOL CUT.

Glad somebody got some video of it.  Combat is very hard to get on video.  The best job I've ever seen were some disc's from Mike Willcox where the camera guy used a camera up on a pole about 60 ft. high.  The planes were mostly against the grass background an much easier to see.

I think we'll have to try some planes with a simple profile fuselage, maybe just sheet foam, about 4-5 inches high, just so everybody can see the planes better.