September 2003 Mile Hi/COCOA Combat Report, September 6, 2003

September 6^th dawned a cool overcast gray day. It looked like rain could threaten at any time, but no matter, the combat must go on.

We had a light turnout with only 5 Open B pilots. Adam Bryant, George Kerr, Dean McBournie, Tom Neff and Roy Olsen. There were only two scale planes, so it was decided to not sacrifice those two planes to the combat gods. There are no pictures this month because I was just totally spacey today and forgot the camera, the props, one fuselage, and a few other things.

Round one everyone was just getting warmed up, and there was not too much excitement. Tom got two cuts, Dean one cut, and Adam one cut.

Round two was a way exciting round. Everyone ended up on the ground with about two minutes left in the round. I heard a hellacous WHACK and saw pieces falling to the ground as I flew by center stage. That would have been Adam and Tom with both planes going down as the result of the midair. A little later on, it was Dean and I in an almost direct head on. I have not had a wing separate from my bat in a mid air before, but it sure did this time. I expected to go pick up a lot of pieces, but when we arrived at the crash sites, it looked as if most every thing could be made to work again. The other pilots were gracious enough to give me a little extra time to get the plane back together. The wing had some torn covering, tape, and foam from the hit, but other wise appeared to be OK. Somehow the fuse and engine survived with only a broken prop and some dirt in the engine.

Round tree was again cut short. I was intently chasing a streamer and had just relieved someone of their streamer when Tom shot down in front of me. Hmmmmmm was it shot down or shot up, any way, I clipped Toms streamer mere milliseconds before I heard that distinctive WHACK and Tom and I collided and both planes headed immediately for Terra Firma. Miraculously I was still able to get the Dodger back in the air for the fourth round.

Round four, Dean had seen the hit and thought that there was no way either Tom or I would be able to get back in the air, so he put his plane away. Adam and Roy were already just spectators. Dean went to his backup plane, and the Dodger’s Irvine fired up again. The Irvine was not running too awfully well. The carburetor is JB Welded on, and in the last hit/dirtnap, the JB Weld cracked and allowed for a massive air leak. With the air leak, the plane flew like a C$#& and would not pull itself through turns and loops. I ended up putting it away a little earlier than planned due to the fact hat the ground came up too soon on a split S. Tom finished the round just flying by himself.

The best landing of the day was Tom in round four. We all thought Tom was just showing off for winning the contest. Tom got his backup plane, a Skull Bandit, into a flat spin and brought it down in a perfectly straight up and down flat spin. It was a beautiful sight to behold!!!! The truth be told, Tom had no idea how he got it into the flat spin, and no amount of controls or no controls would get him out of it. All he could do was let it come down on its own right at the edge of the runway right in front of him. I don’t think it hurt the Bandit any except for a broken prop. Tom, Thanks for the show!

After all the pieces parts were gathered up, the scoring looked like this:

Tom Neff 856

George Kerr 660

Adam Bryant 440

Roy Olsen 280

Dean McBournie 232

All in all it was a great fun day of combat at Mile Hi. The weather cooperated mostly. It was a gray cloud cover that made seeing and depth perception difficult, but there was only a very light wind that did not bother anything, and a nice cool day for combat. We normally do not have that many midairs, but we must all be getting better because the flying was better, and the mid airs were plentiful.

Thanks everyone for another SAFE and great day of combat!

George Kerr