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Today is:

The Warriors Cometh

A gathering of the clans
by: RCCA President Lou Melancon

Others have taken the pictures, some have told parts of the story, and here we will relate the events that happened on the battlefield of Paris, Texas field during three days in March 2003.  We will sing the songs of the heroes and tout their heroics during this massive gathering of the Warriors and their clans.

Our love of combat defines us, as Warriors and those who are from our areas are our clans.  There were lone warriors from Wisconsin, Kentucky, Nebraska, and California.  There were contingents from Arizona, Georgia, Tennessee, Ohio, Oklahoma, Missouri and Kansas. There were 70 individuals in all with over 300 airplanes between them. 

Testing of equipment and sparring began early on Friday afternoon.  Ron Caravona, Ben Morrow and Lou Melancon put up SSC fighters and flew a couple of rounds of combat.  Mike Fuller continued testing to dial on his equipment. Every time you turned around someone from Arizona was putting a different fighter up in the air.  This was the day when we checked the competition to find out what they were going to fly and plan how we would deal with it. The only Czech Internist living in Texas, Petr Bachan was testing his new Mig 9 SSC ship.  Being a nice guy he let Lou fly it, right into the dirt.  Scratch one Mig – well not quite, Lou cleaned the motor located another mount and Petr was back in action.

Andy Panocillo “Pinoy”, of the Phillipino clan, via Indiana, had flown in Friday and joined up fellow Hoosiers Mike and Lori Fuller.  When Charles “Grunherzgeschwader” saw Andy’s beautiful Japanese B5N “Kate” practicing he was overheard to say, “wow, can you believe how fast and good that thing flies?”  Charles had two coro TA152s built from Petr Bachan’s plans at the field for testing on this day.

Mic Williams the head of the Arizona clan, along with Will “Posthole” Sharp, and Proppy Jon were tearing up the skies with their Open and Scale planes during afternoon practices.  These guys had a trailer carrying the equipment of all seven fliers. Transplant Don Lacey, retired Air Force, had told us all on the RCCA forums about his streamer release mechanism and he demonstrated it successfully many times during the contest.

Late in the day, Mike “Dr. Evil” Fredricks arrived at the field.  His flights on Thursday out of Wisconsin had been cancelled which meant he got to the field almost too late to assemble his equipment and prepare for combat on Saturday.

Don Howard, the combat flier formerly known as “Propdodger” was working the kinks out of his planes and they were performing well.  The Dreaded Skull and Smack Daddy were practicing hard.  They’d also brought .32 powered Hergett Mustangs to race late in the day with CF.

Chris Quinn, Rob Nourse, and Ben Morrow were putting up flights one after another.  Chris and Rob had the “Brown Bagger” rudder planes designed by Chris and so named because the white foam wings were covered with brown paper bag material.  In the early morning dew on Saturday Chris and Rob’s wings were wrinkled and bubbly where the white glue had dissolved from the dampness.  Funny looking, but as the temps heated up the wings went back to their normally smooth surfaces.

Neil Rohrke was working with both his Open Avengers and Wasps, and his Scale IL2s.  His IL2.s are exceptional airplanes; their performance may have been slightly eclipsed by the speed and maneuverability of Mick Williams Blackburn Firebrand’s, which are another kit Neal imports.

From the South Texas clan, Joe “Thojo” Thompson, Bert Dodson, and Mike of GCBM Hobbies were working out their settings.  These are a great bunch of guys and are really promoting combat in the Houston area.  They were preparing their Open B and SSC planes.

From the Cajun Clan, or as they say in New Orleans “krewe”, were Travis and Jared Hanson a/k/a  Big and Little Country, and Jimbo Bienvenu.  They are also known as the Raptor clan for their commitment and loyalty to this design.  New for this contest were the 60” wings that they were flying. The other Louisiana fliers, George Cleveland, Johnny Vaught and Tim arrived early on Saturday morning. George had a passel of RTF Falcon 72’s for Open B and SSC.  On his Open B plane George had one of his new FOR A-.29s.  This engine is based on his CL Combat .36 crankcase but resized to be Open B legal. These things are scary fast. Johnny and Tim had Falcons, and Avengers for SSC and Open B.

The two contestants from Arkansas, Daniel and Craig Vaught, along with Mom arrived on Saturday well prepared for the big event.

The Ohio clan, from Cincinnati, Jay Fromm and Bob Loescher, flew in a chartered Piper that Jay had rented.  All their equipment (10 planes) were stored behind the pilot and passenger seats of the plane and we met them late in the day at the hotel.

It had snowed 3 feet, a 100-year record, in Denver, Colorado the week of the contest, but this didn’t stop the Colorado Clan.  Dean McBournie used his large pickup truck to run up and down his home street to clear the way to get his SUV on the road to Texas.  His neighbors applauded his efforts as he opened up a path for them to leave their homes.  George “Web Pilot” Kerr came in from a business related trip and ended up being the Taxi for Jay, Bob and Ben several times during the contest.

Strangely missing on Friday were the Texans from the DFW area.  Bob Leone, George Clark, Bill and Mark Laboyteaux, Chip Vanderford, Roy Appleton, Lee Liddle, Ed Kettler and others.  Either supreme confidence or satisfaction with their equipment kept them away till the last minute.  Follow the aroma trail of an expensive cigar and you are liable to end up looking up at a 6’3” Texan who is the RCCA Secretary Treasurer, Roy Appleton.  Roy has top-notch equipment and his FW190 for SSC was one of the nicest in the bunch.  Lee had his Falcons and his sweet looking AD1 Skyraiders ready for battle.  Ed brought his WWI bipe to show off and had his two FW190s looking good for SSC.  Chip flew Open and Scale but had only one scale plane. Cash “the Target” Hargett had to work Friday and Saturday, but showed up on Sunday ready for battle.

You learn as much about combat on the evenings before and after the event and that was certainly true this weekend.  Combat headquarters was the Holiday Inn and we all gathered at the end of the day on Friday.  Ron Caravona and I had checked into our room and were icing down a case of beer, nor for us, but for those unfortunates who did not realize that Paris is in a dry county when the phone rang.  “Mr. Melancon, this is hotel security, we have complaints from rooms near yours about noise, and we need you to come to the front desk….”  A voice sounding strangely like AJ Seaholm’s said.  Not missing a beat I told him that although we did not invite hotel security to our wild parties he and his friends were more than welcome especially if they would help up finish the beer.  No sooner than ten seconds after hanging up the phone Michelle, AJ, Zach and Wes “Sheepy” Parmenter entered our room, followed shortly by Petr Bachan.  I had never met Wes before, but was used to his humor from his posts on the forum.   I have to tell you in all honesty this guy is one of the nicest, most down home folks you will ever meet.  His young son Zach impressed me very much.  His manners, and his handling of himself in a crowd of slightly wacko adults is impressive.  He is also a triplet with two sisters.  God bless you, Wes, my kids were spread out over five years, and I can’t imagine having three the same age at the same time, plus your other child.

We hung it up and headed for bed about 12:30 but it turns out we were the early ones.  The rest of the Combat Clans ended up in the Holiday Inn’s lounge and managed to close it down at 2am.

Saturday morning came early as we eagerly climbed out bed and into the uniforms of our events. The weather forecast was variable all week leading up to the competition.  Early it was looking very bad with rain, cold temperatures, and wind forecast.  By the time the contest started the forecasters were calling for sunny skies and warm temperatures and they got it just right. The temps were in the 70’s the wind was low and the skies were clear.  A perfect weekend for aerial battles.

The competition started early Saturday with Open B.  59 pilots flew six rounds with five heats of 12 planes in each round.  The scores and the carnage were high. The target rich environment of 12 streamers towed by powerful airplanes made the competition exciting.  In the third heat of the first round a record was set by Don Howard, of Oklahoma.  Formerly known as “Prop Dodger” his ten cuts in this round earned him the new handle “Tenman”.  Standing near Ben Morrow I overheard him say, “It’s all over now, no one will be able to catch TenMan.” But that wasn’t the case. 

Round after round rolled on during the day with Don Howard, AJ “Tick” Seaholm, Ben Morrow, newcomer Eric Wegner, Andy Panoncillo, Mike Fuller, Lee Liddle, Mitch Eaves, and even “Smack Daddy” putting up consistent 3, 4, 5 and six cut rounds.  The competition was fierce. The competition was tight and more often than not was a “furball” of planes flying tight.  The number of streamers cut each round was amazing, and the pilot skills were top notch.

The airplanes and engines technology curve is not as steep this year as last.  Last year folks were settling into engine, airframe and exhaust systems.  This year they have their planes working and are using them well.  Ben won it all flying his new Piranha kit.  The Piranha uses the same wing as Mike Fredricks Mini-Choker i.e. the Eppler 203 airfoil, 64-inch span with glass rods for spars and polypropylene leading edge mated to a ply and HDPE fuselage.  It is simple, elegant and both fast and stable.  AJ was experimenting with new wings for the well known Avenger but time and winter temperatures did not allow him to finish testing so he resorted to the same wing designs he used last year.  It must work he came in right behind Ben. 

Don Howard flies his own design, which combines the best elements from others into a single unified and lethal airframe.  Don uses thick walled flat bats for fuselages, cuts his own wings with a secret airfoil then uses coro for the fin and elevator.

Always at the top of the innovation charts is Mike “C/F” Fuller who has the most exotic construction materials of anyone in combat. His fuselages are .040” wall thickness autoclave cured carbon fiber square tubes.  Mike is a perfectionist and excellent engineer; his planes are a testament to high quality design and construction.

The planes ranged from Spads, to Bandits, to Bat Tricks and Chokers; there were Avengers and Revengers, rudder planes, and the big Falcon flying wings and much in between.  The engines were primarily OS .25FXs, Norvels, Irvines, and Magnums with a smattering of others thrown in.  The exhaust systems were Kentucky Mousse cans, home made mousse cans, Jett and Performance Specialties systems.  Fuel delivery was by conventional muffler pressure tanks, Jett Bubbleless tanks and surgical tubing pressure tanks. The pilots really knew their equipment at this event. There were few late launches, most engine settings were constant throughout the flight, and the reliability was very high.

In one of the early rounds Sheepy’s throttle servo froze in full throttle position.  As we waited for him to run out of fuel we starting chanting “lower, lower” and he didn’t disappoint us.  He flew very low, following the terrain as though he was on radar altimeter lock, until one mound stuck right up in his path and he planted that “Horzilla” right into it to the applause and good-natured ribbing of all.

Due to the late start time a pilots meeting with all the Scale fliers was held a midfield and it was decided to start early on Sunday with Scale then move on to SSC.

On Sunday morning we were all amazed that SSC registration totaled 38 pilots.  Scale had 14.  We started at 9am with Scale 2610, with two heats per round.  This is the Formula event of RC combat.  The airplanes must be built to tight specifications, have to be strong but very agile and the pilots usually pursue the competition rather than trying to snap streamers in the furball.  Mike Fredricks, Ron Caravona, and Don Howard were flying Fredricks Fulmars, although Don used coroplast for his fuselage and molded his own canopies. 

Neal Rohrke and Mic Williams were flying RS Kits from the Czech Republic, Neal with the Russian IL2s and Mic the British Shipboard Blackburn Firebrand.  Petr Bachan was also flying IL2s but used his own molded fiberglass fuselages.  Lou Melancon had two of his own design Boeing XF8B fighters.  Don Lacey had a JKAerotech Mig.  Andy had his gorgeous B5N Japanese Kates; Grun had TA152s; Proppy Jon had I think a Mustang and Chip had a JKAerotech Zero, as did Will Sharp. Rounding out the pack was Lee Liddle with the AD1 Skyraiders.

For many Scale pilots this would be their first contest against each other.  Mike Fredricks, Andy Panoncillo, and Lee Liddle moved out early.  The equipment was fast, turned very tight and there were many low on the deck passes. At the end it was Mike Fredricks who won it all with the same plane he used most of last season.  Dr. Evil builds tough planes.  Lee’s Skyraider was everything its buildup had said it would be.  It turns very tight and is very fast.  With Lee on the sticks it is a deadly combination.

In SSC there is a required prop and a maximum rpm limit.  Many fliers were surprised that their engines were taching over the limit in warm-ups.  Many had to scramble for lower nitro content fuels to make the tech inspection.  Neal Rohrke did yeoman’s duties on checking all engines.  He went down the line once with the official “tach” to let everyone check their engines.  Those who passed did not have to go through the second or “official” check.  Those who failed only had one chance to make it.  Many had to drop from 25% nitro fuel to 10% and a few even to 5%.  In the end all made the limit.

In SSC there were nine Warbirds flying with all the Open designs.  Ron Caravona and Mike Fredricks had ME109s, Petr Bachan had a Mig and a FW190, Lee had an ME 163 and a FW190 as did Ed Kettler, and Roy Appleton, Lou Melancon had a KI61 and F8F Bearcat, Cash Hargett had a great looking Brewster Buffalo, and a Hurricane.

We scrambled 9 and 10 pilots in each heat with four heats to the round.  SSC is supposed to be “survivable” and although some planes were lost, there were far fewer losses than in either Scale or Open B.  I had a blast pitting alongside Bill “Cajun” LaBoyteaux, and Johnny and Craig Vaught.  Johnny is the older brother by one year, but his little brother was thoroughly kicking his butt.  The guy who was really fun to fly with and against is a cagey veteran from Bay City, Texas, Bert Dodson.  I hadn’t seen Bert since the Houston WinterNationals last year and was really glad to get to see him again. 

Mike Fuller had won SSC at the Sulphur WinterNationals last month and didn’t disappoint today.  It took his seven cut final round to secure the championship, but that he did. Mike Fredricks was second and Bert came in third.  In fourth, flying the fastest SSC plane of the day was George Cleveland of New Orleans.  George had a new batch of RTF Falcon 72’s from the Ukraine that are 8 ounces lighter than the previous planes.  It is hard to imagine a 72” flying wing, with over 700 square inches of wing area, propelled by an OS LA .15 being the fastest plane at the event but it was certainly the fastest.

There was one protest over a pilots engine and Kelvin McFadden checked it right after the flight and found it to be right on the limit, but not over.

Many folks who had quit flying combat came back to fly SSC and many new pilots who jumped in with both feet in Open B also flew SSC and commented how much they learned from flying the slower planes and working for the cuts.

Paris, Texas was a great contest and we look forward to seeing you all next year.  A big thank you to Kelvin McFadden and his team who organized and managed the largest RC Combat Contest ever held in the United States.