NERCCA newsletter Issue 9 - 3/18/1995 The following is the current list of Gremlin contest dates I have. When Where CD/contact ==== ===== ========== Sunday March 26th Weatherford,TEXAS Sandy Frank-CD (817) 599-7131 or sfrank@tenet.edu Sunday April 2nd Billerica MA Glenn Thibeault-CD (603) 881-7345 or glennT0664@aol.com Saturday April 22nd New Boston NH Joe Marrone-CD (603) 429-0914 or marrone@mkots3.enet.dec.com Sunday April 30th CMRCM Westboro MA Dan Snow-CD (508) 448-0473 Saturday May 13th Wrentham MA Eric Henderson-CD (508) 435-5241 Saturday May 20th Oxford MA Ray Mierzejewski-CD (508) 757-5883 [doesn't anyone want to host a summer contest?] Sunday August 20th Beattie Field, RI Charlie Hochstrasser-CD (401) 463-7076 or XBronx@aol.com Saturday Oct 28th New Boston NH Joe Marrone-CD (603) 429-0914 or marrone@mkots3.enet.dec.com Sunday Nov 5th CMRCM Westboro MA Charlie Watt-CD (508) 842-0976 or watt@leds.enet.qntm.com R/C Combat Lovers - electronic discussion group For those of you with electronic access, I have sponsored a discussion group for email discussion of combat issues. You can join this group by sending email to rc-combat-lovers-request@world.std.com with the word SUBSCRIBE in the BODY (not the subject line) of the message. The initial membership is the people that requested to be on the NERCCA electronic distribution. In order to ask about things on the list, you simply send email to rc-combat-lovers@world.std.com and it gets forwarded to all the subscribers. I will be sending the NERCCA newsletter to this group as well. If you want to receive the newsletter ONLY (and I've subscribed you initially), please send email to racores@world.std.com with a message stating that you just want the NERCCA newsletter. This discussion group is open to all combat discussions and will be similar to the usenet newsgroups or some of the private service dicussion groups. The good news is that because it is based in email, it isn't restricted to people in one company or service provider and internet access beyond email isn't required. I hope that this list will provide a forum for rules debate, new CD questions, building and flying/trimming questions, and general answers to the "has anybody tried" questions. Since the list is run by the majordomo software, my actual involvement should be minimal (this is an unmoderated list). I believe there is a digest form where you can get several messages lumped together on a daily/weekly basis and as soon as the method for getting that is explained to me, I'll forward it to the list and post it in the info file. RA Cores homepage For those of you with WWW access, you can get the latest and greatest information direct from my homepage. The URL is http://world.std.com/~racores/ There is an interactive contest calendar available here which will give you directions to the sites when selected and the dates will select either the announcement if the contest is about to happen or the contest report if it already has happened. Please let me know what you think and what features I might add. I'm in the process of adding pictures to it (but I'm trying to keep it text browser friendly) and the page will evolve over the next month or so. All the past NERCCA newsletters are available there. The New England contest season has begun! Here's two reports on last weekend's contest: FROSTY GREMLIN COMBAT The Frosty Gremlin Combat meet took place at Beattie Field in Rhode Island on Sunday, March 12th. The meet lived up to its name as a light but steady ocean breeze made it necessary to keep bundled up all day. Two classes were flown with 14 pilots in the Stock Class and 9 in the Open. Three preliminary rounds were flown with the top four point getters in each class squaring off in the fly-off. Being the first competition of the year the action wasn't as "close in" as it will be later on, thus only one mid-air in the preliminary rounds. Ray M. and John Garlock banged Gremlin noggins and both were out for the remainder of the day. Some planes were put out of commission by the frozen runway and others that spun into the field for one reason or other did not fare too well either. In a quite unusual situation, there were no "cuts" in the preliminary rounds of the Stock Class. There were three in the Open Class. Lawson Gunn, Wally Richardson and Jim Reith all scored early cuts in the first or second round. The top four in the Stock Class to go into the fly-offs were; Eric Henderson, Steve Smith, Wayne Field and Dan Snow. The top four in Open were; Eric Henderson, Lawson Gunn, Dan Snow and Jim Reith. In the first Stock fly-off Eric and Steve went at it with Eric coming out on top by about 2 feet on the spot landing. In the next match Dan beat Wayne by about the same distance. Wayne was flying in his first competition and went on to score the only cut of the day in Stock competition and took third place in the class. The match between Dan and Eric for first never took place, I'll explain later. In the Open Class Eric and Lawson Gunn competed in what might have been the best match of the day. Lawson was the top point getter in either class in the preliminaries, both planes were tweaked to the max and in the hands of two very skilled pilots. But no cuts and Eric won on the landing. In fact, all day long, Eric won all but one of his landings. In the other match, Dan Snow, using his Stock plane in the Open Class (his Open plane broke a mount), was matched against Jim Reith who had just replaced a broken mount on his plane. Jim seemed to have a slight speed advantage but couldn't cash in and Dan won on the landing. During this landing the frozen runway ate up Dan's mount on his only remaining plane and he was forced to withdraw before he could fly against Eric in both the Stock and Open Class finals. Eric was declared the winner in both classes. Congratulations Eric! By now it was about 3 P.M. The chill was getting to many pilots and spectators and many had left for the day. They missed the fireworks!! In the final match of the day, Jim Reith and Lawson Gunn, neither ever shy about mixing it up, were involved in a spectacular mid-air. Jim's fuselage went into a spin which slowed it just enough to have Lawson's hit the ground a split second before his. This caused the biggest roar of the day from all the pilot's in the pit area. You have to love this Gremlin competition. The biggest reaction of the day, saved for the results of a race to the ground between two shattered and twisted Gremlins. It was a fitting way to end a combat meet. At least from a spectators viewpoint. Thanks to all the pilots who competed and a special thanks once again to cut judge Art Massie and to "Chef Geoff" Beaven. We hope to see everyone back here again in August...................... Charlie Hochstrasser RESULTS OPEN CLASS 1. ERIC HENDERSON 2. DAN SNOW 3. JIM REITH 4. LAWSON GUNN STOCK CLASS 1. ERIC HENDERSON 2. DAN SNOW 3. WAYNE FIELD 4. STEVE SMITH And from Steve Smith's perspective: Yesterday, was the first of the year (I believe) gremlin combat contest held at the Rhode Island Aeromodelers field in (where else) Rhode Island. There was a great turnout despite the chilly temperatures and the HTA'S "almost" walked away with all the prizes in both stock and open classes. [Editor's comment: All the prize winners WERE from the CMRCM club and Wayne has been nominated as an HTA] We arrived at the field about 8:30 and only a couple of R.I. people were there. Come to find out, Jim Reith, Dan Snow, Ray M., Rene had all arrived even earlier than us and had driven over to Coventry for coffee. Anyway, sometime around 9, people really started to arrive and we ended up with a pretty good crowd. I'm just guessing but I think there was something like 24 people between stock and open. We flew 3 rounds of combat and then 4 (i think) flyoff rounds to determine the winners. There were 3 cuts the whole day and 2 mid-airs. The first midair, I'm not sure what happened but it looked like both gremlins just slapped wings. No parts came off in the air. Still, both gremlins came down and sustained alot of damage upon impact due to the frozen ground and cold temps making the PCV fuses very brittle. The second midair was a TRUE midair with a real solid impact and half a gremlin spiriling down. At first, it didn't look like the other gremlin had sustained any damage but he ended up going in too. The funny part was, although Jim Reith, who lost half the wing, was at a much lower altitude after the impact, the other gremlin managed to beat him to the ground so Jim was the winner (last fuse down). I flew 3 decent rounds but couldn't get a cut for anything. I flew against Rene, Jack Z. and Kay. The only thing I can say is that I DID manage to win the landing points on each round. At least I was doing that right. Because of that, I was included in the top 4 at the end of the 3 rounds and was, therefore in the flyoffs. First flyoff was against Eric for the stock class. We had a hell of a battle but neither could get a cut. Unfortunately, for me, Eric beat me out on the landing buy about a foot. Then I found myself in another flyoff for 3rd place in stock against Wayne Field. About half way through the round, I wrapped his streamer around my wing but the darn thing stayed attached. I even have a cut clean through my leading edge where the streamer string pulled across it. But, no cigar. A short while later, Wayne did the same thing to me and my streamer, OF COURSE, broke off. 8^) So, Wayne got the cut and took third place in stock. This was, by the way, Wayne's FIRST combat contest and he did great. WAY TO GO WAYNE. It was amazing how he handled that wing even though it wasn't spinning......8^) By the end of the flyoffs, Jim Reith had taken third place in Open. Dan Snow took First AND second in open. Eric took first AND second in Stock and Wayne took third. So, the HTA'S took first, second, and third in the open class and first and second in stock. Way to go team. All and all, an good contest. Not much carnage and determined "fighting". Could have been a bit warmer but it was bareable. Looking forward to the next one April 2nd. Below, please find directions for the next 2 contests. R/C Combat UN-Contest NO Entry Fee Sunday March 26 Weatherford,TEXAS A gathering of ACES. This is a new concept! It is to be a "Time Trials" of R/C Combat Pilots. It is to be an early spring warm up to the combat season. There will be no official entry fees. There will be a voluntary side pot ($5.00) to which the club will add a NEW FM Radio. The club will provide the streamers. You may use any length attachment string. You may use any length streamer over 40 ft. You may fly any MUFFLED aircraft. Only contributor to the side pot are eligible to win the pot and the radio. Any AMA member may fly. Matches and rounds will NOT be established by the club. A club member will tally each fliers total cuts throughout the whole day (the count ends at 4 PM). Maximum in the air at once will be FOUR craft. There will be no time limits. You may designate a towing target (or several) or it may be a free for all. Anyone who looses an entire streamer must re-attach one. The flights, matches and rounds that you fly in are strictly up to the individual. You may fly in any or all of the sorties (frequencies permitting with four aircraft airborne max.) This is an open free for all or it can be a set up target practice. You may designate a friendly target tower or you may pre-arrange to alternate as aggressor and defender. You may CALL OUT and challenge anyone who wishes to accept to take you on. THIS LOOKS LIKE FUN! The idea is to practice combat and not hurt planes or people!! This will happen Sunday March 26,1995 at the Weatherford Aero Modeling Society field. (West on 4th street in Weatherford twords Peaster,TX the field is on the left) For info. or directions: Sandy Frank (817) 599-7131 Internet: sfrank@tenet.edu Announcement: Combat Contest sponsored by the Middlsex County R/C Flyers April 2, 1995 at the MCRCF field in Billerica Mass Two class: Gremlin stock and Open (40 size or smaller engine) Registration begins at 8:30 AM Directions to the field: Take the Treble Cove Rd exit off Route 3 in Billerica head toward the prison. The field is directly across from the prison (appox 1/2 mile from the highway. For more information contact the CD Glenn Thibeault at (603) 881-7345 or glennT0664@aol.com +-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------------+ | RA Cores - racores@world.std.com | Affordable, computer cut, custom foam | | P.O. 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