Well the season is finally underway, and we recently had our first go at (single plane) FAI combat down in Middleboro. With seven entries, I think it was a pretty good kick-off for this event in New England. It was apparent that everyone had been working with his equipment and was prepared for battle when the day began. Although there were a few instances where guys struggled with flooded engines etc, for the most part everything went pretty smoothly. I’m sure if you ask anyone who was there that day they will tell you how exciting it was.

One significant equipment-related issue that came up, though, was line lengths. In an earlier column I published the FAI regulations for line length, and warned that the tolerance is very tight. However, during processing before the first round we found that several contestants had lines that were either too long or too short. The reason for this is that many people bought ready-made lines from GRS or other suppliers without giving enough information at the time of purchase. While this is a very convenient way of getting lines, it is important to remember that there are many variables that affect the desired length of lines for your setup. In particular, the length of your models’ leadouts, the shape/size of your handle, and the length of your handle leadouts all make a difference in the total length of your control system. When buying lines, if you don’t give careful instructions about the dimensions you need for your setup, the default you get will be whatever is appropriate for the supplier’s setup. Depending on what you have, this may or may not work for you.

For convenience, I’ll reproduce the FAI line length regulations below:

52 ft 1 + 3/16 in. to 52 ft 4 + 5/16 in.

This distance is measured from the grip face of the handle to the longitudinal centerline (i.e. bellcrank axle, crankshaft) of the model. There’s nothing wrong with buying ready made lines, just always be sure to give clear and accurate instructions about the dimensions you need or else you may end up with a bunch of lines that won’t pass inspection.

In terms of flying, it will still take some time for everyone to get used to the higher speeds relative to what the GX models are doing. However, I saw good progress being made all around at the contest down in Middleboro. Even between the beginning of the contest and the end, it appeared that the general comfort level was increasing. If everyone sticks with it and keeps practicing I’m sure it will start to seem more natural and comfortable every day.

One thing that I did notice about flying and wanted to bring up in my column relates to body positioning in the circle. Because of the low speed of GX models, the GX event is relatively forgiving in terms of getting into and out of awkward body positions. With the quicker F2D models, such bad habits can quickly lead to messy situations. In particular, one thing that I noticed with several pilots was a tendency to end up having to run around the back of an opponent to catch up with a model or to get in some sort of attack position in the air. Although there’s nothing wrong with standing behind one’s opponent, on several occasions I saw this situation lead to lines starting to get around the opponent’s body. This is obviously a sticky situation, and led to frantic movements by both pilots, line tangles, crashes, or penalties for stepping out of the pilot’s circle. I think it would be really helpful for everyone to spend some time pondering these issues, and flying mental matches. If you imagine flying the match in your head, you can slow down or stop the action as needed and also spend some time reflecting on where your body is/should be relative to your opponents to avoid getting into hairy situation. Another way to accomplish this is through “shadow boxing,” where two pilots basically fly a match with their bodies/arms but no models.

So far I think everyone is making good progress with this event. I’m looking forward to seeing more improvement at our next contest May 29, 30, 31 in Kingston. For those of you who haven’t tried or seen F2D yet, I encourage you to come out to Kingston for at least one of the days to check out what this event is all about. We will be flying strictly according to the FAI Sporting Code, which is the form of combat flown by our friends throughout the rest of the world. We would also really appreciate any help we can get with judging/running the contest, but there is no pressure to do so. I’ll be happy just to see a lot of faces out there and give everyone a chance to witness this exciting event.