Houston, 2006

This site was last updated on February 15, 2008.

This year, the contest was held on May 21-22. Pat Willcox organized the event and submitted this report.

F2D combat in Houston the third weekend in May brought out some serious flyers on this ever more popular venue of control-line combat. This triple-elimination contest started with test flying noon on Friday and the finals match completed on Sunday at 5 pm. Over eighty matches flown, awesome competition that gave our USA team headed to Spain World Champs this summer a chance to exercise their skills. Our team looks real solid. Thanks are extended you for all the help in running this contest. It makes for a wonderful weekend hanging out with a great bunch of friends who love chasing streamers.

We had twenty-four entries. With the triple-elimination format and reflies included, we had some eighty matches over two days competition. Sheila Cranfill did matrix duty. We attempted to try and keep teammates from having to fly each other but it is always difficuly to keep everyone happy. Chis Hess did most of the center marshall duties, with Mack Henry and I calling cuts and some help from Sheila on the tough matches.

It was a bit windy and about the most cuts would be two and then the knot. The plastic tablecloths work pretty well, but early on we had to switch from black and orange to black and red because the pilots could not see the orange.

With the full F2D rules, we did try and enforce the penalties as best we could with our limited manpower (no 3-person jury to watch for infractions). I am not sure, but about 4 to 6 flyaways with only 3 resulting in reflys. Another 4 or 5 matches required reflies from ties or JUDGING ERRORS. How do you get a judging error? Well, by handing out the wrong color streamer during a match in progress and the timers stop judging. Also, by DQing a pilot who has lines break while flying staight and level. This is a general AMA infraction but NOT FAI. We got most of the calls OK with a few glitches, which got sorted out.

From my vantage point of mainly just watching airplanes for cuts, the contest went very smooth. When I did circle marshall duties, I observed no bad conduct, no sawing, and only a small amount of excess physical action in the center circle.

Several items that helped make for a pleasant contest:

Two ten-gallon water jugs that were ice cold and kept full both days.
Plenty of sunscreen made available.
The Mears' user-friendly 12-volt battery-powered air horn.
The Hess brother's 30,15,5 cut-down starting boards.
Nice large won/loss board.
Large shade tent and chairs for judges.
All the help with conducting the contest from Sheila Cranfill, Chris Hess and Mack Henry.
Lunch break both days with catered Burgers and/or Chicken Strips from Whataburger.
Randy Ritch Hobbies donating 10 gallons of F2D fuel. I supplied quart containers.

Contestants from nine different states and Mexico is pretty good mix of pilots.

Mike Willcox, 8-2
Mark Rudner, 7-3
Chuck Rudner, 6-3 (won coin toss for 3rd)
Darrin Albert, 6-3
Andy Mears, 5-3 (won coin toss for 5th)
Leonardo Silva, 5-3

Allan DeVeuve, 4-3
Lester Haury, 4-3
David Owen, 4-3

George Cleveland, 3-3
Sean Dea, 3-3
Greg Hill, 3-3
Andy Minor, 3-3
Richard Stubblefield, 3-3
Tom Skinner, 3-3

Tom Siegler, 2-3

Steve Blackwell, 1-3
Matt Green, 1-3
Bobby Mears, 1-3
Steve Stewart, 1-3

Jeff Hanauer, 0-3
Nick Mears, 0-3
Andrey Nadein, 0-3
Neal Rose, 0-3

Another great contest,
Pat Willcox