Here are the Chehalis Cup #2 results, provided by Contest Director Buzz Wilson. Northwest Standings Points in parentheses.
CHEHALIS CUP RULES 80 MPH COMBAT (6 entries)
1. Jeff Rein, Covington, Wash., Broadway Bod Busters, 6 wins, 0 losses,
0 ties (6)
2. Ken Burdick, Kent, Wash., BBB, 5-1-0 (5)
3. Don McKay, Redmond, Wash., BBB, 2-3-0 (4)
4. Jim Green, Bellevue, Wash., 4-4-0 (3)
5. Bob Smith, Roy, Wash., 1-3-0
6. Buzz Wilson, Belfair, Wash., 0-4-0
CHEHALIS CUP STANDINGS AFTER TWO CONTESTS
1. Jeff Rein -- 16 points
2. Ken Burdick -- 12
3. Buzz Wilson -- 7
4. Don McKay -- 5
5. John Thompson -- 4
6. Jim Green -- 3
7. Tristan McKay, Gene Pape, Bob Smith -- 1
Yes folks, it's true.
If you like to fly lots of combat then Chehalis is the place to be. Up
early and on the field was the Buzz Man preparing the field for C-Cup #2.
When Jeff and I arrived, the flying circle was laid out along with the pits,
two launching locations were also marked so as to keep a safe separation
between the pit crews. We had only been there a few minutes when the Combat
Monster Don McKay arrived, and we helped him set up the shelter that would
later keep us either dry or out of the sun depending on very unpredictable
weather moving through the three rivers area. The attendance was down possibly
due to last week's contest at Portland, but most likely it was the Bod Busters
scattering the Beavers like a face with freckles in C-Cup # 1. Even though
only 6 of us were present, the Buzz man had anticipated the shortfall
and instructions were as follows:"Two will fly, two will pit and
two will judge." A bare bones system that worked well all day,
with 30 min periods after every two rounds for people to repair and replace
what they needed to.
The first order of business was to pass out the awards for the C-Cup # 1. They are beautifully framed pictures of the individual winner holding his airplane, bordered by the shootist logo and some cool looking combat wing prints.
You might think that with only six you wouldn't fly all that much, right? Wrong! The rounds format coupled with the semi finals and finals makes for a full day of flying. We entered into the semi's at 3:30 and didn't stop for lunch. The Chehalis cup is geared to maximize combat flying, so the more matches the better.
Streamers for the Chehalis cup are bio-degradable survey tape. It's just
right as the F2D guys have pointed out to us, cost is about $.60 per streamer
and they worked without failure in the rain. The material is a fabric type
paper that comes in various colors, best of all its cut to width! When making
streamers the historical problem has been the string first then the streamer
material. In kills combat string can break a wing off if it's too strong
or if too weak, it will break on an easy pass. Combat great Norm McFadden
was once asked to "leave"(kicked out) Mclendons Hardware because
he was testing string breaking points with a weight he had, so string has
always been an issue.
Fortunately the C-Cup is cuts only and the string can be very strong and not an issue. The combat community was devastated when paper tablecloths were changed in their manufacture causing the backing to separate in flight. We used to go to great lengths to locate this particular material for all forms of combat. In recent years it has been just plastic until the recent discovery of the bio-streamers.
After what seemed to be a marathon of good combat flying, the semifinals were flown to determine who would fly for 1st and second, 3rd and 4th, meanwhile the wind picked up another 5 mph. Weather was becoming a factor and we all spent time under The Combat Monster's shelter waiting for it to stop. (Thank you DON!) Between the torrential rains, we flew Don McKay and Jim Green for the 3rd and 4th spot with Don picking up another win. If you follow the statistics you may notice that Don is slowly but surely moving up in the standing this year. Being a retread takes time and character because of many things being different and in his case a 30 year pause in flying! We are fortunate to have him back as a driving force and a flyer to be reckoned with.
Jeff and I were paired up for the top spot and both used R&B Rip-off's for the finals. The particular airplanes had about reached the end of useable lifespan, both were over a year old. We had to fly twice for the gold because of a tie. the first match was going well for me as the Rein Man had taken all of my streamer in one pass. Now just get two cuts and put him on the trailer. Well.I took it all in one poorly timed pass, so now we could only hope the other would run out of fuel before the end of the match and gain the precious point needed to win. No such luck, we both ran over the match time creating the tie in points. Our 2nd match was not one of the best we've ever had and the wind really worked us over. At some point we both said "What was that!" Our wings that once had been upwind were blown across the circle to the other side. Amazingly the shut-offs only sagged a touch and engines were once again on fire at the down-wind side of the circle. Lots of tricks and skillful wiggles produced nothing but a collision. Most of my elevator had been chewed off so I got to play lawn darts while the Rein Man was able to get control of his model and won the match on some well fought airtime, giving the BBB a clean sweep of the Chehalis Cup # 2.
Here are the results of the Vintage Diesel Combat contest the day following the C-Cup contest. Northwest Standings Points in parentheses.
VINTAGE DIESEL COMBAT (8 entries)
1. Ken Burdick (8)
2. Mike Hazel, Mehama, Ore. (7)
3. Jeff Rein (6)
4. Don McKay (5)
5. Buzz Wilson
Tristan McKay, Redmond, Wash.
Bob Smith
Jim Green
After a very windy and rainy day of 80 MPH combat on the day before (Saturday) for the "Chehalis Cup", the sun shown and the winds were low on Sunday for the fist "DBat" contest of the year.
The contest was not scheduled to start until 11am and was run with only three primary rounds with 1 minute start time and 4 minute matches. After those, we had four of the eight with winning records, Jeff Rein with a perfect score and Mike Hazel, Kenny Burdick, and me with two wins and one loss. We drew for the semifinals with Kenny having to fly Jeff and Mike and flying me to see who went for first and second or third and fourth.
A total of eight contestants entered.
Everyone had a good time with lot of actual combat. All the planes seemed to fly well and normally difficult diesel engine seemed to work good to great. The slower speeds helped with only a couple of destroyed airplanes due to mid air collisions. In all but 2 of the matches, both planes were in the air at the start of the match and those lost less than 15 second of down time each. Through 16 matches and one rematch (due to a tie) the judges counted over 32 cuts though, as usual, the winners were the ones that stayed in the air the most. One match was won by 1 second of air time. The real advantage went to those with the old style nylon props that do not brake during crashes as you loose an additional 30 to 60 seconds when a prop need to be changed.
The contest was over at 4 p.m. with no long delays and no one was rushed.
With eight entries there were enough contestants that we had time to do everything and some could work on planes if needed. Many thanks to all that helped especially my son Tristan who judged most all the matches that he was not in, and Buzz Wilson and others who filled in for both Tristan and I when we flew or had to help pit.
Yes Folks, it's true.
Stooping lower than a stock broker in a bear market, day number two of the Chehalis Cup's alternate event has been named. Please, please.thanks are not necessary, in fact this was the brain child of Press secretary Huevos Fritos, whose job it is to come up with clever little things like this. We at the BBB await comments and feedback from our many fans and Beavers alike.
OK! On with the really exciting report on Diesel combat!
As you know, antique diesel engines are many things, but mostly irritating.
This is the only event in control line where crashing is used as a tactic!
There is an evolutionist theory of what happened to the dinosaurs that once
roamed the planet. Somebody spilled a drop of diesel fuel and it killed
them all That stuff is stinky!
The D-cup, as it's been called, was attended by eight of the meanest, most skilled and ruthless combat assassins in the world. Yes, the world. They assembled in Chehalis, a town known for its rich and long history of combat flying meeting on the field of honor know as the airport. During ancient times, the airport would be flooded regularly and Naval battles were staged there. King and Queen Chehalis were frequently seen viewing from the royal barge where I-5 now stands.
The ruthless band of cutthroats included. The Combat Monster Don McKay,
Mean Jim Green, The Lone Wolf Bob Smith, The Buzz Man Buzz Wilson, The Rein
Man Jeff Rein, Kenny-b, gee, that's me. and Tristan McKay. There was one
other that requires a special note, a Beaver named Louie, that some
call Mike Hazel.
Engines ran fairly well considering it was the first d-bat event in some time, rusty ears and bad fuel were the order of the day. The only one who ran without flaw was Louie the Beaver. Mike had his P.A.W, wound up like a double knotted rubber band, and it was used without mercy.
Don and Tristan still have the best looking equipment and had OK settings on their fleet of Sharmas, but were mostly plagued by breaking propellers. I have to say that I have not seen as many cuts in a diesel meet as in this one. A note of interest here. The Combat Monster was caught twice by the sharp eyes of Kenny-b and the Rein Man attempting very complex maneuvers in matches with each of us. Unfortunately for him, the Combat Monster forgot he was flying a diesel and not an F2D or 1/2A, and there was no room for the recovery.
The streamer string was weak and attributed to some of the kills on Sunday, but there were many matches with 3-5 cuts and that takes patience. Things were looking good for the Rein Man to cruise to a second day of 1st place when suddenly.out of the blue came Kenny-b to thwart the effort in the semi finals. This put Jeff into the 3-4 match which he did win.
The Beaver Louie, however kept inching his way to the top until it was apparent that he and Kenny-b would be flying for the GRAND PRIZE, and all of the product endorsements that come with such a major win.
The stage was set, a hush fell over the field of killers
because they knew that only one would emerge from this Masters of D-Bat
tournaments. The signal was given to start your engines and both sputtered
to life, filling the air with .that smell. The starting goose was
honked and Kenny and the Beav were locked in mortal combat both trying to
keep the rapidly overheating engines aimed squarely at each other. In what
was later described as the mother of all of lines balls, Louie the Beaver
crashed while Kenny-b maintained control. The line ball grew to biblical
proportions and the wind began to howl. (thank you Jimmy Hendrix) The only
reasonable thing to do was run away but Louie the Beaver stood firm,
throwing even more twists into the growing mess of flying lines. Kenny-b
resorted to setting a new world record of consecutive figure 8's while waiting
for the stupid diesel to run out of fuel. In the end, Kenny had won first
place with Louie the Beaver right behind him in 2nd, the Rein Man in third
and The Combat Monster in 4th.
Louie the Beaver had accomplished his mission and once again prevented a clean sweep by the BBB. You know what they say, "it only takes one Beaver to spoil a picnic."
This page was upated April 29, 2009