Combat

Two pilots each fly a plane in the same circle. Each plane tows a streamer, and the objective of combat is to score points by cutting your opponents streamer with your plane's propellor. This is very exciting as a pilot, but is also fun to watch.

To see what it really looks like, checkout the video links on the "Links" page (see Navigation Bar above).

(animation based on original by Iskandar Taib)

Some of the classes of Combat flown in Australia are:

Vintage (pre-1970 plane and engine designs, with modern exceptions; 1 model per bout; 2.5cc engines)
Slow (fuselage-based plane designs, a wheel, simple metal tanks; 2.5cc engines)
Fast (unlimited plane and engine design, 2 models per bout, 2.5cc engines)
Open (unlimited plane and engine design, 2 models per bout, 6cc engines)
F2D (international class; unlimited plane design, 2 models per bout, 2.5cc engines)

Typically only vintage combat features diesel engines (because they start very easily when they are hot). All the other classes are dominated by glow-plug ignition engines, which are generally more powerful and use a fuel of methanol, nitro-methane and castor oil. I usually call these planes rather than models. Usually, a combat plane has little resemblance to a real full-sized plane, so calling them models (of a real plane) seems rather inaccurate. They are flying machines of a certain size designed specifically for combat performance - hence they are aeroplanes in their own right (just little!).

F2D is probably the most common class flown around the world these days. The Fast class is essentially a version of F2D with some of the rules relaxed to allow cheaper and more commonly available engines to be used.

Interesting, but how do I get into Combat?

Probably best to read the Get Started in Combat article as a starting point. It provides an outline of what you would be getting yourself into, including costs, time obligations, etc before you take the plunge. But it also gives some pointers and articles on what combat is, what you need, where to get stuff from, and what to do with it.

But what's combat really?

Combat planes (or models) come in a variety of classes. The rules of each class usually constrains the design and shape of the planes. Most use a "flying-wing" design unless the rules specifically prevent this.
Here are a couple of "Ironmonger" Vintage combat planes. These are one of the best Vintage designs with a relatively large wing area, easy to build, and very tough. These have Norvel glow engines modified to use crankcase pressure. This improves the fuel flow reliability (no foaming etc.) but almost always floods the engine when you crash. This makes it difficult to get restarted quickly.
With the speed and manoeuvrability of combat planes, the chance of a momentary slip-up, line tangle or poor timing for an attack means that mid-air collisions or ground-hits are frequent. For classes like F2D, each pilot has a backup plane in case the first plane crashes. The resulting carnage can take a heavy toll on your collection of planes. Combat flyers don't get much of a chance to get attached to any single plane. The photo shows the product of a good day's combat for Michael Crawley, winning the 2006 Queensland State Championships in F2D combat, and in the process, completely destroying his four starting planes.
It is very unusual to catch a mid-air collision on camera because everything happens so fast. However, this photo was from an F2D contest in Houston, Texas. More of these pictures can be found on the www.clcombat.info/smash.html page (see links page). If you look carefully, you can probably find a couple of unleashed bladders rocketing fuel out.
Here's a typical (but rather out of date) F2D combat engine (a Profi). The top F2D competition engines run at more than 30,000 rpm, and produce considerably higher power than a "sport" engine of the same displacement (2.5cc). Of course, being a control-line engine, it only runs at one speed - flat out!
I needed to pull down this engine to replace the bearings, so here's an exploded view of the gizzards.