G, day from the Goldfields,

Just a brief report this month, covering the last Open Class Combat held on Sept 2^nd.

We flew four bouts.

Pilots were. Peter DeGroot, Jarrad Brown, Paul Murnane, Myself.

I scored two kills

Jarrad scored one.

Peters coro plane was underpowered with the .40 LA in the windy conditions. He flew well notwithstanding.

Jarrad’s Gremlin got wrapped in a streamer and spun down from 100 meter’s but survived with no damage after levelling out by itself and landing in a clearing in the bush.

We had lots of very near misses including a few times when all the Aircraft occupied the same small airspace for a split second.

Paul crash landed on last flight and damaged his Coro wing. Fixable but retired.

The flying skills displayed were remarkable considering two of the four pilots are new to combat.

We are still experimenting with equipment, aircraft designs and rules. At our current rate of progress we hope to stay on a competitive footing with other clubs developing combat in Western Australia. We are definitely having a lot of fun along the way but are keeping a close watch on developments relating to combat in Perth to assist in developing universally acceptable rules. Joe Luxford has been of great assistance in keeping the Goldfields Combaters informed of the latest developments relating to Open Class.

Our basic aircraft specifications are .46 Maximum displacement with nil modification from factory specs, 1100mm minimum wingspan using standard servos and receivers. Airframes currently being trialed include the proven Gremlin design and home built Coreflute models of our own design. Our events are currently being conducted under the rules outlined by the NSCC of the USA. To date there has been no cause to question the safety of these parameters.

Tim Bailye, Goldfields Outlaws.

timandnaomi@bigpond.com

0890913714