o, you're interested in Combat Sloping? Well, I can virtually guarantee that combat-style
sailplanes bring some of the most excitement that you can get out of flying radio controlled aircraft...
Combat isn't really for the beginner, but once you've had a chance to sharpen your skills and you can fly without getting all flustered, you're probably ready! Plus, most combat planes are nearly indestructable, so as long as you don't hit anything valuable, like bodyparts or that expensive car parked nearby the slope, it's a safe entry point for the beginning pilot.
Most of the combat planes available are made of some sort of foam construction or a hybrid of foam and other materials. The construction is really different than that of the typical kits of balsa and other materials. Most of the plane is made entirely of foam plastic. The foam is sometimes expanded polystyrene (the same stuff that 'styrofoam' coffee cups are made), colored foam (like blue, pink, or gray, some sort of urethane foam), and EPP (expanded polypropylene).
For example, the Bizz is made of a combination of blue-urethane foam and EPP foam, while the Boomerang, Komet and Sidewinder are entirely all EPP foam except for the flying surfaces (like the ailerons and elevons). The other material that is used on the tail surfaces, typically, is called Coroplast (in the USA anyway). Coroplast is a plastic, corrugated material that is light and durable. It also comes in a variety of different colors. You can build most combat planes rather quickly as all that typically needs to be done is to cut openings in the foam for the radio and controls and cover the wings with tape (and/or Ultracote) and go fly. I've built many a Boomerang in as little as three hours.
Being made of foam, these combat planes are REALLY durable. You can smash 'em into the hill at warp speed and
all that usually happens is the covering gets a bit scuffed or the nose gets dented somewhat.
I used to fly a sort of combat more than 20 years ago with styrofoam 747's (the throw-toy type) that I had
installed a radio.
Those planes were fairly fast and fairly durable,
but don't compare at all with the durability (or speed!) of these planes that are made primarily of
Expanded Polypropylene (EPP).
EPP foam is more like rubber than that of styrofoam and causes these planes to 'bounce' off each other,
the ground, and even people (like my thick head). We didn't use strapping tape for strength either; I guess we had
foam for brains too - instead we sometimes used heavy duct tape.
One thing to note about combat: be prepared for fast action, where pilots will intentionally chase you in the air and try to knock you out of the sky. This isn't the kind of mid-air collisions that sometimes occur while flying, but rather these collisions are the goal! Flying combat requires a toolbox full of spare parts for your plane, like extra clevises, pushrods, control horns; a large supply of strapping and/or mylar tape, and quick repair skills.
[photo by Wade Kloos]
Every time they knock you out of the sky (where you end up on the ground), this is known as a 'kill'. You also get 'points' for hits where some piece of plane is broken off as well. Zagi's and other flying wings are notorious at getting their wing tip plates broken off (well, they're just taped on). Luckily, Zagi's actually fly fairly well without the plates. Sometimes at a popular flying site, you may have to share the air with one of the 'civilians'. Civilians are planes NOT intended for combat, like 'floaters', racing or other planes. It's common to have to share the air, just be considerate. Even though a combat plane is commonly made of foam, it can do quite a bit of damage to a plane made of balsa wood or even a composite, carbon-fiber wing. I've seen a $20 piece of foam utterly destroy an expensive, beautiful open class sailplane without receiving any damage in return.
At the first BASH (Bay Area Slope Heads) I attended in Los Banos many years ago, I brought a gaggle of planes, but spent most of my time there flying and field-repairing just my Zagi. In the space of about 4 hours, I broke 3 nylon clevises, 2 control horns, and knocked off my wing tip plates at least a dozen times. I probably was 'killed' more than a dozen times that day, but I had the time of my life. I went home with some battle damage (colored scratches, torn tape, etc.), but the Zagi was still perfectly flyable. If you want to see some more Los Banos pictures from those days or a combat crash sequence, click Los Banos Pictures and BASHers.
One of the rules of thumb for combat pilots is to be friendly on the ground and aggressive in the air. Mid-air collisions not only happen, but are the real reason you have one of those combat planes, so be forgiving if someone manages to break something a little more permanent. Hey, no one forced you up in the air. Just remember that next time it'll be your turn to knock him or her out of the sky. If you manage to knock them 'way down the hill', it is common courtesy to help them look for their plane. Please be courteous, it just makes for more fun.
Some of the skills that help make a combat pilot great is the ability to do: very low level passes (where there's just a few feet between your plane and the ground), fly inverted well (sometimes you get flipped upside down near the ground, and the only way to 'live' is fly out inverted), and having some peripheral vision skills (it helps to know where those 'targets' are at all times). So practice your skills and blow 'em away when you get to the next battle.
I always try to keep my planes as light as possible. Some people, in order to keep everything from getting 'dinged' will cover every square inch of their planes in strapping or filament tape even in places where it doesn't matter. I've found that heavy planes don't always 'kill' more often than light ones. Rather, light planes always seem to be higher in the sky and therefore at an advantage. Your mileage may vary. My best results have been to follow what the kitter or manufacturer has to say about their kit and just follow the instructions. When building with combat and trying to keep it light, you probably shouldn't use the lightest servos or linkages. Servo arms can get broken right off the servo. I usually use standard or otherwise strong servos that won't easily get stripped by too much force being applied to the arms, either in the air collision or by hitting the ground. When possible, use servo wheels rather than arms as they're a lot stronger. Also, I [now] use metal clevises with 'keepers' (either a piece of plastic tubing or metal clip) to keep the clevis from being snapped off the control horn. My favorite standard combat servo is the Futaba S-148, which is an inexpensive, older servo design that stands up to quite a bit of abuse in the combat arena.
Sometimes, but not very often, you make break something that you just can't fix at the field, so it makes sense to have more than one combat plane all prepped and ready for battle.
Since the advent of the combat slope soaring phenomenon, there are now many contests that are occasionally held on various fields throught the U.S. and internationally. To keep the contests and basic combat events 'fair', a set of guidelines have been developed to ensure pilot's safety as well as spectators that attend. Here's the British Association of Radio Control Soarers Combat Guidelines to refer when building and flying combat (apologies to my U.S. translations). Many of the guidelines are just some simple ideas to keep yourself from getting hurt.
