Tundra Terror VI

[midair02]

The Tundra Terror VI was held up in Green Bay, WI on October 6-7, 2012. The weather was not as great as it has been in the past, but hey, it's October in Wisconsin. The forecasted highs were around 50 and it struggled to get there both days. Saturday had winds blowing out the northwest at 10-15, gusting to 20 and surprisingly, the GNATs handled the wind ok. They seemed to cut through the wind just fine. With the wind in our face, the action was kept in nice and tight. In fact, too tight for 2 of the pilots who got grounded after crossing the pilot line twice. Even with no sticky allowed in this class, there were plenty of streamers hanging onto the planes. The allowed notches did a great job to get the cuts and they surprisingly kept a majority of them on the plane. The planes survived throughout the meet, as long as they weren't lawn darted. Mother Nature had a treat for us in round 9. You could hear the pitter-patter on our hard hats. No, not rain. HAIL!!! Yes, hail. Being the hardcore combat group we are, we finished our round and as end combat was called, the hail subsided. So onto round 10 we went.

After 10 rounds of GNAT combat, here are the results:

1. Will Drumm 2724
2. Bill Geipel 1760
3. David Lorentzen 1696
4. Bob Loescher 1176
5. Shawn Carter -536
6. Leon Olszewski -640


SSC on Sunday had lighter winds in the morning, which was a relief. The action got started at 10:00 and by 10:01, two planes saw their demise. One was Terry's and the other one was mine. I knew mine was not going up again and got my next plane ready by the end of the first round. Terry's motor mount let go and he was down to only one plane. After the second round, Terry was out due to another broken motor mount. I also thought I had lost another plane and got out the next victim. Luckily, I was able to bend back the motor mount and re-attach the aileron linkage. Good thing, because I needed that plane after the 3rd round. Mike LaPacz was off to a awesome start, with a 540, 540 and 452 start. He has been a great local pilot to beat around Green Bay. Hopefully, we will see more of him around. After the 5th round, I needed my 4th and final plane and luckily, it made it to the last round. Attrition continued to take its toll as Leon was finished after round 6. Bob was done for the day after round 8 and after 9, David was out of parts to make a complete plane. That left 3 of us for round 10. You would think with only 3 planes up in the air, we would be able to avoid each other. WRONG!!! 30 seconds in, WHAM!!! Bill and myself crash into each other and stick together until we smack the ground. Mike was unable to keep up the high scoring and after 10 airplane destroying rounds, here are the results:

1. Will Drumm 2940
2. Mike LaPacz 2800
3. Bill Geipel 2180
4. Bob Loescher 1312
5. David Lorentzen 1188
6. Terry Van Laanen 220
7. Leon Olszewski 216




Front Row: Will Drumm, Leon Olszewski and Bob Loescher
Back Row: David Lorentzen, Mike LaPacz, Bill "3-Hand" Geipel and Terry Van Laanen

[boiler]

Thanks to William and the GBMAC for hosting the event and William's hospitality. The notches worked fine and all the planes cleaned up easily. I tried the double sided tape from findtape.com that William started using in Cinci. It is less expensive and lighter than many other tapes. It also removes easily by comparison. It seemed to catch streamers well and you could remove them and the grass without needing to put on another layer. I used the 1 1/2 inch wide roll.

[EK]

Bob. I ran out of the tape I've been using for years (Harbor Freight) and am looking for a replacement. Can you be more specific about the tape? The type and number would help a lot. The internet sight has too many listing to figure out what you used that worked. Thanks

[midair02]

It's JVCC-DC-1114-Double-Coated-Film-Tape.
http://www.findtape.com/product270/JVCC ... x=11&tid=7

If you are like me and like to apply the tape before you head to the field, I recommend using the 1-1/2 inch wide tape. 1 inch will work if you apply it at the meet and remove the liner right away. Otherwise, the paper liner causes the tape to start peeling off the wing. Not a problem with the 1-1/2 wide tape.

[Dr. Kamakaze]

Looks like it was a good time, wish I didn't have the sinus infection and I would have been there to watch. Better than that, wish I had some more time and I would have been there to fly! Hopefully next season
Time to rebuild the fleet for next year,
Andy Runte, aka "Dr. Kamakaze"
-TEAM KAMAKAZE-
RCCA #876
AMA #273119

[EK]

Thanks William. That looks very similar to the tape I've been using. My only beef with the tape was if left in the Texas sun too long, it became permanent and a real bear to get off, but perhaps this tape is enough different that won't be a problem.

[ZenManiac]

Yeah, man --- fun event. Thank's Will for organizing.

This was my first time to get to go to Green Bay for Will's event, but it won't be my last. The Gnat combat was a blast -- it was a little distracting though, watching Will's single-ply coro wing flex like a sailplane on a high speed bank. My first round was cut short by a mid-air meeting with Bob's Gnat in about the first minute of combat. Damage: severed throttle servo wire, aileron control horn cut in half, and a fuel tank that was cut in three places like a hot knife through butter (wish I had taken a picture). I only brought one Gnat plus spare wing and tail feathers, so the guys gave me enough time to make repairs. The remainder of the rounds were considerably less damaging, until the 10th round, when someone removed my vertical stab, which didn't help the already poor aerodynamics of the Gnat. A fun event, and thanks to my brother, Bryan, and Andy, for not showing up and allowing me to place third!

SSC ended up with more mid-airs and a couple of unexplained engine failures after a couple of minutes of flying -- kinda hard to get many points that way. But finishing 5th against the likes of the first through fourth place pilots was satisfyingly fun!

Nice to see everyone again, and to meet a couple new Green Bay pilots. Til next time...