AtAc Series Report 2021 Round 1

 Round 1 of the Air to Air Combat Series finally went down. Saturday morning, we had 8 flyers work thru 4 rounds taking us to about 2:30pm completion. Returning champion Sepeid Goudarzi was heavily supported by me in the 2020 season. His reward for winning the championship is that he will be largely on his own in the 2021 series. Sepeid put together an ARF Bi-Slob from Brodak Hobby powered by an ASP .25. Congratulation to Sepeid for completing the model and then flying 4 rounds of combat in a contest with it! There were several naysayers including myself; I was fully expecting the ASP .25 to blow the wings off the Bi-Slob at some point during the first flight. In my defense the only Bi-Slobs I have ever seen fly were Pat Willcox and Howard Williams flying them with Fox .35s somewhere between hover and 30mph. As has become usual at AtAc we had a good mix of nitro and electric power on planes ranging from vintage Tom Fluker FIA combat wings flown by Daniel Cranfill to Christopher Hess 's brand new built for AtAc plane by Jeff Dawson to Steve Blackwell's Ukraine built fast combat wing decked out with bright orange flames for the extra 40pts per round. Big thanks to Howard Williams and Jennifer Hess for keeping up with the scoring for all 4 rounds. This was the first combat contest Jennifer judged and she did a great job likely getting her drafted for the April FAI event! After 4 rounds there were only 5 points between the Mears bros for first and second. Bob Mears took the win with 3169 to Andy Mears 3164 for 2nd. Richard Stubblefield 3rd with 1883, Sepeid 4th with 1836 Daniel Cranfill 5th with 1825. Only 58 points separated 3 thru 5th!!! Christ Hess 6th with 1465 and Steve Blackwell 1361. Both Chris and Steve missed a round each due to technical difficulties related to combat equipment. Look for round 2 in May - I will get the dates and location nailed down ASAP.

PICS updated after I get them.