fishing line to use for control line

Ken Cook wrote:               Jim the answer is yes. I fly 1/2A combat and use 30 lb test high vis Spiderwire. Line diameter from 10 lb test to 30 lb test is essentially the same. 30lb test is similar to .012" steels. Many sport fliers are using 10 lb test for Cox equipment, I use 30 lb due to high powered ball bearing 1/2A's. I use 30 lb to fly .15 sized planes like your Streak when the engines are Fox's, OS Fp's, etc. I use 80 lb test for high powered ball bearing F2D engines . I was using 80 lb test for .25 sized sport flying, I found this to become chaffed at the leadout guide and lines broke. At this point my 60' lines were cut down to 52' for .15 size flying. When I fly .25 combat, AMA requires 100 lb test or .018 steels. I use what works for me which is the 30lb for .15 sport flying. I can't say without looking it up if that's acceptable by AMA standards but I will say from my testing 30 lb Spectra has the same breaking strength as .012's. Here is where it becomes a bit tricky. AMA mandates the use of Spectra, this would be the Power Pro Braid. IT MUST BE MADE IN THE USA, it can't be the Power Pro Braid made in China. The Chinese version is very poor quality and will fail and is commonly found on Ebay.

Ken Cook wrote:                 Jim, that's what I use for 1/2A combat. I use the 30lb test, the 10 lb test would be fine with lower powered 1/2A's, I just would up the lb rating to 30 lb if your going to be using it for .15 size planes. There's so many different varieties which makes it difficult. This why AMA spec'd a certain knot and a certain type. I was using Spiderwire because I couldn't find the Spectra  Power Pro in 30 lb  high vis like you can nowadays. You had to purchase a lot of yardage.