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We didn't do very well, but it was one heck of an experience. We broke a set of lines during the pull test and a hero of mine, at the time; came out of no where and "gave" me a set of lines to compete with...her name was Betty Bell, a famous (to me) F/F Master. To this day, I always wondered what she was doing with control line stuff? But who knows? She saved the day for me.
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Norm
Norm,
I can second that "Betty Bell hero" commendation.
Back in 1959 my brother Gary and I attended the Los Alimitos NAS Nats after riding the train down from Seattle (Our dad had flown our airplanes down in his Apache and left them with family friends in Riverside, CA).
I was flying a Fox .35 powered Ruffy in Junior Stunt and was doing very well. I had placed first in my qualifying circle (Yes, they had enough JRs and SRs to required qualifying rounds!) and was excited about the finals the next day. I went out in the afternoon, insinuated myself into a practice circle shared with none other than Bob Palmer, and proceeded to put in the first of a few planned practice flights.
The flight was going well until halfway through the overhead eights when the Fox suddenly spit the crankshaft, prop and spinner out the front end and the airplane wafted around until striking the ground and tearing out both main gear. What followed was a classic "Nats all night rebuild" session in the wonderful much lamented Navy hangar with row after row of temporary plywood and saw horse work tables. We had our hands full needing to somehow rebuild and recover about one half of the bottom of the wing.
Duke Fox (who always haunted the stunt circles scoping out guys using his engines) showed up at the table almost immediately, took the remains of the engine and said he'd have it back in the morning with a "loose" fit so it wouldn't require a lot of break in. Gary and I then looked forlornly at the Ruffy with no real good idea about how to go about repairing it.
Like manna from heaven, who should appear but Bill and Betty Bell...she in her clipped short blond hair and even shorter Safari styled shorts; her slim build requiring a second glance to determine she was, in fact, a lady in what was then almost exclusively a man's (and boy's) world. In their hands they held some balsa wood, some silkspan, some dope and some stuff called fibreglass and the resin that went with it. Bill and Betty spent a goodly amount of their evening making suggestions for rebuilding and teaching us the joys of quickly setting catalyzed "goo" to secure the gear back into the wing. They then left us the silkspan and dope and ran off to get a bite to eat, saying they'd be back to make sure we were getting along OK; which they did, blessed our efforts, wished us good luck and retired to wherever it was they were staying. We finished the repair in the early hours of finals morning and ran off to the Navy dorms (another lamented staple of the old days) for a couple of hours sleep.
In a perfect world I would have come out blazing the next day and won the whole thing and had my picture taken on Sunday with Billy Werwage (who won Senior AND the Walker Cup flyoff) and Bob Palmer (who won the Open event). Alas, it was not to be. The Fox Duke brought back in the early AM had only a couple of tanks run through it before officials began and the engine overheated part way through each of the official patterns. In the last flight I did complete the pattern although the engine went lean and my landing consisted of a touchdown and several dozen low speed laps as the engine sputtered along before seizing.
I did, nonetheless, finish in sixth place not an awful showing and learned of the generosity and comradery that make modeling a "special" enterprise for a lifetime. I've never forgotten Bill and Betty although I never saw them again (they were from Texas and I was from Washington and didn't attend a Nats again until 1967). I bet, however, I could still pick Betty out of a lineup if she had her hair cut short and was wearing those same short safari shorts!
Ted
Topic: It won't do a loop or a wing over. (Read 7956 times)
