Hi again Riley!
I was a young and thoughtless youth when I met him. For several months (during the time he was helping me learn how to build and fly combat planes), I'm sure I imposed over and over again on his time, invaded his home, drank his beverages, etc, yet, I really don't recall him ever being testy and rude with me. He was single at the time, so hopefully I helped fill some time for him. Anyway, he moved to the Houston area during the early 1970s and I lost touch. However, during the early 80s, I traced him down through Betty Fox and gave him a call. It was great hearing from him. During that first phone chat, I apologized for my youthful thoughtlessness and sincerely thanked him for his willingness to help me in the hobby as well as being a friend to me back then and overlooking my youthful ignorance. Even by the early 1980s, he was starting to have back issues. Anyway, I sporadically stayed in touch with him over the next decade. I think my last time to call was early 1990s. An elderly sounding lady answered the phone so I asked to speak with Bill. There was a pause, and the lady politely asked "who is this?".
I quickly introduced myself and told her I was an old model airplane friend of Bill's.
She then informed me that she was Bill's mother, and that Bill had passed away about a year ago.
Of course, I expressed my condolences to her. I also spent a few minutes telling her how generous and patient her son was, and how he had befriended me and helped me so many years ago. She sounded sincere as she thanked me for telling her about Bill.
Hanging up the phone there was a profound sense of loss within me. It had been my hope to "someday" hook up with Bill again, buy him a great (and belated) dinner, and get caught up on old times. But it was not to be.
Anyway, Larry Scarinzi remembers Bill being impressed with your Sneeker and the Switchblade is a derivative of it, and according to Larry, the Switchblade used a "modified Sneeker airfoil". I saw the Switchblade blueprints at Bill's house a time or two, but by 1970, to me it was just one of "yesterdays" combat planes, and looked to be quite involved to build, so I wasn't interested in it for batch-building them for use as combat trainers. Of course, now I wish I would have made a copy of the plans: Would'a, should'a, could'a!!
So, it should come as no surprise that "one of these days" I'm gonna' try to build a "Switchblade" as a flying tribute to our old bud Bill.
"We must get together sometime and hash out all the stories..........RW"
I would love that. I can tell you some of the stories that Bill told me, and you can either validate them or edit them!! More importantly, though, I would love to hear some of the experiences you've lived and things you've done within model airplanes/combat, as well as life.
In my "bucket list" is a visit to Lubbock to see Bobby Mears' "Combat Museum". IF I get to do that, we will HAVE to get together and find a place to eat and shoot the bull and talk about how good you were and how good I was gonna' be!!
Andre
Topic: Blank (Read 36545 times)