Yellow and maroon JUDGE is by Arty Myers. the design is by Gene Shaffer. Memory of a 14 year old. Gene schaffer's judge was orange.
Jose Modesto

Yellow and maroon JUDGE is by Arty Myers. the design is by Gene Shaffer. Memory of a 14 year old. Gene schaffer's judge was orange.
Jose Modesto

Is that Dick in the ball cap all the way back along the guard rail? Seems like his garb but the photo is not clear enough.

Mac's Cursader is to die for.

Looks like Schaffers flight box near the Judge however. I clearly remember that flight box. Unless someone copied Gene's at a later date he painted it white.

I knew that I had nailed the owner of that flight box. I was so impressed with it that I patterned mine around it. Gene never brought more than a quart of fuel to the field, The fuel can was plumbed to a electric pump hidden inside the box. Aslo inside was a rudimentary power panel. He would hook up the fuel filler tubing to a niple on the box hit a switch and fuel the plane. The glo plug wire also plugged into the box and was activated by another switch. Gene carried very little inside the box to the field as you can note the compact nature of the box. When it was time to fly gene would take the box close to the plane, fuel up and start the engine, then simply move the box to the side, no loose stuff lying around, very neat compact and efficient.

My box has all the same features but I decided to use a Samsonite hard shell cosmetics makeup case instead of building my own, that this is tough as nails and has survived over 25 years now. It is due for a refurb however. I had another one before but that one was lost when my car was broken into.

Attached is a photo of the type of case I modified, Mine is Blue.

When did Gene switch to CCW models? I never recall seeing him fly clockwise. Bob you loose out big time. The 8mm movie footage I sent you years ago that somehow got lost had footage of Gene doing the pattern with the stunt machine and Bob Lampione doing the pattern with the Saber Stunter, Bill Simons flying was also on that reel with a ton of other stuff.

I have on video if I can find it Windy flying the Strega, and Vic and the tsunami, Ill have to look for it though.

Gene never did fly counterclockwise. The Judge in the photos that I posted is the one that Robbie Feinstein built at the same time that Gene built his, and that's Robbie holding it. The one I flew was Gene's ship that did indeed fly clockwise. Again, Robbie's is still in existence and I'm scheduled to pick it up so that I can measure it and draw plans for it. It was designed and built in 1967, so it is a legal Classic design - whether flown clockwise or counterclockwise...  

Gene's flight box, by the way, was converted from a shoeshine box! I also liked it and I designed one that was just slightly larger to accommodate some of our modeling stuff better, and had one built by Jim Capstaff, owner of Capstaff's Custom Craftsmanship woodworking shop. Jim was also a modeler and he made kits of that box and sold them for several years. Lou Wolgast had one and it was getting old, so he had John Callentine make up a few kits of them. I have one of those in kit form if anyone is interested.

By the way, I'm pretty sure that the young gentleman sitting on the fence near the stuka-like model is Wayne Colgan.

Not sure how I "Lose out big time." Those were the very best years of my life, and flying and competing with those guys will stay vivid in my memory for the rest of my life. I'd say that I won big time!

Later - Bob

Gene flew CCW of this I am sure. The lost footage had him at Flushing meadow park flying several models CCW including a bright yellow Bi Slob. Did you ever lend him your Genesis? Perhaps it was a borrowed model, or he perhaps was flight checking some one elses. I remember him showing up at FMP with Lampione a few times in a Yellow Cab. Bob have you ever flown at Flushing Meadow? I think I may have seen you there once or twice with Lampione and Schaffer if so you may have been in that footage as well. Also I know that some one in that group had a model covered almost completely in chrome monokote.

Back when I was a kid (10 or 11) and learned to fly, my cousin, Bill Mayo taught me at Whittier Narrows. He flew clockwise and so that's how I learned to fly. I stopped flying when I went to college. Years later I met Pat Johnston and started flying again. Pat flew counter-clockwise and so, I flew counter-clockwise and largely have since then. Weirdly, I've flown clockwise a few times since then. I have one plane set up that way. Takes two or three flights to get me back in the groove, but I can fly either way (I'm much better flying counter-clockwise). I suppose it's because I originally flew one way then learned another.