Sorry I only just joined this forum.

I loved the old look of those impacts, Paul inspired me to start painting wild colour schemes on all my models ( Example Tiger print )

In 1992, I was only 14 and this insain pink and chequerd thing blew me away !. Certainly there are some great memories there.

Again.. When Paul built the B17 I was again inspired.. and challenged. - I talked to PW about the project mentioning I was thinking about doing the lancaster, and he did indeed offer many great tips on it. ( to which im thankful ) I decided a little more power. 19's vs 15's becasue they had increased the engine limit. - Like Paul said he wanted to build it becasue he could.. and because he had acheived everything, but more to the point was looking for a challenge. - This is where I was coming from also, im not for one moment comparing myself to 8 or 9 time US nats champion, World champion, and god knows what else he's done.. I mean who else can boast his record?
But for me personally, I had won multiple state champs, won junior Nats, and represented Australia at the World champs, and been to a US Nats - When i arrived back home, I was flat.. feeling like I had ticked off a goal ( Us Nats and Worlds were something that I aspired to be good enough to go to and not look like an idiot. )

So for me it was about a challenge, it became predictable, build a know design, trim and get the engine right, and practise.. Where was the sense of the unknown. - I could be wrong here, but i suspect this is also the reason, Paul tinkers with "new technologies " as soon as they become avaliable. From my memory, he was at the forefront using all the technologies ( and winning ) Early 90's - piped 40' .. mid 90's all different pa sizes 51 - 61 .. then the saito bug hit.. .56 and .72 now the electric bug has hit and again he's on the cusp of a killer again.
Where as Im boring I jsut use the same engines over and over and over again to give me that "known factor "

I digress slightly.. - The bomber was something I wanted to do, and there was a load of pressure on to Make it work, I constantly had people saying  - " who are you trying to be paul walker.. " which was.. annoying .. but happy to be in the same breath!

Like Paul said, practice was the issue, he could only manage a few flights, obviously, im younger ( being only late 20's when I did it ) I could manage no more than 12 flights in a day. After that i got arm fatigue, and could no longer phyiscally do anythign stunt wise. - plus it burned through fuel. I cant recall exactly how much but I seem to think it was 1 litre every 4 flights.

It was exactly 2 inches to large through the wingspan, which I was completely unaware of until 6 days out from the Nats. I chose not to modify it, due to time restraints. True in hindsight, I should have altered it. I was banking on the fact, the Contest director would let it go if there were no official protests.. Which there were not until the start of round 3... I suspect if it was doing poorly, it wouldnt have been DNQ. 

Since then i did alter the tips, and repaint them, and fly ( and win ) a few stunt contests. It was a fun project but as Paul would atest to the logistics are very large to overcome. - 1 thing I never did was start all 4 BY HAND in a contest under 1 minute. To that I saute the king !

The only thing I would like to do now is build a newer one, lighter, slightly smaller, and fly it against the B17 at a US Nats. Paul said if I ever manage to get over there with it, he would take the b17 out of the hangar. I for one would like to see his fly in person - and id hope the same would be in reverse.

For now, tho..... this is simply not going to happen logistically.