WOW RANDY!...WHAT HISTORIC SNAPSHOTS!!
After returning from the 69 Philly Nats....
I couldn't stop thinking about that beautiful Novi4 Reflexed Eliptical wing platform...plus hearing just how beautifully the V tail platforms were working out for the Adamisin Clan, I KNEW I JUST HAD TO BUILD THAT NOVI 4 WITH A V TAIL...Plus I also had a beautifully tweaked custom BIG ART OS 35 that might prove to work quite nicely in that front end.
However...it was late winter of 75 when I finally gave up on that project...
After working all those over-time hours at the Wind tunnel Boeing Flutter modelshop...I just couldn't get enough ambition or time...to start the covering and finishing that beautiful bare-boned V tail Novi...hangin there on my garage-makeshift hanger wall.
Then I got a panic call from a friend of Marty's father that our gifted young man Marty had "stuffed" his national entry model...
just a few weeks shy of his well planned trip to the Nationals...
Then knowing just how burnt out I had become and since my Boeing drop-dead schedule, plus knowing my plans for the nats was now history.....
I thought this V tail model would prove to be the perfect CLPA AIR-AXE that could be quickly covered, painted JUST IN THE NICK OF TIME for the up coming Nats.
Marty and his Dad worked day and night....finishing that model just days before leaving. Although I was heart broken to see that they chose to wack off and abandon my "V-TAIL" then insult to INJURY added that rather bulky Non-Novish 4 OVER SIZED RUDDER, topped off with a fat bulky canopy.
That Novi 4 was built from my collection of the most beautiful select Sig lightest weight contest balsa..plus, I had been extremely careful in choosing just the right choice grades of both straight and C-grain balsa.
After they piled on thick coats of primer and lots of thick yellowish orange-peelee' coats of yellow and green paint...that Novi sadly suddley now tipped the scales at just under 6O ounces.
I was never offered a chance to test fly that model before his trip to the nats...but I was very proud to hear that modified Novi actually flew quite well...(even with all that extra weight)
Marty's practice time, exceptional reflexes and honed flying skills helped him glean his fare share of throphies and hardware with that OL'YALLER' N GREEN NOVI 4 MODE JOB!
attached are a couple of extra shots I took before one of his test flights at the Space Center the summer of 1975. (Look at Marty in Randy's shots and see how he aged...it appears that that old NOVASTING...lasted quite a few years when Randy took these last two shots?