I went through my photo collection today and resurrected some photos of Owen from his Summer excursions up North. Owen and Lou would drive their motor home to Illinois almost every Summer. He would be at the Fermilab field almost every day (except Tuesday when Lou met with her friends). Owen would be waiting for Alan Hahn and myself to arrive during our lunch hour and make sure that we made maximum use of our lunch time. We called him our "Field Marshal".
Owen would come up to me after I finished a pattern and ask, "Do you want me to tell you what you did?". He would critique each maneuver from memory, and pick it apart mercilessly
. That always amazed me.
Well, here's a few pics of Owen from our Illinois area events. Allow me to echo Eric with "We'll miss you, buddy".
1st pic - Owen flying at a Tree Town contest at the Aurora airport in Sugar Grove, IL.
2nd pic - Owen having a deep discussion with Crist Rigotti at one of the Tree Town contests.
3rd pic - Owen's "Gypsy" at takeoff with Bill Smith releasing (Rockford, IL)
4th pic - Owen flying his "Super Tucker" at one of the FermiStunt contests at Fermilab.
5th pic - Owen receiving the 1st place Advanced trophy from Floyd Layton at a Peoria contest.
6th pic - Owen holding for me as I signal the judges to start my very first Expert flight (Peoria). Owen gave me a lot of support.
7th pic - Owen with Jim Renkar at the Sandwich 1/2A contest.
8th pic - Owen with his 1/2A stunter at the Sandwich 1/2A contest.