The following is an excerpt from my Genesis Saga book. It tells my side of the very strange story of the United States' F2B team's adventures in Poland in 1980. I've left in the photo captions that were/are to appear in the actual Genesis Saga book - if I ever do get around to finishing it... - Bob Hunt
The “Poland Story”
I was not going to relate here the actual “true” story of what happened in Poland in 1980. Les McDonald received an advanced copy of this book - mainly because I highly respect his opinion - and I wanted him to have the opportunity to comment on the stories contained in it. He really liked it, but he was very disappointed that the original version did not include any mention of the adventures we had traveling to, and the debacle I caused in Czestochowa.
Like any story that took place long ago and was never chronicled, the story I’m going to tell now is how I remember it. I’m certain that the other members of the team will have their own memories of the events that may differ from mine in minor ways, but the gist of the story would be the same. Trust me, this pains me greatly to have to relive this saga now, but, it is an integral part of the Genesis story.
Billy and I flew out from Newark, New Jersey to Frankfurt, West Germany together, and we met up with the rest of the team there. Each of the United States’ F2 (control line) teams had their own car or van for transportation. The CL Stunt (F2B) team piled into a sickly green colored Volkswagen Vanagon, and we were off.
Les was volunteered to drive, because, well, he was by far the best driver of the group. Truth is, I wanted to drive, but was soundly voted out of the left seat by the other team members. That team, by the way consisted of Les McDonald, Wynn Paul and Bill Werwage. I was going as the defending World Champion. Also in our van was Dave Elias. Dave had been invited by our Team Manager, Don Jehlik to come along on the trip. Don knew full well of Dave’s organizational skills and just wanted him along in case anything unforeseen might occur. Don gets the Nostadamus award for that one...
We instantly adopted Dave and made him our unofficial Stunt Team Manager. Dave went on to be the Assistant Manager of several CL teams and Manager of a few as well. In fact, in 1984 he was the Team Manager and I was his Assistant Manager for the World Championships in Chicopee, Massachusetts. We all enjoy a close friendship with Dave to this day.
We had to pass through East Germany, and spent a night there in a hotel in Erfurt. It was at that stop that things started to get, well, weird.
We were advised by our “handlers” to keep a low profile. We were, after all, in an Iron Curtain country, and our government had just instituted a boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympic games in protest of Russia’s involvement in Afghanistan. In fact, there was some concern before we left that we would be asked by the State Department to not attend this World Championships, but that did not materialize. Upon arrival in Erfurt we were assigned a “Party Member” who would oversee our stay. This woman collected our passports, and sternly advised us that, “Things are different here than you are used to.” Boy howdy...
So, naturally, Billy and I decided to sample the local entertainment, and ventured out that evening alone and against advisement to visit a local pub. Of course, we didn’t inform Bill Lee (our Assistant Team Manager), or Don Jehlik (our team manager).
On our way to the pub we noticed that almost everyone on the street appeared to be “under the influence.” Even the members of the militia were side stepping as they walked, and we observed a few of them dragging their weapons on the ground, butt first.
The pub was located next to the railroad tracks that ran through the center of the town, and it was large and filled to the brim with a lot of very loud, very inebriated people. My guess is that there were more than 200 people in there. When Billy and I walked in the crowd went dead silent, and every eye in the place was on us. And none of the people in there were smilng at us. It was probably not a good idea, in retrospect, for us to have worn our USA Team jackets.
Billy suggested that we rethink this and head back to the hotel. We did that, and we both had a feeling of distinct danger around us for the first time on that trip. It was a feeling that we never did get used to.
The next morning we were handed our passports and loaded up the vans and cars for the next leg of the trip. We had been told even before entering East Germany that we would only be allowed to be in that country for 24 hours. After our overnight stay in Erfurt, we didn’t have too much time left to “get out of Dodge.” We had also been given an official route to take and were warned sternly to adhere to the prescribed route and roads.
All went well until we arrived at the designated border crossing point and found it closed! A quick check of the map revealed that the only other border crossing was about 150 miles away, and we were nearly out of time. The team management group decided to revise the official route and take some roads that were expressly forbidden for us to travel on. I guess they figured that if stopped we could argue that this new route was the only option to make the time deadline. As any American knows, it’s easier to get forgiveness than it is to get permission.
Well, that forbidden route took us past a lot of military installations and we saw a good deal of military hardware as well. Fortunately, we were not stopped while taking our short cut and arrived at the auxiliary border crossing in time to not violate the 24-hour rule.
If you’ve never experienced an Iron Curtain country border crossing station, you may not be able to fully appreciate just how stressful they could be. The people who were stationed at them had little to no sense of humor, and they seemed to absolutely resent the fact that we had the freedoms we enjoy. I got the distinct feeling that they wanted to mess with us in any way they could.
The actual border crossing facility was much the same in layout as a toll booth on one of our turnpikes. They had several stalls and we just had to get in line for one of them and wait. Some of our team got in one line, and some in others. We chose poorly; our line took a long while to move, and the guards were in no hurry to get us through. A guard collected our passports and then went back into his little booth to check on who knows what. Then he came back and asked some questions — mostly in very broken English — and then went back again to his booth. This scenario repeated itself several times and went on for quite a while.
One of the other lines was moving more quickly, and the car containing part of our F2C Team Race team got through the crossing much sooner than we did. In that car was J.E. Albritton, Walt “Gator” Perkins, and Tom Knoppi. The team manager realized that they were going to get through the crossing much quicker than the rest of the team and asked them to hurry ahead to our next scheduled stop in Wroclaw, Poland, and find the next “party member” who was to oversee us that night. We were going to be very late in arriving, and it was just prudent to try and defuse any problems by getting someone there quickly to explain the delay.
It took an hour or more for the Stunt team to get through that border crossing, and by then it was dark. The roads in Poland were in poor shape, and there were no street lights. To make matters worse, it was raining heavily. There were lots of puddles on the road and Les had to be careful to not allow the van to aquaplane. At one point there was an official looking person standing in the road with a lantern, and he waved for us to stop. We could not make out what he wanted, but Les figured he was just trying to extort money from us to allow us to continue. After a few moments of not being able to communicate with this man, Les just rolled up the van window and hit the gas.
Several kilometers past the border crossing we saw a number of lights and a few cars parked at the edge of the road adjacent to an overpass and a bridge abutment. There seemed to be some commotion. There was a huge puddle of water on the road there, and Les just eased the van through it and continued on. About a kilometer down the road Les said that he had a bad feeling about that scene we had just passed and decided to double back and check it out.
When we arrived back at the scene of the commotion we saw that a number of men were pulling something up the embankment adjacent to the edge of the road using ropes. That something was the car that had contained J.E., Walt, and Tom! Apparently they hit that puddle at speed and aquaplaned off the side of the road and flipped the car down the embankment. Their Ford Fiesta landed on its roof in a pond of water.
In researching this episode further, I recently spoke with J.E. Albritton about the crash and he told me a very funny story. Apparently Tom Knoppi had been asked along on the trip by J.E. and Walt specifically because of his reputed driving skills. At that time Tom was a professional truck driver and J.E. and Walt were taking no chances by relying on their own skills behind the wheel in a foreign country. If you are reading this, Tom, I’m sorry I “dropped the dime” on you, but J.E. thought it was a part of the story that just had to be told!
J.E. also told me that he was sitting in the back seat of the Fiesta when all this happened. He was not belted in, and the rather large box that contained their team race models was not strapped down either. When the car plunged off the road and rolled, the airplane box and J.E. were tossed around quite violently. The airplane box hit J.E. on his head behind his ear and the result was a very nasty bump on his head. When the car came to a stop on its roof, J.E. was the only one of the three that could get out. The windows had broken out, and J.E., being the smallest in stature of the three, was able to crawl out and then rotate the car - which was actually floating at that point - far enough around to allow Tom and Walt to exit.
When the men with the ropes got the car up the embankment and back on its wheels on the road, the body was severely bent over to the right, most of the windows were broken out, and the exhaust pipe was sticking out at a right angle to the car. It was a mess! Fortunately, except for a few bumps and bruises on J.E., the three men were in pretty good shape. It could have been much worse.
Amazingly the battered car fired up and was still capable of moving. It was decided to try and drive it into Wroclaw. We all thanked the really great guys who stopped to help get the car back on the road. They seemed very happy to have been able to help.
Okay, we were now very late in getting to our next assigned location. We rolled into Wroclaw in the wee hours of the morning and were immediately admonished by the assigned party member for our tardiness.
The next day while traveling through the Polish countryside, I saw a steam locomotive traveling parallel the road we were on. My boss at that time was Hal Carstens, of Carstens Publications. Hal was an avid seam locomotive aficionado, and I was sure I could score some points with him by returning home with some photos of Polish trains in operation. When Billy saw me grab my Nikon and start to shoot photos, he told me to “put that damn thing away.” He was certain that none of us should be taking any photos of things along the way. I brought the camera along to chronicle the contest for an article in Flying Models magazine, of which I was the Associate Editor at the time. Of course, I didn’t heed Billy’s advice...
Well, we finally made it into Czestochowa, and checked into our rooms at the Polytechnic Institute dorms there. The building we were billeted in was an austere concrete structure, and just like all the other similarly bland and grey buildings in the town, it seemed to be off square when viewed from a distance. The elevator in the building was a genuine trip. It was very small, and it had no actual door as I recall, and it would scrape the walls as it went up and down. Contestants from many other countries were also billeted in that building, and getting the models safely up and down to and from our rooms was going to be - and proved to be - a major concern.
On our first day there we naturally wanted to get our models out of their shipping boxes and prepare them for a lot of practice flights. None of the models had received any shipping damage (remember, in those days we had large boxes in which to transport our models in one piece). We got directions to the official flying field, piled into our puke green Vanagon and were off, figuring that we had gotten through all the drama for this trip. If we had only known what was about to unfold...
On the way to the field we saw a dog running down the street directly at us. He didn’t look like he was going to stop. Apparently this dog liked playing chicken, and we were the first ones to blink. Les swerved to miss the pooch, and we all got a good laugh. This scenario repeated itself nearly every morning we were there. Maybe the dog was just trying to warn us off!
When we arrived at the official flying field we were delighted to find a few very nicely paved circles and a well thought out flying park. The United States’ teams always tried to arrived early at WC venues in order to get in as much practice as possible. Normally there are not too many other teams there that early, and so there is usually plenty of practice time and facilities. But this time when we started to unload our gear to get a few flights in we were told that we were not allowed to use the “official flying site” until the “official practice” days. There were no other teams there, and the site was dormant, but we were not allowed to use it!
We reported this to Don Jehlik, and he found out that there was an official F2B practice facility elsewhere in town. Okay, that’s fine we thought; we’ll just practice there. When we found the practice site we discovered that it was just a couple of degenerating tennis courts located adjacent to a large apartment complex. There was not enough hard surface (concrete as I remember) to allow a complete circle over which to fly. There was fairly high scrub grass on the edges of the courts, and we would have to fly out over the grass and then try to land and stop our models before they ran off the edge of the concrete. Add to this the fact that this was apparently the local playground for the kids who lived in the adjacent apartments, and the fact that teams from other countries who also arrived early were trying to get in a few flights, and you probably get the picture that this was not only a totally non-suitable practice facility, but also one that put the local kids in danger. Oh, there was a sign at the site declaring it to be the Official F2B Practice Site, but it was written in english!
The kids had no clue as to who all these people were who were invading their playground with toy airplanes. We tried to fly a few flights there, but it was impossible to concentrate and get in any meaningful practice. Billy, always the cynical humorist of the group, named that site the “Torture Chamber.” Okay, this was not going to work. We needed a practice site at which we could get down to the business of re-trimming and practicing. Someone told us about another field on which we might be able to fly. We got directions and headed there. This next site was more secluded, and there were no kids to watch out for. It was, however, very soft and very muddy. We flew only a few flights there before deciding that it was too dangerous for the models. Billy aptly named this one the “Berea Tar Pits.” (Billy at that time lived in Berea, Ohio...)
It was now getting serious. We needed to practice. Somehow we found a huge, well-groomed soccer complex. It was obviously a state-run facility. Initially we were told that we could not use it. Then a man came out to negotiate about renting it for a few hours. We were desperate and got together a bunch of money and gave it to this fellow.
We quickly found out that the grass at this facility was way too plush and thick to allow takeoffs. Les didn’t want to fly off the grass field, but Billy and I took a chance. We hand-launched each other’s planes. Billy’s flight went okay and he got the big USA-1 down safely. On my only flight at that facility I landed a bit hot and tore the outside gear leg and mount block loose from the wing of the Genesis. I was done for the day, and shortly after that we were told by yet another man to “get out.” Apparently the first guy to whom we gave the money was trying to make a few extra bucks, but had no authority to allow us to fly there. When we told the second man that we had paid “rent” for the field he seemed very upset. I hope we didn’t get that first guy into too much trouble, but I suspect that we did. The second man was very angry! Anyway, we were tossed off that field and we received no refund of our money. Upon leaving that field Billy coined yet another name. That place became known as “The Penalty Box.”
We went back to our rooms and Les helped me fix the broken gear mount in the outboard wing of my model. He even had some sticky-back MonoKote with which to hide most of the repair job (In those days I was very conscious of the appearance of my models, even though there were no appearance points at FAI contests).
At that point we were becoming very frustrated. We had a few days with which to get in a lot of practice, but no viable field on which to fly. We decided to get into the van and do a search on our own. We ventured on a main road a few kilometers outside of town and saw a Polish Wilga towing a Jantar sailplane aloft. The Wilga, by the way, is a high wing monoplane that just oozes character. It has a certain bug-like quality to it with long, articulated landing gear legs and a corrugated skin on the wings and fuselage. I think that they have a beauty of function that is just plain elegant. Okay, we figured, wherever there is a sailplane and a tow plane, there must also be an airport. And, where there is an airport, there must also be a lot of flat and unused adjacent land. We drove off in the direction the Wilga seemed to be headed after releasing the Jantar sailplane. We got off the main road and found some back roads that led us eventually to a dirt road that seemed to lead to where we saw the Wilga descend.
We followed the dirt road up a hill and through what appeared to be an old broken down gate, in an equally out-of-repair fence line. There was also a decrepit structure there that looked a bit like a guardhouse (perhaps that should have alerted us as a warning...). There were no signs posted and no people there, and so we continued on up the dirt road. On either side of the road there were tall bullrushes that obscured our view of where we were going.
Eventually the dirt road deposited us out onto a huge airfield. We crossed a very wide and very long runway and headed towards a group of people who were standing around where the Wilga had parked. There were a few other sailplanes there also, and we figured that this was a sailplane club of some sort and they were having a field day. We all decided that it was worth trying to communicate with these guys in hopes of getting permission to fly on one of the many paved ramps at the airport. Billy’s USA-1 was the plane that was easiest to extract at that point, so Billy and Dave got the plane out and strolled over to where the sailplane guys were congregated.
We had parked near an old Russian Antonov An-2 biplane, and again I thought I could score some brownie points with my boss - who loved old airplanes almost as much as he did steam locomotives - by grabbing a few photos of the antique plane. And, this is where the trip took a very surreal turn.
Just as I was clicking off the last shots of the biplane, we heard a siren and saw a good-sized truck speeding out towards us. In the back of the truck were seven or eight soldiers armed with AK-47 automatic rifles. The truck pulled up adjacent to our van and the soldiers piled out and surrounded our van with their guns held at the ready. Needless to say, we were stunned and a bit scared at that point.
Okay, here’s the story. It seems we had meandered onto a military base, and just behind the biplane I photographed, there was a radar installation! And, of course we were looked upon as spies, because we had “USA” emblazoned on the back of our jackets...
Dave and Billy came back from their pow wow with the sailplane guys, and they brought with them a very nice young man who spoke english very well. He talked with the soldiers and then told us that we were being detained. He was the one who also informed us that we were now on a military facility without permission. We explained to him that we had seen no signs or any indication that this was a military base when we drove up the dirt road and through the broken fence and gate, and that there was no one stationed on that road guarding the place.
We were detained there for a couple of hours with no further explanation. It was windy and cold, and the four of us stayed in the van while the soldiers stood outside in a circle around the van and guarded us. In retrospect, they looked pretty cold and uncomfortable. Billy had to dispose of some rented liquid (ahem), and got out of the van, pulled down his zipper, and looked one of the guards right in the face as he relieved himself on the ground. Woo boy, is he brave!
Now, the conversation in the van during our detention was focused on one point: I should not have brought along a camera, and I certainly should not have taken any photos of a plane! Billy was considering feeding me that camera piece-by-piece... Les was also not too happy with me, but he tempered his admonishments a bit, realizing that Billy was doing a pretty good job on me. Wynn, and Dave just sort of stayed quiet while I was being lambasted by Billy.
After what seemed like a long time, a plane landed and some men dressed in suits got out of it and came over to the van. One of these men also spoke english very well, and he asked us who we were and where we came from. He also wanted to know how we got onto the base. We told him about the World Championships and that we were just trying to find a place to get in a few practice flights. We also told him that we were staying at the polytechnic institute dorms, and that we had followed the Wilga and found that dirt road. He didn’t seem impressed or sympathetic. He told us to just sit and wait in the van. And another long period of time elapsed...
Eventually that man came back to the van and confiscated my camera and all the film I had shot, and also the unexposed rolls. He then told us to follow him. He got into a car and led us back across the runway we had crossed earlier, and back down the dirt road we had come in on. But, now there were no bullrushes on either side of the road. They had been cut down and disposed of. When we got down to where the broken gate and fence had been, we found them to be completely repaired and painted. That broken down structure that looked like a guard house was also now fixed and painted and manned with soldiers and dogs. We were stopped at that point and some men took a lot of photos of us with the guard house and gate in the background. It became immediately clear to us at that point that someone had dropped the ball by not having that gate and fence guarded, and that they were now covering their own behinds by taking these photographs to prove we were lying about how we got onto the base. It all got very serious very fast.
When we got back to the dorms, we were released. I don’t remember if the official man in the suit talked with Don Jehlik, but I suppose he did because I do remember being summoned, along with the other F2B team members, to Don’s room. He was not amused. We were told to not venture out on our own again, and we thought that was the end of it. I was concerned a bit because I didn’t get my camera or film back at that time, but we weren’t in jail, and we didn’t get shot, so I figured the worst was over concerning this incident. Wrong again...
We finally did get to practice just a bit on the official flying site during the “official practice” times, but each of us only got in about two flights. Back at the dorms we were approached by members of the Italian F2B team, and they told us that they had heard our voices coming from a speaker in a militia truck that was parked outside the dorm building. They had bugged us! So naturally we went back to the rooms and started telling jokes about our “hosts.” In retrospect that wasn’t too smart either, but we were mad, and we wanted to mess with their minds for a change.
Place photo G.052 here.
Caption: We processed our models at the 1980 World Championships in a tent that was adjacent to the flying circles. That’s Bill with his USA-1 ahead of me, and you can see the tail of Wynn Paul’s PAMPA Wagon just outside the tent. This tent would soon be the setting for a life changing drama for me... Hunt collection photo.
Things settled down for a couple of days and then it was time for the contest to begin. The official F2B circle was situated next to a tree line, and there were fences and small buildings around the perimeter of the circles as well. Like most European sites, this one could get very turbulent when the wind blew. But we were fairly blessed to have mostly calm to moderate wind conditions throughout the contest. There was a bit of rain during the first round, and I caught a good shot of it. Without a lot of practice under my belt I didn’t feel that my first round flight was anywhere near up to my standards, but it did return a good score. Perhaps the judges were just paying tribute to the defending champ.
Instead of writing a round-by-round report of the contest from my point of view, I’ve decided to include here a report that was written by Bill Draper, a perennial member of the British F2B team in those days. This report was found on the Control Line Barton Model Flying Club Forum, and is being reprinted here with the permission of John Hatch. I would like to take this opportunity to thank John and the Barton Model Flying Club for their consideration. Bill’s report is being presented here verbatim. Here’s Bill’s report:
Twenty six countries competed in F2B Aerobatics, including once again teams from Eastern Europe with long standing traditions in aerobatics, such as Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland and Bulgaria, and for the first time a team from China. Missing compared with 1978 were flyers from Mexico, Egypt and Ireland.
The sports stadium boasted a tarmac circle specially laid down for F2B.This was outside the main stadium bowl, and could have been very turbulent under the wrong conditions. However the wind remained reasonable, and blowing from an open side throughout the contest, and therefore did not cause too much concern. Accommodation was several kilometres away at the Students' Hotel, and the organizers had laid on a regular quarter hour bus service between site and accommodation through the flying periods, which proved very successful.
The practice facilities provided were very limited, situated about 2 kilometres from the Students' Hotel, in the opposite direction from the contest site. The site was not large enough for normal length lines in one direction, necessitating flying over rising steps on one side and rough scrub on the other! This required much running around at landing periods — just not good enough for a World Champs. Official practice was held on one day only, and flying was divided between the three circles at the Sports Stadium.
Due to the large entry, the first two rounds were spread over three days. The British Team — Bill Draper, Barry Robinson and Peter Coates, flew on the first day. All three had been experiencing overrun problems during practice, due no doubt to different weather conditions, and had been withdrawing fuel to obtain correct runs.
Joseph Gabris flew early, in third spot, with a nervous flight for an ex World Champion. His model is a 16 year old Supermaster, which had been re-covered and looked very attractive, now HP40 powered.
Mark Lavalette opened round one for France with his usual fast crisp flying style, and his. score of 2,601 remained the first round leader for some time. Bill Draper flying sixth, was first British entrant to fly, at the still early time of 0755 hrs! Atmospherics were obviously difficult to allow for, despite the carefully measured amount of fuel extracted, the flight was ruined by the motor dying in the first loop of the clover leaf. Bill continued the manoeuvre and the motor spluttered into life at the bottom of the first bunt, and continued half heartedly for the rest of the manoeuvre. However the high 'K' factor manoeuvre was ruined, and quickly followed by a hurried landing.
However we still had another life left. Barry was the next Briton, about an hour later. Alarmed by Bill's earlier short run, he filled his tank, and had a clean flight, but obtaining his landing points with only one second to spare, notching up a few more points on Bill.
Karma of Finland suffered an erratic flight, losing line tension due to wind turbulence. This caused him to run back several paces, and although he recovered tension, the model flew into the branches of a tree adjacent to the circle, then fell to the ground, fortunately without serious damage!
First American to fly was Bill Werwage in sixteenth spot. His 0S40 powered, 1575mm span model was flown big and smooth and went into the lead with 2804 points.
Much interest was focused on the opening Chinese flyer, Wu Dazhong. His model featured wing tip fences with high lift aerofoil sections, heavily offset to increase line tension. Powered by a Chinese made 35, the model was flown slowly on long lines with the motor running very fast on a low pitch prop. Pull-outs were consistently very low. Even more surprising is the fact that he did not use a Control Line handle! The lines were simply attached to steel rings which were then slipped over the first and third fingers!
Flying mid afternoon America's Les McDonald put in a useful score of 2,722 points for second place, using his 1976 model now K &B 40 powered. The motor is a front induction model, with a new liner and modified port timing, running fast on a 275. 125 prop.
Boaz Trudler of Israel, who had been third place man in Europe in 1979, called off an attempt due to starting difficulties, thereby putting Britain's Peter Coates in a few minutes early. Peter suffered no mishaps with motor runs, although just a little slower than he would have liked for 2135 points.
Suemoto of Japan followed up with a score of 2,616, putting him 3rd behind Les McDonald. Trudler could not find his previous form on his second attempt. Hara started with a clean flight and strong challenge for Japan, rising to second spot behind Werwage. So the first day ended with USA, Japan, USA, Japan in the top four positions, with reigning '78 World Champ Bob Hunt and Italy's Luciano Compostella among the top challengers yet to fly.
The British team, Barry Robinson, Bill Draper and Peter Coates were lying respectively 16, 19 and 29 after day one. The completion of the opening round changed the top order after Bob Hunt's mid morning flight went into top spot with 2,817, and Compostella flying very fast, was only 5 points behind Werwage, to hold third place.
Bob Hunt's new Genesis is some 90 sq.ins smaller than his earlier model but with a larger tail area, still OS40 powered with home built three blade prop. The wing flaps are larger in area, and the flap hinge line is swept forward. The wing is reminiscent of Al Rabe influence. A small baffle fence is mounted on the outer wing leading edge some 50mm short of the outer wing tip —The theory is to drag the outer wing and increase line tension, particularly in high manoeuvres.
The second round started in the afternoon of Day 2, in the same flying order as round one, with Mark Lavalette's fast, sharp cornered style picking up a few more points for 2,673. Joseph Gabris could only improve slightly, still appearing a little nervous. Bill Draper had developed symptoms of some form of food poisoning with stomach pains, extreme weakness and dizziness, and was feeling very sick when his turn came to fly. Consequently, despite a healthy motor run this time, his score was slightly down on his first round score, but still a useful addition to the team score.
Barry had been complaining of poor line tension, and had put in some practice using lines 600mm shorter improving his score in the second round to 2,443, but still short of the Fly Off. Bill Werwage again climbed into first position with the highest score so far of 2,883.
Fred Tellier, the big Canadian, had put in a useful 2,448 in round one with his Snowbird design and at 49oz it is 5oz lighter than his 1978 model. The HP40 had been re-worked, with the liner dropped to reduce the timing and the compression ratio adjusted accordingly. The motor is run rich, but with plenty of nitro, still providing a lot of power. However, in round two, dirt in the jet caused the motor to go lean and very fast in the inverted section. The rest of the flight was a very high speed affair, with a considerable overrun to add to Fred's despair.
China's Wu Dazhong with his unusual model and "handle", was getting the feel of the contest, adjusting his pull-out heights nearer to five feet and obtaining a useful 2,592 for the last flight of the day.
Scores were beginning to rise on the third day, as round two progressed, and Les McDonald's flight of 2,931 recorded the highest score yet of the contest. Boaz Trudler still could not get in on the act, tending to pull-out too high for really good scores. His model is Genesis style but with a Stiletto wing, and he had a clockwork timer fitted to guarantee the engine cut out.
However, the judges ruled this out of order (all controls must be via the lines) and so the timer had to be wired off, leaving Boaz to the time honoured method of metering his fuel.
Peter Coates made a point of setting his engine run rather leaner than in his first flight, and put in a clean schedule for 2,465 points, the highest British score. A very heavy rainstorm in mid afternoon caught Andy Fakla of Canada by surprise. He struggled through the schedule barely able to see the plane above 45° elevation due to the force of the rain. A prompt application by the Canadian Team Manager obtained a sensible re-flight, but Andy was too wet and miserable to take full advantage of his second opportunity.
Bob Hunt's schedule earned him 2,887 but he was still short of McDonald. Gerard Tayeb of France, Claus Maikis and Stephan Ratsch both of West Germany and Compostella all increased their scores as the round came to a close. Stephan's new model is a very attractive 42dmsq job weighing in at 1.8kg whilst Claus was using his last year's model with the radial cowl.
The first Fly Off was opened on Thursday morning at 0705 hrs by Rossi of Italy. Top score of round one was 2,792 by Les McDonald with Compostella close behind on 2,782. Following a re-draw, Sbragia, also of Italy, opened the second Fly Off round still at only 1005 hrs. He was troubled by turbulence and had to abort the clover leaf, due to lost line tension.
Mark Lavalette was unfortunate to have the elevator push rod break during his wingover, resulting in a high speed "vertical landing". The Olympus was a complete write-off, but his first round score was sufficient to earn him ninth place.
Wynn Paul, the third official member of the USA team, held a steady pattern during a windy patch, although had a nasty moment in the overhead eight due to loss of line tension.
Compostella's second round was marginally less than his first and so the battle now seemed to be between the remaining three Americans. Werwage's score of 2,774 was short of McDonald but then in came Hara of Japan with well controlled flight for 2,797. Les followed with 2,871, and all eyes were on the last man to fly — Bob Hunt, competing as individual Champion in addition to the three man USA Team. With the OS running fast on the 125mm pitch prop, the flight was big and smooth for the highest score of the Fly-Off 2,880 points, but not quite enough to offset Les's lead from the earlier rounds.
So Les McDonald, the Champ in '76 is again World Champion in 1980, with fellow countryman Bob Hunt the '78 Champ in close second and Bill Werwage, himself a past Champion, in third position. Highest placed European was Luciano Compostella in fourth place, whilst the Japanese and Chinese had made their presence well and truly felt in 2nd and 5th Team place place respectively. The British Team achieved a creditable 6th place out of 26 countries.
Some other interesting facts and figures: Wynn Paul's model Pampawagon 1500mm span, weighed 1.7kg with ST.46 motor swinging a 300•150 Zinger prop. Model has a 42dmsq foam Genesis wing (not the latest one), with nose moment of 250mm and flap hinge to elevator hinge of 400mm.
Karma's model, from Finland was fitted with detachable wings which plugged into the fuselage sides, and bolted into position.
Ostrowski of Poland was using a tandem undercarriage similar to the early Russian designs, and he also used an electric starter. In my view this should not have been permitted under the current rules, with time limits for starting and finishing. If starters were to be permitted, then timing should commence from a signal given by the pilot after his engine is running.
Neal Correy, the sole Australian competitor, also used a single track main undercarriage with wingtip wheels. Due to the cost of transporting his plane home again, he gave his immaculate model away after the contest — less the engine and hardware!
The pull test was being applied in a vigorous manner. Most models were being pulled to the 20kg point, but the line tester would often pull his balance well past that point unless checked. After Bill Draper and Barry Robinson were almost pulled off their feet in the first round, the British Team had a member at the handle end during tests to observe, and prevent over pulling. Not surprisingly many sets of lines were broken. - Bill Draper
Bill Draper
I’m very sad to report that Bill Draper passed away in 2017. A nicer more gentle man never existed. Godspeed, Bill, and enjoy the competition in heaven.
Place photo G.053 here.
Caption: Here’s the victorious 1980 United States Team, and the retiring Champion. Left to right are Bill Werwage (third), Les McDonald (World Champion), Bob Hunt (retiring champ), and Wynn Paul (tenth).
Bill’s report told the facts about the contest, but not about the underlying drama. The word had leaked out to most of the competitors about what happened at that air base, and most of them were very supportive of our team. The truth is, there were not adequate practice facilities for a competition as prestigious as a World Championships. And, I’m very sure that the “powers that be” were trying to mess with us in particular in any way they could because of our Olympic boycott.
During the qualifying rounds everything was pretty quiet. We had no reason to believe that we (and more specifically me; I was the one with the camera...) were in any real trouble. But, the morning of the finals as we were walking with our planes towards the circle, Don Jehlik stopped me and told me to follow him into one of the processing tents adjacent to the circle. Don, by the way, always dressed in a black leather vest and wore a tall full- brimmed black hat. He looked for all the world like one of the characters in Mad Magazine’s ongoing Spy vs Counter Spy comic strip.
Don looked very haggard and his eyes were just red slits. It was obvious that he had not gotten much sleep the night before. He also looked and sounded very serious when he told me to go into the tent. Once inside the tent he produced a piece of paper and told me to sign it at the bottom. I asked him what was written on the paper and he said not to worry about that and just sign it. I told him I was not signing anything until I knew what it was. That’s when he revealed that it was a confession that I was essentially a spy!
Needless to say, I was stunned. I asked Don what was going on, and he told me that the Polish officials were playing hard ball on this, and that I might have to stay and be “detained” in Poland after the contest. He also told me that our State Department was already involved in this, and that they were making some plans to spirit me to the American Consulate in Warsaw after the contest if possible. I went into shock at that point and experienced tunnel vision for the first time in my life.
I told Don in no uncertain terms that I would not sign the confession. At that point he forcibly grabbed me by the arm and told that he would break my expletive deleted arm if I didn’t sign it! That was the most scary and dramatic moment in my life before or since...
Okay, I signed the “confession” and then had to go fly two WC competition flights and try and defend my World Championship crown. The truth here is that I don’t actually remember flying either of those flights; I was somewhat preoccupied with other thoughts at the time. But, as Bill Draper’s report above noted, I won the final round with the highest score of the finals. It was not enough, however, when coupled with my highest qualifying round score to catch Les, who flew beautifully throughout the contest.
I was very satisfied to have performed that well under some very ludicrous conditions, and second (Silver Medal) was just fine with me on that occasion. Hey, I thought that was a very successful outcome, considering where I was the previous September, watching my World Championship winning Genesis 46 Mk III being torn apart by a Chevy tail light bezel! Couple that disaster with a gamble to try a completely new concept (at least for me) in designing, and all of the trim issues the new ship faced at the eleventh hour.
Les’ win coupled with Billy’s third place finish and Wynn’s tenth place finish captured the team Gold Medal for the USA. And, since we captured the first three positions individually, the F2B the podium would be an all American affair. That was something we were looking forward to sticking in their faces!
The rest of that day was spent watching our good friend, Phil Granderson place third (Bronze Medal) in the F2D Combat event. That was our first medal in that event, and it was a bit of an uphill battle for Phil, as he had a very bad cold throughout the contest.
We also got to watch the finals in F2C. J.E. Albritton and Walt Perkins were the favorites in that race, having set the world record heat time for that event earlier in the week at 3 minutes, 33 seconds! Sadly there was a foul during the final race by one of the other teams, and that resulted in the need for a re-fly of the race. But the “organizers” decided that there was not enough time for that as a full-scale airshow was scheduled for the finale of the championships, and that was just about to begin. So J.E. and Walt re- ceived the Silver Medal instead of the Gold. They clearly had the fastest plane there, and once again the USA got screwed...
At the closing ceremonies Les, Billy, and I took our places on the podium and received our awards from the President of Poland and from a high ranking Polish military official. We were polite, and they were too...
A comical thing happened just before our National Anthem was played. There were three flag poles, and the idea was to have the flag of the Champion’s country go up the center pole to the highest position, the Silver Medalist’s country flag just under that in front of his podium position, and the Bronze medalist’s country flag flying lower still in front of his podium position. I guess no one anticipated a sweep by one country, and we were light one American flag! We had two very large flags, and someone scurried around and found a very small, dishcloth-sized flag just in the nick of time. The tiny flag went up in front of Billy. I don’t think he was very happy about that, but Les and I got a chuckle out of it.
Place photo G.054 here.
Caption: Here’s the top three placers in the F2B event at the 1980 World Championships. Billy wasn’t too happy that he didn’t get a “regulation” size American flag! McDonald collection photo.
The “air show” at the end was just plain scary. They had a huge helicopter come down into the stadium in which the closing ceremonies took place, and it did a series of dramatic side-to-side sweeps that had us all looking for the exits.
That evening at the banquet we were celebrating Les’ win, and visiting one last time with our friends from around the world. After the dinner had been served a few men in suits came into the room and asked me to follow them. Les, Billy, and Wynn were not invited.
I was led down some stairs to a room in which there was a table, lots of flood lights, a few movie cameras, and several official looking men. I was asked to sit at the table. On the table was my camera and all of the lenses I had brought with me. The film was also there, and it was all pulled out of the cans and exposed. It looked like they were going to make a big show out of arresting me. They asked me to sign a receipt for the camera and the lenses, and then they asked me if I knew what I did was wrong. I said yes, and then they... Well, they let me go! I don’t know exactly why I was released, but I heard from some knowledgable sources that it would have been an embarrassment for them to arrest one of the winning country’s fliers. We’ll never really know if that was the reason, but at that point I didn’t care why I was released, I just wanted to get back to West Germany and then home.
Our trip back out of Poland and through East Germany was fairly de void of any drama, and when we crossed the border into West Germany I asked Les to stop the van so I could get out and kiss the ground. And, I actually did that!
Shortly after my return home I was at work in the Flying Models magazine office, and Hal Carstens called me into his office to tell me that he had been contacted by the State Department with instructions to not allow me to write about the incident described above. Hal was a pretty cool guy, and he got a kick out of the fact that I was “detained” while trying to take a photo of a biplane just for him. For several days after that he called me “Bob,” instead of “Hunt,” as he usually did. Hey, I did score a few points after all.
I’m fairly certain that since the fall of the Iron Curtain, and with the passage of nearly 40 years, the State Department will not mind that I related this very surreal story here. And, again, the various “players” in this little drama may remember the story differently in minor details, but the facts related by me here are truly what I remember... Vividly!
Topic: The infamous 1980 USA/FAI/F2B Poland trip (Read 1731 times)
