Yes....Like the song says: "Those were the days my friend, we thought they'd never end...but but due course: The very well did end. These shots were at Olatha Kansas. That middle shot was Dave Gierke, as we know, always dress coded with his beautifully designed and built legendary stunt models...
Yes...
That last shot is the one n' only "Johnny D'" D'Ottovio who like his contest director good bud Dick Williams both Cooks, nursemaids, coffee cup n' water bottle servants to those fancy suited NAVY's Finest Flyers who were always GIFTED with the impossibly difficult job of judging stunt events at the nationals.
If it wasn't for the hard work of folks like John and Dick and many other thank-less nameless faces of dedicated modelers who took part in that STRANGEST OF TRADITIONS OF HAVING FOLKS WHO FOR 99.99% OF THEIR LIVES..DIDN'T KNOW OR CARED ABOUT TOY AIRPLANE CONTESTS...SIT FOR HOURS IN THE HOT SUN...PERFORMING A TASK THAT TRULY SHOULD HAVE NEVER BE STARTED IN THE FIRST PLACE.
So my heart-soul-and thanks go out to these stunt modelers who would even attempt that almost impossible job OF TRAINING THESE WONDERFUL MEN IN WHITE N' TAN...to be come an INSTANT QUALITY STUNT JUDGE?
MORE AMAZING YET!!! That many times....even with all those obstacles...the Navy guys did a pretty reasonable job of picking the eventual winners.
(however one ICON flyer who just got back from the World championship that flew the first round...and recieved a VERY NOTICABLY LOW SCORE...Bob Parker and I were standing there when a fellow competitior went up the the contest director who was standing RIGHT NEXT TO THE NAVY JUDGING STAFF CAPTAIN. and loudly complained that his ICON friend who just returned from placing in the top 3 flyers in the World Championships...WAS ROBBED with such a shabby low score!!!
This was TAKEN IN..BY THE JUDGES WHO WERE SITTING CLOSE BY IN THEIR LITTLE STEEL FOLDING CHAIRS, who were observing this outburst from one of our own?
AMAZING...but as predicted, this ICON FLYER upped his score by a huge margin the next round in the HIGH GUSTY WIND IN THE AFTERNOON!!! (WHY?....GO FIGGER???)
Maybe not...but I was far and away not the only one who felt...that when that flyer made that remark in front of the judges, complaining LOUDLY that this low score was posted in error to one of the BEST STUNT FLYERS IN THE WORLD! I would bet my white nurses Navy britches and red white n' blue tank top...that that REMARK to the director, in front of the eyes-n-ears of the NAVY staff, who HAD NO IDEA who that flyer was during his first morning qualifying round...NOW SUDDENLY KNEW THAT THIS WAS A WORLD CHAMPION and that they should really take notice and GO TO SCHOOL on his second flight.
HOW SHABBY WOULD IT HAVE BEEN...if that same flyer who posted such a low first score and then when the weather started coming apart in the afternoon wind fly...then score another low mark. I can assure you that....EYES BALLS WOULD HAVE ROLLED IF OUR WORLD CHAMPION who had just returned from a winning battle...HAD NOT EVEN MADE THE FINALS!
WOW! JUST IMAGINE HOW DEMEANING THAT WOULD HAVE LOOKED?
Just the same...in the end I think that the best flyers...for the most part still won the 68 Nats.
If KEITH TROSTLE is lurking, I know he has far and away more knowledge about that strange turn of events and weird scoring scene...and feeeaaaazzzzzco happenings at the INFAMOUS TURKEY SHOOT 1968 NATIONALS IN OLATHA KANSAS!
(but I wouldn't have missed it for the world....as in those daze days...we had so much fun with our fellow modelers as we gathered under the roofs of those hangers....HANGER TRASHIN WITH ALL OUR PA ADDICTED STUNT ADDICTS.
KEITH...WHO IS THIS FIRST FLYER WITH THE BAGGY SHIRT...BROWN SOCKS AND BROWN SHOES..AND DARK GREEN AIRPLANE WITH THE YELLER TRIM?.
AMA # 20017
(this last photo is of Dick Williams..even bringing a request HOT COFFEE out to one of the NAVY JUDGES sitting on that 110 degree tarmac....talk about a coffee high?
(note Billy Werwage on that tarmac in the background preparing to fly his qualification flight.)