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Announcements => In Memory of our friends => Topic started by: Norm Faith Jr. on December 12, 2022, 11:17:20 PM
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Just saw on facebook that Don Hutchinson passed away this weekend. We are losing too many.
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Sorry to hear this. Don made a significant contribution by creating variety of designs available to CLPA pilots. He was always good to chat with, committed to carefully detailed plans and a real loss as a resource.
God speed, Don and prayers for his family.
Gord VT
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I am very sad to hear this. Don was a staple of the DMAA for years. He was always a pleasure to talk with and quite the craftsman. He made most his own tools for modeling.
He used to keep a wind up WWII bomber's stop watch in his flight box. It's 10 seconds around instead of 60. It's super accurate. He would use it for lap times. I commented one day how I thought that was a really cool watch. He told me I could easily find one at any army navy store. I looked a few times but never found one, no bid deal. This was very early in my flying days. Not long after winning the nats in 2012 he came to the flying field and handed me that watch and said I should keep it. I was taken aback for a moment because I know he had that watch for a VERY long time. I told him I couldn't take it. He insisted. I still have it today and it still works. That was a very special gift and I will have it forever. Thank you Don. You will be missed.
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accidentally double posted
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I got to know Don when he would come to the contest in Baton Rouge. He was one of the nicest people I ever met. This saddens me very much.
Mike
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R.I.P. Don.
My condolences to his family. I'm sure God has a special place for him in heaven.
Jerry
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Yes Don was one of those special people. That is why I wanted to build some of his designs. This such a shock even though I knew hus time was coming. May he enjoy his time with his wife again and doing the things they always did. He will really be missed. :'(
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So sorry to hear about Don's passing. Trying to attach a photo of Don with one of his thunderbirds at 2007 VSC. His profile plans were great and he was quite an accomplished builder.
He will be missed.
Gary Akers
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Don was a great guy. I knew him from work before I knew he flew model airplanes - he was a big shot on TRW Program 777, that is,. the DSCS-II satellite, which I ran as an operator on my very first job out of college. I moved on to another Lockheed job after a few years, but when Don needed a local technical advisor for the Air Force satellite programs in Sunnyvale, he asked me to be it. I asked Lockheed, they thought about it for a while, but said no, unsurprisingly. Only later did I know about the model airplanes. He would come to a lot of the Golden State contests, David and I kept playing pranks with the Texas flag he always displayed.
Brett
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Several years ago, I had posted something on here about the price of dope climbing and he sent me a PM and asked me if I was going to be at the Baton Rouge contest that coming October. I told him yes and he just said I will see you there. When I got to the contest, he said "hey Mike come over to the truck with me." So I followed him over there and he gave me 3 gallons of dope. I said, "how much do I owe you Don, to which he replied "absolutely nothing." For those two days we got to be friends and all I can say is that he was a generous, kind and knowledgeable gentleman and I wish we had more like him. We will miss you Don.
Mike
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To build on Brett's post -- My first job out of college in 1973 was at TRW. Years later when I first met Don at VSC he told me he had worked at TRW at that time in satellite integration & test. The satellite group at TRW was the "first team", and my respect for Don went up immensely when I learned that his career had been in the TRW satellite group. The descendent of that group (now part of Northrop Grumman) is responsible for the JWST spacecraft that is returning those amazing pictures of the universe.
He was great to have in our model airplane community too. I miss him at VSC.
Mark Gerber
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Don was an excellent builder. He could produce well-finished planes that were very light. I have no idea how he managed to do that. I went to get his plane off the circle one time, and when I picked it up, I could not believe it. The plane was so light I thought the engine had fallen off!
Don also had some cute touches in other areas. His starter battery was concealed in a model of a ground support APU cart. And, on one plane I saw (maybe he did this on all of them), he safety wired the screws that attached the cover of the tip weight box.
When Don gave up building and flying, he had a garage sale at his house. I managed to get a Ryobi scroll saw for a good price, along with other items he no longer had use for.
Better men than Don do not exist.
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I flew with Don at Whittier Narrows (Los Angeles area) in the 1990's, he will be missed time to fly another missing man flight
Fred
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To build on Brett's post -- My first job out of college in 1973 was at TRW. Years later when I first met Don at VSC he told me he had worked at TRW at that time in satellite integration & test. T
Mark Gerber
Ahhh yesss....TRW.
In 60'/61' I flew R/C at that location long before TRW was built.
That was a huge open field at the time.
Much later there were monthly weekend electrical parts/Ham Radio 'swap meets' at TRW parking lots....went to many of these!
Also flew many, many Pattern contests at Whittier....still got the trophies too!
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Sad to hear the passing of Don, enjoyed his company and flying with him over the last 30+ year’s. Agree with everyone here,”he will be missed “.
Praying for the family.
Blessings
Allen
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I considered Don a friend. One of the most intelligent people I have ever met but also one of the easiest to talk to about anything on any level. I'm a racing fan and Don had some connection to the Allison family of NASCAR and we could talk racing when ever we saw each other. He was another one of those building blocks of the hobby that I mention at these kind of times. I learned a lot from him and he left a legacy of those great plans he drew for us and many more to enjoy.
Rest in Peace Don,
Dan McEntee
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So sad to hear. Don and I use to do battle with each other at the VSC ignition circle. When He designed his ignition unit to shut of when the motor died to save batteries and coils, he kept sending me his latest module to test as he knew I reworked a lot of engines and had a lot of test stand time. I still have a couple of them. He was a real genuine fun guy.
He called me up after my third win at VSC in ignition and said, I was doing great at VSC until this guy from Kansas came down here and took away any chance of winning. We were friends from the first time we first met at a Wichita Ks contest. He will be greatly missed.
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Saw this a few days ago, it's still sinking in, another big loss making it tough to come up with words. Even tougher with (me) very recently losing a couple close friends locally as well. Another good buddy of mine is also in intensive care as I type this. For some reason these types of things seem to mean even more during the holidays.
As many know Don was a genuine, super nice guy. We first "met" by phone long ago with me asking questions about one of his Warbird designs, the Dauntless I think. He had Minnesota roots and as soon as I introduced myself as also being from Minnesota we had a connection and he instantly made me feel like an old buddy. I don't recall exactly but later on we may have met personally during my one and only trip to VSC, in 2007 I believe. I first met many of my long time modeling idols that week and can't imagine not at least having a short chat with Don. I definitely remember seeing one of his planes there, a T-Bird? I think he had an Old-Timer there too.
I've admired every build of his I've ever seen, published and/or in person, always extremely well done. One of the things I've always noticed and liked is the simple clean paint schemes he applied to his models, always appropriate to the design and always tasteful. Through these things he's always given me much inspiration on my own projects. One of my favorites was his yellow full-fuse Navy Stearman stunter, a model so well done that it could also easily win at a scale contest.
Obtaining and studying many of Don's excellent Warbird plans was a major influence in giving me the confidence to design and build my profile PBY Catalina stunter back when I did. I had most of my "plan" figured out for it on my own but along the way many of my ideas were confirmed by studying and comparing his design philosophies, how to disguise and finish a fully capable stunt model with a very scale appearance. Talking with Don over the phone at times we pretty much had the same thought processes on balancing stunt/scale design. If it wasn't for seeing Don's work though, I may never have built that PBY that I've enjoyed so much.
I'd honestly love to build all of Don's Warbird designs but it's quite a long list and so hard to pick "the one". They're all awesome and very well thought out. I was the one who initially suggested and kept poking at him to design his B-25 Mitchell, one of my absolute all-time favorite aircraft and something I've always wanted to build. We talked about doing the B-25 over the phone and via email quite a few times before he finally did it. At first, for ease of design and build, he talked about just doing it with a straight wing but I insisted it had to incorporate the characteristic "gull", saying "it wouldn't be a B-25 otherwise!" Don then set about designing the B-25, with the "gull", and figuring out a slick functioning flap system that all came out with his typical and excellent attention to detail.
The only one of Don's designs I've actually completed is the P-38 Lightning I finished as "YIPPEE", the 5000th Lighting off the production line. The model was quite a challenge to build but is one of my most prized. For anyone interested in that design, a forum search here will find multiple threads covering that build project from start to finish.
All in all Don was one of the nicest people I've ever met. I'm not going to claim to have known his as well as many here, but well enough I think. I've always admired his work and really enjoyed the conversations we had, always an inspiration. He will certainly be greatly missed in our fraternity, my sincere condolences to all family and friends. Thank you Don.
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Well I will try this again. I got to see the Stearman at vsc, Yes Don was/is a true gentleman. He kind of made me promise to build the B-25 if I got the plans. The build is on this forum. I do believe in the right hands it could be a winner.. The last time I flew it was at a fun fly at the KCRC field. Was flying over grass. It is the easiest plane I have ever had for take offs. I did the 6 laps and pulled into the reverse wing over and did the inverted to the over the top for level flight. Felt great as it was only the third time I had done the RW. Finished the pattern and landed. The comments I got wore amazing. Since then it has been idle as knees and back have hindered any flying. But as I have told someone on this forum I am almost back to normal and ready to try flying of any kind in 2023. Justb need to find a way to the field. D>K
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Well I will try this again. I got to see the Stearman at vsc, Yes Don was/is a true gentleman. He kind of made me promise to build the B-25 if I got the plans. The build is on this forum. I do believe in the right hands it could be a winner.. The last time I flew it was at a fun fly at the KCRC field. Was flying over grass. It is the easiest plane I have ever had for take offs. I did the 6 laps and pulled into the reverse wing over and did the inverted to the over the top for level flight. Felt great as it was only the third time I had done the RW. Finished the pattern and landed. The comments I got wore amazing. Since then it has been idle as knees and back have hindered any flying. But as I have told someone on this forum I am almost back to normal and ready to try flying of any kind in 2023. Justb need to find a way to the field. D>K
John I just retired and am moving to within 7-8 minutes of the field....I'll get you there pretty often. Get your stuff ready. It's sad to lose Don. I built his Dauntless, which turned out a bit heavy but was neat anyway. I have plans to his Corsair here. Someday I'll likely build it-much lighter.
Dave
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Here's a couple of pics from the VSC of Don's models.
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Here's a couple of pics from the VSC of Don's models.
Any idea what year that would have been? Just curious.
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This hurts; Condolences and Best Wishes to Don's family and many friends.
My first really memorable contest took place in St. Paul, Minnesota, with P-51 Mustangs in the background - Mustangs I later learned Don had worked on. When we first connected by phone, we learned we had many Minnesota connections - memories of the same people, places and hobby shops from the '50s.
Don was a real gentleman and a giver. He will be sorely missed. And that statement is completely inadequate.
Dennis
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Any idea what year that would have been? Just curious.
It was 1999.
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Is Don’s Moitle Bipe still on display at the AMA museum?
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Yes.
Dave