Doug Galbreath has passed on. On the few occasions I spoke to him he was highly knowledgeable but even more so willing to share the knowledge and his time helping solve problems and answer questions. I have one of his Galbreath modified Picco P-Zero .050 engines, several of his famous aftermarket heads that mount a Nelson tapered glow plug onto a Cox or Norvel engine, plus many other bits and pieces (fiddly-bits if you’re down undah).
Everything he made was gorgeous and jewel-like. I never could bring myself to run the Picco as it quickly achieved unobtainium status when he ran out of stock engines to modify.
I remember one time I was trying to locate a couple of venturies and NVA’s to fit .061 AP Wasp engines. There was a gentleman by the name of Jan (“Yahn”) Holusco (spelling? Maybe Larry Renger knows) as Jan was semi-famous for producing these assemblies. When I tracked him down he told me he was retired from the hobby / business and had no remaining stock or parts. When I mentioned this to Doug he said he would fix me up and the parts I received from Doug were beautiful.
Doug was one of the guys who kept me in or adjacent to this persnickety hobby that fights us every step of the way.
He will be missed.
Link to archive of Doug’s now-defunct website.
https://web.archive.org/web/20150225091556/http://www.the-printer.net/DookCat.htmlBorrowed from the latest “SEN” (SCAT Electronic News) email newsletter:
From: Walt Ghio
Hello Roger,
Some sad news. Doug Galbreath passed away last night. He has been in a rest home the last few years. The last few weeks he has been under hospice care. Doug was 90 or 91 years old. I have attached a letter I put together for Doug when he was elected for the AMA and NFFS Hall of Fame. Please post on SEN.
Thanks, Walt
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Doug Galbreath
From my memory Doug started to fly at the Northern California Free Flight Council contest around 1959. Doug started out with a 1/2A model. It did not take Doug very long to start flying FAI Power. Doug had a good knowledge of machining and this lead to working on motors. At first he had a small lath, but with time he has expanded to a good collection of laths and mills. George Albright was flying a modified Spacer in the FAI Power event and Doug liked the design and modified it to his Jai Fai design with a Super Tigre G20 for power. With this model Doug qualified for the 1963 World Championships and placed 3rd. From that point on Doug has had a consistent input in the power event.
Doug missed out on the 1965 team, but his close friend Bob Cherny made the team. Both of them made the 1967 team with Bob in 4th place and Doug placing 6th using his Eros designed model. The 1979 World Champs was a second place and then disqualified for an over size Rossi. Doug flew in the 1989 World Champs with his V-dihedral model and also made the team for the 1993 Lost Hills World Champs.
Using the Tatone timers in his first power models Doug realized that they had a limit and started to import timers from Hans Seelig. This included the complete line of timers and the glider flyers started to use them for their models also. With time the mini timers were being used by the flyers in the 1/2A event.
The perfect example of Doug is that he sold you the timer or engine and if you had trouble, he would help with the fixing of the problem. This has been a trademark of Doug over the years with just about any item that Doug was involved with.
Henry Nelson started to produce engines for the FAI events Doug liked them and became the source for the engines and parts for them. When Eugene Verbitsky started to use a geared engine Ed Keck and Doug looked into producing a gear version for the Nelson. The Hummer was born. Doug worked with the APC prop company to produce a set of prop blades to match the power output of the Nelson for the Hummer.
Doug loves to work on model airplane engines. Not just for free flight. U-control stunt and also u-control speed engines can be found on his workbench.
Old cars and motorcycles are a favorite with Doug along with building small caliber guns for shooting at targets or any squirrel that comes into range.
The National Free Flight Society and the Academy of Model Aeronautics have elected Doug to their Hall of Fame.
Walt Ghio
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Further comments from the editor (Roger Morrell).
Doug contributed by sharing his knowledge of power models very generously and was a source of wisdom for many. Always very straight forward and helpful. In addition Doug and his family printing business helped NFFS spread our collective wisdom by printing many of our publications. He was invaluable in getting the annual symposium going again some more down to earth advice that put us on the right track. Doug was one of the Giants of our hobby.
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