Got my private ticket in September 1971 & my commercial a few years later. Bought my first airplane just before I got my private – a 1969 Champion Citabria and proceeded to take acro lessons at Art Scholl School of Aerobatics at Flabob Airport in Riverside, CA at the time.
Built a Steen Skybolt from plans (no kit parts or other ARF stuff doing all the welding, woodwork, covering, & painting myself) with an IO-540 260 hp Lycoming. Flew the Skybolt for ten years having a bunch of fun doing aerobatics, for competition & just for fun.
Flew as right wing (#3) for a three airplane formation aerobatic airshow team flying a Siai Marchetti with a highly modified IO-540 Lycoming rated on Monty Barrett’s dyno at 355 hp. The Marchetti originally came with a Lycoming IO-540 260 hp and we were doing some high-altitude airshows such as Aspen, Colorado in the summertime and Puebla, Mexico in the late summer with a field elevation at 7,600 ft. msl so the extra hp really helped. Flew airshows all over the US, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and offshore to Bermuda. The team averaged about 25 to 30 airshows a year, with most airshows being two or three days, and a couple having four days like the Reno air races.
I’m still flying full-scale now, just a little less than I did when flying airshows for a living.
Built my first model when I was 9 years old, a Comet rubber-powered model (actually built several of those). Then some ½ A models, a Phantom .30 powered C/L Goldberg design called the “Trainee” followed by a Veco Squaw, then a Chief, Thunderbirds, and then I began building Ed Southwick’s designs beginning with a Lark followed by his Skylarks.
I play classical guitar, classical music is about all I play...have played for weddings, parties, etc. Bob Whitely forgot to mention that he plays a pretty mean guitar himself. He & Jim Armour used to get together as Jim was pretty good on guitar as well.
Topic: How many full scale Pilots fly C/L (Read 17384 times)