Just got a new toy! Here's something historic...

[Bob Hunt]

No group of photos from a VSC would be complete without one of LeRoy Black; a virtual fixture at the VSCs over the years, and one of the nicest guys you could ever meet. Here's LeRoy with his rendition of Bob Palmer's Skyscraper design. I think LeRoy has had that hat forever...

Later - Bob

[Bob Hunt]

The last one for today is of Todd Lee's Lew McFarland-designed Dolphin at an early (VSC III?) Vintage Stunt Championships. It was a great performing ship, especially with Todd at the handle!

Have a great night - Bob

[Bob Hunt]

Here's a really old one from my father's box of slides. I think this is George Lieb, but I'm not certain of that. At any rate he's holding an old "Pollywog" airfoil Chief. Note the A-26 Invader tail assembly in the background. This was taken around 1950 at the Millville, NJ airport. There were a lot of contests held on that site back then.

Later - Bob

[Bob Hunt]

Getting very close to the bottom of the barrel of the slides my father took way back when, but I thought the one attached here might be of interest. It was taken during a contest at the famed Linden, New Jersey Airport. If you look close you will see several PBY Catalina flying boats lined up in the background.

Later - Bob

 

[Ted Fancher]

Well, Ken, your comment dovetails nicely into my next photo. I had the thought to just skip this one, as it was by far not the best looking airplane I had produced in that period. But, it was a significant one for me. I had two Chiefs, but could only find slides depicting the second one that I built. I guess I was in a hurry to fly it because I didn't install a canopy, or any paint detailing to speak of. It was light at 32 ounces, however, and it really flew quite well. It was the first airplane that I ever entered in a Stunt contest, and with it I won the 1966 Far Hills New Jersey contest in the Senior division. It was 1965 at my club dust-bowl field in Dumont, New Jersey, and while I was wiping it down from a flight, that I heard a voice behind me say "Looks like someone here wants to be a Stunt flier." That someone was Bill Simons. Bill was at that time one of the top three Stunt fliers on the East Coast, and certainly the best one in New Jersey at the time. I was shocked when he offered to help me, and then he gave me a matchbook cover with his phone number on it. I recorded that phone number in several places just to be sure I'd never lose it. I still remember it by heart: PO-8-5806. (Don't bother calling that number; Bill moved from that location many years ago, and, I'm sad to report, passed away several years ago.) Bill was good to his word and we became inseparable flying and building buddies. Without Bill's help and guidance I'm sure I would never have achieved any of things I did in the years after that in the Stunt event. Thanks, Bill, and enjoy the competition in Heaven...

Bob

Hey Bob!  I have a Chief hanging on the wall to my right that I flew at VSC a couple of times.  Alas, I failed to get the "era appropriate" engine started quickly enough and ran overtime.  A judge from somewhere out east came up afterwards and told me the flight "could'a won" a Nats had it not been for that overrun!  Was that you by any chance?

Just reminiscing.  Like everyone else, I'm flabbergasted at your memory and collection of still dandy photos from a century or so of CLPA past.  You "da Man" my friend! So glad we shared our passions for a part of our treasured years.

Ted

[Bob Hunt]

Hi Ted:

LOL! Yup, that was me who told you that. And, it was no exaggeration; you flew that Chief magnificently. You would have easily won that VSC Classic event had you been able to start that Johnson 35. I have always liked the way a good Chief flies, and yours was perhaps (well, actually...) the best one I ever saw. I had a grody old red one years ago (there are a couple of photos on this thread of mine...) that flew very well, and with it I won my first ever CL Stunt first place trophy; didn't do it on appearance points however...

Yeah, we shared a lot of adventures - including that surreal trip to China - over the years, and we have those memories to keep. We are part of the "over the hill gang" now, but we did some damage along the way. What a life...

Thanks for the memories old friend - Bob 

[Bob Hunt]

Here's two more modern photos (relatively speaking). The first one is a photo of Ken Purzycki's original design Parski at the Westover Nats in either 1992 or 1995. Glen Meador and Lou Dudka cut the foam wing for this beauty. Ken, by the way, was a chemist and he used to blend the fuel that virtually every stunt flier on the East Coast used in those days. It was called KP 725 (KP for Ken Purzycki and 725 for the nitro/castor mix). Sadly Ken passed away a couple of years ago. He was a great guy and is sorely missed by all who knew him.

The other photo here is of Bill Werwage and my Son, Robby. Two of the planes shown here are Bill Werwage designed and built Geo-XLs. The plane that Robby is holding is a slightly downsized version of the Geo-XL design called the Geo-Star, and the model sitting at the lower right is my 1994 built-up wing version of my Saturn. As you can see, we copied Bill's paint scheme and had sort of a team thing going that year. Robby won his fourth Senior Nats Championship with the Geo-Star the following year in Pasco, Washington. My Saturn had a more ominous fate; a leadout broke during a practice flight at the 1996 Nats. It was destroyed. Makes for a colorful photo though...

Later - Bob


   

[wwwarbird]

Getting very close to the bottom of the barrel of the slides my father took way back when, but I thought the one attached here might be of interest. It was taken during a contest at the famed Linden, New Jersey Airport. If you look close you will see several PBY Catalina flying boats lined up in the background.

Later - Bob

 Wow, so jealous of "those days". Makes me wonder when the last time three flyable PBY's all sat together. Any idea what year the photo is from?

[Bob Hunt]

Wow, so jealous of "those days". Makes me wonder when the last time three flyable PBY's all sat together. Any idea what year the photo is from?

Probably 1948 or '49.

Bob

[wwwarbird]

Probably 1948 or '49.

Bob

 Great stuff. 

[Bob Hunt]

Okay, here's something different. A contest! The prize? A thumb drive containing my personal model photo collection of more than 14 gb of photos.

The Contest: Be the first one (Dennis Adamisin is disqualified from this contest...) to identify the young fellow in the attached photo, what the trophy he is holding represents, and when the trophy was won.

Let the contest begin...

Bob

 

[Ken Culbertson]

Do we get to ask questions?  Like is the person pictured still with us?  I can narrow it down slightly since the toddler looks about 2 and the plane has what looks like an OK Cub .049 that he cannot be more than 77.  Assuming the plane in the pictured won the trophy then the contest would have to be around 1949.  But if he is just holding it for someone else all bets are off.  Hair color is no help but the white shoes, who do we know that liked white shoes?  So with just those facts I have narrowed it down to just about anybody.

Ken

[Larry Fruits]

 Bob Hunt.
 Youngest Junior pilot to win a contest.
 !949-50

 

 Blessings;
  Larry

PS: He started with the white pants and shoes at a very early age.     

[Bob Hunt]

Ta Da! We have a winner!

Larry hit it almost perfectly on the head. That's me at 22 months of age in 1949. The story behind this is neat. My father ran the Exchange Club contests in New Jersey in the late 1940s and early 1950s. One of the stipulations for the Exchange Club's participation/sponsorship was that each contest had to offer a Youngest Contestant event. As the story goes (and I don't remember any part of this...) my father held me in his arms and put my hand in the handle. I had to fly a requisite number of laps without his assistance (five or six I think) to have the flight qualify. I guess I did that as I won first place. Now, the really neat part of the story is who I "beat." At exactly two years of age, Don Shulman placed second. Don is the son of modeling legend, Leon Shulman! Leon told my father that for the next contest he was going to get his newborn daughter out of the crib to compete!. Both families laughed about that for years. There's more... Many years later I went to work for Don as a salesman, and we laughed often at work about that story. I was a lousy salesman and left that job to become the Associate Editor of Flying Models magazine in 1979 - 30 years after my first competition win! And, as Paul Harvey used to say. "And that's the rest of the story." 

Larry, your thumb drive with the photos will be in the mail on Monday.

Congrats - Bob   

[Larry Fruits]

Thanks Bob,
 Much appreciated. Cool story. You have certainly had a long and illustrious career. Thanks for sharing a portion of it with all of us. A fun ride it has been, reading and enjoying your many stories. I am sure it was even more enjoyable for you living them. Thanks again, and please continue sharing your incredible experiences.

 Many blessings my friend;
  Larry

[Ted Fancher]

Wow, so jealous of "those days". Makes me wonder when the last time three flyable PBY's all sat together. Any idea what year the photo is from?

Just read this and thought I'd add the following!

When I was very young and working as a "swabber and gasser of Cessna's" at my dad's Cessna FBO at the Renton, Washington airport (at the south end of Lake Washington) there was a string of a half dozen or so apparently grounded) PBYs across the runway sitting idle and mothballed (in front of the huge Boeing Plant).  When we were feeling antsy once in a while big brother Gary and I would sneak across the lake end of the runway and climb aboard one that had a missing aft window (IIRC) and wandered up to the cockpit and "flew" the puppy all over the globe!  One of the "perks" for working for daddy!  Shoot, one of the lots of  airborne memories from a long aviation filled life, now restricted to those memories!

Ted

P.S. IIRC, I later learned that these old timers had been raised from the bottom of the Lake and placed there for a few years along with a handful of larger amphibians.  Not sure for how long nor where they later went.

[bob whitney]

Bob, was the plane a Testers .049 Trainer??

[Bob Hunt]

Hi Bob:

Yes, I believe it was a Testors .049 trainer. Good thing there was no builder of the model rule for that event... 

Later - Bob

[bob whitney]

their trainers were very under rated

[Bob Hunt]

I must have liked it; I gave it three wet diapers... 

[Bob Hunt]

I found a couple more photos that I'm pretty sure were taken at VSC 2 (or maybe VSC 3...). The first one is Jim Lee's version of the Charles Mackey designed Hummingbird. John Davis flew one of these in one of the early AYSC (Air Youth State Championships) qualifying meets and at the Nats as the resulting State Champ of Indiana. Not sure of the year, however.

The second photo is Bob English's version of Bill Werwage's bubble canopy Ares. Bob spelled the name wrong on the ship, but it was a beauty nonetheless. Bob was known for his ornate gold-based paint schemes.

Later - Bob Hunt

   

[Ken Culbertson]

Maybe it is once belonged to Ari?  He isn't the only one.  My 1974 Surveyer and the 1975 Surveyor.  First person to notice the mistake was a judge.

[Bob Hunt]

I've pretty well run out of my father's old color slides, but I did find a bunch of old B&W prints that he made. Dad was an avid photographer and he had a B&W darkroom set up at our home.

This first photo is of the famous Bob Tucker (no, not the one from St. Louis who designed the Tucker Special), who designed a number of models back in the late 1940's and early 1950s. Many of his models were powered by Drone Diesels (but not the one in the attached photo...). Bob won the Nats Stunt event in Open in the early 1950s (I'll have to check my Wynn Paul Stunt History books for the actual year, but they are now out on loan to a friend...). Bob was a fixture at the contests on the East Coast back then along with the likes of Red Reinhardt, Larry Scarinzi, and George Lieb. Memories, memories...

Check out the old cars in the background!

Later - Bob

 

[Dennis Toth]

One of his cool ships was the Tucker 903 (the 903 was from the Raleigh 903 cigarette brand). It was powered by a Madwell 49. It is in the Tom Morris OTS booklet. Pretty good size ship for its day.

Best,   DennisT

[Bob Hunt]

Hi Dennis:

A lot of East Coast fliers (and elsewhere I'm sure...) used Madewell 49 engines in those days. Any of the ignition Madewell engines were converted for glow use, and I remember my father flying them in many of his ships. We also used a lot of K&B Torpedo 29 engines.

Attached are three more old B&W photos that my dad took and printed. I have no idea who these people are, but the planes are neat! That last one is a guy holding a Don McGovern designed Pirate I'm pretty sure.

Later - Bob

 

[john e. holliday]

Thanks for the photos.  Maybe some one will recognize the the young guys.