Thanks for the pictures Bob. Larry's stories about Red and their adventures were, mostly, unbelievable except they were true. While we heard them repeatedly it sure would be great to hear him tell them right now. Also, I flew a combat match with Dawn at a GSCB meet. I was 15 and terrified ! Jeez, what if I bumped into the most famous girl in our world! Distracted. All I can remember is that I lost the match. These are memories. TS
LOL! I can sympathize, Tom, I lost way more stunt meets to Dawn than I won (but, I did win a few!). She was a great ambassador for our sport; approachable and friendly.
Yeah, the Larry and Red stories were/are great. I have a bunch of them to tell; probably ones you've already heard. I started writing an autobiography many years ago, and I'm quite certain I'll never actually finish it, but I did write a chapter about how Red and Larry influenced me as a young flier. I'll drop that chapter in here for those who might be interested:
Red and Larry
In your lifetime you will hopefully be fortunate enough to meet a very few people who are larger than life. Secretly, you might even wish that you were one of them. That’s how I have always felt about Red Reinhardt and Larry Scarinzi.
Our local flying club was blessed to have had both of them as members at the same time. These were two heroes of such proportions as to keep a young flier constantly in awe. They both possessed such unbelievable building and flying skills that all action on the field would literally stop whenever they fired up an engine. Add to this the fact that they were absolutely hilarious natural characters, and it’s easy to see why even after more than 60 years they are still revered by those who grew up flying model airplanes in the New Jersey area. Whenever old time Eastern modelers get together, invariably the conversation gets quickly around to the telling and re-telling of favorite Red and Larry stories.
As I mentioned at the beginning, Red and Larry were pretty much fixtures at our house. They both liked and admired Dad, and they especially liked Mom’s Fried Chicken (remember, she was a native Kentuckian!). In fact, when Red got married, he brought his wife, Edie, to our house to receive genuine Southern Fried Chicken cooking lessons! Red would always carry a bucket of fried chicken next to him in his car to snack on during long trips.
Red Of the two, Red was the quiet one. He had an extremely quick wit, but was the type that waited for just the right moment and then delivered the quintessential punch line. No one was cooler than Red. His incredible building skills seemed to stem from a natural artistic talent. He was constantly drawing really great little cartoon character sketches, and could decorate the wing of a new model with one in short order. In fact, many of Larry’s designs sported a sketch by Red on the wing or on the plan.
In 1961 I was entered in Junior Combat at the Nats in Willow Grove. Red was living with my family at the time and worked for Dad as a machinist. I showed him my brand new, Riley Wooten designed, Quicker, which was painted all red. He told me to get him a pencil as he grabbed the ship from me. I watched in total amazement as he freehand drew flames from the leading edge back onto the wing. Some of the flames would overlap and some would blend, but the end result was beautiful. I spent the next few evenings painstakingly hand painting the flames to Red’s outlines. He added some much needed three dimensional coloring, and the finished product was the best looking model, by far, that I had owned up to that point!
At the Nats I was stopped constantly by spectators who wanted a picture of the flaming Quicker. Oh, yeah, I lost in the first round, but didn’t put a scratch on the plane. I flew it for several years after that, and it will always rank in my mind as one of my all time favorites.
Red could be irreverent. There is a great story about how he was flying at a contest that was sponsored by a local New Jersey Lions Club. Apparently the Stunt judges - who were Lions club members - had never even seen a model airplane before, and they were doing an awful job at scoring. Red decided that they needed some waking up, so during his flight he howled his hot stunter down out of a dive and did a perfect touch and go on their desk! Stunned, they all rocked backwards onto the ground. He got their attention, but no trophy that day!
On several occasions, Red and Larry qualified for the Plymouth Internationals meet that was held in Detroit and sponsored by the Plymouth division of Chrysler. They stayed in a local hotel. Now, there are many stories that have been told about their escapades at those meets. Some are true. Some are, well, enhanced, but they are all legendary to those of us who followed their exploits.
One of my favorites among the documented true stories is the Great Wing-Under Caper. It seems that Red and Larry got their hands on one of Jim Walker’s U-Reely handles and dropped a model out of a lofty hotel window, letting out line until the model was adjacent to a window a few stories lower. I’ve never been too sure who did the flying and who did the starting (neither one would take the blame or credit), but the result was a series of high speed “wing-unders” that apparently almost took off some curious heads on the lower floors as they peaked out the windows!
Red always seemed to have a supply of Cherry Bombs on hand. At the Plymouth Internats he found a damaged Wakefield model in a garbage can. Apparently only the nose was really smashed, and he fixed the ship up so that it could be flown. He wrapped solder around the damaged nose to get the CG right, and then attached the wing with rubber bands. He positioned a Cherry Bomb inside the fuselage, with its fuse running under the wing holdown bands. He launched it from his hotel window, and everyone watched with delight as it soared beautifully into the night - until the fuse burnt through the rubber bands . . .
As the story goes, the fuselage separated from the wing and spiraled down until it was only a few feet above a police officer that was standing on a street corner. It exploded, showering the stunned cop with little sticks and bits of colored tissue! I’ll bet he never fully recovered.
There are a number of other Cherry Bomb stories, but the one I like best was kept for years as a strict secret. It can now be told because, even if the statute of limitations hasn’t expired, they can’t touch Red. It seems there was this mail chute in the Hotel at the Plymouth meet. Red apparently dropped a Cherry Bomb down the chute and, from all first hand accounts, the result was confetti to about the fifth floor! Yes, he was mischievous, but, oh boy, was he ever fun!
Red designed several very well known airplanes. The first of these to be published was his 1950 Internationals Stunt Winner. The seemingly simple, racer-like ship was deceptively innovative. The constant chord wing featured tapered leading and trailing edge sheeting. The width of the sheeting diminished from root to tip, as the need for strength also diminished. Red employed a full depth “D” tube type spar, and also shear webbed between the ribs at the trailing edge. This made for an extremely light but incredibly rigid wing. The fuselage featured a thin sheet box crutch with formers that were planked with 1/16-inch balsa. The stab and elevator were made from 1/8 inch thick balsa, and the elevators were very wide and had lots of area.
Red drilled an extra hole in the stock aluminum bellcrank to allow the pushrod to be attached very close to the pivot point, yielding very little pushrod movement. He attached the pushrod to the elevator using a very tall horn. He balanced his ships extremely far aft, but they weren’t sensitive due to the small amount of pushrod movement and resulting small amount of elevator deflection. His wrist could move a great deal without inducing much control. That was the secret to his ultra-smoothness, while still achieving super tight corners. The model was balanced near its center of lift, but felt groovy to his hand. Ingenious! Many of today’s fliers are now using that same principal to achieve tight turning, but groovy feeling ships.
Another of Red’s innovative designs was the Galloping Comedian, which was built to defend his Plymouth Internationals title. This design featured a hexagonal fuselage shape with an open cockpit and a spun aluminum cowling. The wing design was similar to the 1950 Internationals Winner, but featured large round wing tips. Red pulled all the stops in trying to make this ship as light as possible. He went a bit too far, and the wing broke, preventing him from defending his title in Detroit in 1951. Red fixed the ship after the meet and continued to fly it locally.
Initially, the Comedian was fitted with a sand cast Fox .35, but the ship was so light that he retrofitted a K&B .19. The ship flew even better with the lighter engine! This design is often seen at OTS meets around the country. It is distinctive in outline, and most of the ones that I have seen seem to fly very competitively. My father spun the custom cowl for Red, and had the original mold in his possession right up to his death in 2002.
Red’s next design was somewhat more spartan in appearance, but it was, perhaps, his best performer. The El Diablo featured a simple balsa box fuselage with a flat top and bottom, a sheet balsa tail group, and a rigid constant chord wing with outrageous bat-like trailing edge pieces. It was used for both Stunt and Combat flying, and had removable landing gear for better Combat performance. The fuselage was finished in natural wood with clear dope, and the wing was covered with green silk. It was simple and easy to construct, but it flew magnificently.
Red used a sand-cast Fox .35 in the El Diablo for power, and flew it on .010 solid lines! You can just imagine how well that combination flew in that time period. The El Diablo is a favorite in many areas of the country for OTS events, but especially so here in the East where Red was king of that era. This design would make a great kit because of its ease of construction.
Around late 1953, the flapped stunt ship had made its appearance, and a new type of pattern was beginning to be accepted. The slow, smooth and fluid type of maneuvers flown by ships like Bob Palmer’s Pow Wow, Smoothie and Thunderbird, and George Aldrich’s Noblers were hard for most fliers to resist. Stunt was becoming Precision Aerobatics. Red was more in favor of the high speed, fast and furious type of Stunt flying and didn’t make the transition to the flapped machines. He confided in me much later that the change in airplane and pattern style is why he retired from Stunt flying competition, and from the hobby eventually.
Still, in 1954 Red made one last significant contribution with his Stunt Wing. This design featured a wide constant chord section to which the elevator was hinged and the engine pod was attached. Outboard of this section were tapered panels culminating in beautifully shaped, round wingtips. This design featured a ½ inch square spar, which was doubled near the center section to be ½ inch by 1 inch wide. The ribs were cut to allow them to slide onto the spar and into their final position. Larry Scarinzi originally developed this type of construction and he continued to use it in many of his designs over the years.
The Stunt Wing in its initial form had a shorter nose than the final version, and it was originally named “Mister Completely.” It was finished in this form with dyed green silk and a clear fuselage section. After one test flight the ship proved to be too sensitive. Red added a significant amount of length to the nose and repainted the ship in all black with white AMA numbers. That’s the form in which it was published in Model Airplane News in March of 1955.
With this ship Red won the Stunt event at the 1954 Mirror Meet that was contested at Floyd Bennet Field in Brooklyn, New York. This was a huge meet that was sponsored by the Daily Mirror newspaper, and it featured a special pattern that took two flights to complete. There were many very challenging maneuvers in this pattern such as the “Bolo Wingover,” in which the model had to complete eight loops while at the same time performing a wingover. Neat!
A bonus of 50 points was awarded if the pilot could execute a perfect spot landing. Red flew very well, but needed the 50-point bonus to insure his win. Larry set a wooden line reel at the edge of the circle and told the judges that Red would use that reel as his “spot.” It was a very windy day, and as Red completed his flight, the engine quit as the model was passing over the reel. Red immediately put the ship into a vertical climb, and then made an abrupt “U-Turn” into a vertical dive and the spinner hit the reel within a half-inch of dead center. The airplane bounced up vertically, flattened out into a horizontal position and Red then jiggled the handle to make the model flutter down to the ground, with the engine landing dead center over the reel. The reel even had a distinct dent in it from the spinner impact. The judges awarded him the full 50 bonus points and he won not only the contest, but also a Grumman aluminum canoe! At that same meet Ernie Babcock won a full-Scale Ercoupe as his prize! Why can’t we have prizes like that anymore?
Within a year, Larry used the basic plan form of the Stunt Wing to design his very high performance Greased Lightning combat ship.
Red quit flying long before I came of age and got serious about it. I got to watch him fly a lot, but was too young to really appreciate his legendary talent. After he quit competition flying, he worked for my Dad for many years as a machinist, and even lived with my family off and on. In fact, we once shared a room. I can remember countless modeling conversations with Red in the dark before we each drifted off to sleep.
Many years later, as I was learning the machinist’s trade, Red was assigned by my dad as my mentor. He was as gifted with metal as he was with balsa, and taught me many things. My Father had taught Red the basics of machining and machine design, but the type of talent Red had was a gift from God, and he was considered by Dad as a genius. There was a genuine bond between them that transcends words.
Around 1967 I was already on the road to flying serious competition Stunt, and had produced my first really pretty Stunt ship. It was a scratch-built Nobler that sported a candy apple red paint job. I had spent a whole year building and finishing that ship, and it was my pride and joy.
Although Red had been away from modeling for several years at that time, we still talked about flying and building on a daily basis at work. One evening I asked him to come to the field with me to watch my pattern. He was impressed with my progress, and made a few suggestions for further improvement. I questioned the trim of the plane, and asked Red to fly it and evaluate it.
Once in the air, Red’s natural talent was apparent. He flew that Nobler to its very limits, and with a smoothness that was amazing. He kept flying maneuvers with the Nobler until the fuel ran out. Unfortunately, the engine quit while the ship was inverted. Red was used to models that were extremely light and agile and could be flipped over quickly whenever that happened. The Nobler wouldn’t do that! The results were predictable; the ship stalled half way through the recovery and fell in towards him. He couldn’t run fast enough to save it, and the ship shattered nearly at his feet.
I knew instantly that Red would feel guilty for crashing my best plane, and I remember feeling so bad for him because of that. I tried to console him, but he was devastated. He knew how much that plane meant to me. It was a defining moment in our friendship. I was trying to make him feel better, and he was trying to apologize for crashing my ship. Red insisted on trying to fix it, but it was damaged beyond repair. He tried, however, and I learned lots of valuable woodworking lessons by watching him try to fix the ship. To my knowledge, he never again picked up a handle.
Some years later, around 1970, Red and my Brother, Jimmy, got involved with off-road motorcycles. I had been riding for a couple of years at that time. I had just bought a brand new Norton 750 Commando, and took a ride to Red’s house in late November. Red lived in rural Doylestown, Pennsylvania and his area was surrounded with lots of open fields and forests.
We went to an area where they had laid out a basically circular scramble course. Part of the course was in a field, and part ran through some woods. My Brother was riding small displacement Honda, and Red had a brand new BSA Victor 441 “Thumper” (single cylinder bike). I watched for a while as they charged around the course, and then Red asked me if I would like to take a stab at it with his BSA. The natural competitor in me came out as I climbed aboard the Victor; I really wanted to impress them both with my riding skills.
In riding motorcycles - just as in any other motor-skill sport - you rely on your conditioned reflexes to do the work for you. My Norton had a shift pattern of “one up, three down” (In this pattern you put your toe under the shift lever and raise it to put the bike in first gear, and then you push down on the lever as you ascend through the gears), but Red’s ride was just the opposite with a “one down, three up” pattern. When I got charging through the woods, I forgot the pattern, and my reflexes took over with predictable results.
I was really moving; much faster than I should have been going for my first off-road experience. I hit the wrong gear on my third lap of the course, and instantly found myself flying through the air at about 40 MPH. The flight was pretty good, but the landing was harsh! My right knee smacked into a large boulder and the pain was incredible. I looked back for the bike, which had taken a different path but with similar results. It ran into a tree and was badly banged up. The front forks were bent back at a severe angle and the tank was dented. Remember, this was a brand new bike for Red, and I thought he was going to kill me.
Red and Jimmy arrived on the scene, and were relieved to see me still conscious and breathing (at least I think they were . . .). Then Red went to get his bike. Instead of being angry, Red started to genuinely laugh out loud. I asked him why he wasn’t mad, and he said that he had felt guilty since crashing my Nobler and that now we were even! He wedged the forks between two trees and bent them back semi-straight, hopped on the bike and roared off with a huge smile. Later, they picked me up and placed me on the Norton and pointed me towards home. I was in terrific pain throughout the long cold ride, but I was also smiling, because Red was finally off the hook for pranging the Nobler.
Red continued to ride for sport, and even raced a little, but my brother really became proficient at Enduro riding, winning many titles in the next ten years or so. He raced with the famous Jack Penton of Penton Motorcycle fame, and was never badly hurt. He retired from racing in the late 1980s but still rides a lot on the road.
In 1973 Red was seriously injured in an automobile accident. The car in which he was riding as a passenger hit a bridge abutment head on. As a result of the accident Red was paralyzed from the waist down, and less than a year later he died.
Red will always be alive in my mind as one of the most talented, creative and fun-loving people I have ever met. I still miss him dearly.
Larry Where Red had the cool of a Steve McQueen, Larry had (and still has) the comic timing and facial expressions of a Buddy Hackett or Jerry Lewis, and the complete general zaniness of a Robin Williams. You never knew what he would do or say next, but you certainly didn’t want to miss it!
I guess I looked forward to seeing Larry most. Because Red worked for my dad, I got to see him a lot on a regular basis, and so I guess I took that for granted.
Thursday nights were what I lived for in the 1950s. That was club-meeting night for the Union Model Airplane Club. Our late spring, summer, and early fall meetings were held at the flying field, and if you missed one, you missed an opportunity to be entertained, amazed and even instructed by Larry.
Virtually every week Larry would show up with a new creation; a new stunt or combat model that was both stunning to behold for its aesthetic beauty, and ultra-exciting to watch in flight. Sometimes it was hard to tell Larry’s stunters from his combat models, because the terminal velocity of either type was usually about the same. Larry liked - and still does like - fast, tight turning models.
A complete rundown on all of the models that Larry produced over those years would fill this journal to overflowing, but there were a few that stick out in my mind as milestones. Among these was his aforementioned Greased Lightning. If you were to look at one of Larry’s “Greasers” today, you might mistake it for one of the many FAI Combat models that are winning in world competition. The only readily noticeable differences would be that the engine is mounted upright in the Greaser, and the flawless silk and dope finish would put the clear plastic film finishes of today’s model to complete shame.
Most of Larry’s combat models were not built for competition; he had a few “beaters” that were used for that purpose. The models he showcased at the field on Thursday nights were pieces of flying research art. Larry’s models were fast. And by fast I don’t mean just normal fast. There were several members of the Union club that were very accomplished modelers, and they had ships that could certainly travel around the circle quickly. But when Larry fired one of his up and it was launched, all of the others seemed slow by comparison with speed that seems rivaled only by today’s modern combat models. Larry was and is an engine genius, and could make lots of horsepower where others could not.
Among Larry’s interests in modeling was a genuine fascination with 1/2A - and smaller - models. He produced many designs for the diminutive power plants that were published in the various magazines. Among my favorites was his Queen Bee biplane that was designed around the, then new, Cox Pee Wee .020 engine. This was a model that could be flown on fairly short lines and still produce incredible aerobatic performance. Larry even flew it on lines so short that he could hold the handle above his head and perform wing-unders that just barely missed his feet!
Each year the Union club participated in a town wide gala called the Union Panorama. It was a showcase for all sorts of talent, and it went on for several hours on the stage of the Union High School. The Union Model Airplane Club put on a show of rubber powered ROG models that flew out over the audience and then landed back on the stage. I was privileged to have been one of the youngsters who flew the ROG models on a couple of occasions. The finale of the show was a flight by Larry with the Queen Bee. It was loud in that auditorium, and it was fast, and Larry was the consummate showman with the model. He would do a few loops and figure eights being very careful not to hit the overhead curtain, and then he would walk forward and fly the model down into the orchestra pit! One surprised man in the front row was seen pulling in his chin to avoid being hit by Larry’s speeding ship. Great sport! No one was ever hit, however, and his performance was always the most talked about “act” in the entire show.
I was just really getting started flying control line in those days, but I knew that I wanted to fly like Larry and Red. My father and I built a Ringmaster and put one of the then new and powerful Johnson .35 engines in it. Man did it move! I wanted desperately to show off my newfound skills with this ship, and challenged Larry to a combat match. Please understand that this was exactly like a driver who has just received his learner’s permit challenging Mario Andretti to a race at Indy. Larry passed on the challenge at first, but I just kept on bugging him about it, and in front of the other club members. Eventually they started kidding him, saying that he was scared of me. We all started chanting “Chicken Scarinzi, Chicken Scarinzi” and finally he relented and said OK to the match.
Larry would also fly a Ringmaster. He built a really pretty one that was finished in transparent yellow with blue and red trim. This ship was actually built to teach his wife, Ginger, how to fly. We put on the streamers and fired the models up. Larry didn’t even try to show me up, but instead let me make a few passes at his streamer. He made sure to avoid my attempts at the last second to be sure that I didn’t actually cut his streamer and have a chance to be declared the winner; that would be embarrassing!
We flew around level (I hadn’t learned to fly inverted yet!) for a while, and I found myself on the opposite side of the circle to where Larry’s plane was flying. I decided to be daring and did a wingover to Larry’s side of the circle, and as luck would have it, Larry wasn’t expecting that from me at all. I dove right through his streamer and got my very first “cut” in combat. Larry was shocked, and everyone around the circle was laughing hysterically. Then his engine quit and he landed, followed shortly by me. I had “beaten” Larry Scarinzi at a club meeting in front of everyone. I was happy, but also pretty scared. What would Larry say?
Well, he’s a great guy, and certainly he could have easily overwhelmed me with his skill during our match, and I would not have had a chance. He took it very easy on me indeed. He was laughing right along with everyone else after the match, feigning humiliation, and putting on a great show of it. Then he asked for a rematch! I said “no way.” He started chanting “Chicken Hunt, Chicken Hunt.” And to this day he almost always greets me with “Chicken Hunt.” It’s a title I wear proudly. He made a young boy’s entire year with that fun match, and it is still a vivid memory for me. We laugh about it often.
Even Larry doesn’t know this next bit. It was at the Union club field in the summer of 1958 when I first became aware of competition Control Line Aerobatics and what it entailed. Larry was practicing for an upcoming stunt meet with his Gay Devil design, and I just happened to be walking past the circle upwind of his maneuvers. Until that moment I had never actually studied a stunt pattern. For some reason I stopped walking and just watched Larry fly. I stayed there for three or four complete flights, mesmerized by the beauty of the maneuvers being scribed in the air before me. It was the first time I realized that this could be done with exacting precision, and I think it was at that moment I realized for the first time that I eventually wanted to become a stunt flier.
Most of Larry’s stunters were flapless designs that really moved. One in particular that I remember as being both awe inspiring and intimidating at the same time was his Grey Ghost. This model was large for the time, and featured a silk covered wing that was built using the ½ inch square main spar construction that he favored. The model was so fast - and Larry flew it so tight to 45 degrees - that the wing would bend noticeably during maneuvers. In fact it bent a lot! I was always scared that the ship would someday simply explode during a set of loops. It never did, however.
Larry’s father had owned and operated a bicycle shop in Summit, New Jersey, and Larry often worked there as a young man. He went on to become an engineer for Lockheed, Bell Labs, Bendix and the Singer Corporation, but eventually bought and operated a bicycle shop, just like his dad did. It was a very successful venture for Larry and his family, and he became more and more involved with that industry. In fact, he stopped flying model airplanes for several years while he was building up the bicycle shop.
He came to the 1992 Nats in Chicopee, Massachusetts, and became energized to fly again. Larry sold his bicycle shop in 1996 and retired. As this is being written, he’s still flying fast, tight turning models, is still just a zany as he ever was, and is most certainly the youngest spirit that I know. He and Ginger make the trek each year to the Vintage Stunt Championships in Tucson, Arizona, and meander across the country as they go, visiting many old modeling friends. I have the feeling that he will go on forever, and that makes me smile - a lot.
Memories, memories... Sadly, Larry passed away last year (2023), but his legend - and Red's - will live on in Stunt Lore forever.
Later - Bob
Topic: Just got a new toy! Here's something historic... (Read 14387 times)