I can fill in a portion of 1975: I won Stunt that year, and Dave Hemstrought placed second. I believe Freddy Miles was third.
For amusement, here is a portion of my new Genesis Saga book that highlights that trip:
The year 1976 started off pretty well, even though I was still flying the 1975 ship. I had made a few trim adjustments to the ship and it was flying a bit better than it had at the Nats in 1975. Fred Miles and I made the trek to Jacksonville, Florida to attend the King Orange Internationals in January of 1976. It was getting cold in the “northern climes” and we needed a good warm vacation!
Fred and I drove to Florida in Fred’s 1973 Ford Pinto station wagon. It was a neat little car, and it had a killer stereo system with lots of watts of power. Both Fred and I liked loud music and we also both liked country rock music, so we had a very enjoyable time listening to the New Riders of the Purple Sage, Poco and The Flying Burrito Brothers (Gosh I miss Gram Parsons…) at about 11 on the volume dial for two days. I was 29 then and I’m 63 as I write this section of the story. I still like country rock, and I still like loud music. My wife doesn’t…
We arrived in what was supposed to be sunny, warm Florida. Well, it was sunny, but it was also 28 degrees outside! I mean, c’mon man, it was colder than when we left home! Neither Fred nor I had brought any real winter clothing, and we were both turning blue out on that field. To make matters worse, on contest day it was very windy… and the wind was blowing right into the sun. I don’t remember who the other judge was, but Les McDonald was judging that day and he was complaining that he couldn’t even watch the maneuvers because the sun was so strong.
I came prepared for this, however, or so I thought. I always carry at least two pairs of sunglasses and have on many occasions put on both pairs just to be able to fly when the wind was blowing into the sun. Two pairs were not enough on that occasion. Ever hear of a “three dog night?” Well that was a three pairs of sunglasses day! I borrowed an additional pair of sunglasses from one of the fliers and stacked the three together on my face. Yes, I looked weird (even more weird than usual) but I could then use the sun as an intersection marker, and I did just that.
My main competition that year came from Dave Hemstrought -- who was flying his very famous PT-19 design – and from Fred Miles. I won the contest and when Les and the other judge walked over to where we were all standing and shivering he said that he couldn’t see anything that I was doing down wind, but that the airplane entered and exited the maneuver area at the five foot elevation, so he was fairly certain that I was doing the maneuvers better than anyone else that day! The truth is that I could only see the airplane when it was dead down wind. I was totally blinded by the three pairs of sunglasses when the ship was anyplace else in the hemisphere of flight.
I do remember having dinner that evening at Remel Cooper’s house. As Les wrote in the Stiletto Chronicles that was published in Stunt News, Remel is a great guy who lived at that time with a house full of women; his lovely wife, Linda, and his five gorgeous daughters! Remel never really did get to see the inside of his own bathroom…
The trip home was just that; a trip. Fred and I were both exhausted from the weekend’s activities. Heck, just being out in the cold all day long will make you sleepy. Fred took the first stint northward and I just crashed. I remember at one point sensing that the car was not moving and I woke up looking upward out of the Pinto’s windshield at a huge, multi-colored, blinking clown! As tired and disoriented as I was, it was a very surreal, Twilight Zone type of moment. I soon realized that Fred had stopped at a fireworks store on one of the side roads that connected the finished bits of Route 95 in those days. There were a lot of tourist traps along those secluded side roads and this place was one of those.
Fred was nowhere to be found. I got out of the car and walked into the building to find Fred in a fairly heated confrontation with the proprietor. Fred was smoking his prized Meerschaum pipe and the guy behind the counter was telling him in no uncertain terms to GET OUT! It was, after all, a fireworks store! Fred was being a bit reluctant to leave and the proprietor reached down below the counter for something. I could only guess that he was palming a .357 Magnum pistol or something of that nature. I grabbed Fred and dragged him out of there! I took the next stint behind the wheel of the Pinto. Fred was a bit miffed at me by that point, so instead of talking, we cranked up the stereo, put on “Henry” and let the New Riders calm our nerves for a few hundred miles.
So, in retrospect, the 1975 airplane turned out to not be such a bad ship after all. It had won a major meet for me, and I didn’t get shot in the process.
Later - Bob Hunt