stunthanger.com
General control line discussion => Open Forum => Topic started by: Les McDonald on February 14, 2022, 06:43:31 PM
-
Robby Hunt sent me these photos taken by Japanese team member T. Hara while we were practicing at the old RAF base at the 78 World Champs. One picture actually shows Gieske, Rabe, Hunt and myself all smiling at the same time which was a moment in stunt history never seen before or repeated ever again. Another one shows Trostle launching my plane and praying that the prop he just carved for me just might do the trick-------it didn't, but I love the guy for trying. The poor man must have beat on a dozen Rev Ups but even a good prop can't make magic on a marginal airplane.
-
Great pictures make the memories better. Smiles at a WC's are most times are hard to come by. Smiles at the same time happened for some teams I was on when we won the team Gold.
Thanks for sharing.
Hope you are doing well.
-
One picture actually shows Gieske, Rabe, Hunt and myself all smiling at the same time which was a moment in stunt history never seen before or repeated ever again. Another one shows Trostle launching my plane ...
Those photos are from the '78 World Championships in Woodvale, England. (That was only 43+ years ago.)
Results: 52 competitors
1. Bob Hunt
2. Al Rabe
4. Les McDonald
5. Bob Gieseke
Team: 18 countries
1. USA, consisting of Hunt, Rabe and Gieseke. McDonald was competing as the reigning World Champion from '76.
Trostle was there as a launcher for Rabe -- ended up being a judge.
-
Bobby you are a fortunate man. I love reading of your adventures and the people you have met. I await many more stories from you. H^^ H^^ H^^
-
Many of you may not know that Bob Gieseke and Al Rabe did not exactly get along too well in those days. Neither one of them has ever, to my knowledge, elaborated on just what the problem was, but, suffice to say, they just did not communicate well, nor did they wish to share transportation or coaching critiques from one another.
More disparate personalities could not be imagined!
Brett
-
Being i'm a native of that little island, the story was amusing and weather sounds about right for the north of England.
Anyway Liverpool to Ipswich is only about 240 miles - hardly anything for an American driver - just not very straight LOL!
-
Anyway Liverpool to Ipswich is only about 240 miles - hardly anything for an American driver - just not very straight LOL!
The first time I drove a car in England was that trip. Coast to coast and back again on the wrong side of the road in one day. About half of the distance was on what I think you call a Motorway. First encounter with roundabouts (kind of complicated for a slow learner). I will never forget that trip.
Keith Trostle
Became a judge the morning of the first day of competition - another story
-
"More disparate personalities could not be imagined!" - Brett Buck
Boy, Howdy...
Bob
Obviously I never went on an extended trip with him (and might have known better...), but Al and I talked all the time on the phone (before his stroke, anyway). Another completely unique individual, the idea of self-awareness appeared to be a completely foreign concept. The world was Al's, the rest of us are just filling up the free space and bask in his presence. He could be very helpful, too, happy to dispense advice, if nothing else, to make sure that no one else had any inputs (by definition wrong). And he really was a very, very good source. So why would you ever listen to, say, Ted Fancher, when Al Rabe was available and willing to help? He *always* ended up mad at me at some point in the conversation*, but he got over it, a week or two, hey, it's Al again, back to tell me how they screwed him at the '73 NATs, and why nothing had improved in stunt since he quit in 1979.
Bear, on the other hand, generally unassuming, the nicest guy in the world, even when he didn't have to be, a genuine pleasure to be around.
Brett
*best Al story - Al sees Les' articles in SN, and of course, that can't be allowed to go without a response, I mean, who cares about World Champion, Mr. Perfect Mr. Shirt of Stars Les McDonald when Al is available? So he writes his autobiography, which he claims is about "instruction" and "information" that people need to know, and certainly not about, say, Al's raging egomania, perish the thought. He sends it to me.
It's really good, lots of good pictures, well-written by model airplane standards. I check the page count in Word - I want to say it is *432 pages*! He is sending it to me, I think Tom McClain, and several others, and expects us to publish it in SN. I was supposed to, I guess, twist Tom's arm because he was a bit hesistant to devote the next 40ish issues of our magazine to serializing it, for some inexplicable reason. So, of course, he gets angry, can't understand what the problem might be, he built the Mustang and the Sea Fury, who cares about the rest of these pretenders. At some point in the conversation, even I get a little irritated with it, and I might have said something like "But Al, if we give you 400 pages, we would have to give Paul Walker about 50,000!". Wrong answer, apparently, he gets so angry he can't speak clearly for a few minutes, finally, hangs up. A few weeks later, calls back as if nothing happened, still trying to talk me into it.
There are other, less funny, aspects to this, but this was absolutely classic Al, completely and unabashedly oblivious. Once I understood where he was coming from, I had absolutely no problem with him, I really enjoyed talking to him, another fascinating stunt "character".
-
Hi Brett:
Why did he feel that he got "screwed" at the 1973 Nats? He won that Nats!
Bob
I could have the year wrong, could have been '72 - the year he flew the Sea Fury and from all observers, couldn't keep the maneuver sizes reasonable. I note that he was still on about it, and this was probably 2004 or 5!
Brett
-
.... the year he flew the Sea Fury and from all observers, couldn't keep the maneuver sizes reasonable.
It was the totally unreasonable judges that could not understand that 45 degrees was the point that his plane was at the top of a maneuver and did not dock the other fliers for flying too small. LL~
Ken
-
I could have the year wrong, could have been '72 - the year he flew the Sea Fury and from all observers, couldn't keep the maneuver sizes reasonable. I note that he was still on about it, and this was probably 2004 or 5!
Brett
It was probably '72. Dennis Adamisin won Senior. Al was the Open winner with his Sea Fury. The Walker flyoffs were the day after the Open competition. I cannot remember if the same judges were used. Only a few were there to watch, probably not more than 6 or 10 besides Dennis' family. The Walker Cup is flown and scored without appearance points. That made the difference between Al and Dennis. Dennis is the last Senior to win the Walker Cup.
Keith
Al was not happy about not including appearance points.
-
Well, that plane was so large that some part of it was always at 45 degrees and at five foot altitude at the same time...
Bob
But folks, myself included, would stop what they were doing to watch him land it!
Ken
-
That is an understatement, Katana! LL~ Understanding Roundabouts, Pelican Walks and Zebra Walks, coupled with the natural want to drive on the "correct" side of the road made that 240 miles seem like a thousand. I sure hope that little old lady was okay...
Keith and I had a lot of great laughs during that trip to go along with the moments of total fear, anxiety. and horror. But, hey, the results were worth it! y1
Cheerio - Bob
Its weird isn't it - when visiting the States, i've never felt the need to drive on the left! I do smile when coming across the very rare 'circles' (as I believe they are called over there) and noting the misunderstanding of how they are supposed to work with the native population LOL! Oh and they are Pelican / Zebra crossings - i'm sure all the 'jaywalking' caught you out as well - pleasant days nonetheless.