My first one was in the Chicago area, about 1965 or 1966 I can't remember. My dad and I went with some club members in a local Carrier hot shot's Buick Wildcat. He didn't want me to go because i was a little kid but my dad said if i don't go, he wasn't going. I guess he thought I might not by house trained! I was either 6 or 7!
I flew my Ringmaster Jr. called Pinky, powered with the Hope 19, in Jr. Rat Race and Balloon Bust.
Rat was a disaster! One of the kids had a Johnny Casburn Stunt ship, one had a CG Shoestring or Cosmic Wind, I had Pinky, and the 4th kid had a beautiful red Rat with a Super Tigre .29! We were all briefed up on were to stand, how to move in the center for flying, pitting, etc and I was told to stay low. For me that was 5 feet or so and I'm sure they all meant about 1 1/2 feet! Off I went, dad launched me and I flew nice and low at 5 feet... next the Johnny Casburn guy flew right over me, then the CG, then the Rat went diagonally right through my lines. There was yelling from inside the circle, yelling from outside, and models kept going and the Rat went in at a 45 degree angle after winding us up in cable around our shoulders, feet, I put my left hand on my neck so it didn't get too tight and mine finally bellied in. I won, I was last one flying. No way I was doing that again!
On to Balloon Bust, where one had to hit the row of balloons by flying over them then tipping the top of the last one, I was always hitting it too steep and touching the ground on recovery, ending up getting no balloons in either flight and ending the flights early hitting the pop on the ground. Hence, a win in Rat Race, no score in Balloon Bust!
Our intrepid Carrier Hot Rod sat in the back while dad drove his Wildcat home, he won two trophies and wanted to sit with them while he told us of is flights!
That was my first contest...