Last weekend, 11 Gluedobbers flew Ringmasters in the Brothers of the Ring Flyathon. Joe Gilbert, Joe Bowman, Tim Tipton, Jerry Neafus, De Hill, Lee Thiel, Walt Weatherford, Joe McGilbra, Bryan Norton, Doug Ames, and Robert Steward. A total of 33 flights were flown, and many stories were told.
Eight Ringmasters were flown ;7 were Ringmaster S-1's, and one was a Ringmaster 576. The most memorable of the bunch was Lee Thiel's shiny black and gold Ringmaster which was called the pimpmaster.
The weather was quite good on this flyathon weekend, and the Ringmaster's designer Matt Kania was remembered.
This brief biography was taken from Matt's AMA biography.
Matt Kania was born in 1917. He started building model airplanes in 1927 when he was 10 years old. Matt became quite adept at building, designing and flying rubber powered airplanes. He joine the navy in world war 2, and became an aircraft mechanic, or as the navy called it, a plane captain.
Prior to world war 2, he had worked for the Megow company which was one of the largest model airplane manufacturers at that time. After the war he returned to Megow, and designed several controline airplanes, including the Flying Circus, the Perky, and the Tyro.
He then went to work for PDQ in Millville, New Jersey, and designed the Super Clown the P-51, and the Yak-9. The P-51 and the Yak - 9 were smaller airplanes than the ones he would design for Sterling, later.
While at Sterling he designed the Ringmaster, The Super Ringmaster, the Ringmaster jr., the Baby Ringmaster, the Space Kaydet, the F-51, and the Yak-9.
I was told that after Matt left Sterling, he went to work for the Exide Battery company, and retired from there.
After retirement, he moved to Cape Coral, Florida. He died on October 26, 1997.
This is not nearly all of Matt Kania's biography; he accomplished many more things than are listed here.
Topic: Ringmaster Flyathon with the Gluedobbers, October 1&2, 2011 (Read 1248 times)