Lenny Waltemath
1938 to 2006

Lenny was born and grew up in Wisconsin.  He started building models when he was 11 years old, and he competed in the Plymouth Internationals that were held in Detroit as a teenager.
His mechanical aptitude and natural skill was used to it’s fullest when he was a pilot serving two tours in Viet Nam for the Air Force.
After his time in the military he was employed by Chrysler in Kenosha Wisconsin where he rose to the position of General Supervisor.  When he retired Chrysler offered him a position in Detroit, but he said warm weather was calling him.  He moved to Lake Havasu Arizona and settled in as a retiree.  Being an active person he soon tired of the slow routine and began looking for a job.  At a job fair in Havasu he talked to representatives of K&B Manufacturing.  K&B was planning on moving to Arizona and they hired Lenny.  He commuted to L.A. for training for several months.
After K&B completed the move he began working full time.  As a sideline he modified K&B engines for the RC boat-racing crowd.  He gained quite a name as an engine builder among the boat racers that ran their equipment on the nearby Colorado River.
His love of machinery also showed in the motorcycles he rode as they displayed the same attention to detail that his models did.  The members of the Havasu River Riders Motorcycle club gave him a nickname of  "Singe" because of his attraction to large fires and fire breathing things.
His soul mate Arleigh Valentine said that after he was established at K&B the old desire to fly speed returned.  He then built several speed models, but soon his favorite became the big stuff, D speed and Fast Jet.
Lenny was an experienced monoline pilot and had many flights in jet over 200 in the Hi-Nitro days.
As he advanced in age he started finding it difficult to keep up with his models.  Lenny was talking about this problem with Bill Wisniewski and Bill had suggested that he talk to Joey.  Joey said that he first met Lenny at a contest at the Narrows in El Monte, California.  Joey said he looked at ” this old, skinny biker guy with a pony tail” and he thought “Sure I’ll fly your jet” thinking that Lenny would not even be able to get it started.  They went out on the circle and in one puff Lenny had the jet started and off it went for a 177 mph flight that totally caught him by surprise. Each time he flew Lenny’s jet they went faster.
The team of Lenny, Arleigh, and Joey went on to take many firsts at local contests and the Nats.  After taking first at the Nats, Joey mentioned that he felt that the model designed by Bill Capinjola grooved a bit better than the high wing model that Lenny had.  Jet Bill gave his templates to Lenny.
The following winter Lenny built a copy of Bill’s model with a few of his own twists.  He spent many hours with small needle files improving the flow in the head of his Bailey Fast Jet Engine.
Arlie said that when they started it for it’s first flight you could tell by the sound it made that it was going to be fast.  The maiden flight was 199 MPH.
The team went on to set two records in fast jet.  The first record was at a speed of 200.13 and the second at 204.93 on December 7, 2002.  This record stands to this day.
He called his fast jets ‘TARFU’ (Things Are Really Fouled Up”.  This name came to him when the team had made a record breaking flight and then the backup flight was faster thus requiring another backup flight.  The “Good Air” had gone away and it was late in the day.  They used many of their attempts to finally make the backup and the name was born.
Lenny was also an important part of the “Sin City Speed Team”.  He set the engine on Ned Morris’s D model in Ned’s absence.  The flights set a record in ‘D’ that forced a wire size change.
Lenny was a person who would share his knowledge with anyone that was interested.  A good example of this was the articles he wrote for SpeedTimes.  He wrote the article and drew the plans for his sport jet during the time when he undergoing medical treatments.
Lenny died in the Lake Havasu Hospital in room 205. The same number as his record flight.
He was cremated.  At the Toys for Tots contest in December of 2006, Arleigh Valentine and Joey Mathison spread some of his ashes around the pylon at The Narrows, the site where he set his records.  They then put up a flight of 203.77 in his honor.
Jet flyers everywhere have lost a good friend.  He will be missed.