Bob Holman sits next to his recently completed, and seldom seen, Nesmeth Triwing (above). Your columnist (at right) having a grand time out on the dry lake bed flying his Town Pumpcompressed air model—which was completed the night before leaving for the SAM Champs. Some old traditions live on. Steve Moskal out of New Mexico with his Super ScorpionElectric LMR model (below). Neither Steve nor the Scorpiongot the memo that “green airplanes don’t fly”— because this one sure does fly!
The team rushed to the scene, picked up
the pieces, and had all the repairs made in 45 minutes. Then they went back out to the flightline where pilot Tiziano Bortolai put up two respectable flights in the windy con- ditions to take fourth place in Classic Texa- co. As they say you had to be there to ap- preciate it. As always at a big contest, there were
some spectacular crashes. Ron Thomas, a strong F/F competitor, crashed a Super Cyke powered Sr. Playboy about 15 feet from the F/F contest table. Nearby witness- es (your columnist included) felt the earth move when the ship hit! Dave Harding’s full size Boehle Giant has been a fixture at the last three or four SAM Champs flying with either electric power or a Forster .99. Dave had successfully flown the Giant in
the Electric LMR and Electric Texaco events earlier in the week. He put the Forster .99 on it to fly in Classic Texaco. The Giant was at about 1,000 feet above the field when Dave had a radio failure. His initial analy-
sis was that the servo loads were too much for the receiver battery. Regardless of the cause, the Giant dropped its nose and came straight in on the rock hard lakebed. Dave said there wasn’t a part on the Forster that wasn’t bent and mangled. Harding built the Giant in sever- al “pieces” for ease of shipping. The front two pieces of the four-piece fuselage are “gone”, but the rest of the airplane survived in pret- ty good shape. I expect to see the Giant at yet another SAM Champs. Andy Latowski was the R/C Ignition Champ. Tom Boice was the R/C Glow Champ. Jack Hiner was the R/C Electric Champ. Champs Contest Manager Dave Meriwether and his staff, including Registrar Gene Drake, R/C CD Steve Roselle, and F/F CDs Hal Wightman and George Walter did a bang - up job of running the Champs this year. Tina Kime and Elaine Gray and other ladies helped out at the contest tables. The gang will convene again at Muncie for the 2012 SAM Champs in September.
Dave Harding and Brad Levine (above left) have both flown Boehle Giantsfor several years. They agree that “it’s a lot of airplane!” Brad’s Giantis F/F with a Brown Jr. for power. Dave’s flown his R/C Giantboth as an electric model and
FLYING MODELS
as a Forster .99 powered ship in the Classic Texaco event. Tommy Gray, SAM Secretary, and Australian Allan Laycock (above right) share a chuckle before launching Tommy’s Stratostreak. Note the wet lakebed behind them.
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