OldtimerTopics E
d Hamler, Ned Nevels, Dave Hard- ing and I manned the SAM booth at the AMA Convention in Califor- nia in January. Anita Northrop stopped by the booth to say hello, and to let us know that she was still running the Northrop Plans service out in Henderson, Nevada. You can contact them at 702-896- 1075. Aside from the Bill Northrop designs, she has all of those good old Model Builder plans as well.
Most of the modeling publications, blogs, newsletters and such will have commented on Sal Taibi’s death by the time you read this column. He died on December 14, 2012 at the age of 92. There was a big SCAMPS Sal Taibi Memorial Mass Launch on Janu- ary 12 at Perris. I went out with Dave Hard- ing to take a look. The weather was great, little drift, blue sky and maybe 150 Taibi models.
One of the SCAMPS, Joe Jones, told me
that he had 18 Taibi designed planes in his “hangar” but could only get seven of them in the car to bring to the meet. Kevin Sherman, longtime SCAMPS newsletter editor, climbed up on a 20-foot tall ladder to take a photo of all the Taibi designed planes.
Sal’s son, Mike Taibi, was there along with
Betty Moke, Sal’s companion and caregiver for the last eight years. Betty had photos of the last plane that Sal built (in 2005) and the last flight that Sal made (in 2007). In each case the plane was a Perris Special—Sal’s last design. The last flight ended up with Sal’s Perris Spe- cial hung in some transmission lines. Sal’s fly- ing career started at age 13, and ended with that last flight 74 years later in 2007. This column has a photo of Bob Aberle’s
Perris Special scaled down to 200 square inches or so for small electric R/C. It’s partic- ularly appropriate with Sal’s passing. Bob is a long-time model designer and author, and his plans and designs have been published in most of the model magazines, FLYING
PHOTO: KARL GIES
Karl Gies took this photo of Sal Taibi at the 2005 SAM Champs. The Dodgeris in Sal’s classic color scheme. Sal was 85 at the time—10 years away from winning the F/F Power Championship at the 95 Champs, and two years before his last model flight in 2007.
MODELS included. He’s done more than a dozen scaled down old timers for electric R/C.
You can find most of those Aberle small electric R/C old timer designs over at Roland Friestad’s RC Microworld magazine. But the “micro electric R/C bug” is catching everywhere. In the last two months I’ve re- ceived photos from two very good modelers out in the Wichita area. Danny Walton did a micro electric R/C version of his Baby Bi- winger. His F/F version of the Baby Bi- winger was in the July 2012 issue of this magazine.
Bill Schmidt did a micro electric R/C ver- sion of his Piper PA-16 Clipper, which he’d originally designed in 1995. Bill says that his first venture into micro electric R/C was
like building a ship in a bottle. Well that may be, but these three guys are all on to something. It may be that small airplanes are more fun to build in the winter, or that you can fly them indoors, or out in the local park come springtime. But they are satisfy- ing to build, and all this new lightweight gear lets you get your “old timer fix” in a “pint pot” sized way.
The good contest weather in the South- west held in January. The boys down at the Southwest Regionals at Eloy were blessed with shirt sleeve temperatures, blue sky and little drift. Jack Hiner came down out of snowy Chicago and put some serious licks on the competition with first place finishes in Texaco Glow, Spirit of SAM, and Electric Texaco. The Speed 400 and Electric Texaco
by mike myers You can reach Mike Myersat 911 Kilmary Lane, Glendale, CA 91207, or via e-mail at
mikemyersgin@charter.net
PHOTOGRAPHY: MIKE MYERS
L.A. Johnson holds his diesel powered A Texaco Kerswap (above left). Karl Gies built this very nice 40-inch sized Simplex (above right). RN Models kitted
46
this size Simplex, and powered by a Cox .049 or a small diesel, it is one of the great sport flyers of all time.
MARCH 2013
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