Hi, guys. I guess most of you know me, but for the benefit of the
others and to reveal some deep dark secrets of my past, I'll bend
your ear for a bit. I'm an old retired engineer with 33 patents to my
credit.
The best thing about indoor model flying is the really great people
involved. Some of my best friends are indoor folks, but it seems the
only time I get to see them is at contests where lots of time is
spent visiting and renewing old friendships before much flying gets
done. Groups like this one have made a world of difference in the
availability of information, especially for those newbies who have no
experienced mentors.
My first recollection of being bitten by the "bug" was while flying
a penny glider in my back yard and being amazed by it's ability to
float through the air. Pretty easy to amaze a 4 year old kid, right?
Then there were the dime kits. At one time there were 34 finished
planes hanging in my room. A Quaker Flash gassie was built at age 10
and flown the next year when uncle Harold Wickline showed up with a
Dennymite on a Clipper firewall.
I organised a neighborhood model club that year and we had an
indoor meet which I easily won even though I handicapped myself with
a 6" wing span. It was my first microfilm model.
The next year, a bus trip was made to visit uncle Harold in Dallas
TX where it seemed the whole world was into model plane building and
flying. I still remember Johnny Clemens hobby shop and his "Hell's
Fire" Zipper. A Demon gassie was completed and I was in modeler's
heaven flying with the week-end mob.
By age 15 I had designed and built a class B gas job I named Upsi-
Daisy. It managed to win twice against the aeronautical engineers of
the Purdue Aeromodelers.
Then U-Control arrived and speed and stunt were my passions for a
while, culminating in my winning the prestigious jet speed event at
the Plymouth Internationals in 1949.
A hitch in the Navy, college, and job changes interfered with model
activity for a while, and I had given up on control line flying with
the advent of Mono-line.
So, when we moved to Chicago in 1960 I took up indoor HL gliders
and with my 1st son Randy we flew in the armories with the Chicago
Aeronuts. Then came the Easy B's and because we wanted more stuff to
fly,we got into paper stick and microfilm in 1964. In 1965 Randy won
the jr national championship.
My indoor progression was rather slow but Tenny's IN&V and Bilgri's
MAN articles helped to get me over the tough spots. I felt at a
disadvantage relative to the experts of that time and knew I would
have to be knowlegeable in working with the rubber if I was to do
well. So stripper, scale, and torque meter were made and tests were
conducted to find ways to evaluate and get the most out of the rubber
motors.
I liked the idea of world competition so with the new 65 cm F1D
rules of 1966 which everyone had to contend with I figured I might
have a shot. Luckily the plane design I came up with turned out to be
outstanding and I sailed right through to Rome, winning my 1st world
champs in 1968 with a miraculous last flight.
And as they say, "the rest is history"!
Jim Richmond, Carmel,IN
Received on Wed Dec 21 2005 - 16:55:27 CET
This archive was generated by Yannick on Sat Dec 14 2019 - 19:13:44 CET