Dave,
It sure is great to hear you talk about the Clems. I grew up in Dallas and
flew with Jim and Mike often. I was about 5 years younger than Mike. Later
when Mike was out of flying Jim and I kept flying together. He taught me
most of what I know about indoor and I still fly his great designs. When I
learned of Jim's death in '02 I built his Ministick design that evening.
What a great man.
Please give me regards to Fran and Mike. I assume Mike is still involved
with the Clem engine business? He may not remember me but I know Fran will.
I never met Jimmy but I'm sure you knew him.
Prod Mike about returning to the indoor NATS. It sure would be great to see
him flying again. He was great flyer.
--Don DeLoach
Colorado Springs
P.S. I also knew your Dad. Great guy. I was just reading one of his old NFFS
Digest articles on torque meters.
-----Original Message-----
From: Indoor_Construction_at_yahoogroups.com
[mailto:Indoor_Construction_at_yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of DHL
Sent: Monday, January 22, 2007 9:54 AM
To: Indoor_Construction_at_yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [Indoor_Construction] Science Olympiad Issues
OK.. knowing very little about Science Olympiad, I
still feel compelled to weigh in on this..
Having grown up in this hobby and competing at all
levels of this and other hobbies as a kid(pinewood
derby, kite flying, etc) I can say without question
that I have a desire to bring my very best to each and
every competition. While it is a hobby and it is
certainly fun, I compete to WIN. However, the greatest
gift ANY of these competitions gave me is a series of
life long friendships.
Some 30 years ago another Junior flyer, Mike Clem, and
I were primary competitors at most of the national
competitions... we consistantly designed, built, and
trimmed to "one up" the other. We each wanted to win,
but we ALSO wanted the other to do their very best as
well.. It is a hollow victory indeed when your
competitors midair or broken model prevents them for
pushing you to do YOUR best.
Mike and I would generally set our tables up next to
each other at meets, review our latest "innovations"
on new models, stand side-by-side praticing winding
techniques taught to us by one of the elder statesmen,
and even encourage each other to field fix that broken
model and get another flight in before giving up.
I am happy to say that 30 years later, I spent this
Christmas Holiday with the Clem family and that
friendship has transcended the hobby.
The issue you describe seems to me to speak to an
"overzealous parent" issue. I believe the parents need
to be reminded that Johnny is learning a sad lesson
indeed when his coach is teaching him that hoarding
knowledge, locking others out of practice sites, and
win at the cost of others is the motto.
Quite frankly.. I took up indoor AFTER competeing in
Control Line speed for a year. My last competition was
the 75 Nats when I saw a parent yelling at both his
kid and the parent of a competitor!..Even as a 10 year
old at the time, I was so distrubed by this behavior,
I didn't want to continue. I found such a collegial
atmosphere in the Indoor scene that it encouraged me
to continue in the hobby.
I suppose all of this is to say that even though I
believe it is a parents job to teach the lessons of
good sportsmanship... sometimes the Mentor is going to
have to reinforce the lesson!
just my 2 cents
Dave Lindley
--- iflyf1b <iflyf1b_at_comcast.net> wrote:
> I ran to a few issues this weekend mentoring
> students for the up and
> coming Regionals. Anybody else having these
> negative responses to
> mentoring?
> First I have been mentoring 2 local high schools and
> 3 middle schools
> in our county for 8 years. I have seen alot of
> improvmwnt and some
> rebnewed and growing interest in model aviation.
> Because of limited
> use of local gyms I have students from different
> schools come to one
> high school gym to fly and pass along my many years
> of experience.
> At first the coach for the local gym we were using
> showed soem
> displeasure in me bringing the so called competetion
> to the gym but
> never said anything. He would take his students off
> to the side and
> talk quietly about flying and trimmimg. Understand
> this coach also a
> parent gained all his knowledge from me. I let it
> go. This weekend
> after having a local middle school coach and
> students come to the gym
> to experience BLG again I saw the same attitude
> until the students
> left then all was good again. I recieved a phone
> call later in the
> day from the coach/parent stating because of
> liabilty only the
> students going to the high school in question could
> use the gym as a
> test facility.
> My goal is to not only teach young people the joys
> of indoor free
> flight and experience the feeling of a sucessful
> flight but to
> hopefully bring new blood into out beloved hobby.
> Im done Just food for thought. Larry Norvall
> Woodbridge,CA
> Oh on a side note this BLG is a very cool event
> The middle school
> kids are jazzed and doing about 40 seconds in a 25
> foot gym.
>
>
Yahoo! Groups Links
Received on Mon Jan 22 2007 - 17:51:19 CET
This archive was generated by Yannick on Sat Dec 14 2019 - 19:13:44 CET