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From late 1972 until I went to work at Kraft Systems, I worked for a short time at Astro Flight, and participated in an electric RPV project that they had in 1973. This aircraft flew for more than 1 hour with electric power nearly 30 years before Lipo batteries and brushless motors. I also spent a couple of years working with sailplane expert Mark Smith, of Mark's Models fame, building ready-to-fly sailplanes. Mark had recognized the need for RTF airplanes long before the rest of the industry even thought about it. Too bad he was about 25 years ahead of his time. In 1975, I began five years at Kraft Systems, at that time the largest manufacturer of R/C equipment in the world. I had a number of different jobs at Kraft, beginning with working in the model shop with Dan Lutz. Dan had been modeling since the 1940's, and was the best modeler I've ever known. I learned plenty in the year I worked with him. He was a first class person and became a friend for many years thereafter. He was into the restoration of early Ford autos and won the "Ford Award" for the best Ford auto restoration in the USA back in the 70's. He was involved in a serious auto accident in 1980, which left him paralyzed from the chest down. True to his spirit, it didn't slow Dan down a bit, he continued to work on his cars, build models and drive around in his hand controlled Cadillac for more than 20 years after the accident. Dan is gone now, and I still miss hearing from him. I spent a lot of time at the flying field during those years at Kraft. I was test flying new production and repaired radios, so I got stick time nearly every day. I also had the opportunity to watch some of the very best fliers in the world at that time and what I really enjoyed most were the pylon racers, Formula 1's to be exact. In early 1976, I decided to have a shot at racing, and picked up a Prather Little Tony kit and with the help of Jim Kimbro, Steve Helms, and a bunch of others got it together and ready for my first real pylon race, the Bakersfield Air Races. At that time, Bakersfield was the biggest, baddest F1 race in the USA , and since the NMPRA then offered a "standard" class for new blood, I would at least be able to compete against other pilots of similar skill. Roger Theobald was the head of the engine dept. at Kraft, producing the Kraft .61 pattern engine. He helped me modify my first Supertigre X-40 for running on the requesite 60+ percent nitro fuel that was used for F1. It was a lot more than I had bargained for, producing an airplane that probably ran in the 150+ mph range, a far cry from the sailplanes I had flown earlier, and 50 or 60 miles and hour faster than the Ugly Stiks we used as test beds for the radios. This engine ended up lasting through my first season, obviously never hitting the ground or being run lean. I still have it, mounted on a base in the shop. Guess I just wasn't hard enough on it! I test flew the Tony in April of '76 and tried to figure out how not to make a complete fool of myself at the biggest race in the country. It turns out that I didn't have to worry, since like it is now, there were a handful of competant racers and then all the others who showed up to watch the excitement and contribute their entry fees. I had no illusions of any great success, and had I crashed the airplane or some similar turn of bad luck, it probably would have been the end of racing for me. Bear in mind that F1 was exponentially harder to do than either today's Q40 or Q500, as running a lot of nitro resulted in many bad engine runs for the uneducated among us. Racing for the first time at an event of this magnitude was truly a rush, and seeing many guys who I had seen in the pages of the model magazines was really a great thrill. I managed to get third place in the "standard" class, the hook was firmly set in my jaw........and it didn't hurt a bit! Back then, the criteria for being able to race in the lower F1 class required that you had never broken 1:27.0 more than three times or placed in the top three of a standard class event more than three times. My tenure in the standard class lasted three races total. Two firsts, a third, and a best time of 1:24. Ron Schorr was the NMPRA Pres. at the time, and at my third standard race, he gave me the bad(?) news that come next race, I had to fly EXPERT. Laird Owens and I got kicked uphill at the same race, and of course we were both beyond thrilled. Adrenaline was the drug of choice, provided by Formula 1! I flew in a couple of more races that year, qualified for the Championship Race, and had reasonably good success. I built another airplane just before the big race, an LR-1A designed by Ed Allen, so I was all set for the big one. The Bakersfield Race earlier that year was big, but the NMPRA F1 Championship Race was more prestigious. Since everyone entered had to to qualify, the very best racers in the USA, Canada and Mexico were there (what the heck was I doing there?). I saw guys that were in the R/C magazines all the time, what a thrill to see the best go head to head. Lots of crashes, lots of excitement, lots of great racing! I had a midair with Greg Doe, who had won just about every F1 best finish award at the time, my Toni went down in pieces, and his airplane with only a broken prop! About a week later, the phone rang at work and the donor of the previously blown-up engine was on the other end. He said, "This is Jim, do you want me to build you an airplane?" Pylon racing and my life would never be the same again. The caller was Jim Shinohara. |
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