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So began a twenty-one year odyssey of pylon racing and all the adventures that came with it. I really didn't know Jimmie other than hearing that he had been helping some of the racers. I'm sure he surmised that I needed help. He was right! My employment at Kraft Systems allowed free radio equipment and the connection to buy anything else at a great price, but Cathy and I were living in a rented condo at the time and son Bryan was little more than a year old. There wasn't a lot of loose money to fund the pylon racing effort, and I'm sure Jimmie knew this and also saw some talent (maybe) that needed a little push. I had done well flying sailplanes and after all, a racer is just a fast glider once the engine is shut off. In any case, without his assistance it would have been nearly impossible to accomplish all that we did over the following twenty+ years. When he delivered a ready to paint Prather Little Toni a couple of weeks later, I was thrilled. No one had ever given me anything this cool and when I asked what I owed him, his answer was simple. "We'll just have some fun". A new team had been formed, the very first of the new Samurai Racing Team. Why me? I guess I was just lucky. Hooking up with Jimmie changed my life in a very good way. Over the years I know that a lot of people resented the help he gave to so many people, but this wasn't the everything gratis deal that some thought it was. Sure, Jimmie provided lots of equipment to lots of people, but he also expected that if he needed something, he would get it from us at no cost as well. If he gave you an airplane, lots of times he would ask for a new kit, engine mount, materials, etc., and he would provide his time to deliver a ready to paint airplane. If you abused his kindness, it wasn't long before you were added to the "out" list. He purchased new Proline radios for one guy who promptly sold them. Needless to say, he was added to the "out" list very quickly. Others were gone when it was apparent that they were there only to use. Jimmie was still cordial to these people, but they knew that they would never be able to count on his help again. Few ever asked. The 1977 races are pretty much a blur as I write this nearly thirty years later, but there were highlights that I can still recall, even though my memory isn't what it used to be. We never won a contest that year, but we were developing consistancy and getting used to how each other operated. We won quite a few heats just by being consistant and not necessarily the fastest, something that many of today's teams completely overlook in the quest to be fast. Jimmie had never called actively before we teamed up, and there was a long break-in period. He was very calm as caller, and I was so bad during the first few years of racing that I would shake nervously before and during the race. He helped calm me down as he never got excited. At first all he ever said was, "ready.....turn!" and "what the hell, we got 2 cuts". We seemed to do this fairly often in the early stages, but we both learned and he became a caller in demand later on. I can remember him calling for so many fliers, that he would just stay out at the starting line and wait for them to show up. Guess I broke him in pretty well. The 1977 AMA NATS was at March AFB in Riverside , California that year, my first NATS since 1963. Jimmie and I ended up in a four way flyoff for fifth and we promptly ended up with two cuts (again!) and an eighth place award. It didn't matter, it was the NATS and it was a thrill to do this well in our first full year of racing. We ended up ninth in the Formula 1 NMPRA National points that year, which was a pretty good start. We were always right at the 1:20 mark in most every heat and we knew there was more. What did we have to do to find it? Props were a very big deal then as they are now, even though APC has made it easier now, even for the hacks. At the Whittier Narrows race earlier that year, Jim Jensen (anyone remembering Jensen Ugly Stick kits will recognize the name) walked up and handed me a prop that he made on his prop carving machine. He had trimmed it up and asked me to fly it. It instantly shaved five seconds off our better times and we were now at the 1:15 mark. What a difference! At the end of the day he had given me three more of his custom props and I ran those same props for several years before they all ended up in the ground. Wish I still had one. More on Jim Jensen. Jim's F1 airplanes were PERFECT! That's the only word I can use to describe them. He painted all of them in two shades of purple, very simple, but the workmanship and finish were absolutely flawless. He once told me that when he built a new airplane if it took any aileron trim to make it fly correctly, he broke the wing in two and built another wing. Jim was not a great pilot, good but not great, but his beautiful airplanes were very fast and that made up for the lack of great thumbs. He even painted the inside of his airplanes and his radio installations were a work of art. Hope you're enjoying the racing up there in the sky, Jim, and thanks again for your help. I'll always remember your help and your great airplanes. Gary Hover, Len Ledson and I flew a Cessna Cardinal from California to Florida that year for the NMPRA Championship Race. What a trip it was. We were nuts for even attempting it, and we probably should have ended up stuffing this thing into the ground at some point in the trip. Three guys, six airplanes, fuel and all our equipment crammed into this poor little airplane which we all knew was way over gross weight. We didn't talk about it. Good thing Len was a well experienced pilot, or we would have been doomed. The first fuel stop after picking me up in Oceanside , California was Tucson . It was right at 100 degrees that day and the controllers put us out at mid- point on the runway for takeoff. Little did they know how heavy we were, and we didn't really know either. Len locked the brakes and went to full military power as we started our takeoff roll. We were taking off to the east and as the end of the runway rushed closer and closer, Len pulled this gutless wonder off the ground only to have it settle back on the wheels and keep rolling. The end of the runway was getting closer by the second and at this point an abort would have put us off the end and into the sagebrush. Len tugged the wheel again, and this time she started to climb ever so slightly. We cleared the end of the runway no higher than about 10 feet. The only rub was the terrain off the east end of that runway was very gradually going uphill! We stayed virtually even with the rising sagebrush and Joshua trees for at least a couple of miles before starting a very slow climb out. I'll bet the pucker marks are still in the seat of that old Cardinal! Later that night as we cruised eastward, I awoke to see both Gary and Len's heads down, both of them asleep. No autopilot, just Len's knee wedged between the door and the yoke. I fell back to sleep, confident(?) that we were on the right heading for Florida . After finally making it to the race, Florida didn't disappoint us. It rained or drizzled almost all weekend. Wood props came back from a heat with the leading edge literally eaten away from hitting the raindrops. Remember that we didn't have the luxury of molded props then, only wood, so one prop per heat for a large part of the race. Most of us didn't bring enough. The top 5 in the race received Seiko digital watches, a nice award at the time. Gary got one for third place. I ended up in a flyoff for fifth and cut, finishing sixth and out of the watch awards. For the next year, whenever I had ANY contact with either of them, the first words from their mouths would be, "Hey Dave, what time is it?" They would call late at night, and as soon as the phone picked up, a little voice at the other end would utter the phrase, "Hey Dave, what time is it?", then hangup. More on this story in the 1978 history. I became friends with a lot of new guys that year, some of which have gone to the great pylon race in the sky and some who I still talk with regularly. Most are still involved in aeromodelling in one way or another. Jimmie was also helping Bob Smith and Laird Owens (who's mother stitched up the original Team Samurai shirts) at that time. Bob was one of the best natural R/C fliers I've ever seen, and had won many pattern and pylon racing awards, but an absolute hack when it came to preparation and testing. (Sorry, Bob) Sometimes he and caller Jeff Bertken went to the starting line cramming radio into the airplane as they walked. The first test flight of the airplane was the first heat of the contest, and more often than not, Bob could trim and still win the heat. Or crash the airplane because the battery pack quit since he quick-charged it for a couple minutes and it probably hadn't been charged in months. Later, I started preparing Bob's equipment and even test flying it for him sometimes, and that coupled with his great thumbs won many races for him. |
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