Free Flight: Old-Timers
THE BANNER NEWS for this column has to be the return of George Aldrich to the model engine business. In addition to continuing with the importing and custom rework for high-performance engines as before, he'll be restoring and reworking Old-Timer ignition engines. George says: "What we can offer now is the ability to restore worn cylinder assemblies with cast-iron pistons to at least as good as new compression. Additional benefits include longer life due to the piston hardening, and the salvaging of some cylinders that had become unusable. This process can be applied not only to out-of-production engines but to new or used engines for . . . Free Flight, Control Line and RC."
Farragut Flyers: Take Pride in America
THE FARRAGUT Flyers, an AMA chartered club in northern Idaho, recently received recognition in the Take Pride in America national awards program for improving its flying site and other recreation areas in Farragut State Park. As national semifinalists in the awards program, the club was presented a Certificate of Merit by the Take Pride in America Committee, chaired by First Lady Barbara Bush and Secretary of the Interior Manuel Lujan. Club members were also presented with a Take Pride in Idaho Achievement Award from Governor Cecil Andrus during a luncheon in Boise.
Free Flight: Old-Timers
IT'S BEEN A WHILE: The special column on Old Timer activity in England, the interruption due to Nationals coverage and letting Doc have a turn, have kept this column away from these pages. Anyway, I have a lot of information I want to fit into this space, but I wish to thank those who wrote expressing concern over my health. I'm doing fine-mean as ever. That reminds me, I need to point out that the fine young fellow on the AMA staff with the same name as mine, isn't me. Judging by my mail, some people think we're one and the same. Some even thought the photo or the caption on page 100 of the October issue of Model Aviation was reversed, but the photo and caption are correct: the young fella is Bill Baker and the older man is Geoff Styles. Neither of them is me. The other Bill Baker is young, cheerful, and energetic. I am old, grumpy, heavy with warts and battle scars, so we're easy to tell apart. I hope this ends the confusion.
20th SAM Championships
THIS YEAR'S Society of Antique Modelers' (SAM) national event was at Westover Air Force Base in Chicopee, MA, July 3rd through the 6th Contest Manager George Armstead, assisted by Contest Directors Jack Whittles for Free Flight and Joe Beshar for Radio Control, saw 168 contestants through 41 very diverse events. It was a four-day celebration of model flying, competition, history, and a happy time for most people living our memories, fantasies, and hopes. Stark reality did intrude Sunday night at the Victory Banquet when SAM President Sal Taibi announced the death of Free Flight contestant Bruno Markiewicz. He was found lying by his bike and model after he had made a fly off flight to win B Pylon.
Free Flight: Old-Timers
MANAGER for the 1988 SAM Champs is "Bud" Brown, and he will send you an entry blank and other information for the July 18-22 contest to be held at Lawrenceville, IL if you will send him a large SASE with two 22¢ stamps on it. His address is RR #4, Box 51, Lawrenceville, IL 62439. The NFFS (National Free Flight Society)-sponsored Nostalgia Gas Champs will also be held at the SAM Champs site on July 19-20. All of the glow classes will be flown, including .020, 1/2A, A, B, C, and-NEW for this year-an ignition class. This is good news, because there are many interesting "ignition-on-the-plan" ships which are a bit too late for the SAM events and are too heavy, with ignition, to compete with the glow classes. For information, rules, and entry blank, send a two-stamp SASE to Moe Whittemore, RR #1, Box 296, New Palestine, IN 46163.
