American in Leningrad
WITH MIKHAIL Gorbachev holding his finger on the fast-forward button these days, the boundaries of the possible are swiftly changing. Suddenly it almost seems as if having reasonable hopes for world peace requires the courage to be unreasonable! Why be content with easy stuff like achieving religious freedom, or even breaking down the Berlin Wall? In the current atmosphere of heightened expectations, go ahead and shoot for the moon. Wait a month or two, and you'll likely see your dreams come true right there on your television set.
Beliaev's Winner
DURING AN EARLY 1990 trip to visit modeling friends in Leningrad I was pleased to meet Viacheslav (Slava) Beliaev, widely regarded as the best FAI CL Combat flier in the world. Knowing of American interest in Soviet modelers and their equipment, we struck an agreement whereby Slava and his compatriot, CL Combat pilot Svetlana Filippova would begin work toward publication of Slava's F2D model-draw plans, take pictures, write a rough outline of the text and then somehow get all the stuff to Seattle.
Gollygeewhiz
PRETTY FUNKY name, right? But it fits! I'll ask people who fly AMA (Fast) Combat if they would be interested in flying some 049 Combat, and they say, rather sarcastically, "Golly Gee Whiz. I don't know if I can handle it." After a "little" pressure, I get them to try one of my planes, either in a match or solo. After trying the plane and seeing what it can do, the comment is still "Golly Gee Whiz!," but all of the sarcasm is gone! The "GollyGeeWhiz" was designed out of necessity. About a year ago, we started promoting 049 Combat here in the Northwest. It caught on fast, and it wasn't long before we realized that there weren't any decent 049 Combat kits on the market. Into the breach leaped Dirty Dan and his GollyGeeWhiz!
Cheater Slow
WHEN I STARTED showing up at Combat meets here in the N.W. with early versions of the Cheater Slow, more than a few assumed it could not be a legal Slow Combat plane, so superior was it to existing equipment. Close inspection by the nit-pickers verified that the plane is legal. But to keep them guessing, I thought it a good idea to hang the "cheater" label on the plane! Ugly you say? The beauty comes through when an opponent can't follow you through maneuvers. Or when you are following and can turn with him without even having to use full control. I've won a lot of matches with this design. It long ago quit looking ugly to me.
