Hi billberry189
My name is Mark Radcliff. I'm pretty sure it was Bill Ney and his dad you are talking about. They lived in Wheeling and he and his dad went to pattern contest along with me and my dad. We became very good friends. We lived in Wintersville OH and the Neys and us would meet up a lot of times and go to contest together. We were all flying the Phoenix design. Excellent pattern ship in it's day. Young Bill lives in Pittsburgh and recently started flying again. Actually we hope to fly together at an up coming event in a few weeks. Bills dad is still living in Wheeling and hopefully I will get to visit with him in a few weeks also. Glad to see someone remembers those days.
Take care.
Mark
ORIGINAL: billberry189
Scott,
It was so long ago that I don't remember anyone's name, but I do remember that he was a young guy in his teens at the time. He and his dad use to travel to the pattern contests of the day. His dad essentially served as his builder and pit crewman/spotter. His Phoenix was white with red trim I believe, and it had Robart retracts that they used R-12 freon to charge. If anyone remembers way back then I was the beginner pilot who drove the bright orange 1975Dodge van with the multi colored shag carpeted interior. Oh yes; I learned to solo in about two weeks that summer and was flying Sig Kougars, Taurus', and a Mach Iwithin the first month. I had a really good and helpful instructor who was a little bit older than most of the guys and I remember he used to wear bip overalls all the time. That summer I had a night job at the truck stop, so I spent a lot of time keeping the field mowed.
PS- Thanks for the reply!