Hi, guys...some of you may remember me, hopefully you'll also remember Nat Penton...Lousiana's "VoodooGuru", who did tweaks to Pattern airplanes a decade or so before some of the 'magical fixes' were invented by big namers. Nat *KNEW* what he was doing, and I flew his .90 powered Voodoo with a canopy strake/fin like Dave L. describes when I was in FAI. It was - hands down - the very best knife edge-ing plane that I flew, EVER, and his rudder area was reduced as well as it's travels.

Scientific design would be a wonderful thing, but we have such great experienced and knowledgeable "tweakers" out there that it's really great.

I don't play pattern anymore, but I do have a couple of "good" planes (which means they fly better now than I ever did) and I enjoy precision. I just wanted to give Nat the recognition for many of his innovations. If I remember correctly, he was also the first to "prove" that pattern planes without airfoil landing gear and pants "flew better"....he and DIck Hanson(way back, now) knew the value and practical benefit of performance over pretty....God bless 'em!!!!!!!!