Thanks Robert! BTW, looks nice for the weekend up here. Would be nice to fly with you some more!

My mentor was not a great flyer. He never flew in big pattern contests. He had a gruff personality that turned a lot of people off on him. Maybe some of that rubbed off on me. But he taught me more about everything in the hobby then anyone else. From coaching my flying to teaching me more about engines then I could ever teach myself. He was Harry Roe.

Harry was a retired Air Force Colonel. He flew P-47's and P-51's in WW2. Can you imagine being 20 yrs old, given a Mustang and told to tear it up? Maybe some of his personality came from that background. Harry had more stories and quips then I could ever remember. One time at a contest we were all standing under a canopy watching it rain. I made the comment, why does it have to rain now? I then got a 45 minute education on meteorology. Harry would walk by me at a contest and say, time to change the glow plug, Tone! I guarantee nearly every time I would ignore that the plug would be dead when I went to start the engine. It was always fun discussing "aerodramatics" with him!

Harry to some was certainly an acquired taste. But he helped me more then I ever deserved. Thanks again Harry!

Another person that truly inspired me to be as good as I could get was Dave Brown. I remember in 1976 at my second contest, my first "real" pattern contest, I was sitting back trying to figure out how this all worked. I was hoping that I'd get to see a few flights before I had to go. Of course I was scheduled first up in the first round. I brought my stuff up to the line trying to come up with what to do when Dave came up to me and asked if I had a caller? I had no idea what he meant. So Dave gave me a quick run down, told me to start the engine, carried my plane out and then called the flight for me. You can't imagine how blown away I was to not only meet Dave Brown, but to have him do all that for me. Dave was at every pattern contest every weekend in the Midwest. It was such an inspiration to watch him fly at every meet. Then when I got to compete directly against him, he was such a motivation to keep working. It took me a long time to beat him at a contest and I still remember where that occurred. But by that point Dave was not working that hard at flying and really wasn't at his top form. Wish I could say I got him when he was at his peak!

Things were different then compared to now. If you wanted to beat Dave Brown, well, he was there at every local meet. Along with many other top fliers like Don Lowe, Mark Radcliff and many others. Take your shot and good luck!

And I can't end this without thanking another good friend I haven't seen in years. When I first started going to contests I would sleep in the back of my Datsun pick up. I did this for a while until a great guy invited me in to his trailer. That started a long friendship where we traveled to a lot of contests. Thanks again Rod Barnes! Rod could build some really great looking models. He was an expert painter. He was also really great with engines. Rod used to race outboard boats. So he was running his own homemade tuned pipes before a lot of guys put them on. Here's a cover shot of one of Rod's models. His is the green and yellow Phoenix 7 with the anhedral in the stab. At the 1977 Riverside Nats I was flying a Phoenix I borrowed from Rod. In the last round I had a midair with a Dirty Birdy. Spread that gorgeous Phoenix over half of March AF Base! But then I always told Joe Bridi I figured that's how he came up with the UFO.