Hi to all :
I am looking for any one that could provide me with information on AMA Hall of fame member Ed Keck and the pattern planes He flew and designed before he moved to freeflight .
I was fortunate to purchase 2 of his planes after he passed away, one powered by a rear rotor Rossi .60 about 66in ws and another larger one powered by a OS 61V gear drive that pulled a 12x12 size prop.
I have electrified the first one and it is pure joy to fly !
I plan to put the OS powered one in the air next year after the weather clears.
Did he name his designs...? These are truly works of art and it seems a shame not to have a name to refer to them with.
I have a shot of the smaller one in my Gallery here in RCU.
Thank you in advance - Mike

Ed was a fantastic modeler and good friend of my Dad. I recall a series of his pattern models were named "Starfire". Fierce competitor in the early days of pylon racing as well as pattern, and in his later years was a world class power FF competitor.

Hey Bdog - I remember him also, great competitor. Could you please post some picture's of his planes ? I am looking for picture's of Jimmy Grier and his Anonymous, painted green and black, usually Super Tigre RRV powered them, inverted.
He was from the Chicago area.

Jimmy paased also.

Crank

Starfire sounds correct. I saw Ed fly on many occasions. The last contest I remember he had an Enya 1.20 powered version of his Starfire which he could not coax into running for the whole flight. As I recall, his designs had the stab mounted quite low on the fuselage (similar to Ron Chidgey's Typhoon series and previous airplanes).
-Will

Here are a couple pictures of Ed Keck and one of his airplanes...I don't know the name of it; maybe somebody can help out. The pictures were taken around 1965 at the Detroit Invitational, one of the major contests of the time.

Duane

Hello Duane. I have e mailed you twice at different addresses. They seem to have taken. Any way that is not Ed keck with the plane so far as I know. Mel.
PS I have photos for you. I need your address.

Duane. I may be wrong but it is not how I remember him although I know I have seen the other fellow as well. Mel.

Agreed, that's not Ed in the photo.

Here are some shots of the planes.
Eds workmanship has been eye opening for me.
The construction is built up balsa and they appeared covered with a light fiberglass cloth and sprayed with K+B SuperPoxy.
The tails are removeable with one bolt, MK retracts and mixture control.
I know that Ed also set a pylon record with a 6.5 k+b powered Cassut racer.
I also have some unfinished parts and pieces that he was putting together in a transition to turnaround style ?
A friend of mine has one of these and it is a taildrager powered by a Enya 120 R ,I prefer the trike style that I have.

My first pattern plane was a TigerTail that I flew in the early 90's,as of late I have been flying a .60 size Ultra Sport.
I had forgoten how nice my TT flew,a few years back I sold it to a friend and he had been flying it at a local fun fly,after going from horizion to horizion in knife edge he was asked by another pilot what mixes he had set up...
He held up his transmitter and said what are mixes ?I think he was using a 4 channel Futaba conquest at the time.
I am really looking forward to flying these pattern ships again !

Oh Shucks!! Are you sure? For a million years I have thought it was...I'll have to go back through the pictures to fibnd out WHY I thought it was him.

Can I at least pretend that it's Ed Keck for the time being?

I'll send you a PM with my address. Glad you found the pictures..........Do you have any of Ed Keck? This one of "what's his name" was taken at the 1965 Detroit Invitational.

Does anyone know who he is?

Duane

Duane. I am not real good at this stuff. But if you e mail me I will get it. Regards Mel. [email protected]

Hi Everyone:

I have just reviewed all the original slides that the pictures in post 5 came from. I now see how it was an easy mistake to make...a case of making assumptions. Just to the left of the toolbox, (out of the frame), is a sign showing Ed Keck's "spot" in the pits. Mister "X" is sitting behind the plane, making it look like the plane is his, but he is actually about 3-4 feet away.

I found another picture showing another gentleman sitting ON the toolbox working on that plane in the picture, but there is another plane close by. I am now working on a new theory that the plane in the picture in post 5 ACTUALLY IS Ed Keck's plane. There is a portion of the sign with Ed's name on it in front of that plane, (but there is another wingtip in the picture so I'm not 100% sure.

I'll scan and post that picture ASAP.

Duane

Can you provide details about the Ed Keck pattern plane... name, demensions, year designed and flown stuff like that. Very nice looking plane but I would not expect less from Ed.

Not relevant.

I'm getting confused, (not hard to do) but who are we talking about? Izzo great in his own right or Keck ?



Just kidding, I thought something like that happened. (now everybody will be confused)

Sorry Ron, my mistake - post deleted. Put it down to old age [] This is Ed Keck and his 1972 Starfire. Quite similar in design style to that shown in post#9. The model in post #5 doesn't look very "Keckish" to me.

Ray

bdog - Thanks for sharing those photo's. Are these planes still in circulation somewhere, at his home, what's the story ?

Thanks,

Vince

Duane,
I knew Jimmy very well. He used to fly in our annual pattern contest in Harvey, Illinois as well as many others around Chicago. I recall that he was from Olympia Fields (or thereabout). I believe he had a small manufacturing company that produced abrasives for small die grinders or dremel like tools. I may have some old pics, but I'm not sure what kind of shape they are in. I did find one ofSir Lowenot long ago. Not sure this helps much, but I sure enjoy these memories.
Hook

Hook - Ron and I have been trying to find picture's of Jimmy's Anonymous. Black and green, Swept wing, Taurus style, inverted Super Tigre RRV engine's. Always, always, had idle problems. I posted one picture of Jimmy, but only checking in at the Manufacturer's Invitational put on by World Engine's, annually, back in those days.

I wrote to a club in the area he lived in, but no answer.

Grier Abrasive's is alive and well.

If you can find them, we would appreciate it.

Crank
(Vince)

Thank you for the picture Ray,I can see the starfire linage but my two ships seem to be refinments.
Both ships have fully foiled vert.tails the stabs are on the bottom of the fuse and are removeable.
Both are powered by piped RE motors with the pipes hidden under a removable deck.

Hi Vince : Ed's wife was clearing out their basment after his passing,and I was blessed to pick both up these ships and some extra pieces that I hope to turn into another complete airframe.

The largest ship is powered by a OS .61 V GEARDRIVE {I have never seen one of these before} driving a 12x12 prop
The smaller ship seen hang from my ceiling has a 72in ws and was powered by a Rossi .61,I have coverted to electric power{about 1000watts on a 4S-5000ma batt. turning a 12x6 evo prop}I plan to switch it over to a .90 4cyc Saito for next years flying.
Mike

OK Here is th picture I was talking about. You can see the sign with his name on it, unless someone else was sitting on his tool box.
We are talking about 1965 here, and this is a very slick looking plane for that year. I don't know what passes for "Kecky", but I think this plane was "Kecky" enough for '65. Note the blue and orange plane next to him? What is that?

Duane

Chuck Winter's video DVD discussed in the Ed Kazmirski thread has a lot of quality footage of Jimmy Grier flying an olive green/black/and white plane looking a lot like a Taurus, only with an inverted engine. He was flying a "pylon" event as part of the Detroit Invitational in 1964 or 65. I also have a slide of Jimmy carrying this plane if I can get my scanner to work to scan it.

Duane

Duane, who took that photo? It is the backs of all the major subjects (at least those whose heads aren't cut off) and obscures each of the planes. I do particularly like his underpants peeking out though.

Here's a shot of Jimmy Greer taken in 1966 with what I assume to be a version of the Anonymous. He was obviously a member of the Chicago "big model" group.

Ray

Ray, thanks for the photo of Jimmy, this started with me asking for information about the "Anonymous" plane that he flew for sometime. Some good shots can be seen on the DVD from CW. If someone has information ... pictures or whatever I would appreciate it. I'm certain his plane was derived from the Taurus as many designs were in that era. I knew Jim well flew with him many times and was motivated by him. He was a great modeler and competitor. Also the only person I know who had dollars bond into a book just so he could tear them out for tips just to see the look on the receivers face. He was a joker. I dropped out of RC for many years and when I returned he had passed. When I asked around people who knew him they say his RC stuff was scattered all around. I talked a lot with Jerry Nelson about a year ago he was Jims best friend back in the day he provided a lot of info. The last version of his plane had retracts and flew very smooth. I will use a Taurus as a foundation and finish it in his colors and style so I wanted photos to get the paint scheme right, if he had plans and someone has them I would like a copy but I doubt he drew plans???
Thanks all