Home

TALL TALES

 

by Andrew Tickle, Archiver of Tall Tales

    

 

Home

 

 

 

 

Tall Tales   #3
A TALL TALE
 EXPLAINING
FREE FLIGHT

Don with Ethy

 

Hamilton Field before it was flooded was one of the best flying sites around. Forget the runways, the taxiways were runways so wide you couldn't miss. And the hardstands made perfect parking.

There was a hugely enthusiastic group of auto mechanics who flew there. As far as they knew, all model airplanes were from factories in China. But they were intensely enthusiastic and curious. Glad to find someone like Don Bekins who could answer their questions about dihedral, wing loading, downthrust etc.

One Saturday I arranged to meet Don there. The mechanic guys were curious about Don's Old Timer with its strange pylon mounted polyhedral wing and transparent cloth covering. They came over to check it out. It looked so strange to them they didn't even know what to ask. Then one of them spotted a wire leading to the engine. "Do you leave the glow plug connected all the  time?"

"This is spark ignition", replied Don. 'Ignition" was the magic word. Spark plugs and ignition were their expertise. Soon Don was explaining to a fascinated crowd. "It's a reproduction of a free flight model."  The words "free flight" left everyone with baffled looks.

Finally, after a long pause one said hesitantly "You mean like launching with the radio turned off?"

"That's right" said Don.

"That's wild" they all agreed, shaking their heads. Now when did they come up with a crazy idea like that? Today only the Old Timer free flight guys know.

Andrew Tickle.

Home

 

 

 

Tall Tales #2

 The Tale of a Luton Minor

Andrew Tickle

This is not really a Tall Tale at all. In fact it is quite short.

At the Christmas party raffle in 2005, John Carlson and Andrew Tickle stole and re-stole a Luton Minor kit from each other until the legal number of stealings was reached. The town of Luton, by the way, is the birthplace of Andrew's first born, and the Luton Minor is a full size homebuilt airplane from the 1930's.

John refused all manner of enticements to part with the kit. He took it home and did his usual inspiring job of building it it. Andrew admired it at the field, and sometimes John let him fly it.

John soon realized that every time he brought the Luton Minor to the field Andrew would salivate. So he finally gave the plane to Andrew.

Andrew took it to Crash & Bash. He entered it in the Concours d'Elegance and won some prize money which he presented to a surprised John (as the builder) at the next meeting.

The Luton Minor is still in flying today, and brings back fond memories of John.

                                                                                                                             A short tale by Andrew Tickle



John Carlson at the SAM 27 Lakeville Scale Meet in 2007

Home

 

  Tall Tales #1

A Tale of Slivovitz

Andrew Tickle
Ed Hamler recalls 2007  Euro Champs

 

At the 2007 SAM European Champs in the Slovak Republic, Ed Hamler was in the Speed 400 fly-off with over a dozen competitors. The mass launch ensured that everybody flew in exactly the same air.  Thousands of years of civilization have taught Europeans to trust nobody. So the event hires professional timers.

When the fly-off was underway Mary Hamler asked Ed's Timer for the current flight time. He refused to tell her. This does not go down well with freedom loving Americans. So Mary grabbed the watch to see for herself. The watch read zero! The "professional" timer had forgotten to start the watch.

So when the fly-off finished the CD allowed Ed to make his official flight on his own. His Airborn soon found good air and disappeared overhead. Mary spotted it but was unable to show Ed the exact position of the tiny dot in the sky. So she grabbed the long (35MHz) antenna and used it as a pointer until Ed found the Airborn again and completed an 18 minute flight.

Europeans like to challenge anything that is the least bit different from the usual. So this was a natural. The jury met, excluding Ed who was a member but was not even allowed to listen. He thought someone must have reported that Mary had touched his transmitter during the flight. But other flyers assured him that she had clearly touched only the antenna, and not the controls, which would have been an automatic disqualification.

 It turned out the beef was that Ed, flying later, might have had better air than the other competitors in the mass launch fly-off. The jury agreed, overrode the CD's decision, and decreed that the entire fly-off was to be repeated. 

By now the proceedings were already late and delaying the banquet. Ed realized that the time to recharge batteries and repeat the entire fly-off would seriously upset the banquet plans. So as a good American, he withdrew from the Speed 400 event!

But that's not the end of the story. When the awards were made Ed received a specially created award as the Best Sportsman of the event. But there's more. To make it even more memorable, he was presented with a bottle of Slivovitz, a famous Slavic plum brandy!

But wait! There's more yet. Touring after the meet, with Mary, Miriam Schmidt and Gabriele Montebelli the car got hopelessly stuck at the side of the road. All rescue attempts just sank it to the chassis. When all hope was gone, three powerful farm workers appeared and simply lifted the back end to solid ground. They disappeared jubilantly into the distance, holding high overhead their reward, the bottle of Slivovitz.

Editor's note: Wait! There's more yet. In 2009 Ed was selected as the Contest Director of the SAM European Champs. A great honor for an American in a very European event. Andrew Tickle

.

Home