FF Outdoor Rubber
Larry Kruse
Open Mulvihill
A lot of folks had their money on "Gentleman George" Perryman to repeat a considerable portion of his 1982 Nats performance and take most of the first-place marbles, then saunter back to Georgia. But the capricious thermal god must have stepped away from George's side for a moment or two and let other folks slip into first place in a couple of events that had "Perryman" written all over them.
Open Mulvihill was a three-way battle that literally went down to the last few seconds of time before it was decided. By late in the afternoon, Perryman, Guenther Nowak, and Bob Lipori all had 780 seconds, having maxed on their first five flights. Perryman's bent-wing bird needed five full minutes for its sixth max, but it dropped below the tree line at 198 seconds. Lipori had just returned from his fifth flight and was furiously preparing for his sixth. Nowak was already in the air and back down with a max before Lipori was able to launch.
As Lipori released his model into what looked like good air, it was Nowak's turn to start hurried preparations, even as time ticked down to the last few minutes. Kibitzers were taking bets on whether Lipori could retrieve his model, get back in time, wind, and launch before the contest was over. In the meantime, Nowak stood ready to fling his ship into the air again, should it be necessary.
It all became a moot question, however, when the timer indicated that Lipori's model was down at 200 seconds, 100 seconds short of the needed max. Although Lipori didn't beat Nowak, his and Nowak's combined efforts served to bump Perryman from first to third in the space of about six minutes. Being of a philosophical nature, I'm sure George was glad that the contest didn't last any longer than it did.
- 1st: Guenther Nowak
- 2nd: Bob Lipori
- 3rd: George Perryman
Junior Mulvihill
Junior Mulvihill was almost as close. The Pelatowski family made its name known when young Martin Pelatowski chased Aaron Markos as hard as he could. With a total of 311, Martin fell 33 seconds short of first place. David Brown came in third at 262.
- 1st: Aaron Markos — 344 (implied)
- 2nd: Martin Pelatowski — 311
- 3rd: David Brown — 262
Senior Mulvihill
Senior wasn't quite that close. Bryan Fulmer bested John Renken 337 to 277. Susan Brown was third at 184.
- 1st: Bryan Fulmer — 337
- 2nd: John Renken — 277
- 3rd: Susan Brown — 184
Wakefield
Finishing a strong second in Wakefield as well as in Mulvihill, Bob Lipori must have felt like the perennial bridesmaid by the end of the Nats. Lewis Groebe was spaced 5 seconds ahead of him, and Marty Richardson was just 5 seconds behind him. Not enough interest was generated in the Junior and Senior divisions of Wakefield to field a slate of competitors—save John Renken, who did a solo number.
- 1st: Lewis Groebe
- 2nd: Bob Lipori
- 3rd: Marty Richardson
- Junior/Senior: insufficient entries (John Renken flew solo)
P-30
P-30, to say the least, was the most popular rubber event. Although John Oldenkamp's baby was born to interest the younger set in rubber flying, it was the older people who generated 57 entries at this year's Nats. This is in no way disparaging of the 21 Junior and Senior entries — it only shows that a simple event with easy accessibility for all can be universally popular, regardless of the competitor's age.
Junior P-30:
- 1st: Aaron Markos — 244 (won by 5 seconds over John Rice's 239)
- 2nd: John Rice — 239
- 3rd: Steffen Brocks — 234
Senior P-30:
- 1st: Chris Balcer — 261
- 2nd: Susan Brown — 136
- 3rd: John Renken — 86
Open P-30: Open P-30 winner Steven Bard had a perfect 360 score. Ed and Lawrence Pelatowski continued their winning ways by grabbing second and third, respectively. The next seven places were all bunched within 50 seconds of one another. Both the number of entries and the closely grouped scoring pattern mark P-30 as a perfect small-field event, whether at the Nationals or at a local contest. The weight, span, and prop requirements allow everyone to be competitive and make luck an inherent factor.
- 1st: Steven Bard — 360
- 2nd: Ed Pelatowski
- 3rd: Lawrence Pelatowski
Coupe d'Hiver
Coupe d'Hiver, also a good small-field event, had a very healthy entry. Chuck Markos won Open with an excellent 600 score. George Perryman was second, blaming his Dixie-bred airplane's inability to fly in Yankee air. Reid Hull and his well-used V-tailed machine were third.
Bryan Fulmer had a very respectable 462 to win first in Senior. John Renken was second, and Susan Brown put up a token flight for third.
Junior flier Steffen Brocks, whose name has begun appearing more and more in the winners' column, was first in his age group, followed by David Brown and Patrick Scuro.
- Open
- 1st: Chuck Markos — 600
- 2nd: George Perryman
- 3rd: Reid Hull
- Senior
- 1st: Bryan Fulmer — 462
- 2nd: John Renken
- 3rd: Susan Brown
- Junior
- 1st: Steffen Brocks
- 2nd: David Brown
- 3rd: Patrick Scuro
Unlimited-Unlimited
The Outdoor Rubber report wouldn't be complete without announcing that George Perryman did win a first place. During the winter months, George rebuilt his GIANT Great Speckled Bird. With it, he won the Unlimited-Unlimited, a one-flight, go-for-broke mass-launch at dawn. That's showing 'em, George.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
