Control Line: Aerobatics
Wynn Paul
THE PRECISION AEROBATICS Nationals of 1975 will be remembered as the year of the wrecked planes that finished first, second, and third. Texan Bob Gieseke won his fourth Nationals flying a patched and epoxied "Gieseke Nobler" which was totaled on Friday morning just before qualifications. A quick trip to the motel room with the Gieseke family and Gus, their Shepherd pup, provided enough hands to repair the plane in time for qualifications. Les McDonald, a hobby supply salesman from Miami, Fla., moved up from last year's fifth place to a strong second place, only one point behind Bob. Les had a lead-out end come apart on Thursday resulting in a broken stabilizer, cracked cowl, and some frayed nerves. Also on Thursday Ted Fancher, a 1974 finals qualifier, hit a tie-down bolt in the runway, resulting in a broken prop which shook apart the entire front end of his beautiful ship. After many helping hands, and several hours of frantic work, Les and Ted had their planes ready for processing Thursday night. Texan Al Rabe finished third again this year with his old Sea Fury, a plane with a rebuilt fuselage from one wreck and a new wing for better turns and more lift.
Gieseke went on to win the Jim Walker Cup on Saturday following the Open Finals. It was his fourth Walker Cup win, setting a new record for wins in this fly-off for the overall stunt champion of the National Championships. Davy Slagle won the Walker in 1946, '47 and '48, the only other person to win it three times. Bob's wins in the Nationals and the Walker Cup have come in 1966, 1968, 1974 and 1975.
Doug Stout of Livingston, N.J., shook off a challenge from his friend Mark Sullivan of Morristown, N.J. to win Senior Precision Aerobatics over nine other contestants. Doug was flying a two-year-old airplane, his own "Apparition," which performs quite well. It features a foam 53-in. wing, a Fox 35, uniflow tank, and weighs 43 ounces.
Joe Musumeci won the Junior Stunt division for the second year with 466 points to Californian David Fitzgerald's 360. Next year the slender Texan will be in the Senior division and his version of the Gieseke Nobler will go hunting for more silver and gold. Only eight Junior fliers flew this year but the quality was much better than the 1974 edition of the Junior stunt ers.
The Precision Aerobatics event this year was again administered by members of the Precision Aerobatics Model Pilots Association. President Keith Trostle was the event director and was assisted by Bart Klapinski. It's not every event in the Nationals that can boast that its directors are both former National Champions and Walker Cup winners! Open judges Robert Gialdini, Joyce Greene, Roger Greene, John Laws, Doug Stout, and John Seymour are all currently active in Stunt and this group includes two national Stunt champions.
Open Stunt had one of the biggest entries in years with 61 fliers performing patterns. Three qualification circles were used on Friday picking six qualifiers from each one. Four of the qualifiers made the finals for the first time: Dennis Duvall (9th), Remel Cooper (14th), Bob Harpe (17th), James "Randy" Smith (18th). There was a fourth-place tie between Bill Werwage and Texas' Jerry Pilgrim, an event which had AMA officials scratching their heads trying to remember ever having happened before.
Finals day dawned bright and hot, about 90 degrees worth. Bob Hunt led the early part of the first round with a 481.5 using his foam-winged Genesis. The judging continued. It looked like it was going to be a tight system with very little ballooning. Bill Werwage posted a 497.75 with his four-year-old airplane to move into first place and then was bumped by Bob Gieseke with a 510.75. Bob was obviously worried that his wing and center section would hold up for a couple of flights, but nevertheless flew his same pattern. The taciturn Texan Jerry Pilgrim eased into third place with a 487.50 and then Les McDonald and his patched-up .46-engined Stiletto jumped into second place with a 509.75. Al Rabe bumped Pilgrim from third with a 499.50 as the first round ended.
The second round started at 1:00 p.m. with the breeze picking up to around 10 mph. Jerry Pilgrim improved to 497.75 to tie two-time World Champion Bill Werwage for fourth position. Jerry flies a big .46-engined yellow-and-red-flamed ship which picked up the most appearance points with 18. He is one of the most improved fliers in the top ten, having finished 9th in the '73 FAI tryouts, 7th in the '74 Nationals, and now 4th in the '75 Nationals. Werwage went down by one point so that left him and Pilgrim tied for 4th place. The wind picked up a little for Remel Cooper, Al Rabe and Wynn Paul. Then Gieseke flew his second flight but went down to a 508.25, again showing that the judging was pretty tight. Jim Lynch and Dennis Duvall improved to finish 7th and 9th respectively, both flying semi-scales — Jim a beautiful Bearcat and Dennis a Miss Dara. That left it up to Les McDonald to top Gieseke's first-round score but he was unable to improve and scored 500.00 to keep his second place. An improved Bob Whitely (13th in '74) was the last flier and hung on to his 8th place to round out the 1975 Nationals.
The old reliable Fox 35 engine was used on all three winners. Duke Fox should really be proud of this. However, nine of the 18 Open finalists used Super Tigre 46's; there were three Fox 35's, three Max 35's, three Max 35's, and one each of ST 60, Fox 40 and OS Max 40. Foam wings were used on exactly half of the 118 qualifiers, including 2nd, 6th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, and 16th.
Friday after qualifications the Second Annual L. M. Cox Manufacturing Company sponsored Half-A Championships were held with Bart Klapinski winning the Open division, newcomer Mike Greb winning Senior, and David Fitzgerald winning the Junior division. This is basically a fun event with many of the contestants using the same plane and a lot of sideline shenanigans going on during each flight. However, it is catching on with more and more serious entries. PAMPA and the stunt fliers are indebted to Cox Manufacturing for sponsoring this event.
Several of the qualifiers expressed the opinion that this Nationals had more than usual tension involved on finals days. Perhaps it was because this is an FAI team selection year and several fliers were hoping for a good show in the Nationals to give them a little edge in the FAI event in late August. Also, the judging seemed more consistent this year than other years, with very little tendency for any ballooning in late flights. With so many scores being very close, the pressure was on to make each maneuver good to try for that extra point or two which could make the difference of one or two places. Yet, there was still that great camaraderie among Stunt fliers when someone was in trouble: both Les McDonald and Ted Fancher received many helping hands in the work hangar putting their planes back together. When Bill Fitzgerald had an engine quit inverted he had four "plane catchers" running around the circle with Bob Hunt playing the Johnny Bench of PAMPA. When another big engine Saturday morning quit in finals practically every qualifier stopped by to offer help, parts, or another engine.
Several familiar faces were absent from the Nationals this year: '74 qualifiers Gene Schaffer, Bill Simons, Bill Rutherford, Lew McFarland and Dennis Audams did not fly this year for various reasons. Chances are that several of these fine fliers will be at the FAI tryouts.
California fielded a large contingent of fliers this year at the Nationals: qualifiers Bob Whitely, Roger Barrett, Rich LeRoy; fliers Ted (Hardluck) Fancher, Bill Fitzgerald, Jim Armour, Gary McClellan, Arlie Preszler, and Lanny Shorts; Juniors David Fitzgerald and Danny McClellan, and assistant event director Bart Klapinski. Who said the Golden State people won't travel for a contest? And just about all of them said that they will be in Dayton, Ohio, next year if that's the site of the 1976 Nationals.
There were some welcome travelers from around the globe at the Nationals. From the great state of Hawaii were Francis Chinen and Herbert Chung, both PAMPA members. From Canada were William and Theodore Georgiadis and Mr. and Mrs. Ray Ogle. Both pilots had beautiful airplanes and spent a great deal of time picking up pointers on the American style of Stunt flying. From Mexico came Solorzano Reyes and Alfonso Roldiles to fly, and PAMPA member Don Jorda from Mexico City to spectate.
The second annual PAMPA banquet was held after the finals on Saturday night. Master of ceremonies Keith Trostle awarded the trophies to the top ten Open fliers. A special award was presented to Nobler designer and former Nationals winner George Aldrich. George has expressed some interest in getting back into stunt so PAMPA presented him a Nobler kit to use next season. At the informal get together after the banquet engine builder and designer Aldrich was taking mental notes on some of the items that stunt fliers would like; for instance, mufflers for the ST 46 and Fox 35, a good 40-sized stunt engine that is about 8 ounces or less, fuel tanks, propellers for the 35 and 46 engines.
The 44th National Championships is over. Precision Aerobatics had the second highest entry in control-line events. Bob Gieseke led a field of many talented fliers. The airplanes are as finely finished as ever and technology is much improved over five years ago. The prospects for a great FAI team are bright. The stunt world looks forward to 1976 and the next Nationals.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
