Gator Shoot-Out: First Annual Invitational Air Show of Champions
By George Jenkins
Billed as an "Invitational Airshow of Champions," the first Gator R/C Shoot-Out was the idea of Wally Zober and was successfully held at the now-famous R/C World flying site in Orlando, Florida.
Most well-known Scalemasters pilots were invited, including:
- Corvin Miller (Mr. Top Gun)
- Mel Whitley (former Top Gun winner)
- Bill McCallie
- Frank Tiano
- Colonel Art Johnson
- and many more
Not all invited fliers could attend. Some who did attend did not have their models ready, or their models had been damaged in arguments with terra firma before the meet.
I was invited to be a flight judge and managed to get some flight shots and static pictures at the end of the flight rounds. The wind was cold and fierce the first day of the meet, with a strong west crosswind that reversed and blew from the east on the last day.
Many fliers were new to contests and were nervous when the time came to fly. Rex Rexroat, a well-known IMAA sport and fly-in pilot, found himself shaking in his first contest with all the "big boys" of Scale. The Shoot-Out was a real learning experience for the novice contest fliers. It's one thing to be a good builder, but quite another to be a good flier in a contest when you are being scored.
Expert and Individual Results
Nick Ziroli Jr. is making his own tracks after following in his father's footsteps for years; he came into his own by winning the Expert category with a score of 186.64 with his scratch-built Hellcat in Royal Navy colors — from dad Ziroli's plans, of course. This 49-pound model flies great with the .52 Sachs engine.
According to the Ziroli family, the plans will be available by the time you read this. It was poetic justice for Nick to win a Pica Spitfire kit as his first-place merchandise prize. Because Nick Jr. is just a really nice guy, he also won the Sportsmanship Award.
A new model from a familiar face was Mel Whitley's perfect SBD-5 Dauntless, scratch-built. The Dauntless was used in WWII as a sub hunter, and the model had a bomb that was dropped after a high-altitude dive over the R/C World flying field. Mel uses an O.S. Max Twin 300 that pops, cracks, and backfires as it flares into a 180° typical fighter approach while setting up for landing. Whitley must feel good going into Top Gun after winning second place with a 185.08 score with this new model.
On his heels was the sound of Corvin Miller and his Top Gun–winning, scratch-built Swift taking third place with a 183.27 score.
Hal Parenti had his hands full with the bigger version of his now-famous Ryan Fireball. The model had independent throttles for the ducted-fan engine — an O.S. Max .91 — and the front engine was a Saito 270. It had brakes that held the model as the ducted-fan was spooled up and released. Both engines had to remain running to achieve maximum points for multiengine flight. Not only did they run, but the fan added to the performance of the Fireball. It really sounds strange to hear a ducted fan and prop running at the same time.
Hal tied with the Yellow Aircraft P-47 flown by Bill McCallie. McCallie broke the 180.37-point tie with the highest flight score; this placed him fourth, with Parenti fifth. Unfortunately, Hal did much damage on a landing made about five feet too high, and the model fell the rest of the way, pushing the landing gear through the top of the wing — a major repair not to be done at the field.
Parenti won an A-4 Skyhawk kit from Yellow Aircraft for scoring high in Static and a new Futaba radio for Technical Achievement.
Team Scale Events
Not only did pilot Bob Fiorenze and his teammate/builder Gream Mears win first place with a Yellow Aircraft twin-Zenoah-powered P-38, they earned Best of Show and won a Bob Violett F-86. (Just what Bob needed, since he has his own hobby shop in Orlando and is a Yellow Aircraft dealer.)
As they did at 1989's Top Gun, Robert Rickey and Dean DiGiorgio teamed up and won first place with a scratch-built 1/3-scale Cub from Bob Nealitz plans. This was not your ordinary "Cub." The J-3 featured a .4130 aircraft-grade tubing frame covered with Ceconite and painted with butyrate dope for an authentic finish. The first-place Scale team score was 186.5; second place was 178.25. With exotic warbirds such as the P-38 Lightning in the field, you should never count out a well-documented, well-flown Cubby for competition.
An ever-popular model, the Pitts S-2A, made its way into third place with the flying of Benny Fidler and the building of Ron Webber. Scoring 169.2 points, this scratch-built beauty sported unusual pleated yellow and red graphics applied over an all-black airframe. It is much work to get out all the bubbles, blisters, and wrinkles and to go around all the compound corners of the Pitts. However, any of you who have ever laid out stars and checkerboard paint schemes can see the genius in having the hard part done by a graphics computer and only having to paint one color: black.
Night Flight and Halftime Show
At the field Saturday night, Wally Zober provided a banquet for the pilots, wives, and friends. When it was dark, everyone was treated to a great air show called the Night Flight. Local club members rigged up rather exotic battery-powered lights, chemical glow light sticks, and even Roman candles, vying for the most applause and for first place.
On this cool winter night, the lights were turned off so everyone's night vision could adjust. After the first model took off, it was no trouble to follow it against the clear, starry Florida sky. One flier rigged up a neon sign on the side of the largest TeleMaster that read "Night Flight." A second-place winner attached a Roman candle that was set off by remote switch from the ground using a rocket ignition system; it looked like a fiery comet in the sky. There was much fun, laughs, and crashes.
The Gator Shoot-Out halftime show featured a flight of the P-38 with spine-tingling maneuvers and goose-bump-producing twin sound. As always, there was a crowd-pleasing show from the Cloud Dancers and a flight from bygone racing days: Tom Gruenbaum of Model Aviation Technology flew his own famous six-volt gel-cell Laird-Turner all-silver racer.
Equipment and Technical Notes
I was able to show off the new ProSpark electronic ignition system I received a few days before the Gator Shoot-Out; it was installed in a SuperTiger 2500. The great thing about it is that its reliable spark plug screws in the same location as the unreliable glow plug. It uses the same carburetor with the needle valve setting about one turn in tighter, and it uses gas, which is much cheaper than glow fuel. I use Coleman lantern fuel (pure white gas) with a 20% mixture of synthetic AMSOIL and add Metalon as specified by the manufacturer. Corbal Systems has a winner in this idea for those of you wanting the compactness of a glow engine and the reliable idle and power of gas — the best of both worlds.
The unit has been used in an engine as small as a .60-size Czech MVVS engine with great success, provided by G&A Products in Sarasota, the Florida MVVS distributor. It was well received by everyone.
Thanks and Sponsors
The Gator Shoot-Out was a great show, and I know that everyone who was there this year will beat a path to next year's event. Thanks to all the sponsors:
- Bob Violett Models
- Yellow Aircraft and Bob Fiorenze
- Steve Helms of Futaba Radios
- Nick Ziroli Plans
- JR Radios
- Pica Models
- Rohrkhan Transmitter Tray Company
- Don Smith Plans
- JP Products Scale Instruments
If you missed this Gator Shoot-Out, try to make it next year, and see Wally and the boys at R/C World for a great flying time in the Florida sun.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
