Just spent a week in Florida at Top Gun competing. I thought I would share some pics of my wildcat in action. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
An ex-cat driver of claim. John L. Smith, Medal Of Honor winner at Guadalcanal. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Thx guys. There were so many flying works of art at this competition from around the world. And Bob, your a true artist and I love your stories. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
I was fooled, thought it was some 3/4 size replica of the real deal. That is some serious RC. How many years of experience do you have flying and building?
Wow! I never saw a twin-blade propped F4F before.My first cousin was a Marine aviator during WWII in the Pacific theater.Went in the service in winter 1940-41. Flew virtually everything the Marines had, but mainly Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bombers. Stayed in the reserves, recalled for Korea where he commanded a squadron of Grumman F9F Panthers, then back to Pensacola to train other Marine WWII brownshoes who had to be checked out in jets, taught Jerry Coleman and Ted Williams. In November 2016Jon ran and finished the New York City Marathon three days after his 96th birthday. Image Unavailable, Please Login Here's a url of his interview for anyone interested. It's long-ish more than 20 minutes, but will fascinate you if you.have the leaning.
The eighth image of this post is of the Vought F8U; note the wing is canted up from the full horizontal position, called variable incidence, to increase lift on launch and landing. Seeing it reminded me that my last operation as an OOD on USS Intrepid was Operation Crosswind during which the Navy tested the ability of carriers to launch and recover aircraft when the ship was steaming out of the wind, i.e. either 'crosswind' or even with the wind astern. We flew F8U's on this mission.
Thanks for your comment re the art. I can't take any credit for a gift with which I was born. My father had the same talent and passed it on to me. We take no pride in the fact that neither of us had any art school training. He was a prominent artist and architect and ended his career designing some of the Washington National Cathedral. He was also one of the consulting architects on the renovation of the Whitehouse when Truman was president. I didn't mean to upstage you and your beautiful miniature Wildcat. It just triggered thoughts of a hero who , like many others then, fought like Wildcats to help to blunt the Japanese advances in 1942.
During my unemployment period in the mid-90s when I was living with my parents in Palm Beach County, I went to the "Top Gun" meet a couple of times. I was always impressed with the quality of the models, and the bravery of the modelers who dared fly these beautiful replicas.
Yeah, those beautiful miniatures are astonishing. My only criticism is the pristine finish on the Zero. I saw one at the NACA Labs at Langley Field in 1945 and they were incredibly rough. Wrinkley and rather crude but beautiful.
the pristine zero was modeled after one in a museum. to compete, you have to have real pics of the aircraft you are modeling. so if its a museum aircraft, chances are its restored. me? i like the weathered looking models so i find pics of weathered aircraft. sadly, its challenging to find good photos of old aircraft to use in my documentation packet. if an aircraft is in a museum, you can go take pics today and have good documentation for competition. the F8 is a kit myself and two friends are producing.
The Hellcat is missing its radio aerial, which is only thing that points out the photos as being of a model.
Well, the real idea is that the photos of the model in the air should be indistinguishable from the real thing, and aside from that (I never saw an F6F without a mast) the Hellcat is perfect.