1986 Nationals with Brian and Val

1986 - Our lives in America
July 1986     Brian and Val Join us for a trip to the US Nationals to be held at Lake Charles, Louisiana This is Val's first trip to America and right now, she's a little amazed by everything she sees. 1986 LifeInSDAndBeyond 0165 a 1986 LifeInSDAndBeyond 0081 a
Late July 1986     Art Adamisin is the Contest Director; here he conducts the pilot's briefing. Behind him is Archie Adamisin, one of his sons. This is always interesting, the models go on display where the judges determine each flier's static points. I think my plane, my 1984 model that I bring from Australia, is at the front somewhere. Brian brings his latest plane with him from Australia.
Frank McMillan's Magna. Semi-scale Mustang P51A. Nicely built but I don't know by whom. Windy Urtnowski's plane. I saw him building this when I visited him last year. Ted Fancher's Citation 5.
Jim Levell's unnamed plane. Mike Pratt's Magnum. Mike is employed by Sig Manufacturing who make this plane and sell it in kit form. A beautiful plane, the Lacemaker, made by Ski Dumbrowski. It scores a perfect 20 points. Glenn Meador's plane. Glenn is an East Coast flier who lives in New Jersey.
The Matrix by Lou Dudka. Lou is another East Coast flier who I met in 1984. More excellent craftsmanship. This plane belongs to Mike Rogers also from the East Coast. Note that 3 blade carbon fibre propellers are not yet standard equipment. More lovely workmanship. Builder/flier unknown. Bob Geiske's "Geiske Nobler". Bob won both World Championships and the US Nationals with this design. It was also sold in kit form.
Tom Dixon's Thunderbird. I fly this plane in Sydney in 1988. Bob McDonald's desperado. I don't get on all that well with Bob. At the flying field, a Naval Air Station at Lake Charles Louisiana, Brian chats with Ski Dumbrowski about his amazing airplane. For Brian to admire someone's workmanship is a fine tribute because he is an amazing craftman himself. Brian ponders. Fun fact: this is our second trip across the US together, our first being in 1984 after returning to the West Coast from Chicopee.
Brian gives Karen Meador quick hug. She is a very lovely lady who we first meet in 1984. Tom Dixon hangin' about. Bob Whitely flying his new Laser. Frank McMillan, a top flier from Texas.
Jenni and Mary Hazel judge some of the preliminary rounds. Jack Sheeks (left) is a well known personality and designer in the aerobatics world. Windy flies during the final five flyoff. So where do I place? I do not remember but I don't make it into the top twenty although Brian does. Karen and Glenn help Lou in his flyoff rounds.
Ted Fancher is ready to fly in the final five flyoff. 'Sometimes I sits and thinks. And sometimes I just sits." Winnie the Pooh. Bob prepares for his flyoff flights. Bob doing a pull test. If a line is to break, now's the time to do it. Jim and I, having been eliminated, become Bob's flight team.
Bob pumps fuel into his plane and gets ready to fly. He starts his engine, signals to the judges to start their stopwatches, and flies. Bob Baron makes it to the final five. Bob has a blood disorder which eventually becomes fatal. Windy Urtnowski. Windy also makes it to the final five.
We usually don't see Windy looking so serious. Lou Dudka begins a final five flyoff flight. Lou Dudka. Jenni is a highly acclaimed judge and is invited to judge the final five.
Mary Hazel also judges the finals. Stunning. Jim Armour and a guy in a straw hat called Brian. Bob Geiseke and friend.
Big Art Adamisin announces the winner of the Walker Cup - Ted Fancher. Ted gets dunked with Champagne for his troubles. The Walker Cup is in front of Ted. George Aldrich congratulates Art, Betty Adamisin is by Art's side. George Aldrich is also famous in the stunt world as a competitor and designer.
A wet Ted Fancher poses with Art. The Walker Cup. Nat Gifford flies in the Walker Cup flyoff and wins the Junior category. The final five plus the winning Junior's planes pose with The Walker Cup.
Ted arranges the planes to his liking. Bob comes a very close second place which, in the end, is because Ted scores more static points (appearance points) than Bob. 1062.6 V 1055.8 Final placings: 1) Ted Fancher   2) Bob Whitely   3) Bob Baron   4) Windy Urtnowski   5) Lou Dudka. The final five plus Junior.
1986 LakeCharles 0039 a 1986 LifeInSDAndBeyond 0100 a We have time left so we wander around the control-line scale and have a squizz. 1986 LakeCharles 0030 a
This is nice. It's a model of a real plane, a Curtis 1A "Gulfhawk". This is a civilian version of 1930s fighter; orange with black and white trim. Pratt & Whitney Wasp R-1340, 600 hp engine , the original is currently on display at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. 1986 LakeCharles 0032 a B17 Bomber C/L scale. 1986 LakeCharles 0040 a
Relaxing in the motel's pool after the Walker Cup fly-off. At the pool. Jim Levell's daughter Angela (or Angel) and her friend. They hang around us quite a bit. Early August, 1986     The next morning we're on the road heading back to San Diego. We're on our way to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico.
We travel through Louisiana and Texas into New Mexico. The entrance to Carlsbad Caverns. Brian and Val inside the cavers. 1986 LifeInSDAndBeyond 0103 a
Interesting stalagmite in the caverns. An estimated 250 million years ago, the area surrounding Carlsbad Caverns National Park served as the coastline for an inland sea. Present in the sea was a plethora of marine life, whose remains formed a reef. Unlike modern reef growths, the Permian reef contained bryozoans, sponges, and other microorganisms. After the Permian Period, most of the water evaporated and the reef was buried by evaporites and other sediments. Tectonic movement occurred during the late Cenozoic, uplifting the reef above ground. Susceptible to erosion, water sculpted the Guadalupe Mountain region into its present-day state. Note Cenozoic (66 million years ago until today) means 'recent life. Carlsbad Cavern includes a large limestone chamber called the Big Room, which is almost 4,000 feet (1,220 m) long, 625 feet (191 m) wide, and 255 feet (78 m) high at its highest point. The Big Room is the largest chamber in North America and the thirty-first largest in the world.
Carlsbad Caverns National Park is an American national park in the Guadalupe Mountains of southeastern New Mexico. The primary attraction of the park is the show cave, Carlsbad Cavern. Visitors to the cave can hike in on their own via the natural entrance or take an elevator from the visitor center. We're in the Lincoln National Forest NM, and we can see the White Sands about 55 miles away. White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) is a military testing area operated by the United States Army. The range was originally established as the White Sands Proving Ground on 9 July 1945. White Sands National Park is located within the range. Long ago, an ancient sea covered most of the southwestern United States. It was during this time that layers of gypsum were deposited on the seafloor. The rise and fall of the sea level millions of years ago started the process of making the gypsum sand that covers the monument today. We stop at Mayhill New Mexico on US 82.
We have lunch at Mayhill, NM. We travel down though Western Arizona, probably SR80, to our next P.O.I, Tombstone Arizona. We come in from the east on SR80 and enter the town of Bisbee. Bisbee was founded as a copper, gold, and silver mining town in 1880, and named in honor of Judge DeWitt Bisbee, one of the financial backers of the adjacent Copper Queen Mine. In 1929, the county seat was moved from Tombstone to Bisbee, where it remains. Typically for the people of those days, European immigrants mainly, once an area had been exploited, the ruined remains were left for somebody else to clean up.
In Port Pirie, South Australia, those same related people from those same countries dumped the tailings from the mines into the main street where they stay to this day. On to Tombstone Arizona. Tombstone is a town in southeastern Arizona, known for its Wild West history. Exhibits at the Tombstone Courthouse State Historic Park include a replica gallows. On historic Allen Street, the O.K. Corral outdoor theater re-enacts an 1881 cowboy gunfight. Resident ghosts are said to haunt the bullet-riddled Bird Cage Theatre. Outlaws are among the local townsfolk buried at the 1878 Boothill Cemetery. The famous OK Corral.
The Sheriff's Office doesn't exactly look like it does in the movies. If Disney had got hold of this place, these would be replaced with audio animatronic figures with high fidelity sound. As it is, they are just a bunch of un-lifelike dummies. Pretty chintzy. What's interesting here is a bitumen-sealed main street and electricity poles with transformers. When we come through here a few years later, all of the electrical equipment is buried underground and the main street has reverted to dirt. It looks much better and more realistic now.
Next time we visit, they have cast members dressed in cowboy gear having gun fights in the main street. 1986 LifeInSDAndBeyond 0154 a Jenni and Val outside of Russells Roadrunner western store in Tombstone Arizona We stop into a bar, probably this one, and seek refreshment. On the menu thay have an item that catches my eye: "Death by Chocolate."
Boothill is interesting and worth wandering around. Some of the graves at boot hill. Not too many buried here who die of old age. The grave stones are fascinating reading. Back in San Diego, we take Brian and Val to a Baseball game, the San Diego Padres V The Phillies.
1986 LifeInSDAndBeyond 0162 a 1986 LifeInSDAndBeyond 0163 a The Phillies at bat. The end of this segment