Member Profile

Tony Estep

Sun, 30 Dec 2007 15:44:22 -0600

I've been an active modeler, off and on, for over fifty years. Starting as a sixth-grader with tiny rubber-powered stick models, I went through dozens of planes (and an even greater number of disastrous crashes) before discovering sailplanes in 1973. I briefly had a powered R/C plane, but never liked it; I thought I'd found Nirvana when I built an Olympic 99, a beautiful-looking plane that flew so slowly that it was useless in winds over 3 mph.

Not long after, there was enough sailplane activity around St. Louis so that a small group of us began to fly together regularly, and soon after, we formed a club. In those days we flew exclusively from hi-starts; our only exposure to winches was when we traveled to out-of-town contests. Planes were built up from balsa with spruce spars, and were all too easy to bust on the winch. On the flip side, it didn't take long to build one, and those who wanted to experiment had free rein. I built many original designs and flew them in a variety of contests, enjoying modest success at a variety of events including the National Championships and the FAI team trials. One of our most active members in those days, Bob Gill, won the Precision event at the Nationals, and inspired many of us with his masterful flying.

However, in 1978 I moved to New York City, and was away from soaring for nearly a quarter-century. The only planes I flew there were paper airplanes down the hall of my office.

In 1998 I moved back to St. Louis, and by chance found the MVSA website. The members welcomed me, as they do with every visitor to the field, and I immediately wanted to give it another try. Today's generation of planes was just beginning to develop, and I was fascinated with the computer radios and bagged wings. I built a number of original RES designs, which flew well, but I wanted to master the Unlimited class. I got a Fazer and a JR 783 radio, both primitive by today's standards but a lot fancier than anything I had had before. Unfortunately, I quickly discovered that my old style of flying was worse than useless with the new equipment, and all I could do was go up and come down. I tried and tried, but it just seemed that my fingers and thumbs were too stupid.

However, even a slow learner can catch on, and eventually I got to the point where my flying is respectable, if not awe-inspiring. Jeff McKee, the perennial club champ in those days, took a lot of trouble to try to teach me, as did a lot of the other old-timers when they served as timer for my contest flights.

Even today I'm most at home with an RES plane (won the Mid-Am Championship in 2007), but I love the fancy full-house moldies and I have had a tremendous amount of fun with them. My current favorite plane is a Pike Perfect Lite, which is as close to the ideal model sailplane as I can imagine. When the wind blows hard, the plane is a bit too light, but then it's time to switch planes.

I've served as president of the club several (non-contiguous) times, and I'm sort of hoping this will be my final term. But while I have the responsibility, I intend to do as much as I can to build the club's membership, expertise, and fun quotient.

Jim Crook

Sun, 30 Dec 2007 15:37:23 -0600

My interest in planes started when I was living on a small island in the South Pacific called Kwajalein. Kwaj (as we called it) was an anti-missile missile tracking station in the mid 70’s and my father was the safety director. I started flying CL planes, mostly 1/2A ships, and my fate was sealed. During our time on the island my dad suffered a complication from surgery and lost his left leg below the knee. As a result he was unable to do much in the way of father/son activities so he bought me a used Aquila Grande and a World Engines 5 channel radio to compensate. That plane lasted about 50 flights until my instructor launched with the radio off. I quickly moved to power planes since gliders were “just for training”. I moved from Kwaj back to Jeffersonville, Indiana in 1977. There were no local clubs in Southern Indiana at the time so my flying stopped. My love of planes did not.

I applied to the Air Force Academy but I didn’t get in so I settled for West Point. My plan was to be a helicopter pilot, but as life isn’t fair the closest I got was a summer program where I got to solo in a helicopter. I spent my Army career at Ft Hood, TX running around in the M1 Abrams. About as close to flying as you can get with 65+ tons of metal around you! When I left the Army I moved to Riverside, CA. One fine Saturday I was forced into the office to catch up on some work. During lunch I saw some people flying sailplanes in the school field. The year was 1991 – after a 14 year break I was once again hooked. I got an Oly II, Joined the ISS (Inland Soaring Society), and learned to fly. Rich Shelby was my instructor. He was a great pilot, but he quit flying (an internal club fight) after only a year or so after I joined. From 1992 until 1996 I flew, but NO ONE was helping me (or anyone else) to learn how to fly. In 96 Mike Lee (formerly the RCM Sailplane editor) joined ISS and he helped everybody! What a difference.

In 1998 I moved to Missoula, Montana and flying again became a thing of the past. From 1998 until 2001 I flew no more than 5 times (that is flights not days). In 2001 I stumbled onto 2 gentlemen who had a winch! It was a real power house with a 6 volt motor powered by a 6 volt battery! I started flying about once a month and built my first DHLG. I actually had a web site up for awhile listing my exploits with the DHLG development.

Then it happened – I moved to St Louis in 2002 and joined the MVSA. The rest is history. I can honestly say that MVSA is the best club I have ever been in or around. Flying for 7 years in SoCal I had the privilege to fly against many of the best – JW, DP, LJ, Etc. I flew in the SC2 (the CA version of OVSS) and flew at most of the SoCal club sites. None of the clubs had the fun, friendly, and open environment that we have here. There were individual exceptions of course – Namely JW, DP, and LJ their help was available to anyone who asked. I can honestly say that my flying has improved more at MVSA than everywhere else combined. Nelson in particular has helped me immensely. Now I am learning even more from Chris! One year in the hobby and he is teaching me! Someday I will be as decisive and daring as he is.

Go Army – Beat Navy!

Glauco Lago

Tue, 25 Dec 2007 00:10:19 -0600

I was born in Brazil and I’ve loved airplanes for as long as I remember. When I was little, my dad used to take me to our hometown airport just to watch planes taking off. We would also go to a park where people flew control line models. Those fascinated me but my modeling activities only started 15 years ago when, as newlyweds, my wife gave me a free-flight rubber powered kit called Vespinha (“little wasp”). I had a blast building it and soon moved to RC power planes. A couple years later we moved to a city with no other modelers but with lots of open space, which I thought would be good for flying those things without engines I had seen in a Tower Hobbies catalog. Pretty soon I met another modeler in town, and I was lucky to find out he was not only the best craftsman I had ever seen, but also a past South American free flying champion. He taught me not only how to build airplanes using modern methods, but also what were those thermals that could hold your glider up for hours. We built and flew sailplanes together, and ended up participating at the first Brazilian F3J Nationals in 1999 with home designed and built sailplanes.
At the end of that year, I was invited to work in the USA and one of the major reasons for the big move was that St. Louis had a large glider club, which I joined right away. A month later I already had a Chrysalis hand launch built in a hotel room.
In 2004 (and lucky as usual) I met good friend Marc Gellart, who had just moved in town and told me about the Ohio Valley Soaring Series, known as OVSS, which he had started several years before. This series consists of usually 8 contests in several Midwest towns and points are added for each contest to select an overall winner. So I went to my first out of town contest which was in Chicago and was immediately hooked. That year I was the Sportsman Class champion, which was created to motivate new fliers into contest flying. These days I'm the score keeper for the class, won my first OVSS contest as Master this year in Louisville to finish the year in 4th overall place. Fourth place was also my finishing place at the 2006 Nats flying RES, just luck on my side once again.
I love building as much as I love flying, and I enjoy all Dr. Drela's designs. I have built so far several Supergees hand launch, a composite Allegro 2 meter, a composite Bubble Dancer and a Supra for good friend Tony Estep. I'm currently working on my own Supra which is a 134" unlimited glider with the challenge to meet the design spec of 48 oz ready to fly. This is when the 10th gram scale becomes your best friend (or worst enemy)! Several types of Kevlar and carbon fabric are used along cores of CNC-cut, high-load, 60 foam. MGS epoxy is used for building, and the finish will be Klasskote epoxy paint, which is light and bonds really well. Aileron and flap controls will be made per plans using a rotary system known as RDS, which is all internal to reduce drag. The foam cores and carbon spar for the Supra center panel are pictured above.

Nelson Itterly

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 11:55:37 -0600

In the 40's, my Dad framed up a P-38 Lightning. It sat behind our china closet for many years and between it and the neat display in the Hobby Hang-out shop display window in Easton, Pennsylvania, I started growing an interest in model airplanes. In the late 40's, I built a small rubber powered free flight from a kit. In about 1950, when I was 14, I joined the Model Airplane Doctors of Easton, Pennsylvania and my first mentor was Ray Volkert, twenty years my senior. Ray was a free-flighter. Consequently I became a free-flighter and like Ray flew free-flight in competition. I was always mechanically oriented and good in math in high school so I decided I should try for an engineering degree and aeronautical seemed to be the best choice. My free-flight days ended in 1959, one year after graduation and after I had moved to St. Louis. In 1980, I decided to see if my son, Michael (age 4) would be interested so I bought a ready built sheet balsa rubber model and flew it in the street in front of the house. It was my interest that was rekindled. I had always kept in touch with Ray and he steered me to the MVSA club where I met Bob Gill who let me fly his Sailaire and became my second mentor/instructor.

My current project is a quarter-scale of the 1938 gull wing Orlik II by Polish designer Antoni Kocjan. Mark Nankivil once said I should build a scale model but I was too interested in unlimited thermal duration and competition. Recently I have been going to aero-tow events with Art Frost. Art bought a set of plans of the quarter-scale Orlik and somehow they showed up on my work bench. That was three years ago. Remember, Rome wasn’t built in a day. The Orlik was a high performance sailplane of the day with a glide ratio of 25-1. The scale version will probably weigh in at 130 - 140 ounces with a 10-square foot wing. The wing span is 152 inches and utilizes the Selig 4233 which is a thick airfoil but thin compared with the original design. I am currently completing the fuselage which has been one year in progress excluding the summer flying season.