9th Annual Hal deBolt reunion-Dunnellon Florida - March 8-9, 2008

(Compiled & Edited by Tommy Gray)

This year’s event was fraught with problems from the word go! First off, the field where the event was to be held had issues and the event had to be moved after all the event info had gone out and everything was set. Everyone heroically overcame that problem when the great folks at the Tri-County R/C Club graciously offered to host the event at their wonderful “Rainbow Park” flying field in Dunnellon Florida. The dates were set for March 8-9, 2008, and it seemed that everything was set.

Next, this year’s honoree was to be Art Schroeder. Well, as I’m sure your are aware, we lost Art in December of 2007, so he had to be honored posthumously. In losing Art, vintage flying lost a great friend! 

Everyone had to regroup. New flyers went out, I changed the website info and everything finally was set on “GO” once again! The days for the event finally were upon us. I put the finishing touches on my new plane, and packed the car late Thursday evening getting ready to leave at the crack of dawn for the 13+ hour trip the next morning. Would you know it….that evening it started raining, sleeting and SNOWING! We had not had a March snow in many a year. Another look at the Weather Channel confirmed that the next day (Friday) would be no better, and that there were severe storms all over Florida, and my entire travel route. About midnight Thursday, we finally made the decision to abandon the trip. That was on our end in Louisiana. A quick email to Lyman Slack in Florida confirmed that things were nasty there, as you can see from the radar picture below, and that the most they could hope for was a little static judging on Saturday, because the prediction was for about 40 mph winds. That was confirmed on Saturday, when the rain cleared. No flying on Friday or Saturday! Finally on Sunday, the day started out with the temperature in the low 30’s but quickly warmed up and finally a little flying got under way. The next part of this article is from Lyman Slack regarding what they managed to accomplish in lieu of the normal complete event. They did it nicely in my opinion! 

Tommy Gray
VR/CS Webmaster

Pictures and Info from Lyman Slack, Dave Small & Red Scholefield

(Edited by Tommy Gray)

Most of you have read that the original host of this event, the Hernando County R/C club, was in a battle with neighbors and the county and thought they had lost their flying site. The Reunion was briefly cancelled until a group of concerned modelers were able to resurrect it at its new venue, Rainbow Air Park, home of the Tri-County R/C Club in Dunnellon, Florida. http://tricountyrcclub.homestead.com/Index.html.  Key players in this rescue were Tri-County’s Chris Wieland, Dave Small, and Don Adkins; Flying Gators’ Lyman Slack and John Castronover; and of course, Hernando’s Gloria Wells and Cliff Manspeaker, whose cooperation made it all possible!

As if the move wasn’t enough to contend with, Mother Nature dealt out a triple-whammy in the form of nasty storms and heavy rain Friday, high winds gusting to 40 mph Saturday, and a 30° temperature Sunday morning, the third and last day of the event! Guess what? The event came off and was a success!

A photo of Dave Platt and Chris Wieland somewhat shows the wind, which was so strong that models could not be shown for the traditional “Show ‘n Tell”. That day’s activities were cancelled early and many left, with some going home.

 

The Saturday night banquet had already been scheduled and booked and was held in Spring Hill, FL. It was hosted by the Hernando County R/C Club, and there were 35 in attendance.

This year, a testimonial was given to the late Art Schroeder. Several of Art’s friends gave us all a glimpse of Art the modeler and Art the true friend. Their club president, Cliff Manspeaker, presented Mrs. Gertrude Schroeder with Art’s lifetime achievement award. She gave us a glimpse of Art as a husband and father. It was obvious to all that he truly was a complete gentleman in every way.

A storyboard and Art’s most famous R/C design, his “Eyeball” pattern model, were on display. The banquet was a tremendous success.

Sunday morning as the hearty (remember, this is Florida!) came to the field, it had warmed up to 31° as Chris Wieland and crew put out the VR/CS banner and Art’s Storyboard.












 

A glimpse at the wind sock shows that gentle winds and sunshine had returned.

 

Registration was handled as always, by the effervescent Eunice Payne, shown here at her work station.

As has become standard routine at most all events held in and around Dunnellon, Gainesville, and Ocala, small “Participant Cards” were made and given to not only pilots, but to pit crew and workers as well. These cards look great on transmitter cases or field boxes. According to some, they also make great emergency frost scrapers for those of you that have forgotten how you used to do it!






 

After a brief Pilots’ Meeting, flying was finally under way. VR/CS sport-style flying was prominent throughout the day. VR/CS Pattern was open to anyone and was judged by Ocala’s Russell Stricker. Additionally, S.A.M. members were invited guests and showed their R/C discipline. All were in agreement that Rainbow Air Park is a perfect site for VR/CS style flying.

AMA D-V VP Tony Stillman dropped in and mingled in the pits after a few brief words.











 

Tony is also shown here with event organizers Lyman Slack, and Chris Wieland.







 

Also representing the AMA, were Pennsylvania’s Ron Morgan, shown here with his version of Art’s “Eyeball”, and also with AMA Historian, Norm Rosenstock.
 

 


The pictures below are some of Norm Rosenstock’s Models brought to the event.

A Tri-County event is not complete without visiting the world-famous Rainbow Café where some of hardest working club members of all prepare the traditional gourmet ‘burgers and the infamous ‘Belly-busters’ dogs!





 

Nice awards hand-crafted by Dave Small were presented mid-afternoon as this year’s reunion was winding down.
















Competition Winners











Class II Pattern winner was Don Ogren. Don was flying a 1957 Midwest “Live Wire Champ”.























First place in Class III Pattern was won by Cincinnati’s Carl Lovins flying a “Sr.Falcon”








 

Second place in Class III was won by Red Scholefield. Red was flying an “E-Telemaster”.













Pilots’ Choice Awards











Selected as the Best Lou Andrews Model, was the “Explorer” built from the 1960 Guillows kit, by Greg Dill.











 

There was a tie between Don Adkins with his “Live Wire Trainer” and Lyman Slack with his 1958 “Custom Live Wire” for Best deBolt Model. They were presented with duplicate awards.

Spirit of VR/CS Award

The model selected for this year’s “Spirit of VR/CS” Award, was an Andrews “Trainer Master” built by Dick Lafontaine. Dick’s model was finished in with period "Silk & Dope".

 

Finally....

One good sign that the deBolt Reunion and VR/CS is in good health, and growing, is that VR/CS Membership Chairman John Castronover signed up six new members over the course of the weekend! To add to the prestige, it’s also nice to be able to say that in attendance were three AMA Hall of Fame members and an AMA VP!

Those of us in Florida will now have until October to prepare for the "2nd Annual Pioneers of VR/CS" Fly-In. Dave Platt and the "Indian River Kontrol Society" will host this event. http://www.irks.org/

Photos by Lyman Slack, Red Scholefield, and Dave Small; Event Information submitted by Lyman Slack and edited by Tommy Gray

 

The following are some general pictures in no certain order sent to us by Lyman, Red and others