Wouldn't you know it! It took two guys and a gal from Huntington to give local flyers a lesson in the spot-landings Sunday. Our shame was permanently recorded at Municipal airport before approximately 500 spectators. As usual, in these unpredictable contests, instructors looked like students and a woman driver came near top score. Two ground-bound sportsmen assisted Jay Shue and E. K. Smith with the judging. Anthony "Tony" Mathia, long an airport backer and present member of the aeronautics board, and Glen Smith, who will be found at any sporting event, helped call the close ones. Spot-landing requires a fine coordination between judgment and skill, with bushels of luck thrown in. You are aiming at a 50-foot mark with the airplane roughly one-half mile distant. To give you an idea, start coasting in our car several blocks from home. don't use any brake, but judge your distance so your automobile rolls to a stop in front of your lot, which gives you 66 feet. Try it! |
Winning a pair of chrome fog lights, donated by Jake Menzie, was Pilot R. A. Cutshall, from Huntington. Cutshall was flying a Stearman biplane, got a score of seven. Landed in the three-ring on his first attempt, nailed the four on his second. Gerald Platt, also of Huntington, and piloting an Aeronca, took a free oil, grease and wash job at the Mosier Marathon station, when he scored a six. It the three-ring twice. Pretty Anna May Miller, surely one of Huntington's nicest pilots, smacked the five-ring squarely on her first attempt, missed the second. Her total score of five tied for third place. Curt Broughton, flying an Ercoupe, would have saved our local bacon, actually hitting the four-ring on his first attempt and the five-ring on his second attempt. Curt's first landing was disqualified, however for cutting a short pattern. That is, he made his first turn too close to the end of the runway. He was scored a five, really earned nine. Here is the list of contestants and their scores: Gene Beigh, 0; R. A. Cutshall, Huntington, 7; R. C. Bailey, Hunting, 3; J. B. Sheron, Huntington 0; Jake Menzie, 4; another Huntington pilot, J. D. Killen, 0; Joe Carlin, 3; George Houck, 3; Gerald Cline, Huntington, 1; Gene Noggle, 3; Curt Broughton, 5; C. Harmon, 0; Max Bumbaugh, 4; Carl Bibler, 0; Brice Statzil, Huntinton, 4; Anna Mae Miller, Huntinton, 5; Jack Mowrey, 3; Bob Bast, 4; Max Weirick, 2; Warren Krantz, Angola, 4; Dale Duckwall, Pierceton, 0; Don Forney, 3; Carl Weirick, last months winner, 0; Jack Harley, 3; Dean Crowell, Huntington, 0; Moyne Andrews, 3; Gerald Platt, Huntington 6. In the three-sided light plane race up to 65 horsepower, Max Bumbaugh nosed out Jake Menzie by three-fifths of one second. All the entrants flew T-crafts. Here they are with elapsed time around the course: Max Bumbaugh, 5:03 2-5; Jake Menzie, 4:04; Moyne Andrews, 5:28. In the second race, two Cessnas put on a good show, with the heavier Model 140 taking the race by one second. Pilots and time: Gene Noggle, 3:58; Joe Carlin, 3:59; Dale Duckwall Super Cruiser, 4:25. this was the 75 to 100 horsepower class. To fill a few minutes time between the spot-landing contest and the races, Joe Carl;in tossed a BT-13 around the sky for fifteen minutes, treating spectators to an unscheduled acrobatic show. The guy trying to get out of the darn thing whenever it slowed down, was Little Willie. Bulletin Here and There Warsaw Daily Times Mon. Oct. 13, 1947 |