Profile of the Contestants

Thought it would be more interesting if contest winners would tell a little bit about themselves.

Denny Dart Mark II

 Beginners First Airplane - First Place 

Neil Dennis (wombat)

On personal attributes, as you asked. Age 71, retired reliability engineer, have a small farm in western New York. Been flying off and on since early '40's - when dimescale really was. Wife same age (crossword puzzle buff), 3 kids - youngest 37 and 2 grandkids.

wombat

Neil has been mentoring some students in an after school program. Although the main emphasis is model airplanes, students are working on other projects such as a; hovercraft and a hot air balloon.  The airplanes the students are building are the Denny Dart II and the Nifty. 

I asked Neil about his nickname, "wombat" and he said it was the name of a motorcycle from years ago.  His interest in model aviation has included some control line and radio control, but he prefers free flight rubber and glider lately.  He makes the trip to Geneseo New York to attend contests on a fairly regular basis.

 Beginners Second Airplane - First Place  

Ramon Katiqbak (Jun)

I'm 62 years old, a retired civil servant (former Undersecretary of Finance) now a property developer and business school prof; married, with five beautiful and talented children, all grown and leaving the nest. A modeler off and on for over 50 years (off 20 years while making a career and raising a family, now on again thanks largely to the Internet and postals like Bill Kuhl's). Fly glider and rubber, indoor and out.

Have flown F1A, Coupe and F1D, but due to diminishing flying sites and chasing ability, now build mostly Peanut size and simple sport models. Have tried CL and RC, but don't like noise, smell and complication.

Had two photos published in Bill Hannan's "Model Builder" column, but that was really because my cute daughter Mona was holding the models.

[And that's basically it.]

Regards,

Jun

I asked Jun a few questions about modeling in Manila, where he lives.

Is it hard to get modeling supplies? Is there  anyone else flying model  planes? Is it hard to find somewhere to fly?

About Modeling in Manila:

There is enough modeling here to support two or three hobby shops in the big malls, but it's almost all RC and plastics: I can get balsa and glue and the odd Guillows or Peck kit, but the serious stuff I have to mail order from FAI or IMS. My friend the president of the RC club manufactures ARF planes for export and grows his own balsa -- terrible stuff, fit only for RC.

I fly FF alone, but that's because I use a nearby university campus which doesn't allow engines and just walk over whenever I feel like it; could probably find other FFers if I looked -- most of the RC people used to fly FF. Major competitions are held in the military airbase next to the Manila International Airport, but there hasn't been one for years. But I've slowed down too much to do that serious stuff.

Right now, I'm perfectly happy with Internet postals like yours.

Regards,

Jun

I asked Jun, if that was his nickname, and this was his reply:

In the Philippines, "Jun" is short for Junior, unfortunately no longer true in my case.

EZP Easy Plane

Beginners Airplane Junior - First Place

Geoff Bower (no nickname)

Bill,

I guess you could sort of say I work in education. I'm a freshman at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. I'm majoring in aeronautical and astronautical engineering. I started in indoor free flight about 3 years ago through Science Olympiad in high school. Over the last 6 months I've moved into AMA and FAI events.

~Geoff Bower~