Ed Keck passing

[mike mueller]

 Ed was a true gentelman. I had the pleasure of flying with him at many national events in the 70's. He was instrumental in the development of Pro Line radios and designed and produced such items as Pro-Line retracts and the 1st really good open gimbals used in the Pro-Line radios. He was also very involved in the early days of the NSRCA. We lost a good one here. Mike  

Dean Pappas <d.pappas at kodeos.com> wrote:
Hello All,
Some sad news ...
In the few minutes since my last post, I have heard that Ed Keck passed away. Ed was a top level National Pattern competitor for a great many years, and an unbelievably good builder, from the Buffalo New york area. When the contest management at the TOC first considered changing to the Scale Aerobatics format, Ed was asked to build the proof of concept model (a Spinks Akromaster with the then brand new Webra 90)and then helped develop some of the first aeromodelling Turnaround schedules. He demonstrated at the TOC, one year, and at the next, the TOC looked like what most of us would recognize today. Ed retired from Pattern in the mid-eighties, and took up competitive free-flight. He was a several time U.S. team member with an excellent record at the FF Worlds.
If I remember correctly, Ed (along with Ron Chidgey) was one of the last two competitors to have attended every single U.S. team trial up until '85.

No doubt he will be missed.



-----Original Message-----
From: discussion-request at nsrca.org
[mailto:discussion-request at nsrca.org]On Behalf Of Dean Pappas
Sent: Tuesday, July 27, 2004 1:26 PM
To: discussion at nsrca.org
Subject: Earl's excellent observations


Hello All, 
wifferdil ... I just call 'em twinkle-rolls! 
What I would like to see is for our team members to have two new arrows in their quiver at the next Worlds. 
One is a real snap that comes out on heading or is quickly corrected. (hint: the more deeply the airplane is stalled in the initial break, the less lift is available for heading loss.) That's right, a half loaf is worse than none at all. 
The other is a rolling circle that will not violate either the judges' eyesight or a reasonable interpretation of the rule book as to distance. The book does not specifically treat this maneuver class differently, so the 150 good/175 downgrade/200 severe downgrade rule obviously still applies. At least it will when the Worlds' judges arbitrarily decide to start enforcing it! Meanwhile, it's still in the book. 
My concern is that without at least these two weapons in their arsenal, the team will be set up to be "caught-out" as in '87. What do I mean? In '85 everyone at the Worlds flew at 200 ~250m. At the European Championship in '86 the same was true, and Frack, Koger and I think Ivan were there as guest participants. Sometime between then and Avignon in '87, a group of judges agreed that the book was not being upheld, and started doing so. As a result, we were caught-out, without even the right prop in the flight-box to fly at the necessary speeds. Unfair? No! It was finally done by the book. 
We risk the same issue with snaps and rolling circles. Everyone has been getting away with murder on the snaps, at recent Worlds, and one day the hammer is bound to drop. Besides, common sense says that the rollers are too stinkin' big. 
Other observations: I saw one square that was square in 4 rounds of the best 8 fliers in the land. Most ranged from 20% to 50% wide, especially in the vertical 8s. Oh yes the square square belonged to Quique's 1st known compulsory.
Everybody (and I mean everybody) overlapped the entry and exit lines to the hourglass with 2 of 4 in F05. It's a shame this list doesn't accept attachments, as I'd draw up a PDF showing the wrong shape that all the finalists "perfected". I'm curious as to what happened here. I don't think that it's an issue of education ... Has everyone migrated to a wrong shape that the judges (both local and National) are accepting? 
Ducking for cover, 
Dean Pappas


Dean Pappas
Sr. Design Engineer
Kodeos Communications
111 Corporate Blvd.
South Plainfield, N.J. 07080
(908) 222-7817 phone
(908) 222-2392 fax
d.pappas at kodeos.com

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