Ed Keck passing

Tue Jul 27 13:18:47 AKDT 2004

Dean:

That IS sad news....  I met Ed many years ago, while I was working for
Southern R/C Products.  Ed's company made many of the metal components that
made up the Southern R/C Retracts (now Dave Brown).  I worked with Ed on the
Alley Cat .40 size sport airplane that he designed and SRC kitted.  This was
the first design work I actually had my hands one.  The airplane on the kit
label was actually my prototype.

Ed was an unbelievable builder/trimmer!  He said his airplanes had to be
perfect because he was not a good enough pilot to make up for any trim
problems!  This made him a great FF'er as well, as his record shows.

A great guy who will be missed....

Tony Stillman
Radio South
3702 N. Pace Blvd.
Pensacola, FL 32505
1-800-962-7802
www.radiosouthrc.com
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dean Pappas" <d.pappas at kodeos.com>
To: <discussion at nsrca.org>
Sent: Tuesday, July 27, 2004 12:39 PM
Subject: RE: Ed Keck passing

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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