RADIO CONTROL PYLON RACING
Duane Gall, 1267 S. Beeler Ct., Denver CO 80231; E-mail: stinger4@earthlink.net
LOCAL HERO
It's been awhile since I featured a Local Hero, and this one is a bit unusual. It's actually more of a Lifetime Achievement award, but since the racing community generally suffers from a short attention span and not enough institutional memory, I thought it might be nice to honor a guy who has been around since the beginning (literally!) and is still going strong.
Retired US Air Force Lt. Col. Gail E. "Jake" Jacobson has raced Radio Control (RC) model aircraft at contests across the United States since 1972, when racing as we know it was just getting started.
He won the AMA Nationals twice and the NMPRA (National Miniature Pylon Racing Association) Championship twice. He has represented AMA District V on the RC Racing Contest Board for 25 years, has served as a contest director for racing events at the Atlanta RC Club for 18 years (so far), and has been president of the Atlanta RC Club "at least twice."
However, that is just recent history. Jake had a long and illustrious career before that as an Air Force pilot during World War II—part of America's "Greatest Generation."
Some who read this column are 20 years old and full of spit and vinegar. Others are looking forward to it. Most of us wish we could remember what it was like. Now, look at the fellow on the left in the accompanying photo, and try to imagine yourself as a smart-alecky 20-year-old equipped with the 2,500-horsepower "toy" in the background—and the deadly serious responsibility to use it not for fun, but to save the world.
And remember: those kids in the picture didn't know how the story was going to end.
I'll let Jake relate part of this story in his own words, but I want to mention something he was too modest to include. He was one of the brightest, if not the brightest, rising star in the Air Force at the time, downing two German fighter airplanes in one mission, less than two months after arriving in England, and a third shortly thereafter.
It takes five kills to qualify as an "ace," and by the time the war ended Jake was officially credited with 4.5 aerial kills. The last one counted as half only because of a technicality. He is also credited with six enemy aircraft destroyed on the ground, and he earned a career total of 18 Air Medals.
Here is his account.
"Our Squadron was the 434th. The other squadrons in the 479th [Fighter Group] were the 435 and the 436 squadrons. We were all in the same field at Wattisham, England (P377), about five miles west of Ipswich in the middle of the east coast of England.
"Our mission was protecting the bombers—mainly the B-24s. Sometimes we had to escort the B-17s and because they flew almost higher than we could, it was sometimes difficult. The B-17s flew
The southwest-area schedule (California, Arizona, etc.) is too lengthy to include here, but it is available. Contact Barry Leavengood at (818) 998-4564 or bill0@aol.com.
Flying Rumors
Now I can give you more definitive information on the aircraft-identification stickers I mentioned in the January 2002 column. They make it easier for judges to distinguish between aircraft that are similar in color scheme (can you say A-1 or Ready Fly?) or traveling at high speeds, and they can easily be removed after the contest by dissolving the stick-on “goo” with lighter fluid.
A company called Uline sells these stickers as blank, self-adhesive rubbers. You can visit the Uline web site at www.uline.com or call Uline at (800) 295-5463. The 4x6-inch or 5x7-inch sizes work best for our purposes. It takes two or three for each aircraft, for a total cost of 12-18 cents per entry.
The only downside is that you must order two 500-ml rolls at a time, for a total of roughly $60. If one local hero can unite up his club distribution to several clubs, this promotion and enhancing contest competition at the same time. Remember that the glass is always half full!
The part numbers for the most popular colors are S-2768G (fluorescent green) and S-2768P (pink). Thanks to Mike Hesel and Jim Allen for doing the investigative work on this.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
