Florida Jets Report
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Florida Jets
Another Success Story
by Bob Violett

Three perfect days of serious jet flying certainly had to satisfy, and even wear out, the most enthusiastic of us. A whopping cold front and a much needed day of rain in Florida cancelled Sunday's show. This is hard luck for the business people concerned, especially the promoters/organizers of such events who count on the spectator attendance to defray the multitude of costs involved.
The Flagler county airport is a perfect facility for a large model event and Frank Tiano's flight line crew did a superb job of providing us the maximum opportunity to fly while keeping it safe.
AMA safety council member Don Lowe was in attendance and had very positive things to say about the overall quality of the models, expertise of flying exhibited by the pilots and the concern for safety. Don thought these to be the best he has observed at any large fly-in event.
I believe that it is the camaraderie and willingness to help each other that contributes to the outstanding record of safe operations at recent jet events.
We were very happy to see the myriad of BVM Jets on the field, dozens of Bandits, 14 Phantoms, 4 Rafales, several Sabre's, MiG's, etc.
The first prototype BobCat, shown only in primer, caught the eye of many modelers considering a turbine jet as their next venture. This "all new" jet, combined with the RAM 500 engine and a set of instructions that are aimed at the jet novice will expand the ranks of successful turbine flyers.
There was so much activity at Florida Jets that is was difficult to find the time to capture all we should have on film. The photographer was also very busy flying the F-100, F-4, Rafale, F-86, MiG-15 and balsa Bandit.
There were several BVM reps in attendance. We hope you had a chance to meet them and observe the quality of their models and flying skills. Reps that were present included Paul Bagman, Jerry Caudle, Ad Clark, Tony Frackowiak, Bill Harris, Chris Huhn, Dave Malchione, Tim Redelman, and David Ribbe.
We hope that you find the photos are entertaining and informative.

The F-4 Phantom's popularity has surged since the introduction of the BVM single turbine conversion package. 13 of the 14 shown here are powered with either RAM 1000 or AMT AT-280 engines. The sole D/F twin version (orange) won the best twin D/F award - flown by Dave Malchione Jr. All of the Phantom's were airborne multiple times at Florida Jets. There were occasions when 3 of the 6 airplanes in the air were F-4s. Varying external stores configurations does help a pilot identify his. Two clean wing Rhinos, in close proximity, in certain light conditions can be challenging - there was one very close call with disaster. All survived to fly again. Look for a few more at Superman week '01.

Paul McCaulley from Shelbytownship, Michigan is the proud owner of Blue Angel #2. It is a gorgeous piece equipped with 4 missiles, wing tanks and the scale extending nose strut. The model was built by Jerry Caudle and painted/detailed by Bill Harris. Paul is one of the greatest enthusiasts that our sport has ever seen, a behind-the-scenes guy that likes to make things happen. Thank you Paul.

Look for #3 (Paul Bagman) and #4 (Bill Harris) to join #1 and #2 at Superman '01. You might see two in the air simultaneously. A foursome would require years of practice and probably some spares.

David Gladwin brought his F-4 from England to its 2nd Florida Jets showing. This Pegasus powered Phantom is now very nicely detailed and performs superbly. The practice of flying these super scale jets in "bare bones" to get the model and the pilot in sync, then spending the time to detail it, allows one to eventually enjoy their pride-in-craftsmanship to the fullest. The F-4 can carry a load of external stores, a lot of fuel and even a few pounds of smoke oil, all it needs is plenty of reliable thrust.

Built by Sam Leonard for Pete Malchione, this RAM 1000 powered Black Bunny made its debut at Florida Jets. Several very smooth flights were logged by Dave Jr. The black and dark blue Phantom's are more visible than one might think - they contrast most sky conditions.

Craig Gottschang's (Atlanta, Ga) shark mouth Rhino carries AIM 7 missiles on the inboard pylons and 300 gal tanks on the outboard for a very affective "loaded for bear" look. This Pegasus (AMT AT-280) powered jet was airborne and very smoothly operated all weekend.

The on-the-deck, 8-point roll specialist, Rob Lynch was on hand with his brilliant RAM 1000 powered Thunderbird F-4. Great model. Great pilot. Great BVM rep.

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