スーパー・ガイ Roger Theobald

わかる人いますか？

隠れた（ウィスニュウスキー・TWA)のパートナー

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Roger Showed up one day at a Valley Circle Burners meeting. The meetings were held in any open place you could find at the Johnson Engines Company on Saticoy. He was from the East, had red hair and drove a big Thunderbird. Just another guy who wanted to join the "Circle Jerks".

Within 10 years Roger had teamed with Will Wisniewski to develop the TWA engine that blew away EVERYONE at the 1966 World Champs with a 1-2 finish and changed F2A forever, then turned around and developed the ARM diesel engine with John Barr and flew to fourth in F2C at the 1972 World Champs. Then Roger joined Phil Kraft in Vista, California and designed and developed the Kraft 61, still made and marketed by RJL here in the US

To my knowledge Roger is the first person ever to represent the U.S. in two different control line categories in the world champs. Bill Hughes reminds me of two other examples:  Carl Dodge(F2A) flew F2C with Henry Nelson  and Tom Fluker jr.(F2D) flew F2C with BillLee

Here, however, is a study of Roger of his unique and breathtaking style of entering the pylon. Monoline is no longer allowed in F2C, but any AMA speed flier had to appreciate this, it seems to me.

The monoline handle he made can be seen clearly in the photo above as he begins to tow the TWA up to resonance.

In the photo to the right the pipe comes "on" and Roger gets the aircraft high as he stops rotating. Only two or three seconds have past since the engine hit peak revs. Then, below, the almost unthinkable happens. He stops rotating all together and the aircraft flies behind his back. The eyes aim, instead at the pylon forks.

Somehow nothing goes wrong. His hand goes down as the aircraft comes around in to view, then, hand in the forks in one move after the aircraft reappears, he starts to pivot again.