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Our gracious host Greg Arnette is
getting a few pointers from the Colonel. |
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| BVM's WWII Hero, Dean Bartness, Battle of the Bulge "Bronze Star" recipient,
enjoys a few war stories with the Colonel. |
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Airline pilot and model jet
enthusiast, Boli Muentes, shows off his 2 favorite jets,
a BVM PNP F-16 and an Ultra Bandit. Boli flew them both
many times during the celebration. His Ultra Bandit
garnered the "Best Sport Plane" trophy. |
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| BV's "Fly Navy" Ultra
Bandit got some exercise during the event. |
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Tim Len's BVM PNP Cougar did as
well. Tim installed an Auro Gyro with assistance from
David Ribbe of Flex Innovations. |
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| Brad Hughes flew his
latest PNP F-16 several times during "Colonel Day". Brad
likes to add external stores and there are more coming
for this Desert Storm F-16A Block 10. "The Boys from
Syracuse" would be proud. |
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Brad's Cougar
is also ready at the start-up area. This custom scheme
is admired by many Cougar enthusiast. |
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| There were (2) Red BVM PNP YAK-130's at
the event. Dave Ribbe's and Fredrich Murch's. This one is Fredrich's. |
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Richie Holt won a
"Best Military Jet" award with his 15 year old BVM
Phantom. Rob Lynch also got some stick time on it. We
think that this model logged the most flights and
belched out more smoke than most others. Maybe somebody
out there has a good airborne photo? |
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| Richard Curry traveled from
Evans, Georgia to enjoy the good times with his BobCat.
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BV's Cougar is at
"Parade Rest" between flights. Greg's fences help
protect people and planes. |
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| Rob Lynch demonstrated the
awesome performance and durability of Ritchie Holt's
seasoned BVM Rafale. Power is a single JetCat P-180 with
guidance by a Spektrum 18X and a Cortex Gyro. |
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This BVM F-100 has been around since it won the Expert
Class at Top Gun 2003. It always shows well with Joe Rafalowski on the sticks.
Power is by a JetCat Titan engine and it is guided by a Spektrum 18X. |
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| E Bandit enthusiast, Mike
Pasco from the Georgia Jets group applied this custom
paint scheme and centerline drop tank to his EVF 3 12S
9er powered model. |
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Engineering student and
technical guy at BVM, Robert Rich, helped us out on Friday
and also took the EVF 10S Electra up for a few hot rod
hops. |
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| Phylis Len and
Jana Curry were very helpful with the many
administrative chores required to run the event. |
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Col. Bob was part of the
Lockheed F-80 Shooting Star U.S.A.F. acceptance program.
There was a 500 hours of simulated combat
flying assignment in the California desert. Chuck Yeager
was one of the pilots when Col. Bob was leading the
program. |
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| BV
demonstrated this EVF 12S powered model for Bob on this
very special day in November 2015. This model has been a
multiple contender at Top Gun "Master's Class". It has
won 3rd place three times including the 2015 event. |
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The Colonel gives the
"Best Military Jet" award to Ritchie Holt for his many
"smoking" flights on a BVM Blue Angel Phantom. The model was
originally built and painted by Bill Harris in 2000 -
still going strong! |
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| Randy Clark
accepts the "Best of Show" award from the Colonel. Randy
flew a huge twin engine YAK-130. The "Flight of Betty
Joe" poster in the background tells the story of the
Colonel's record long distance flight in a P-82, circa
1947. |
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Dr. Ken Wagner is an avid
jet flyer from Yorba Linda, California. His two favorite
jets are the BVM PNP F-16 and an eBandit. Dr. Ken
escorts Colonel Bob to and from this annual celebration
event. Dr. Ken also owns a real P-51 and got some
recurrent training in Kissimmee, Florida during this
trip. |
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Col. Bob Thacker standing in front of "Betty Joe" in
1947. |
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Our sincere thanks to Greg
Arnette for planning and hosting "Colonel Day" 2015. |
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