Top Gun 1999

The most prestigious and challenging scale event of the year took place for the 11th consecutive year at the West Palm Beach, FL polo club.

The challenges of the event range from the somewhat confined grass field flying site (it's not a big runway) to the prevailing crosswind to the extreme level of competition offered by the best scale builders and flyers from around the world. Just getting into the top ten at Top Gun is a very rewarding experience.

BVM is very proud that there were eleven of our kits entered in the three categories of Designer, Expert and Team Scale.

David Ribbe placed 4th in the designer event with his original MiG-15 proving that it is a very scale outline model with excellent flight characteristics.

Three other BVM MiG's did very well in the hands of Ian Richardson / Steve Elias team (4th place), the Tiano / Chambers team (11th place) and the Sam Snyder / Tom Dodgen team (15th). Sam's MiG set a new standard for jets in static scoring with details that were above and beyond. We hope to have photo's later.

P-80's were popular again with Terry Nitsch who won 1st place in expert scale for the unprecedented 4th time. The Caudle / Violett team were second by 1/1000th of a point with Jerry's 3 year old TV-1.

A similar TV-1 was flown to 9th in team scale by the Valdez / Shulman duo and Rene Alvarez scored 12th with his P-80.

Phantoms were campaigned by Jack Diaz and Kent Nogy in the expert division with Jack placing 8th with his AMT Pegasus powered F-4B.

Next year some new BVM airframes like the Rafale and larger Sabre jet should be in the line up.

Top Gun is the greatest modeling event of the year for both competitors and spectators. Mr. Tiano's efforts spurs advancement in the state-of-the-art.

4 of these 6 MiG's were competition models at Top Gun '99. The MiG-15 is such a great flying machine it's hard to beat one unless you are flying one yourself.

Only at Top Gun will you see thousands of people watching models fly. The polo field is generous enough in proportions but there is no room for poor engine performance.

3 MiG's were powered by the RAM 750, 1 by the AMT Mercury - all performed perfectly.

Tom Dodgen and Sam Snyder (both from Texas) teamed up for the first time to campaign Sam's trend setting MiG-15.

The extreme internal detailing of the cockpit, gear bays, gun bays, speed brakes, flaps, and access panels did add some weight but the RAM 750 engine and generous wing area and fat airfoil allowed this 24 pounder to handle the grass field quite well.

The Caudle/Violett TV-1 (that's a Navy version of the P-80) is lined up for a slow fly by. The trees and houses are not as close as the camera lens shows.

A picture perfect landing attitude - this is a power on approach as it should be, left wing is slightly down for crosswind correction. As the banner says - ZAP is our favorite adhesive system and thanks for sponsoring Top Gun.

David Shulman executes a take off with the Dave Valdez built TV-1 that is powered by a BVM .91/Viojett. Flap deflection (15°) allows us to determine take off from landing photo's. An unusual (for Top Gun) west crosswind is corrected with slight right wing down technique.

Rei Gonzales (right) is ready to pilot the RAM demo MiG-15 at a half time show. Albert Araujo and Tom Wood get the brightly painted MiG ready to start. The start sequence on a RAM 750 is super simple.

This line up shows some of the BVM jets that competed this year. The MiG in the back is taxing into position for takeoff by pilot Tom Dodgen.

Two beautiful models caught the camera's eye at Top Gun '99. Helena Christensen was gracious to pose with the new BVM Rafale in the air show colors.

This twin RAM powered big jet is now the flagship of the BVM demo team - you will see it perform at many jet events this year.

Terry Nitsch poses with his 1st place crystal trophy and the highest point award. Terry had the highest total scores in the contest. Congratulations Terry.