Nemesis & Kelly F1d pics

[Pdawg]

Hey guys,

As an avid R/C modeler and aviation fanatic I love this forum but wish I had more to contribute. Tonight though I happened to find 2 old school photos from around 1995. The photo of Jon Sharp, the Nemesis, and myself was taken at the El Toro airshow back in the day. Jon and Patricia were hanging out selling T-shirts. I was in high school at the time. While everyone else was watching the Harrier hover I was busy asking Jon a ton of questions. He was very patient with my never ending list of question.

As a result of the EL Toro airshow and speaking to Jon I decided to go to a formula 1 air held at Fox Field in Lancaster Ca. Guess who won the race? Besides that cool experience I was also able to see a bunch of cool F-1 racers including the interesting Kelly F1d "Barbara Jean". Enjoy......

Bret

[laminar]

Re: Nemesis & Kelly F1d pics

great stuff, keep it coming

[Flyguy55]

Re: Nemesis & Kelly F1d pics

I worked with Jon at Aerotec . He and Steve Hill helped build and I sold Zuni Sailplanes .At the time he had bought Bilbo , a Cassut. His first race was going to be in Mexicali . I had a 67 T210 and flew down with another RC Modeler , Buzz Averill , to support him.
An interesting bit of trivia . Jon is quite tall , and the Cassut is quite small . He could fly with a small helmet or shoes. Not both. He would fly cross country with shoes. He raced with a helmet as required and in stocking feet. Ground crew job was to carry him up into Bilbo. When he built Nenises he made sure there was plenty of length in the cockpit.
I left my plane on the CA side of the border not knowing what to expect ,and I think we took a taxi over. They had a Stock Plane class and I wished I'd have come earlier and entered. I think that year I flew in and served as ground crew the 4 or 5 races he entered.They were starving racers in those early years , living on white bread and peanut butter at the races .
In 78 I bought a brand new T210 , It only had about 30 hrs on it when it was time to go to the Mexicali race again. He called me when he got to the race site and said they were racing stock planes again.
I entered , passed rookie test , and did well , but thats another story.
I went to all of his early races and sometimes took his Dad along or other crew or friends.
Those were the days. Great memories. Its always good to see Jon , Patrica and Steve again at Reno. That group is always graious to their many friends

Dick Roberts
Abq NM