Indoor News and Views

The following is republished from the January 2017 Bong Eagles News Letter:

Bob Warmann

Bob Launching his Standard Class Catapult Glider in 2008 (Picture from Nats News)

Click to access 0529.pdf

Robert C. Warmann   (AMA No. 187) 1928-2016  An Indoor Free flight Competitor and a Gentleman

Bob was a contender in quite a few classes of Free Flight model aviation, although often somebody named Krempetz or Richmond kept him out of the top spot.

I knew Bob from the Eagles Racine contests and the Trinity Lutheran School evenings in Burr Ridge run by the Woodland Aeromodelers.  He had a lot of good advice to give.  He once gave me a sermon on why nobody should build 14 gram Bostonians to fly indoors, when the rules allowed planes built to 9 grams.

I went to Bob’s Memorial Service on December 6.  There were lots of pictures of planes and fish on display.  His son mentioned memories of father and son trips for flying to Bong Recreational Area when he was younger.

I explored the web in hopes of finding some pictures of Bob and his planes, and found a good sampling from the Indoor Nats News covering the Johnson City, TN, USIC contests of 2006 through 2010.

His best results in 2006 were in Standard Catapult Glider, where he took second place, losing to Kurt Krempetz.  He placed 3d with his Penny Plane in a large field with a 16 minute 22 second flight, less than a minute behind Jim Richmond.  He also had a 12 minute 36 second flight in Limited Penny Plane, and a 10 minute 19 second flight in Mini-Stick.  In Dime Scale he placed 3d with an Arado.  His best time was 1 minute 32 seconds.  He also competed in No-Cal, making a total of 6 events.  The results were covered in Indoor News and Views No. 119 and in Nats News for 6/01-6/04/2006.

https://indoornewsandviews.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/inav-119.pdf

http://www.modelaircraft.org/events/nats/NatsNews06/0604.pdf

On the last day of the 2007 Indoor Nats, Bob placed 3d in Penny Plane with a best flight of 15 minutes and 53 seconds, losing to Jim Richmond, and got a 3 minute 49 second flight with his A-6.  Earlier, he placed 4^th in Standard Catapult Glider with a best flight of 80 seconds.  Again, Kurt Krempetz was first.   The next day he got a 4 minute 32 second flight in Bostonian, but only logged the one flight.  On the third day Bob made a 9 minute 39 second flight with his Mini-Stick, and placed second in Dime Scale with his Arado, with a best time of 2 minutes.  He competed in 6 events, not bad for a 79 year old.

http://www.modelaircraft.org/events/nats/NatsNews07/0603.pdf

Bob continued competing in Penny Plane with a 16 minute 43 second flight for 4^th Place in 2008 at Johnson City.  He had a 4 minute score from 2 flights with his Bostonian that year.  His Bostonian was a very light lifting body type.  His Arado placed 5^th in Dime Scale.

In 2010, he had a 2nd place finish in Dime Scale with his Arado, along with a 15 minute flight in Penny Plane for third place, and also placed 4^th in Standard Class Catapult Glider.

I found some pictures of Bob and his planes from those contests in Nats News.  They show his fine craftsmanship, and his concentration on doing things well.

He will be missed.

Joe Bartek