Evening star., 1953-06-15
Arlington Man
Wins Honors at
Model Air Show
Tiny Planes Buffeted
By High Winds as
Weather Cuts Crowd

Inc snow Is sponsored by. The
Star. the Exchange Clubs Of
Washington, the District Depart
ment Of the Veterans of Foreign
Wars and the National Airport
Club in cooperation with the
Chevrolet dealers of Washington.
Early arrivals at the field were
greeted by a cool So degrees and
northeasterly gusts. But modelerS
from ID States ignored the over
cast and went on with the show.
The bravest if not most success
full group was for free-flight,
gas engine entrants.
Tossed Into Trees BY Wind.
Scores of the fragile craft
snarled aloft, were caught in the
wind and disappeared into trees
edging the south border of the
runway. Retrievers were busy
climbing trees and wading
through hip-high grass in their
search for models.
Edwin Zentgraf, %, OF Balti-
more, suffered one of the many
crashes blamed on the winds.
His ship rose 80 feet straight up,
hit a fast current of air and
slammed earthward at full
power. The ship disintegrated
from the impact.
Very unusual" he unused,
adding "I've flown that ship for
fivei years and this is the first
time ! can recall ever seeing any,
thing as odd as that"
About the only models not
affected by the wind were the
control-line jet and gas engine
speed entries. They had Suffici-
ent engine power to fight the
wind and had the advantage Of
being hand-controlled.
Trophy for Arlington Man.
When the coveted trophies
and other prizes were awarded
late in the evening, John F..
AlbertSon, 81, of 20O7 North Taft
street, Arlington, Va, emerged
the high point winner for the
Metropolitan Area.
Sharing honors with him were
James H. Ripken, "a, of Balti-
more, who was the senior high
point winner, and c. Hill Hutch
ins, jr., of Spartanburg, s. c.,
the Junior high-point winner.
Mr.. Albertson accepted The
Evening Star Trophy from
Howard P. Bailey, assistant to
the managing editor.
He has been flying models for
four years and is a research as
sistant for the Air Force at the
Pentagon.
A native of Denver, Mr..
Albertson came to the area in
1947 and studied two years at
George Washington and Mary
land Universities. He and his
wife, Ljubica, have three chill
dren, Mileva, S; Mihailo, 3, and
Alexandra, 2.
Retires VFW Trophy
Mr.. Ripken retired the Vet
Grams of Foreign Wars trophy
as a third-time winner of the
event. He is due to join the Air
Force as a second lieutenant
next week and recently gradu-
ated from the University of
Maryland.
Young Hutchins, who won the
National Airport Club trophy,
also won first place in the junior
stunt, second place in Class c
speed and third place in Class B
speed. He used four planes to
win his trophy.
He has over 70 trophies at
home and is a veteran of East
Coast air shows.
The youth and his father
drove all night from Spartan
burg to enter the meet after re-
membering only Saturday after
noon that the show was yester-
day.
Radio Interference Felt.
In addition to high winds,
radio interference plagued en-
trants in the radio-control event.
Because of the large class, radio
control flying began at $50 am.
Soon afterward the expensive
craft started into tight, right
spins and then dived to the run
way.
The trouble was traced to in
reference on one of the three
wave-lengths used to operate
the ships. Finding the cause
a teletype circuit-took hours.
An event grounded by high
wind was the Navy carrier land
ing. Only one competitor was
successful in landing his ship on
the wooden, semi-circular deck,
commissioned U. S. S. Small
Fry.
Pass after pass at the deck
was made by pilots frustrated
by quartering winds that tossed
ships about like leaves.
The event which caused the
most craning was the Combat
Flying division. Spectators lined
three deep watched as two planes
whirled above them, each trying
to catch the other and slash a
ribbon attached to its tail. The
"warships" were controlled by
their pilots from the center of