I am writing this open letter to exspress and share my feelings on the competitve" Lucky plane".
In my flying career, I have had three. To this date one has survived. It is a twist wing Sagitta. The twist wing was developed in the mid 80's by my father, Lenny Hauff. He got into the hobby in 1939 at the age of 9. Although I don't get half the launch of the present day 2 meters, It just flyies great. It thermals on an ant fart, and takes about 8 minutes to find out there is no lift out there so you decide to make your landing.
My second killer, was a balsa covered falcon 880. Again for no apparent reason it was better than all the rest. I had three over those years and the other two were bricks. This was my first few years in competition, I shot to the top five in the esl. My mistake was that i thought they all flew like a killer, and that i was GREAT. Soon enough tradgedy struck, but being confident, just went out and bought the next latest and the greatest, after all the reason they were beating my is becouse they had the better plane.
I would love to say that soon i found this not to be true, but it ttook a few years. Six to be exact. By the way, the last esl contest that I won in this drought, was on my wedding day, yes I got married at a contest. So of course i blamed my wife!
Just when my confidence was waining, my funds were low, and could not afford moldy's, Phil barnes asked me to try a new drela wing for the Mantis. I could not afford a new fuse so I made it fit an old Sharon fuse. It made the plane a little heavier than the Mantis, but after all, i was just supposed to break the wing. It flew like a Killer. I couldn't wait to compete right off the building table.
This time i knew i had something special. I new not to try to fix it. It might sound stupid, but because nothing was wrong. With all the bells and whistles we have I would tend to do just that.
I damaged this glider in a tree, due to a very old vision radio failure. Oh well it was fun while it lasted!
What i don't know is, " is it the plane", " is it your confidence".
When i fly a "killer" and don't get my time, I just know that it was not there. That is a great feeling, even if lose.
I know the most important lesson that i have learned , not all of the same planes are Killers, and when i get one, I treat it like gold.
John Hauff, NYC
