JW: Most of the airplane addicts that I know had some kind of formative experiences, moments in their early life where they became fascinated with things that fly. For me, it was paper airplanes, which I used to make by the hundreds, and the fact that my uncle was a flight instructor at the local airport. For some reason, I also loved the smell of airports. What were your earliest experiences of things that fly?

DM: My formative experiences came from my Dad. He took me up the local slope (where we still fly today) just about as soon as I could walk; almost all my early flying experience happened on that slope. He taught me how to fold a "Schwalbe" (= swallow) paper airplane from a sheet of paper when I could barely walk; I still today can fold that thing in my sleep. When I was about 3, he taught me how to build small balsa gliders, and by age 5, I was tossing a 28" built-up glider he helped me build. Simultaneously, he taught me to fly his RC gliders with a simple home-built radio, and he happily rebuilt them whenever I piled them in.

Here is Dad helping us kids with a kite. I'm the dude with the hat and the lederhosen.

Age 5, tossing a "der kleine Uhu" glider.

Some of the early 60s RC gliders I learned how to fly on.

JW: Can you describe any memorable days or moments from your first few RC flights? How did it feel to be out there with your Dad?

DM: Reed, I don't have any early RC memories other than I crashed all my Dad's planes eventually; we had no buddy boxes back then.

There are 3 flying experiences etched in my memory. One was 1960 in northern Italy, when Dad had built a bunch of "Schwalbe" paper airplanes, and we launched them off a slope overlooking Lake Garda. One of them caught a thermal and circled out of sight.

The second was 1968 when we got our first proportional Multiplex radio, which also allowed for the first time to give more than one control input simultaneously. I was 12 then, and I remember how big and heavy that thing felt, but more so what an improvement it was over the old radios. Here's a photo of me, again with lederhosen, using that contraption.

The hills are alive...

The third experience also was in the late '60s on the Wasserkuppe, when Gerhard Waibel (the W in ASW) pulled his brand new ASW-15 and -17 from the hangar, and we helped him rig the planes. I'll never forget when he jumped into the 17 to be winched up. Shortly after he released (had to wait for the winch line to drop) he turned and did a high speed pass mere feet off the deck only to pull up again to what seemed as high as he was when he started. To this day I can still feel how my jaw dropped when I saw that. I've met Herr Waibel again in 2006 in southern Germany, where he is now retired.

I was lucky to still meet many sailplane pioneers at the Wasserkuppe, such as Peter Riedel and Rudolf Kaiser (the K in ASK) who, in the 70s, gave me a ride in his ASK-16 side-by-side motor glider; unfortunately, I could not reconnect with him before his death.

In those days, we were regulars at the Alexander Schleicher factory (the AS in ASK/W/H/G) to watch the gliders being built. We always picked up for free leftovers of resin and hardener and glass cloth. I used that material in 1973 to scratch-build my first glider with a molded fuselage, for which I carved the plug and made the mold.

JW: How long did you stay in your lovely homeland?

DM: Just had an anniversary: I emigrated to the US on September 10th, 1980. Regarding RC, I missed the entire 80s decade, because I had no money. Started up again in 1992, but that's an entirely different story....

JW: Up to the point you left, were you involved with RC or flying?

DM: You've seen some of planes I flew in the 60's. My Dad scratch-built all of them, because we could not afford the nice kits offered by Graupner, Hegi, and others. So, throughout the '60s I flew only my Dad's planes. Most had built-up wings with wooden fuselages, some had balsa-sheeted foam wings, and some fuselages also were made from a styrofoam core sheeted with balsa and plywood. All were controlled by rudder and elevator only, we did not yet dare use ailerons.

In 1970 at age 14, I designed, drew the plans, and scratch-built my first 2-meter glider with build-up wing and sheeted D-box and a wooden fuselage. I built it as a cross-tail with stab and elevator and a full-flying rudder, which was a first at least in our area. This plane had a relatively small amount of simple dihedral, and with the big rudder and an aft CG, I could get it to enter a near-flat spin, which took 2 or three complete turns to exit again; but it would exit, most of the time. Few photos exist of this plane. Here you see it on the right sitting in front of the group in 1971; the other plane is a Hegi Bergfalke (by pioneer Wolfgang Sörgel who died just recently); I'm fifth from the right in the photo.

Our group in 1971. Cool 15-year old males wore shades, long hair, and tight bell-bottom pants.

In 1971, I got my first radio; it was a small orange Multiplex. Radios were relatively expensive back then, and I owned one transmitter, one 4-channel receiver, 4 servos, and a receiver battery. I configured my planes such that I could transfer the radio gear between them in the field. Just for this purpose, one could buy quick releases for servos. The photo below shows some; they're the white plastic doohickies.

Quick-release servo mounts were essential for me, because I could not afford separate servos for every plane.

There were no computer radios then, which meant not only did we not have any mixing capabilities, we also lacked basics such as servo reversing and servo travel adjustment. Everything had to be done mechanically with linkage geometry. I was forced to learn these basic skills, and I benefit from them still today.

In the early '70s, we started building planes with ailerons, which were actuated by a single servo in the fuselage. Because back then I already hated slop, the biggest problem for me was minimizing it in the long linkages, bell cranks, etc. From plans, I built "das Brettchen," a 56" flying plank with a built-up wing and a balsa fuselage. Because we lacked electronic mixing, I mounted the aileron servo on a sliding tray which was moved fore and aft by the elevator servo.

Das Brettchen was my first flying plank. Plans and even a fiberglass fuselage are still available today.

Two more of my 70's planes deserve mention: one was my own-design scale-like glider, the other my first real 3-axis sloper.

In 1973 at age 17, I designed a scale-looking glider, which I named the DM-416, because it had 416 cm (164 inches) wing span. It also had an aspect ratio of 24, which bordered on insane in those days. We were so worried about tip stalling, I designed in a whole bunch of aerodynamic washout. I carved the plug and made a mold for the fuselage. The wing was built up and fully sheeted in balsa and fiberglass.

The darn thing actually flew quite well. Because my Dad never throws away anything no matter how decrepit, I put a radio back in it this summer (while visiting Germany) and flew it again just for the heck of it. This crate is now 34 (!) years old, and all control surfaces exhibit double-centering, including the rudder, which is permanently and mechanically coupled to the ailerons. Below are a few photos..

DM-416 in 1973. Dad is on the right, our friend Kurt is on the left.

The same plane with Dad in roughly the same spot in 2007.

My cousin Reinhard launching the old girl during our recent trip to Germany.

I designed the other plane, called Sancho, around 1975. It had about a 90" wing span with a fiberglass fuselage and obechi-sheeted wings. Different about it was that for the first time, I used a separate rudder servo. Until then, because no electronic coupling was available, we all hooked up the rudder linkage to the aileron servo in the fuselage; aileron-rudder mixing was thus permanent, and the ratio was fixed.

Scary '70s radio installation. The red servo actuates both ailerons and rudder; the servos next to it are for elevator and spoiler. Slop City!

As I got better, I noticed the limitations of this permanent mixing, and taught myself how to use a separate rudder stick, a skill from which I greatly benefit still today. I lost Sancho to radio failure around 1979. The sound and sight of it straining itself through the vineyard in front of our slope was spectacular; all these little pieces flying everywhere... didn't see anything like it again until DS came around. Below is one of the few existing photos of this plane.

Sancho y yo. This was my first performance sloper. Photo is about 1978 vintage. Radio is Multiplex pre-computer era.

In 1980, I emigrated to the States and stopped all model airplane flying. I never thought I'd start again until I met Jim Thurmond in 1992...

JW: This is what I most hope for in an interview - detail, personal experience, history, and great photos!

DM: Glad you like it; it's fun sometimes to dig up the old stuff. All of these photos, by the way, were taken at the same hill. If you look closely in the 2007 photo of the DM-416, off on the left is the same windsock hanging limp that's standing proud in the photo of das Brettchen. As I said, Dad never throws away nuthin'.

Not that I want to turn the tables on you, but when did you start/stop/restart RC? Your JART has become a movement, bringing out very worthwhile qualities in people. I'm almost sorry I haven't built one yet; I must admit that I've got the ARF disease big time now...

JW: I was out of RC for many years and it was only when I needed something to pull me out of the doldrums that I noticed a little glint of sun on some small object along the cliffs near San Francisco. When I drove up there and hiked to the spot I found a small group of crazies flying slope. That was it, I was hooked again. Was it anything like that for you?

DM: When I moved from Germany to Oregon in 1980, I was married, and I thought I would never get back into slope'n again. Instead, I took up whitewater kayaking and mountain biking, got a degree in wildlife ecology and a divorce, and in no time a decade had passed. In 1992, I started my own business, and that's when it got interesting...

I was batching it, and I needed some help with something in my apartment; can't remember what. One of my kayaking buddies, Jim Thurmond, lived only 3 blocks away, and I knew he was handy and had lots of tools. When I got there, he said "let me show you something in the basement." The something was a 100" full-house thermal duration glider called a Pulsar; Jim had finished it only recently.

I was neither impressed nor enthused. I knew that to build and fly decent gliders, one needed a good shop and some disposable income; I had neither. So I just shrugged and said "yeah, I used to build and fly RC gliders when I lived in Germany," and left it at that.

But Jim invited me to go flying the following weekend, and I went. We set up a high-start at a field, and Jim bungied up the Pulsar, flew it around, and landed; I could tell he was learning. He then bungied it up again and gave me the transmitter, a funky thing called an Airtronics Infinity 600. This Pulsar actually flew quite well, and it responded precisely to control inputs compared to what I was used to from gliders in the '70s. I even did some mild aerobatics and then landed close to us. That's when I noticed Jim's face: his eyes were as big as a baby deer's, and his mouth was open. "You weren't shittin' me, you know how to do this... " he said. Now it was my turn to be surprised: "you mean you thought I was BS'n and you still let me fly your brand-new plane?!"

Only then did I notice the wing servos, and a huge AHA! went off in my head. Gone were all those awful, slop-ridden, meter-long pushrods and bell cranks. Jim showed me servo reversing, end-point adjustment, and aileron differential. Wow! I could tell I was getting hooked again. But... must... resist! No money... no shop... walk away... walk away!! "You're welcome to use my shop anytime," Jim said. -- Oh sheeeeeeee-it don't fall for it, my brain went... ohwhythehellnot! And so I got sucked back in.

Over the next several years, Jim and I spent many hours in his shop, and I learned a lot from him. Without him and access to his shop (which I still use today), I would not have started RC slope'n again..

Jim Thurmond has an excellent foam-cutting and vacuum-bagging set-up, and we built many planes together.

Jim and I sharing a couple pounds of High Life. Couldn't afford micro brews in those days...

JW: What kind of stuff have you and Jim built in his shop? Anything you're especially proud of?

DM: Jim really enjoyed carving fuselage plugs, and he was very good at it and prolific. From almost all the plugs he carved he made excellent molds, which today sit idle in his basement. Many of these molds have had only one fuselage popped from them. We built several purpose models, such as the Anodyne I and II (for thermal flying), Bingo (a 60" sloper), Dingbat (more on that shortly), Switchmaster (meant for slope aerobatics), and numerous HLGs. But Jim's main love was scale aerobatic gliders, and he built 6th-scale models of the Celstar, Mü-28, and Swift S-1. He also built a quarter-scale Fox and Genesis. Almost all planes had molded fuselages and vacuum-bagged foam-core composite wings. Here's a photo:

Swift, Genesis, and Fox; Carbon Dragon and Celstar in the background; Mü-28 tail on visible on the left.

The one airplane which stands out for me is the Dingbat, a 60" slope racer. We thought Jim's Bingo was fun, but I wanted to do something a little more radical. We reduced wing area in favor of aspect ratio, and I plotted the airfoil, an HQ 0.8/8 with 0.8% camber and 8% thickness.

We thought that was ridiculous and it will never fly well. Because of this, we built the plane in a quick and dirty kind of way. Jim used cheap mylars and applied just a tad too much vacuum during the bagging process. As a result, the wing had barely noticeable dimples all over it. But that thing was a screamer! We took it to Wil Byers' World Soaring Jamboree in 1993 (?), where at Eagle Butte I had my most memorable flight with it in measured and verified 68 knots (about 78 mph) sustained wind; ballasted to the gills, of course.

We built 3 Dingbats. One's still hanging in the rafters in Jim's basement.

The memory of that flight still makes me grin today. Frank Pilz from Canada launched it for me. He worked his way over the lip down to where the slope gets steep, and he had to kneel down to launch. He speared the plane downward parallel to the ground as hard as he could. The Dingbat shot out and climbed briskly with the nose down like a helicopter. There was so much energy, it was non-stop BS (= ballistic slope'n).

To set up for landing, I flew way out over the valley away from the slope to the edge of visibility where there still was nothing but up. I put the plane in a fierce down-wind dive and crossed the slope edge about 10 feet off the deck; must have been doing 200 mph, what with that 80-mph tail wind. I did a high-G, knife-edge turn into final, and everything fit: the plane touched down perfectly with about 10 mph ground speed (air speed still must have been 60). A few puffs of dust and there it sat.

The Dyed-In-The-Wool Slope Head (Homo slopeiens) in prime habitat at Eagle Butte in Washington State.

The original Dingbat died in a PCM-style graceful crash. We built two more, but number 2 was a total dog in comparison, probably because we built it perfectly without wing dimples. Number 3, a T-tail version, is up in the rafters; maybe I'll dust it off some day for nostalgia's sake.

JW: I like the look of that Dingbat. The planform reminds me of one of my favorite planes, The CR Blazer. And those scale aerobats are near and dear to my heart. Shame to think of those lovely molds just sitting around (hint, nudge).

DM: The Dingbat was contemporary to the Renegade; the Blazer came later.
Hint, nudge is right. The best way to pick some up is to come visit; Marcela and I will be happy to put you up. I'll talk with Jim if you want to do that. There is no rush, they's ain't goin' nowheres.

JW: Those pictures remind me to ask you about your early experiences at Eagle and Chandler and all those great spots up there. When did you first become aware of that area?

DM: Jim and I first read about Eagle Butte in RCSD, and we first saw it when we attended the World Soaring Jamboree. That was a wonderful event, and the weather was fabulous: one day we would have HLG weather with very strong thermals, and the next day there'd be a gale right on the slope.

Camping was allowed then at Eagle Butte, and Jim and I did so in a lousy little tent. One morning, wind noise woke me up at day break; it was blowing about 30 mph. As I listened, I could hear an occasional swishing sound, which seemed not just wind noise.

When I looked out, I saw this lone guy in full winter gear (it was c-c-cold) flying this ridiculous looking plane with a long pointy nose that went like a bat out of hell. I quickly shoved all the ballast into the Dingbat, grabbed my transmitter, walked up to the guy and yelled against the wind: "What's your frequency?!" He yelled back with a huge grin: "Ain't that great?!!" Obviously, he couldn't understand me, so I turned on my transmitter and watched his plane. When nothing happened I launched.

I think that was still before sunrise. The guy was Keith Thomson from Canada, and the ridiculous plane was the first Rodent I ever saw.

There are many more stories from this event, such as when Richard Eppler (Eppler airfoils) couldn't get my HLG out of a thermal, and it kept getting smaller; or when people crashed on that windy day, and clouds of debris drifted overhead, while the bigger pieces came bounding up the slope like missiles; or flying with the boys from CR Aircraft and VS Sailplanes. But that's too much BS for this one interview...

One more thing though, if I may: This guy George showed up with a van full of these little molded pitcherons called a GP Ultra. I was very impressed how he flew that plane and how he would just roll -- no, twirl -- the thing during final to slow it down for landing. I wanted to buy one so bad, but I didn't have the $300 he asked for. Years later I did, but George and the GP Ultra had disappeared.

JW: Who else did you meet out at Eagle? And who was running that first WS Jamboree?

DM: The first and, as it turned out, only WSJ was Wil Byers' idea. He promoted it very well, and he solicited a lot of help. As a result, the WSJ ran like clockwork and was an iconic event, at least for me. But having just started again, I didn't know the who's who of slope'n in the US, and I've always been miserable remembering names, so, sorry, I just don't recall a lot.

Besides making friends with the Canadian bunch, I remember meeting the CR guys Jerry Bridgeman, Paul Naton, Steve Neu, and of course Charlie Richardson. As I said, I didn't know any of these guys from Adam, and I didn't meet Paul again until he moved to Oregon 5 years later. Charlie even flew my Dingbat briefly during the WSJ, and once we thermaled HLGs together, he his Climmax, and I my Aria; I was jazzed.

I didn't take any photos back then, so I have nothing to show for it. There was an article in the AMA magazine at the time which even had photo of the Dingbat and I in it, I believe. Besides the CR guys and GP Ultra George, I don't recall meeting any Californians, but some of the usual suspects must've been there. I met a lot more of them two years later at Los Banos.

History has shown that Charlie Richardson (CR Aircraft) and Ken Stuhr (VS Sailplanes) were visionaries in their days, way ahead of their time, and their gliders are still revered and desired. For example, I'm currently restoring a CR Carbon Renegade, and I'm on the inside loop for a VS Xica; both are Obtainamite at best, if not Unobtainium.

JW: So, at this point in the timeline, you've re-entered the world of RC soaring and have begun to build and fly quite a bit. I'd like to back up just a bit and ask how you decided to move to Oregon?

DM: That's easy: In 1980, and while still in Germany serving military duty, I married an Oregon woman, who also lived in Germany at the time. Once my service was over, we moved to Oregon. That's the gist of it. I got a divorce in 1990, and met Marcela in 1994; that was by far the biggest stroke of luck in my life.

JW: How has Marcela supported your RC habit? You two seem to travel together quite a bit.

DM: Hah! To answer that would take too long to detail... Marcela's supporting me everywhere all the time. She's inquisitive, interested, and happy; she is knowledgeable and has surprised quite a few experts, self-proclaimed and real; at events she runs frequency control; she does the ShredAir website; etc., etc., etc...

Flying at Cape Blanco, posing at Los Banos, and picking up wreckage in 60-mph wind at Cape Blanco.

She isn't just "my better half," she's my better 80%! Here is just one of many examples of how lucky I am: I never have to sneak in a new model, because "the wife" or "SWMBO" can't know about it.

JW: As you were getting back into RC, there must have been some stepping stones which led you to form your own RC company. Can you describe the journey?

DM: I can identify three major stepping stones: First, performance gliders sucking me back into the hobby; second, an unfortunate incident which shut down a promising new RC business; and third, arrogance, incompetence, and indifference of a major importer at the time.

Let's start with performance gliders "sucking."
Remember that when I got started again in '92, I actually had been in the hobby for about 20 years already. So I knew I wouldn't dabble in mediocrity, I wanted quality and performance. The planes Jim built were just the ticket. With these, Jim and I visited Los Banos a few times and met some of the Californian slope heads. Over time, I acquired and assembled gliders by John Higgins, Charlie Richardson, Michael McKeown, Brian Laird, Steve Hug, Harris Nelson, Joe Cormier, and Tom Feldvebel.

Indicative of the wonderful time I had starting up again is this photo with my first Higgins Rodent, which I named "Smart Bomb."

To this day, I think the world's best pure-bred ballistic slopers come from California. So now I must publicly apologize for not having built a JART yet. : ) By the time I heard about it, my interest was already shifting toward molded planes. This shift happened in part because I rarely could fly these California lead sleds at my local inland slopes, and to do so, I had to drive 3.5 hours to Cape Blanco or Hood River.

So, let's continue with the second step, the unfortunate incident.
In the late '90s, I started buying more and more stuff from a promising new business called Unbeaten Path Imports. UPI was run by a friendly young fellow by the name of Andy Fok, and this was also the dawn of the Internet as far as RC business was concerned. Andy had an eye for the good stuff, and I regularly was surfing his site with my 14.4k modem. Andy offered molded planes and accessories from the Czech and Slovak republics, Germany, and other European countries. I bought many Volz servos from him, for example.

And then Andy, barely in his 30s, just up and died... just like that, gone. I had met him only over the phone, but his death hit me hard. I know that starting ShredAir would have never occurred to me if Andy had lived; there would have been no need. But as was, a supply line I cherished was cut off, and other importers appeared to be not interested in his line of products.

Which gets me to the third step.
At the time, I was active on RCSE, and there was this well-known supplier publicly spouting stuff which went something like "forget this Euro trash (referring to European moldies), there are no assembly manuals and you have to wait months for a simple spare part." I do admit, that pissed me off. I knew that while it took some extra effort to deal with importing, write English manuals for the planes, and stock essential spare parts, these excellent products were worth it. So, I decided it was time for someone to import the really good stuff. And this is how ShredAir came about in 1999.

As a foot note, this above-mentioned supplier is still big today, while ShredAir doesn't sell product anymore. But we did accomplish our objective, and I believe we showed the way and set the standard for existing businesses and later start-ups... or am I delusional? : )

Which finally gets me to ShredAir's objective, which was simple: Provide the best possible quality and performance gliders and make them accessible to everyone by offering the appropriate service and support, write clear manual, and stock essential spare parts.

JW: So, once you'd gotten ShredAir up and running, it seems to have developed steadily to the point where you were one of the top proponents of high-end electrics. ShredAir was always great with the Stratos and other gliders, but the electrics really became an interest of yours. Is that because of the alpine and inland sites you were flying?

DM: No, that kinda happened on its own and I just hung on for the ride. We attended the F5B world championships in San Diego in 2000, met some key people, such as the Plettenbergs and Freudenthalers, and then electrics really took off for us. I became some sort of expert in the eyes of many, even though I taught myself as I went along. I guess because I was using the high-powered stuff, I had to learn more quickly. Electrics really weren't so much an interest as they were a business opportunity. Today, I'm flying a lot more slope again and less electrics..

JW: Ah, I see. I remember you talking about electrics in one of Paul Naton's videos as well. What was it like to do the video stuff?

DM: Oh, that was fun, laid-back, and low-key. I liked flying for the camera better than lying for it... just kidding!

When flying, I fondly remember Naton's favorite order: "do that again a bit lower and closer." There were a few times when I would have hit him if he hadn't ducked at the last split second. Flying for the Performance Tuning video was one of my favorites, demonstrating ballooning and tucking and adverse yaw and such.

JW: Do you and Paul fly together quite a bit?

DM: We used to. Not anymore; he's moved to Pennsylvania.

JW: I didn't realize that. Seems like you guys must have had quite a few adventures over the years. Any interesting stories?

DM: I do remember one "adventure" with Paul:
It was June 2000 at Kiona Butte in SE Washington. Dave Reese, Paul Naton, and we went there to see if we can find a decent DS groove...

JW: Oh, yes, that is good story. Did all three of you believe that something exciting would happen as you headed out that day?

DM: Speaking for myself, I did not. From my perspective, we were just exploring around, and we happened to hit Kiona on a perfect day. We've learned since that the hill is very fickle in terms of wind direction and which lump on that long ridge you choose to fly from, given the particular wind direction. The best DS at Kiona is down that huge north-facing slope. But the south slope of Kiona is very shallow and provides very little lift, one needs an efficient plane to reach DS entry altitude; most foamies just don't stand a chance there. Because of this, I think, Kiona remains largely undiscovered as far as DS is concerned.

I was very impressed hearing and seeing a plane going this fast. When Paul once opened up the circle to zoom up and out of the groove, the plane shot safely overhead, but I became aware of how dangerous this can be for unprotected radar operators. That experience was incentive enough for us to organize the first and only DS Fest at Cape Blanco in April of 2002.

JW: I have a video of that first DS Fest, made by my friend Marty (currently MIA). Great vid, have you seen it? That video inspired me to come up the next year for the more "unofficial" DS Fest.

DM: So that's when we met... I knew it was at Cape Blanco at some point. If you want to, we can discuss the DS Fest and how we decided to not have another one.

JW: Well, yeah, what are your memories of that legendary DS Fest?

DM: Since the late 1990s, we were having regular "Blancoween" gatherings at Cape Blanco over Halloween. A few of the California guys came to these: Bob Bingham, Scott Hewett, Cliff Lindgren, Dave Reese, Tom Seitz, Craig Toutolmin, and others. Probably during the 2001 meet, we decided to hold a DS competition at Cape Blanco. Marcela put some web pages together, and Cliff Lindgren, I believe, organized raffle prizes and had T-shirts made.

The DS Fest concept also attracted an anonymous cash donor, which is why we had cash prices at the event. I remember being worried about having money involved, but everything went off without any disputes. With the core group's support, we disallowed foamies in the competition, for which we caught some flak, but "frankly, my dear," (fill in the blank)...

In short, a great group of pilots gathered for the DS Fest, including Espen Torp from Norway, and we set a new record (186 mph) and learned a lot... including that it was insanely unsafe to do this in an organized fashion at a public state park complete with hikers, tourists, and rangers.

There were several eye openers in that regard, and two stood our for me and were instrumental in spawning safety discussions.

The first one was when Joe Wurts' Icon failed at 171mph at the bottom turn. The entire nose broke off, and, trailing carbon pushrods for stability, traversed the entire slope in what appeared to be a completely flat trajectory. In the blink of an eye, it had crossed a hiking trail and completely buried itself in a berm.

The second one was Scott Hewett's Ellipse shedding the V-tail at 183 mph at the top turn, and the out-of-control plane smashed into the top of the slope a hundred yards away a split second later; right where we thought would be a safe place for a photographer. And had that tail failed a micro-second sooner, the plane might have been on course for the light house, which at that speed was maybe 3 seconds away; plenty of time to pull flaps and avert disaster... : )

Amazingly, the 186-mph record held for an entire year until Gavin Baskin got 187 at Parker. A month after that, Craig Toutolmin broke 200 mph with his big home-brew, and the rest is history as listed here.

JW: That was an amazing event. But you decided not to have another one due to safety concerns?

DM: Yup. After testing the equipment and discussing the issues, we decided a public state park complete with hikers and tourists was not the place to have 5+ lb missiles cruising around at 150+ mph.

JW: Back to ShredAir: A couple of years ago, you shifted most of ShredAir's product to SoaringUSA. What was the deciding factor in allowing SoaringUSA to take over most of your line? As I remember, your initial impressions of them were not so great?

DM: Well yeah, I was being an asshole: In the fall of '04, things were going badly with ShredAir; it was still a lot of work, but it didn't make any money anymore; money was tight everywhere... So what did I do? I publicly lashed out against a popular little moldie Bob (of SoaringUSA) was selling. I was totally out of line, and I offered a complete apology a day later.

But that utterly idiotic episode on my part showed me more than anything else that it was time for a change. I met Bob for the first time face-to-face during the Mid-Winter Electrics in San Diego; two months later we had an agreement, and SoaringUSA bought all our remaining stock and took over all of ShredAir's glider lines.

I am very happy with this arrangement. SoaringUSA is in a much better position to offer these high-end products than ShredAir ever was; and they're doing a better job. And remember, one of my main objectives when forming ShredAir was to make such excellent products available to everyone.

JW: Let's get to your thoughts on foam and how that sticker came to be. I have one on my TX box because I thought it was funny and because I well remember the foam vs. glass wars.

DM: My thoughts on foam...?

"The only good foam I ever saw was atop a decent beer or sandwiched between wood or composites" – General Sherman (paraphrased)

Oh, you mean foam PLANES...! : )

First, let me state two facts:
1. Regarding foamies, I have been working hard and persistently on my reputation, which I cherish and nourish any chance I get (such as this one).
2. I have annoyed others flying foam before the discovery of the use of EPP for model airplanes.

One or two years before EPP, I owned several Birdworks Rubber Ducks and Geeks. Together with some well-known pilots (whose identity I will protect here), I made a nuisance of myself at several occasions, such as at a Los Banos scale meet. But the foamie phase went through my system faster than ice cream laced with salmonella: by the time the first EPP planes hit the market, I had concluded that life was too short for such mediocrity.

So, what's so bad about foamies?
Three things: pilot attitude, pilot skill, and short life span.

Attitude: What hurt the combat foamies the most was the attitude and demeanor of their pilots, certainly in the early days. Those days are over now for the most part, and there is no need to list examples here; but they are significant to me, because they laid the foundation for my stance regarding foamies. I don't know if the foamie scourge has led to the closure of slopes, but I do know that electric powered whiner-wings have caused bans of all electric-powered planes at a few glider flying sites in Europe and ordinances against all RC flying in several cities in the US.

Skill: Briefly, foam-only pilots end up stuck on a plateau even though they may not know it and some certainly won't ever admit it. They tend to be less adept at finding and using lift and certainly at landing their craft. They also tend to be less concerned about the airworthiness of their planes.

Also, foamies tend to turn some crunchie pilots (who ought to know better) into sissies. "Oooh this LZ looks a little rough... better fly foam..." or "It's a bit turbulent today, get out the foam..." or " Oh look, there's a foamie; I think I'll join him..." For these guys, I came up with this sticker:

Boy, did that ruffle some feathers and fray some strapping tape... That's what's so entertaining about some foamie pilots who take themselves way too seriously: they're so unlike their planes, which are resilient and tough... : )

Life Span: In the hands of a good pilot, foamies fly great for about one season. Then they get wrinkled and dented and bent out of shape, and then they become dogs. In contrast, after 5 years as my main sloper, I have finally overhauled my DS-Tempest, and, if I don't crash it, it'll fly just as well as it did on it's first day for another 2 years, maybe more. While it's interesting to see the lengths foamie builders go through to make their foamies tougher and stiffer, I still don't know one that could possibly have performed as many flights as my Tempest has.

So, what's so good about foamies?
Three things: bringing new pilots to the hobby, allowing flying at tough sites, having inspired the Tri-Slope Six-Pack (3S6P).

New pilots: Absolutely positively, foamies allow beginners to learn how to fly much more quickly. I can only imagine what it would have been like for my Dad and me, if we had had foamies... Today, I still encourage new pilots to learn as much as they can from their first foamies before they move on. But of course, I also firmly encourage them to move on when they're ready. For them, I came up with this infamous sticker, which also frayed a bit of tape... : ).

Tough sites: No doubt, there are sites where a foamie will survive a season, while a crunchie would do its nickname justice at the first missed hand catch.

3S6P: Ask me about that one... : )

JW: Say what? I had no idea that there was a direct connection between EPP and the Tri-Slope 6-Pack. What am I missing?

DM: You missed the 2002 Soar Utah event: Here we are driving two days to some of the best slopes anywhere, for an event which happens only every other year, and what's floppin' about in the lift band? You guessed it... Many pilots didn't want to risk their planes to the foam flurries and curbed their flying; others flew, and some planes were lost in mid-airs. Mid-airs happen, but at an event such as this, one would think that participants and organizers would strive to minimize the risk.

Some, myself included, talked to the event organizers which felt powerless and said something to the effect "What can you do? You cannot just ban foam." To which I simply replied: "Watch me."

Concurrently, I wanted to revive performance slope'n at Eagle Butte in the Tri-Cities area of Washington State. Eagle is one of the best inland slope sites around, yet the only organized event happening there in those days was, you guessed it again, combat. To me that was akin to using the Sistine Chapel only for paintball fights, or the Nürburg Ring only for demolition derbies.

I couldn't get anywhere in 2003, but by 2004, JayDecker had moved to the Tri-Cities, and he was in full support of the idea. For a name, I thought of Tri-Slope (Chandler, Eagle, Kiona), while Jay's wife Sharon came up with Six-Pack "because you both like beer" she said. And so the first Tri-Slope Six-Pack happened in 2004.

We banned all foam, and boy, did we have some flak flung our way. I enjoyed every bit of it. The great thing was that most of the mud slinging happened in public, while privately, we received compliments and encouragement.

So now you know how foamies were instrumental in getting the 6-Pack off the ground. The 5th annual Tri-Slope Six-Pack is scheduled for May 16-18, 2008. I hope to see you there!

JW: I do plan to be at the 2008 Six-Pack. Any great stories to inspire me to make the 16 hour drive?

DM:The pilots make the 6-Pack. Aside from the Pacific Northwest, we attract great folks from all over the US and Canada. Brian Courtice from Hawaii, for example, has attended all four 6-Packs. This year, Andreas Mergner came from New York, the Thompson brothers (from MA and CA) cruised in on their RV, Frank Slaughter from Wyoming, Hutch from California, and a fellow from Colorado who's name escapes me at the moment. And then there is the ever growing contingent from Canada. These guys are really fun, bring great planes, and know how to shred air with the best.

I was very impressed with Jack Cooper of Leading Edge Gliders in Kansas attending in 2005. He came with Greg Smith of slopeflyer.com, who traveled all the way from Wisconsin. So here is a guy who is selling foamies for a living, driving all the way from Kansas to attend a "no-foam" event. Jack brought a 100" conventional foamie plane which flew very well, and I named it the Crossover in hopes that maybe it will help some foam-only pilots to move on eventually.

At this year's 6-Pack, we maidened and dialed in quite a few slopers ranging from Higgins Rodents to a beautiful Minimoa. That's the spirit of the event: there is a lot of knowledge being shared which helps everyone from novice to expert.
But I'm rambling... enough of that.

JW:The rambling's the best part! So how do you expect the 6-Pack to evolve in the next few years?

DM: Well, how about you join us and find out? : )
This year, we had 44 registered pilots, and it'll be bigger in 2008. That's because there is no PSS Fest, and I expect more folks from California to join us; they'll probably bring along some of their followers. Then there definitely is a chance that some European pilots will attend. I know the SRTL gang is thinking about it, and the dropping-like-a-rock US Dollar makes this an ever more attractive vacation for them money-wise.

This increasing popularity does present a bit of a challenge, but Jay and I welcome it, and we will figure out a way to assure that the 6-Pack remains a quality slope event. We'll start working on that and post a thread about it on RCGroups soon.

JW: Mind indulging a few more questions? Specifically about toy planes: you've been flying for a long time – you've built, bought, and flown more planes than most people ever will. So what are some key factors in a successful RC sailplane? Maybe I should be more specific: what determines a great plane from a build perspective? Flight characteristics? Slope? Thermal? Multi-task? Electric? Be as specific as you like and feel free to name the planes you've really thought highly of over the years.!

DM: Holy crap, Reed, that's quite a load; I better get cracking at that right now...

You're giving me more credit than I deserve, and my answers certainly are limited to my experience with the planes I have flown.

I'm going to skirt the build perspective, because I don't think I am a good builder; I always think everyone else's builds are better than mine. You should have asked Laird, Masura, and Maas this question (maybe you did, I have to go back and read their interviews), because these guys know how to build.

On to flight characteristics.
In my book, a good plane – and I'm only talking about gliders – is easy to tune and set-up properly, and it responds readily, predictably, and consistently to control inputs. For beginners, it it helps if the plane is forgiving and still performs well, event when tuned somewhat conservatively. I may be the only one this side of the international date line who thinks that polyhedral planes (such as the Gentle Lady and the Amigo) make poor beginner planes. Because they're pushed around by even minor turbulence, they often do not repond "readily, predictably, and consistently to control inputs." Flying these planes is like skiing in oversized boots: there is control, but boy is it hit and miss.

To me, a good beginner plane has dihedral, ailerons, a rudder mixed properly with the ailerons, nice long moment arms, a cross-tail, and it flies reasonably slow. Sounds like I'm describing a hand-launch glider, doesn't it? But many of the Arthobby planes and the Multiplex Easy Glider and Cularis also are good examples of what I consider a good beginner plane. And there are others, I'm sure. Let me qualify these statements by saying that I assume the beginner has help from an experienced pilot.

But I'm rambling again... you ask about slope, thermal, multi-task, and electric. Well, I think they all must have these basic characteristics. Slope planes should carry weight well; thermal planes should respond efficiently to airfoil camber changes; multi-task should do all of the above; and electric, well, they should retain the characteristics of the glider they're based on.

My favorite gliders? They're all slope planes:
In the old old days, the HS91 Clue by Graupner stood out in my opinion. It was a 2-channel glider with two sets of wings, one for thermal, one for slope. Also my own Sancho flew so well, all my design and build mistakes must've cancelled out; too bad I have absolutely no records (or any left-over shreds) of this one-off plane; it'd be nice to resurrect that one for nostalgia's sake.

In the early '90s, Charlie Richardson's Contender and Ken Stuhr's Xica really grabbed me. Later in the '90s came such gems as the Harris Nelson Shrike, the Joe Cormier Mach-1, the Feldvebel Kestrel, and the Laird PSSers. And don't forget the Higgins "bombs," as I lovingly called them. Oh yeah, our own Dingbat was fun too, albeit short-lived.

Since ShredAir, I've grown to love bigger moldies. Maybe that's because I'm past 50 now, and anything less than 100" seems small... : ) A "counter-sticker" by Stembridge seems to validate that: .

High-quality moldies in particular excellently exhibit the flight characteristics listed above. There are many really good ones available now, and you won't go wrong with any high-quality moldie you buy, so long as you buy one which is appropriate for what you intend to use it for. How's that for a PC answer? : )

JW: I am wondering what's in your crystal ball. Do you have any thoughts on where the sport is heading? Technology? Design? And what's up with DS these days (maybe that's a separate question)?

DM: Oh my, you're asking ME, the same person who predicted 9 years ago that once people see and experience the quality and performance of high-end moldies, they won't want anything else??! Obviously my crystal ball has a rather rosy tinge to it... : )

I venture to say that spread spectrum technology will be a boon to slope flying, unless some licensing issues surface, as they already have in Germany, for example. This technology greatly reduces accidental shoot-downs and greatly simplifies frequency control, particularly at events. And decent radio systems using this technology are available already.

I can see ever stiffer, lighter, and stronger materials becoming available and that these will improve performance by allowing us to build higher aspect-ratio wings, for example. But performance increases will happen in ever smaller increments until we can come up with a surface which interacts with air like shark skin interacts with water.

Wireless communication between receiver and servos would be great, but boy, I just stepped way outside my field of expertise (which is about the size of a coaster).

I wouldn't be surprised if some manufacturers of molded planes weren't gearing up to teach chinese workers the small but essential details of quality construction, in order to have models produced in China; legally, that is... Would this reduce the number of inferior rip-offs? Would lower prices for performance planes convince more foam heads to trade struggling with spackle and goop and carbon sticks for flying planes which are tough, smooth, stiff, straight, and true right out of the box? Would such legally-produced chinese products drive cottage-built planes (Exxtreme, Icon, Caliber, SRTL, Supersonic, etc) to extinction? Frankly, the answer probably is No for all of the above... : )

What's up with DS? Not sure what you mean. Personally, I'm a DS baby as far as experience is concerned. The only real DS slope in my area is Cape Blanco, and it is a 4-hour drive away. Also, the Cape cannot produce the sharp DS conditions of Parker Mountain, for example. Instead, the Cape is really rough and tends to beat up planes. Thus, I'll gladly bet a case of Arrogant Bastard Ale that I've never gone beyond 150mph DSing; any takers?

It's wonderful that home-brews (which, to me, include Brian McLean's planes) are the (b)leading edge in this sport. I'm surprised it's taking so long to come up with a ground-speed measuring device which can reliably measure speed above 300 mph; that seems to be the greatest limitation today. What's the hang-up? I thought it would be easy to modify a radar gun to read from 100-400, but again, I'm off my coaster...

JW: In these interviews, I always try to get at least a few words about the JART. Any thoughts about our little toy?

DM: I became aware of the JART early on, I believe. I did like (and still like) the relatively high-aspect ratio wing and the combination of PNF with a decent tail moment. But I followed the JART movement superficially only, and for the longest time I thought the plane was available from you as a kit, glass fuselage and foam cores, and I thought "some day" I'll get one. Only fairly recently did I realize that if one wants a JART, one has to build one from scratch.

I like this plane, and the reasons that I never got one are ShredAir, local slope conditions, and other unfinished projects. When you introduced the JART, I was flying bigger planes, particularly the moldies we imported. Also, my main slope rarely supports lead-sled-type planes and works much better with these bigger planes with which I can range out quite a ways. Finally, I still have an untouched Rodent R3 kit laying around with beautifully and acurately cut cores sporting a Don Ayers 6.5% airfoil. For years now, I've fooled myself into thinking I will build it "some day," but as the song goes, sometimes "some day never comes."

I think the JART has had a very positive effect on the slope scene. Your plane has created a community, whose members understand the value of scratch-building and performance slope'n. Rest assured that your JART has made its mark in slope history.

JW: The picture above says far more than words about who you are and what you love. Thank you so much for doing this interview, Dieter. It's been a pleasure getting to know more about you, Marcela, and ShredAir.