SMALLnet post449C

Please send our condolences to the family of Randy Randolph. His loss will also be felt over here in the UK, by the Wormwood SMALLsters.

I'm greatly saddened to hear of Randy's passing. Altho I never met him personally, I felt as tho I'd known him for a long time and that he was a best friend. Just last weekend, I got out the plans for the B-Tween and was thinking how neat it would be with an AXI 220834. I made plans to have that as my next small airplane.

May Randy soar with the Angels in the great thermals of the Sky. God Bless Him. He will be greatly missed.

Randy's sudden passing is a great loss to the modeling world. I read his column for years, built and flew some of his designs; my first low-winger was one of his planes. I remember writing to him and thanking him for taking up the SMALLnet for a while when Joe was not up to it. I never met Randy; I live in Connecticut and recently retired from college teaching, but I am hopeful to get to a SMALL meet one day.

Please convey my sincere sympathy to his wife and family and assure them that Randy is on my prayer list.

Learning today of Randy Randolph's passing was a real blow to all of us -- especially after just losing Hal "Pappy" deBolt. I feel such a loss at this time that it is simply hard to express it in words.

I will miss talking to Randy on the phone. He was a great southern gentleman! I will so much miss his SMALL TALK column in FLYING MODELS. As I stated in the preface of our "1/8A" ENGINE MANUAL & HANDBOOK, Randy was the PRIME MOVER of our "1/8A" MICRO R/C project. He was the very first columnist to debut the hobby products we manufacture.

Randy was so courteous, considerate and kind to us and more than willingly supported our efforts to provide new hobby products for SMALLsters. He will be so dearly missed! This truly is one of the saddest days of our lives.

DAMN !! Another non-replaceable modeler is gone.... Hurst Bowers, and all the other guys....in a very short time.. Would it be OK to send a condolence to his email address ???

I had written Randy a letter concerning the Comet Gulfhawk, (mentioned in his FM column a few issues back), with a photo of my 1937-vintage kit. Had not sent this... Another damn !!

It is truly a sad day for modelers everywhere. My deepest condolences to his family.

So terribly sorry to hear about Randy. He and I have been good pen pals for a number of years. Ever since I wrote him to tell him how much I enjoyed his Weekender design back in 1986, we corresponded via snail mail til about a year ago, when I got a computer; then nearly every day after that.

I will truly miss him and grieve for him a lot. Thanks for letting us know. I had missed hearing from him since last week, but really thought nothing of it. Had no idea of the tragic reason. That is something we all have to do sometime though.

Very sorry for the loss of another friend I never met. Model builders must share a common desire that is expressed in their creative skills. To take a handful of sticks and change that into a flying machine I think is an Art.

We've all lost someone that spoke our language. My sincere condolences to his family and all.

...Randy & I go back a long time -- about 25 years. It began when he and I applied simultaneously for the job of "small model columnist" at Model Airplane News -- and we were both accepted.

Randy would write one "Small Steps" column (gosh, how I loathed that name -- I wanted it to be called "Small Packages") and I'd do the next one.

Of course, to avoid duplicating efforts, we had to keep in close touch. And while doing that, we came up with the SMALL concept. And so on and so forth.

Incidentally, Randy's the guy who dragooned me into buying a computer. He'd bought an Atari mail-order for $99, and found that it saved him so much time in preparation of his writings, he used that saved time to unmercifully nag me into buying a computer system too.

(The bargain Ataris were long gone by that time -- my Tandy system cost $2500. But Randy was right: it was well worth the investment !)

Randy also arm-twisted me into using e-mail.

I met Randy in person for the first time when my wife, youngest daughter, and I drove to Dallas for the original SMALL meet. I forget exactly when that was, and I'm too tired to get up & dig out the records. It was around 20 years ago, maybe 22... After that, we got together at nearly every annual Dallas and Little Rock SMALL meet.

For 25 years Randy & I collaborated as closely as is possible for two guys who lived many miles apart. We provided plenty of useful advice and recommendations to each other, and even some not so useful...

The only disagreement Randy and I ever had occurred a couple of decades back, when I was using 3-foot vertical whip antennas on all my R/C models, and Randy wasn't.

I feel a huge sense of loss at Randy's death. However, I know that he wouldn't want ANY of us SMALLsters to spend too much time in grieving. He'd want us to continue having as much FUN with our "modestly-powered" miniature airplanes as ever: building and flying and discussing our problems. He'll always be with us in spirit while we do that...

One thing I want to do in Randy's memory is to construct another of a "combined effort" R/C model design that he and I collaborated on years ago: the "Tranquilizer". We did that for a planned model publication that never quite made it into print... I'll try to have it flying at this year's Little Rock meet -- with "Spirit of Randy Randolph" markings. [JW]

SMALLnet Posting post449C