I do not have many pics from my earliest days. This is one of my oldest. North Georgia Regional Meet (NRGM) in 1971, near Atlanta. My first NAR contest. I am standing 3rd from right, just left of the guy with the headwear. The "kid" second from left, looking down, well, he owns Estes. John Langford.
NGRM the next year, 1972. Front row, 3rd from left. John Langford. Me, 2nd from right. Won an Interceptor, my favorite Estes kit that's not a glider or 1/45 Little Joe.
Polaroid of most of my contest models for NGRM in 1973, I think. Among them, Dual Egglofter (Staged D12's), Payloader, Flex-wing Gliders, Slide-pod Rocket Gliders, 1/4A Swing-wing rocket glider, flex-wing glider, parachute or streamer models, and a converted Plastic Model Lunar Module. By that time, I was more into shooting super-8 movies than doing photos.
Jon Robbins' Groundhog series of Swing-Wings had an effect. I built a series of Swing-wings of 6 foot span or more that I called Great Dane. This is the first one, 1972, only one to use a pop-pod. I'm at right, a friend at left.
Here's an image of another Great Dane, one with a "K" type tail.
One of my best was Great Dane 15, built by 1976 and flown in F Rocekt Glide. I built a clone of it in 1992, here it is shortly before launch on a D12 test flight (flew best on an F10). It had a pop-=stab DT, like the 1976 model had.
And.....same model in 2007 or so. I added some small radio gear to make it steerable by rudder, no elevator. It flew and handled VERY well. Ended up crashing a couple of years later when the wings did not deploy. I really miss that one.
More, later.