The year 1977 was a big year for me in model flying. I was 13-years-old and did my first R/C solo flight; I can still clearly remember it to this day. That same year, Hanno Prettner won his first of seven World F3A Championship titles. He was flying his own design Curare, which went on to become a true R/C classic. It also secured him three Las Vegas TOC titles in the '70s before the rules changed to require scale models. Another early memory of mine is one of our club members turning up with a Curare, built from plans, in the late '70s when everyone else was flying 40-size models like Gangsters and Crescent Bullets. The Curare seemed huge to me then and completely out of reach. It's strange to think that it was around the same size as a Sebart Angel 50 is now! Long time modellers will, I am sure, remember Hanno flying many times at the Sandown Park Model Show. I remember being inspired watching him in the early days, the first time I ever saw a one roll rolling circle! I also watched him win his final F3A World title in 1993, when I competed at my first World Championships.
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