1964 had the making's of a good year with a new factory ETA 15 to start the season,it was a good 200/250 rpm up on last year's engine and this year I would enter 1/2 A, FAI and Class B. The first rally was Tern Hill this gave us second place in class B then on to the Western Area with a second place in class B.

After a brilliant start to the season I thought that we could look forward to an interesting season. I had no idea this would be our last British Nationals race meeting as a team.

The engines were returned to the factory for servicing and we had two weeks shakedown for 1/2A,Class B,& FAI but despite phone calls and visiting his home Alan had disappeared. We met two weeks later for the Nats and he gave no reason for this odd behaviour which resulted in a very strained couple of days. Nevertheless we placed a creditable third place in Class B.

I think that we missed the chance of a finals in 1/2 A because of a lack of practice. I felt in the light of previous problems with Alan (Ken had banned him from the factory for making derogatory remark's about the ETA 15) it was time to go our separate ways.

Working on the assumption that there's as good a fish in the sea as ever came out all I thought I had to do was ask at my club (West Essex), but Hall/Yeldham and my team had parted company plus the class B guys had kicked the bottom out of B racing with their wonder fuels and the club seemed to be on the decline. The first guy to offer succeeded in breaking six out of seven props - all on his finger when starting - not a very good sign so he went out the window. At that time I was working in Watford and would meet John Franklin (Assistant Editor Aero Modeller) for a coffee and he offered to pit for me at the forthcoming 1000 lap postal race at Hayes. I took him up on his offer and we placed second. John suggested I join his Wanstead club where John had designed the club team racer so I moved to the Wantstead club and built four club models.

John designed an internal exhaust system that would spin the gasses through the silencer but it proved impossible to make so I vented the exhaust through trunking along
the sides of the fuselage. After the 1000 lap race I returned the engines to Ken Bedford and we sat in his office talking about the last race when Ken said that he would like to have a
go at pitting for one race. He did so at the Hayes Rally and we placed second. Ken showed very good pitman skills and I felt we would make a good team and Ken agreed
and the partnership lasted for nine years.