In the summer of '58 I met two young guys interested in team racing. I was looking for a new mechanic so I decided that we should go to a speed meeting at R A F Debenham and spend the day practising pit stops so as to get an idea of their knowledge of racing. It was soon obvious Alan Cooper would make the better mechanic.

On two occasions we recorded a 100 mph I mentioned this to Dick Edmonds (winner of Criterium of Europe 1958) and he said "Impossible fly it again!" By now it was getting dark but two stop watches at the ready, Alan cranked the engine up. I couldn't see the model so I relied on the tension on the lines for take off then I flew just above the horizon for level flight with the dusk punctuated with occasional flame from the exhaust. A dead stick landing was quite easy; I just watched the sparks from the tail skid as the model touched down! The model was timed at 98 to 100mph.