Meeting a Legend

LAST EDITED ON May-25-03 AT 02:04 AM (CDT)
 
Several months ago I had the pleasure of speaking with Jim Silhavy on the phone
to discuss the kitting of his Original Magician design and then eventually meeting
Jim for a about an hour or so. Jim was on his way north for the holidays so we arranged
a meeting off the side of the highway, he didn't have much time so we couldn't really
get to know one another and so when we meet we got right down to business.

Now last night was a totally different story,
Once again he was traveling north but this time he detoured east
a few miles and came to the shop, as soon as he came in he wanted
to immediately go into the shop and see the kits and see my set up,
now after a wonderful time at the dinner table we headed back into
the shop and Jim did for me the honor of signing the New Original Magician kits,
these kits are of the actual model as Jim originally designed them.
Now if I may say that this was probably one of the most proudest
moments for me being in this hobby, even more than when I boxed
and sold my very first kit or even when I won the Nats.

Below are some photo's Of Jim Silhavy and himself signing the kits and then
to add more icing on the cake he wet signed my set of shop plans

I feel very happy to see your pride.

And I thought I was the only guy to write "God bless"!

God bless you too!!!

I am going to check your home page, its interesting that there has been some talk about the Magician here in Rio de Janeiro...

Hope there are some pics of this Magician there...

In Christ,

Speaking of Jim Silhavy, does anyone have photos of any of his Noblers? The paint designs were simple yet quite effective. It would be nice to see the colors.

>Speaking of Jim Silhavy, does anyone have photos of any of
>his Noblers? The paint designs were simple yet quite
>effective. It would be nice to see the colors.
>
>Eggy

Funny you should mention Noblers when you mention Jim Silhavy
he said he may stop back at the end of his summer vacation and
show me photo's of a bunch of Noblers and other models from years ago

The two tone blue Nobler he won the 1960 Nats with hung for years in John Davis' garage in Indiana along with other notable creations from Stunts' "Golden Years" By the likes of Jack Sheeks, Charly Lickliter, Bernie Ash, Vornholt etc. I was last there in 1992. Roger Wildman may know more. Gary T.

Glad to see some pictures of "Capt. Silhavy", he looks in good
health.

Spent many weekends driving to Cleveland from the Buffalo, NY area with Jim Kostecky, to see Silhavy. Jim S. would take us to "his" favorite local hobby shop. Where we could get what was left of some of the "best wood" we had ever seen at that time. Jim or the owner of the shop had an in with someone at Sig, they would ship several crates of "Contest" balsa to this small shop, we would try to time our visits to meet the latest shipment. There was no good wood in Buffalo, too much snow I guess. Silhavy would also take us to eat at his "favorite" Ukrainian restaurant, where we ate and talked stunt.
Those guys were a blast, miss both of them. Hope to run into Silhavy in the future.

Here are two pictures from my files; quite sure they are from the 1961 Nats at Willow Grove if not, they are from the 1962 Glenview Nats. They "are" the same plane; the color is so far off because the originals were of such poor quality. Could only correct the color so much in Photoshop. The profile one is closer to the correct color, which I recall being a rich powder blue. Will replace these is the future if I can get better scans off the originals. Do believe this is the plane that John Davis had, hopefully it still exists and is being cared for.

The last time I talked to Jim Silhavy which was probably 5 or 6 years ago, he said he still had several of the planes he flew late in his competition career. Must be time to call again and see how he is doing.

Have several other Noblers from the other Cleveland flyers, Cipra, and Havel. Will post those as soon as they are color corrected and sized. Those guys really set the "standard" for finish in that era. Their planes were as close to perfection as any I can remember. There were not any "clear coat" finishes available then, it was all sand, buff and wax. They were the guys to beat in that 1960 to 1964 period. Silhavy taking the Walker Cup twice and Cipra once. Toss in Werwage in 1959, that area was the center of gravity for a few years!

Greg

I notice that Silhavy even painted the prop to match. You don't see that sort of thing anymore these days.