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For more information,  contact Mike Shauger at 973-827-9326 or contact Anthony Curcuruto at 908-637-6768.

A little history of the Laser Invitational by Frank Fanelli

The Laser Invitational started in 1984. Paul Styger wanted to expand the Sussex Airshow to a fourth day, Thursday, and asked me about starting a model exhibition. We agreed that it should be a whole day, strictly models, and open to the public. I suggested a local modeler to run it, but he eventually turned it down. Paul was in a fix since he had already begun to advertise it so I took over the show.

From the beginning, Paul was very generous in his support. He paid for the sound system we used from the beginning, paid for the AMA Show Teams that came to each year for demos, paid the expenses of select modelers who were invited to bring their notable models, the prize money for the four categories that were always part of the show, and perhaps the best of all, the free ticket to the air show.

The club was also very generous in their support when I explained the idea to them, although they never wanted to be official sponsors until just a few years ago. Despite a number of preliminary meetings the first Laser was fairly disorganized since the club had never hosted an event like it.

Despite the glitches and the constant air traffic that wasn't supposed to be there the first show was a success. The glitches were smoothed out by the next year and everything began to run more smoothly. Without the dedication and the club enthusiasm of the club members I would have been left stranded.

One of the biggest problems early on were crashes. It was the time when radios were switching to the current 50-channel setup. The old eight frequencies were still in operation so there was a big mix. In most of the crashes, though the pilots wouldn't admit it, older unserviced gear that had gone through a number of crashes was the usual cause. As the newer narrow band equipment gradually took over, the number of crashes diminished inversely to the number of new radios.

Why was it called the Laser Invitational? First of all it was to tap into the lustre of Leo Loudenslager and his world renowned Laser 200 that was the first of what would become the 3D airplanes like the later Extras, CAPs, Yaks, Sukhois, etc. It was an Invitation because for about 4-5 years we "invited" select modelers (and paid them) to come with their planes. Mark Frankel is one person that comes to mind. He was campaigning his jets, a Gloster Meteor, and his A5J Vigilante, and brought them. Norm Casella, who designed the first quarter scale Laser 200, came and for a few years would follow Leo's act in the full-size airshow with an exact imitation of the sequence flown by Loudenslager.