I thought I would repost this here as our soaring community in not just local to SVSS Sacramento Ca. For those of you who have attended our Spring Fling you might remember Ralph as the white haired tireless sole who ran the transmitter impound.
Ralph Gustafson passed away on Christmas Evening at the age of 60. Ralph was an all around nice guy and gentle sprint who is going to be missed by many including myself.. I'm still in shock and can't believe the friend who was always so so supportive and had such a positive influence in my life is gone. He was taken too too early dammit..... I'd like to tell you a short story about Ralph that many of you probably don't know.... Some years ago my German friend Jochen came to visit and brought a small EPP speed 400 racer with him that would fit into a suitcase... Jocken asked me what I thought...Should he sell this plane or not? I said it was EPP, it was Speed 400, it was crap.... So the next day we meet Ralph at the field and Ralph goes crazy over this plane... I had to admit it did fly nice... But Ralph was so supportive Jocken gave him the plane before he left... Jocken emailed me after his return to Germany and told me to look at this link.... It was a link to the EPP plane... And what was its name? The Mini Ralf !!!! When I asked Jocken about the name he laughed like not many Germans do and said he had to name it after my friend Ralph because he was such a great guy!!!! Jocken went on to sell several thousand of the Mini Ralf until it was discontinued just this year.... Very few of us will ever have a plane named after us.... Ralph was just that kind of special guy. I'm sure their is probably a Mini-Ralf flying some were right now in honor of Ralph Gustafson :-))) http://www.shop-rc.causemann.de/product_info.php?info=p18635_Mini-Ralf-EPP-NEU----.html Craig
