On a recent trip to Maine we ran into Charlie Vincent at the Vintage Motorcycle Meet put on by the Owls Head Transportation Museum. Charlie lives just south of Camden, Maine and has a farm where he raise cattle and goats as well as crops.
http://owlshead.org/events/detail/vintage-motorcycle-meet
Charlie is one of the guys I remember reading about in the cycle magazines I had positioned inside my notebook during class in high school. He seemed like a bigger than life motorcycle racer and when I finally was able to meet him at an ISDT Qualifier it was quite an honor to do so.
I was able to spend about a half hour with Charlie and he asked me to tell everyone "hello".... Charlie had a pickup and a pretty good sized open trailer filled with vintage machines, mostly Ossa and Triumph.
I mentioned to Charlie that I had a race program from 1964 for a National Championship T. T. Scrambles that was held in Butler, PA, just north of where I live. Charlie not only remembered the event and the track, he pointed to a Triumph on the trailer with a #1 on it and said he won that event and the National title with that machine.
As I look at the program some of the names sure bring back memories, such as Dick Bettencourt, Joe Bolger, Glenn Vincent, Bob Hicks, Bren Moran, Rod Pink, George Singler, and of course Charlie Vincent as well as many, many more.
Charlie Vincent sure is a class act and it was a great pleasure to spend some time with him.
Paul
The very cool part to that story is that he still has that bike...
Charlie is a great rider. He is also a devoted family man. I tried to get him to come to the Dalton ISDTRR last fall but he insisted he needed to stay home to care for his wife, Gayle, who was battling cancer. After watching him ride the OSSA Pioneers and SDRs back in the day, I wanted one so bad!
Jeff DeBell
Charlie rode the red/maroon Desert phantom for two years in the ISDT, Qualifiers and New England Enduros. Because of him I had to eventually own the same machine
(https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7526/16246990645_fb35a8a0d7_d.jpg)
George AFB, Victorville, CA (Main Gate)
(https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8608/16061136687_f38a9eddcc_z_d.jpg)
F4-E Phantom at George AFB Open House weekend.
(https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7517/16059446938_8fab26767c_z_d.jpg)
My Chrome Tank 152cc. at George AFB (1971).
(https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8682/16060850139_1af3dcee7f_d.jpg)
Lucurne Valley Desert Race. 125cc Steel Tank
Sorry, Charlie ... I love 'ya and the Ossa crew, but my recollection of the "Desert Phantom" is a vehicle that would go Mach 2+ and even approached 100,000 ft!*
I put in many a mile spinning donuts around the flight line on the MJ-1 bomb loader during my 4 years in the Air Force.
* From Wikipedia, Re: Jet Fighter Altitude Record IN 1959!: Operation Top Flight: On 6 December 1959, the second XF4H-1 performed a zoom climb to a world record 98,557 ft (30,040 m).[4][34] Commander Lawrence E. Flint, Jr., USN accelerated his aircraft to Mach 2.5 at 47,000 ft (14,330 m) and climbed to 90,000 ft (27,430 m) at a 45° angle. He then shut down the engines and glided to the peak altitude. As the aircraft fell through 70,000 ft (21,300 m), Flint restarted the engines and resumed normal flight.[35]
Tom, I worked on F-4's for 10 years, jet engine mechanic USMC/USAF, loved them a lot! "Workhorse of War" is what I called them as they could take a hit from ground fire and keep on trucking!
You were a "Load Toad" I see! Driving MJ-1"s. Flightline was a fun and exciting place to work! Go AMMO:D
OK you sharped eyed experts, does the top end on Tom's Steel Tanker look like a Sachs top end, or a KTM job?
Tom, can you shed any light on that engine being a 152 ?
Thanks,
Paul
Tom, Kip and all others who have served our country through their military service and read this post - Thank You!
My uncle lived in Florrisant Missouri, near the McDonell Douglas aircraft plant about when the "phantom" pictures were taken, and I believe that I heard him say that this "phantom" had another nickname -"the St. Louis Slugger"
Mike Schulz
I have always lived within spittin' distance of Lamber Field in St. Louis and the McDonnell (now Boeing) factory. The local ANG unit called F-4s Kerosene Konverters, konvert kerosene into lots of noise, smoke and speed! I think the special version that was built to set the high speed, low altitude record was called the Sage Burner, real high mach number a few feet off the desert floor. I used to know a fellow who was a F-4E Wild Weasel pilot in Southeast Asia, and when the first Gulf War broke out in 1990, got called back up to his reserve unit and flew the same bird he flew in Vietnam! I lost a LOT of sleep over the F-4 as they seemed to test engines any time of the day or night seven days a week. I think I heard or saw fly almost everyone they ever made including the factory fresh units built for the Thunderbirds and the Blue Angels when they came to town to take delivery of the airplanes. Even after they built a hush house for the practice I could still hear them, but in all honesty loved it and still love to see them fly whenever one makes an appearance at Oshkosh. Definately a great airplane! And nothing cooler than great airplanes along side great motorcycles!
Thanks Tom!
Dan McEntee
Florissant, MO
I logged many a hour and dropped lots of bombs from the F-4. It was a neat airplane but the F-16 performance and automation put a smile on your face that was hard to wipe off.
Kevin