Written by AMA staff (12/2011); Formatted by JS (01/2012)
Carl Redlin
Carl Redlin was born January 28, 1931, in Detroit, Michigan. He became interested in model airplanes during his grade school years building stick-and tissue, rubber-powered models, and Hand-Launch gliders. After seeing one of his models circling out of sight in a thermal, he was hooked.
Carl became a Junior member of the Detroit Balsa Bugs. During the cold Detroit winters, the emphasis on flying turned to indoors. That’s when Carl won his first contest, which was sponsored by the Department of Parks and Recreation. From that moment on, model airplanes took front and center stage. During his junior and senior years of high school, Carl went on to win numerous events in Indoor, Outdoor Rubber, and even CL Speed, holding one record briefly in Class A Speed and one of the first seniors to break 100 mph officially.
While attending high school at De LaSalle Collegiate, Carl had a part-time job as a salesman at Earl’s Bike Shop. A portion of the bike shop was set aside for hands-on instruction in model building. After working with these kids, it was rewarding to see some of them go on to take some of the highest places in the junior events at the Plymouth International [Model Plane Contests] and national model meets. Carl received his engineering degree from the University of Detroit in 1954. After working in Detroit for a few years, he joined the US Coast Guard as a reserve officer for a three-year tour of duty. In 1961, he was offered a job in Southern California working for McDonnell Douglas in the aerospace division.
In 1960 and 1961, Carl was a member of the US Indoor Team competing at Cardington, England. In 1960, the US won the team championship. In 1961, Carl won the bronze medal, posting a single flight high time of 45 minutes and 17 seconds, missing the German’s high time by 23 seconds. Carl’s high time stood for many years among the US fliers.
From 1966-1971, Carl campaigned his original design A1 Nordic glider, called High Drifter, on the West Coast, winning first place seven times, including the 1967 Nats.
In 1976, at the ripe old age of 45, Carl married his wife, Kay, who has always been supportive of his hobby.
After a hiatus from modeling, in 1992, Carl traveled through Vegas and stopped to observe a Society of Antique Modelers (SAM) championship with his brother-in-law Phil Klintworth. Leaving with renewed enthusiasm, Carl joined AMA and SAM and began building models again. After being grand champion in the Rubber FF events five times, Carl turned to AMA events; mainly Mulvihill and Moffett. At the 2004 Nats in Muncie, Indiana, Carl shared in winning the Mulvihill trophy with Bob Perkins and Bud Romak. Then, at the 2006 Nats, he was on the Moffett event winning team.
Inspired by Bob White, Carl then turned his interest to the Dawn Mulvihill event, which is held in conjunction with the California Free Flight Championships. To date, he has won the event five times with a high of 14 minutes, 58 seconds, achieved in 2007 with a lightweight version of his Mulvihill winner called Day Break. This model was published in Free Flight Quarterly and National Free Flight Digest. It was also nominated Model of the Year in 2008.
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