Ivan Munninghoff

Ivan was born on February 9,1943 in Rhinelander, Wisconsin, the first child of Paul and Marian Munninghoff. A few weeks later his dad went into the U.S. Army and served overseas for the duration of World War Two, finally returning in late 1945.
From an early age, Ivan was enthralled with aircraft. He and his dad (an avid builder since his youth) would spend hours building model airplanes with Ivan then flying them. He began with free-flight models and progressed to both control line and radio controlled models while in high school. Since dethermalizers weren’t widely known in those days, Ivan and his dad “enjoyed” the ultimate success/loss for a free-flighter: two of the early ones were fly-a-ways. Since the local schoolyard was about a mile from his parent’s house, he would lash his control line models to the rear rack on his bike. Then when they got a bit larger and when his younger brother Paul began flying control line as well, he would confiscate his little sister’s recycled baby carriage to tow behind the bike. (Don’t you just have a mental image of Ivan as Dennis, from the movie or TV show Dennis the Menace?)

One of his earliest challenges was flying a large RC seaplane, the Berkeley “Sea Cat”. Even after several changes to more powerful engines, he never succeeded in getting it to take off from the surface of the water, forced instead to watch it wallow around like a large, sick sea bird. However, he flew it often by hand-launching it from a boat in the river in front of the family home, and greatly enjoyed harassing herons and other water birds—all while having only one radio channel (rudder)! He had many close calls where he nearly fell into the river while heaving that monster into the sky. He also built and flew a single-channel Berkeley “Impulse” as a first trainer. He quickly advanced beyond that aircraft, which unfortunately met an untimely end when his brother Paul glided it through a barbed wire fence when the engine stopped and the rubber band escapement ran out of turns!

Following graduation from Rhinelander High School, Ivan was off to Colorado Springs, Colorado to attend the Air Force Prep School and The U.S. Air Force Academy, from which he graduated in June of 1967. During this period he began his lifelong involvement with The Pikes Peak Radio Control Club.

Bart Hayhurst, Ivan’s local “sponsor” in Colorado Springs, would “rescue” him on weekends from the Academy, and they would fly and build the time away. Ivan credited this time playing with models with helping to keep him sane during those pressure cooker years…in spite of the unpredictable nature of the early radios!

He also designed airplanes, and discussed construction “how-to’s” with his dad, his chief builder and soul mate, over the phone during many long conversations home. Ivan’s dad would spend his free time building a model and Ivan would look forward to going back to Wisconsin to fly it that summer, and then take it back to Colorado. Ivan’s family still warily recalls one notable summer when Ivan was going out the door with his newest model in hand for its maiden flight and he slammed its tail in the screen door. The air in northern Wisconsin is still blue! This airplane also explains Ivan’s dread of Elmer’s glue. On one of the first flights, an unscheduled takeoff abort ended up in a ditch full of water…since Elmer’s is not waterproof, a very rapid drying session ensued!

During this time, Ivan became quite proficient as a flyer of all types of model airplanes. He and Academy mate Ron Schreck, and his brother Paul were asked to perform flight demonstrations during football game half-time shows, (he and Paul flew staged control line combat), and the Academy allowed them to have their own workshop which they dubbed: Orville and Wilbur’s Bicycle Shop. One of the planes that Ivan designed and his dad built, (a Fokker DR-I) and an Me-109 that Ivan built at the Academy began to be noticed in scale competitions, as were Ivan’s piloting skills. The Me-109 was the cover photo on one of the model airplane magazines with Ivan holding it while in uniform.

The day after graduation, Ivan married his wife Jean, and in August they reported to Randolph Air Force Base for undergraduate pilot training. He then went immediately into instructor pilot school, without even having to change housing. Ivan was then sent to Laughlin A.F.B., near Del Rio, Texas as a T-38 instructor pilot. The Air Force had realized what many of us knew: Ivan was a born teacher, which is how he spent all but one of his twenty years in the Air Force. During this stay at Laughlin, Ivan welcomed both the birth of his son Paul, and the Air Force’s assigning him to the “Air Force Radio Control Pattern Team”, where he performed quite well for a number of years, while continuing to enter Scale contests as well.
Udorn, Thailand became an intermediate stop during 1973 where he taught “local” pilots to fly the T-28 Trojan…and continued his passion of building, flying and competing with radio controlled models!

From the early 1970’s on, a model airplane event that Ivan attended was not an event unless he had helped in the setup, gotten the engine(s) set, checked the aircraft top to bottom and put in at least one flight…of at least three or four airplanes. Over the last fifteen years these were primarily jet events (followed by Warbird Events), and it was not uncommon for him to be on the flight line for 20-25 flights, of which usually only two or three were with his own aircraft.

On July 27,1977, Ivan test flew his first homebuilt “real” aircraft, a War Aircraft Replicas FW-190, (a 1/3 Scale, mostly fiber-glassed foam reproduction.). It was the homebuilt manufacturer’s first “production” and only the second FW-190 from their plans. It was widely reported upon, and Ivan flew it frequently to many parts of the country. He eventually sold to begin work on a multi-seat Falcon with help from his son Paul. For the last three years, the homebuilt “bug” was eating at him again, and his own design, the Patriot, was in its final design stages with fatigue tests on some components having already been done at the time of his death.

Somewhere during this time, Ivan became intensely interested in writing. He was a member of many writers’ workshops in Colorado, and had several manuscripts reviewed but returned for revision. He also became interested in clay modeling, especially of dragons during the last three years, and he was quite good at it!

His relationship with Flying Models Magazine led to his monthly column “Fan Facts”, where he reviewed many products, as well as designing and publishing more than a few planes, (Northrop B-2, He-162, Tacet Blue, F-16-XL, Tostito), and he assisted in the design and publication of more than a few more, (such as Greg Moore’s RFB-600 FanTrainer, and their joint effort on Burt Rutan’s White Knight. In general, he was a font of knowledge and always willing to share. I hate to think of his at his phone bill! Add to all of his interests and activities (and work) the four partially finished RC models (S-3 Viking, B-47 for six-Midifans, F-15 Eagle for Midifan or MW-44 turbine, Grumman F-4 Wildcat), and the three designed, but not begun original designs; add in another helping of internet communication with the Gas Turbine Builders Association, The EAA, several Electric Powered Model forums and… it’s a wonder he found time to sleep!

Ivan’s relationships with the leaderships of The Academy Of Model Aeronautics and Jet Pilots’ Organizations were occasionally strained since he had a strong, stubborn and vocal opinion on many of the issues, but he was the first to offer congratulations and support if he thought someone was on the right track. As a “concerned” jet modeler, he founded The United States Radio Controlled Jet Command (USRCJC) when he felt that a new voice was needed. Additionally, as the writer of the draft, Ivan was involved with the passage of the Non-Production Turbine Rules, which opened a whole new line of engines to the modeling world.

Acerbic, glib, comedic, opinionated, giving, frugal, widely read…Roget’s Thesaurus does not have enough synonyms to adequately describe Ivan. However, one phrase does sum things up fairly well: “So many airplanes, so little time.”
Ivan passed away in Colorado Springs on June 17, 2004 at the age of 61.