Yes, Geoff's Raven was extremely reliable. He tells me that he originally had a 6-channel set, which apparently was a fetching green colour! He traded it for a black ten-channel set shortly before his family moved down here to Devon, which is where I first met him. He's going to try a dig up some pictures.
He had it in a "Tauran", a low winger with rectangular wings that bore no relation whatsoever to a "Taurus"! It flew very well! I was still flying Grundig reeds at the time, but about a year later was negotiating with our local expert to buy his Bonner Digimite-8. The Digimite had proved to be very reliable, but unbeknownst to me, Geoff was negotiating for the original 4-channel Skyleader!. We both turned up at the site a few weeks later with our new toys (he fitted his in his "Tauran", I had a big shoulder wing job, based on the American "Astro-Cat").
Geoff's dad launched his model off on its maiden flight with the new gear, and almost as soon as it left his hands, it rolled inverted and did a smooth inverted climb out! "Flash g*t!", I thought, but then seconds later he shouted "I haven't got it"!, and it dived in vertically! I think he trashed two or three more models before giving up on it.
A couple of years later, I went through a similar spate with a Simprop Digi-5! Absolute disaster of a radio! Throughout all this, the old Digimite kept working perfectly, and still does today!
Geoff says he often regrets selling that Raven. It was really well made and very reliable. He's still trying to remember the name of the guy who made them. He mentioned the name Don Slater as a possibility, but it doesn't ring any bells with me. I would have thought Shaun or Phil might know, being northeners. Mind you, they probably regard Lancashire as hostile territory!
Lucky you, knowing Chris Olsen! He was always something of a hero of mine back in the day. I saw him a few times at the Nats, but was never lucky enough to meet him.
Cheers,
--
Pete