Welcome to Torrey Pines GullsAlex Mladineo - Modeler of the Year - 1975
In 1974, new member Alex Mladineo took the reins as newsletter editor. Larry Fogel and Ken Banks supplied material, while Alex went through the monthly trouble of diligently typing it all up, making copies by hand, and distributing through the US Mail. Alex found the TPG through a circuitous route. Working as a process engineer for a company in Rancho Bernardo, he was first introduced to RC sailplanes when his boss began building a Mark’s Models Windward as a diversion. Many employees in the company became interested with the plans and progress, and soon Alex visited a local hobby shop to also purchase a kit. Once the gliders were built, they would fly on their own from a hill near Rancho Bernardo. One day Alex finally had the idea of going to the Torrey Pines Gliderport to meet other like minded RC soaring enthusiasts. He started flying regularly at Torrey, and also at Hourglass Field, the Gulls thermal location near Mira Mesa.
Alex rapidly took to thermal duration contest formats. For instance, at the 1975 North-South Meet in Bakersfield, Alex placed 4th overall in standard class precision duration. He also became a contest director and helped organize meets – for instance one of the first club “build-and-fly” contests was CD’ed by Alex on July 12, 1975 at Torrey. At these events, a load of balsa (typically donated by Mark Smith of Mark’s Models) would arrive at Torrey by pickup truck early in the morning. This was dumped in the pit area and builders would gather to check out the wood and select their grain. At 9:30 the contest would begin and, as was so eloquently reported by Alex in the newsletter “by 11:30, 5 tons of wood were reduced to 50 lbs. of planes and 9950 lbs. of scrap wood and shavings.” The first glider to launch, fly successfully and land back on top of the cliff was declared the winner. On that day in 1975, the winner was Ken Banks with his plane called “Haven’t the Slightest Idea.” Other creative aircraft names that day included “Don’t Tell Me to Name It,” “The Mess,” “Kiss of Fire,” and “Oh God.”
Alex’s tenure as newsletter editor ended in 1976 as he began to focus more on contest soaring. However, his Modeler of the Year trophy was received at the club banquet on January 31, 1976 specifically for his efforts to run the newsletter and bring new modelers into the club. He took first place at the monthly club thermal contest in February 1976 and, along with Al Doig, Ed Hoppe, and Randy Warner began training other new pilots to fly in contest formats. They established a “pro-am” format where thermal contests were scored using different constraints based on the pilot classification. For instance, a pro would have to land in a small circle while an amateur would have to land in a larger area. Pros were assigned to amateurs at the start of the contest and helped with suggestions throughout the morning.
Most pilots, like Alex, were flying Mark’s Models Windfree sailplanes. In about 1976/1977, Alex switched to a Craft Air Windrifter. The 1977 NATS were held in Riverside at March AFB. The RC soaring component was held to the SE of that location closer to Gilman Hot Springs. Someone should have just named it “Gilman Hot” because it was hot enough without the springs – the daily temps during the contest were 110F. Alex came in 8th in the Modified Standard Class. At the 1977 LSF Tournament, held at Dominguez College near Los Angeles, Alex flew superbly, earning him first place in Standard out of 47 contestants! This put him on the national scene. After watching Skip Miller fly at the NATS with a prototype Airtronics Aquila, Alex new he had to have one and enjoyed that for the rest of his time in RC soaring. He began on the LSF achievement program, and got stuck at Level IV and the difficulty of XC soaring. Unfortunately, in the early 1980s, he had to focus on his business and family obligations. He drifted away from RC soaring in pursuit of other life goals and hobbies. He would, on occasion, pop back in at Torrey to see the latest happenings. His patience and ability to take time with others who were learning was very inspirational.
