Welcome to Torrey Pines GullsFrank Hunter – Modeler of the Year - 1980
Frank Hunter likely joined the Torrey Pines Gulls sometime in mid-to-late 1979. He received his LSF Level I on November 5, 1979. However, Frank was a “go-getter” and wanted to assist in club development. He volunteered as Membership Chairman in 1980. In January of 1980 he (along with Bob Anderson, Alex Mladineo, and Pepper Kay) helped organize an “LSF Sunday” monthly program for TPG to generate interest in LSF and help the club acquire new talent. To prep for this, Frank took considerable time and effort in December-January to restore all of the club winches and turnarounds. It was a bit like being winchmaster, membership chairman, and LSF coordinator all at the same time and all at the very start of his tenure on the TPG board.
Frank largely focused on 2-meter (Class B) sailplanes and thermal duration rather than slope. He placed third at the monthly thermal duration contest in February 1980, suggesting that he may have had some great familiarity with aeromodeling before he came to the TPG but it isn’t clear.
In 1979, TPG membership hovered around 50 members. By 1979/1980 the club was now ~10 years old and only a handful of the original membership remained. Some older members had drifted away, while younger members went off to college or just dropped the hobby altogether. Something needed to be done to capture and retain new membership and Frank was the right guy for the Membership Chairman role. By April 1980, membership had grown to 79, by May 1980 it was closer to 90. In August, Frank pushed it up to over 100. Frank was doing yeoman’s work in pulling in new members! The LSF program and monthly slope and thermal contests were key.
On August 18, 1980, Frank satisfied his LSF Level II requirements. Shortly thereafter, he had a nice 31 min, 39 second flight with an Olympic II at Hourglass Field as a part of his Level III requirements. He achieved Level III on October 8, 1980. At one of the club thermal duration contests in late 1980, Frank ballasted the same Oly II with 6 ounces (reportedly, the maximum possible) and proceeded to blow the right wing off the plane on winch launch at Hourglass. The report in the newsletter told the rest of the story: “the fuselage and left wing made a spectacular dive into the open ground near the baseball field. The impact was so great that the ballast tore through the wing saddle plywood former and smashed the servos.”
The November 1980 newsletter listed five candidates for TPG member of the year (Frank Hunter, Pepper Kay, Steve Manganelli, Steve Neu, Bob Torres) plus a write-in opportunity and this was put to a vote of the membership. All five of these individuals were doing incredible things for the club. The result of the vote however had Frank Hunter winning the trophy. This was announced at the club Christmas party (which also happened to be held at the home of Frank and Gwen Hunter on December 12, 1980). Not only did Frank win the award, but he was elected as club President for 1981 as a result, with Steve Manganelli serving as Vice President. Frank served throughout 1981, taking a long summer trip throughout the US to check out other RC soaring happenings along the way. Meanwhile the club membership was divided in many ways (“slope vs. thermal”; “newbie vs. expert”; “old ways vs. new ways”; etc.). Perhaps part of this was the result of Frank’s excellent membership drive – a large number of new members were looking for activities but there were few leaders stepping up to make those efforts happen. The “standard” monthly contests continued but TPG was entering a period of conflict about its direction. Perhaps the club was growing a bit faster than the club itself could absorb.
After 1982, Frank seems to have left the club for reasons that are unknown. And at the dawn of the 1980s the club was facing many challenges (retaining Hourglass Field, working with hang glider pilots at Torrey Pines to help develop rules through the Torrey Pines Soaring Council, etc.). It seems that Frank’s time with the club, while brief and well appreciated, came at a crossroads for the Torrey Pines Gulls.