Welcome to Torrey Pines GullsMartin “Joe” McBride – Co-Modeler of the Year - 1990
Joe McBride came to the Torrey Pines Gulls in the mid-1980s, a friendly guy willing to help others whenever possible. Quickly he volunteered as TPG Vice President, serving in that role in 1986 while Angelo Orona was President.
Joe flew both slope and thermal. At the slope he flew a combination of models, but for thermal duration he mainly flew an Olympic 650 as that was “the” entry-level 2-meter plane of the time for the contest circuit. At the time in thermal duration there was either “open class” or “2-meter” and both were quite popular. Joe was competitive and finished in 7th place out of 26 pilots for the overall standings in open class TD in 1986. As VP, he was also in charge of making sure the club had its prizes for the monthly raffle at the club meetings, which at the time were still held at the Aerospace Museum at Balboa Park. For instance at the September 1986 meeting he had arranged for several prizes including a kit for a Prodigy. Tickets were $1 each or six tickets for $5. The Prodigy was a 2-meter glider designed by Paul Carlson in the 1980s. It was one of the first RC gliders to make use of the soon-to-be-very popular airfoils by Michael Selig. Paul Carson had used the design to take first place in 2-meter at the RC soaring NATS, and with the same plane he placed second in Standard class and third in Open. So the Prodigy was a very popular thing to have in a raffle.
Joe also served as Contest Director for the annual “Redman Rules” contest on July 26, 1986. Phil Merrick was first place with 1000 points. A part of Joe’s write-up told the story:
“Some of the noteworthy happenings included Larry Fogel crashing the plane that he, Gary, and Angelo were flying, thus putting three people out of the contest. Another was Bud Lavagino making a downwind approach at the beer cans with his Son of Savage. He hit the ground at an impressively high speed about five feet in front of the beer cans. Even more impressive, he was able to repair the damage with tape and continue in the contest.”
In 1987, Joe was elected TPG President. He also became interested in scale and purchased a ¼ scale Discus from Larry Fogel. He continued flying in monthly thermal contests, ending 1987 in 6th place out of 23 pilots overall for open class TD in 1987. After his one-year term, he was succeeded by Larry Fogel in 1988 as club president. Continuing with Joe’s interest in competition he placed 6th out of 25 in open in the final standings for 1988, 5th in 2 meter out of 25. He served as Flight Director for the TPG in 1989, essentially a position of safety officer for all club fields, and placed 10th overall out of 32 in open TD, 9th out of 27 in 2 meter in the year end 1989 standings.
In 1990, Angelo Orona and Joe McBride were elected once again as President and Vice President respectively, effectively duplicating their roles in 1986. Joe continued to serve as Contest Director for several club contests, for instance the thermal contest which was held at Montgomery-Waller Park in south Bay in March 1990. He continued on as VP again in 1991. At the annual banquet of the membership held February 23, 1991 at Seapoint Hotel, the Modeler of the Year trophy was awarded to both Joe McBride and Richard Bledsoe – each able to have it at their house for 6 months out of the year.
I also recall that for a period of time in the late 1990s, Joe McBride flew the indoor RC balloon for the San Diego Gulls ice hockey team at the Sports Arena at halftime. So he was actually involved with two different “Gulls” local gulls groups!
