Welcome to Torrey Pines GullsCliff Hunter – Co-Modeler of the Year – 2008
Cliff Hunter was born in Henderson, Nevada and after the family moved to Signal Hill near Long Beach, he enjoyed building a lot of plastic model airplanes as a kid. Remaining interested in aviation, after graduating high school he took a position at Douglas Aircraft at the Long Beach Airport as a template maker. This job required photography to stencil parts onto aluminum and then cutting out the parts, drilled appropriately or making templates for others to make more parts. It was a lot of work, but Cliff learned a lot about tooling, machinery, and aircraft design. His efforts helped in the production of the Douglas DC-8, DC-9, DC-10, KC-133, and A-4E. With each project came increased trust and clearance by the company, and eventually after about 4 years Cliff became a Tool Liaison in charge of refitting parts that didn’t fit perfectly the first time. This included solving a lot of mysteries. He especially enjoyed working on the titanium tail section of the DC-10.
Cliff then went to Long Beach College taking courses in auto repair. He was a gifted mechanic. He continued work at Douglas but at about 25 years of age, his next-door neighbor had a family in Escondido and suggested that Cliff should take a test as a firefighter and move there. Cliff took the test and did not pass. But he really took a liking to the idea of firefighting. In roughly 1970, Cliff was finally hired by the San Marcos Fire Department and for many years thereafter applied his mechanical skills to firefighting, being especially creative on the spot when tools didn’t work as designed. The job had lots of variety, with every call to action representing a new challenge. Over the years Cliff was promoted through the ranks from firefighter to Captain to Deputy Chief. In 1998, he retired and began working with TPGer Garth Warner at the San Diego Safari Park. Cliff's job was repairing large scale animatronic dinosaur models for the Jurassic Park exhibit. Through this effort he became proficient at airbrushing and epoxy at large scales.
While still associated with San Marcos Fire Department, Cliff noticed a group of people flying model airplanes in a field in San Marcos. He decided to check it out. Keith Finkenbiner was there, along with George Joy, Terry Throop, Don Richmond and others. Cliff was hooked as this was a cool way of getting back into model aviation in a relaxing environment and he could still make use of his mechanical background. His first RC sailplane was a Mark’s Models Wanderer which was put aloft on the NCC winch which at the time could operate on either 6V (for built up balsa planes) or 12V (for F3B zoom launches). The NCC was a tight group of thermal soaring friends who enjoyed flying on the weekends and competing in the SC2 contests. However, development in San Marcos led to the closure of the NCC thermal field in about 1990. This required effort between the NCC and TPG to combine resources. Three TPGers (Keith Finkenbiner, Cliff Hunter, and Tom Minegar) shared the Modeler of the Year award in 2008 as all three were instrumental in the merger of the North County Clouds (NCC) with the Torrey Pines Gulls after the unfortunate loss of the NCC thermal field. At that time Cliff also learned more about slope soaring and for a time he got a Zagi and enjoyed slope combat but thermal duration at Poway was really his main passion.
Cliff re-entered the fire service becoming Fire Marshal for Rancho Santa Fe in 2003. Through this position he began to search for other fields that would be suitable for thermal duration in the North County. At first, the San Marcos Landfill fit the bill. He met with Jason Forge at the landfill but for various reasons that site did not pan out. However, Jason suggested another landfill at Encinitas and arranged for a site visit. Mike Smith also attended and provided a demonstration of thermal soaring. The field was perfect! Thereafter given Mike’s profession in civil engineering, he became more heavily involved, drafting drawings of where barricades would be placed to protect methane pipes, etc. Meanwhile in his role as Fire Marshal, negotiations continued and in roughly 2005, largely through the efforts and negotiation of Cliff, Keith, and Tom Minegar, the field was finally secured for TPG use. Keith then arranged for work parties to install all of Mike’s planned improvements to the site.
Over the years Cliff enjoyed many thermal duration sailplanes. Beginning with the Wanderer he graduated to an Olympic II, then Sagitta 900, Sagitta 600, Thermal Eagle, Falcon 880, etc. Cliff was the type to dial in a plane and then hang on to it for quite some time.
Contest flying has always been a regular passion for Cliff and he’s enjoyed the camaraderie and the ability to share flying sites like San Marcos, Poway, and Encinitas with friends.
Within the TPG, Cliff has volunteered at one time or another as Thermal Coordinator, Membership Coordinator, Newsletter Editor, Winchmaster, and President, and probably a few other positions that we’ve forgotten. Cliff enjoyed the large monthly meetings that the club used to have at the Aerospace Museum – additional opportunities to interact with friends in a very special setting. Sadly, Cliff passed away in January 2026, leaving a void that has been difficult to fill, both for the club and for each of us as individuals and his friends. We will miss you, Cliff!
