Welcome to Torrey Pines GullsDale Gottdank – Modeler of the Year – 2016
Dale grew up in Brooklyn, New York. One of his dentist father’s many hobbies was an addiction to model railroading. He’d filled half their basement with a huge HO scale layout built on top of two-by-four trestles. This, together with slot cars and various paper airplane designs brought home by his father pretty much solidified Dale’s interest in building models. By age 10, Dale was already adept at using a few dentist tools (yes, including a drill) for work with model building.
The local five-and-dime store also had small balsa chuck gliders and kites, and Dale had an interest in anything that would fly, starting with those paper airplanes and then chuck gliders, kites, and even Estes model rockets. Inspired by the NASA Gemini and Apollo programs at age 12 or 13, Dale, his dad, brother and friends enjoyed flying their rockets at the Jacob Riis Park lot near Rockaway Beach to the south of Brooklyn when Rockaway Beach was closed between Labor Day and Memorial Day. Unbeknownst to Dale, this was also the home of the Pennsylvania Avenue Radio Control Soaring Society (PARCS). PARCS later relocated to nearby Floyd Bennett Field. (Floyd Bennett Field has a rich aviation history as New York City’s first municipal airport, then a Naval Air Station during WWII, and location of many world record flights including Howard Hughes’ flight with a crew of four around the world in 3 days, 19 hours, and 10 seconds in 1938. By the late 1960s and early 1970s the facility was hardly used for manned aviation and so we now add Dale’s model rocketry fun to all of that cool prior history …) One day as the kids were flying rockets at Floyd Bennett Field or Riis Park in about 1968/1969, they noticed a group of people flying RC powered aircraft nearby. This included a large Corsair that Dale thought was really cool. Dale didn’t get into RC at that time but really thought the concept was amazing.
While in high school, Dale pursued an interest in history and art, and had a natural pre-disposition towards building things. After high school, he was accepted to attend The Cooper Union School of Architecture in New York City’s East Village. This prestigious art, architecture and engineering school also offered a free 5-year tuition for students to attend. He graduated with a Bachelor of Architecture Degree in 1977. Architecture allowed Dale to still use his hands-on building skills as each new project required a design mock-up, usually made of cardboard, balsa, basswood or other materials. This career trajectory allowed him to merge his hobby skills with modeling skills in important and new directions. Following his BArch. degree, he enrolled in graduate school at Princeton University with an interest in urban planning. The program at Princeton helped Dale appreciate a different view of design at larger scales. While normally very pricey, due to Dale’s academic skills, he received a full tuition fellowship. (That’s a lot of tremendous free schooling folks!) Dale graduated with a Masters in Urban Planning (MUP) but most importantly met his wife Nancy in the same urban planning program at Princeton. They moved to New York and married in 1983.
Working as an architect in New York, Dale found time on weekends to re-engage his passion for things that fly. Many in the local community were interested in kites at the time, flying them from a park in Brooklyn overlooking Lower New York Bay. He began to fashion his own kites, from design to sewing the fabric on a sewing machine, to flight testing. It was fun to be flying with other like-minded kite flyers.
In 1985, Dale and Nancy had the opportunity to visit San Diego. Not a bad place, and the weather sure was much nicer than in New York! Plus, San Diego felt like a better (and less expensive) place to raise a family. Their son, Jordan, was born in 1988 and over time, Dale managed to convince his wife that the move was a good idea. After applying for, and receiving his California architect’s license, he lined up a job and the family moved to San Diego in 1989. Dale’s projects included “forensic architecture,” analyzing construction/design failures and remediation methods. This involved a lot of report writing, and Dale learned a great deal about publishing and editing, which would come in handy in newsletter editing.
On a whim in 1990, Dale happened to stop by the Torrey Pines Gliderport as he always retained that interest in “things that fly” and it sounded like a cool destination. There he saw the RCers flying and WOW; it was just as cool as that Corsair near Floyd Bennett Field but without the motor! On that day he fortunately met Charlie Richardson, who helped demonstrate slope aerobatics with a Turbo. Dale was hooked. An Olympic 650 and manual written by Al Doig was soon in his garage, along with a Futaba transmitter.
Once the Oly 650 was ready to fly, Torrey was probably the right place for test flights, but throwing all that work off a cliff seemed unappealing. Instead, Dale went to the TPG Poway field for some initial flight tests. He set up a hi-start and began launching with successful flights and no crashes. But very soon, George Joy’s son, Bryan showed up and informed Dale that he was flying in the wrong place and it would be better if he followed him over to the location of the actual club field. There, Dale was introduced to George Joy, who together with Bryan, helped get the Oly checked out and also provided some flight lessons. After another trip or two to Poway to get the CG and trim correct (including learning to launch off a winch), Dale had the courage to fly it at Torrey. One of the regulars helped, and the flights were fun and perfect. Dale took a great interest in the art of landing. He felt that making a good landing was the best part of the entire flight, so relaunching just to land became its own fun.
Dale continued with a series of RC gliders in the 1990s. A Skeeter – which soon was destroyed – was replaced by a second. His first aileron plan was used Ridge Runt he bought from George Joy. These were followed by a Bob Martin Talon and then a Dodgson Pivot, among others.
But by the late 1990s, time with his son took priority; a change in his path in architecture required additional time, and he dropped flying for a while. By 2007/2008 things were settled enough again to restart his interest in RC soaring and the “Thursday Evening Fun Fly” events set up by TPG and Parviz Kamiab at Torrey were just the ticket. Dale soon bought a Moth from Matin Taraz at North County Flying Machines, and also starting flying his Oly 650 at the TPG Encinitas and Poway fields along with a CR Aircraft Climmax, a refurbished Wanderer, and other aircraft. Even the Pivot had a few goes up the hi-start. At one point, he was gifted a damaged 1990s Sapphire from Drew Arnett, repaired it, and had a few flights at the Poway field. At Poway and Encinitas, he began to really understand and appreciate thermalling for the first time. Between 2007-2012, Dale enjoyed RC soaring at a variety of locations in San Diego County including Torrey, Encinitas, Poway, Dave’s Beach, Blossom Valley and the former “Instant Lift” near Sorrento Valley. He became interested in power slope scale (PSS) models, building a Spitfire an Airacobra and a Beech Staggerwing,, flying those at PSS Fest at Cajon Pass in San Bernardino County. He also got into discus launch gliders (DLG) after attended the IHLGF as a spectator; building a Gambler and a Predator II.
In October, 2012, while in New York for some family matters, Dale acquired an unusual staphylococcus infection near his spinal cord resulting in arm and leg paralysis. To make matters even more complex, Hurricane Sandy hit the east coast at precisely this same time! A crazy set of circumstances. Dale’s injuries, while severe, were deemed to still provide an opportunity for healing. Through months of rehab, Dale slowly regained use of his arms, and transitioned over time from a motorized wheelchair to a manual wheelchair and then, a walker. He continued working in architecture until his retirement in 2015.
A part of his recovery has involved RC soaring and TPG. He returned to fly with slope friends at Dave’s Beach for the Dave Kellogg Memorial Fly in and was welcomed back by many with others launching his planes for him and then Dale flying from his motorized wheelchair. It felt good to be back in the air. Dale also volunteered his time, and at the suggestion of then TPG President Dan Cummins, began serving as Newsletter Editor (a post he has continued to hold ever since). This position also made use of Dale’s previous writing and publishing skills. In 2016, the club honored him with the Modeler of the Year Trophy but if the club had a “Comeback Player of the Decade Trophy” he would have earned that too. In 2018 he assumed the additional role of TPG Secretary and has been in this dual role of Editor and Secretary to present.
Dale would like to thank many modelers for helping to keep him active and engaged in soaring, and most importantly to help him through his health issues. These include the crew at Dave’s Beach and TPGers (Mark Baldacchino, Dan Cummins, Greg Houck, Cliff Hunter, Brian Laird, Jim Scott, Matin Taraz, Mark Wood, and others). TPG has provided Dale with a purpose through a tumultuous set of circumstances and he appreciates all that the club and RC soaring have meant through some difficult times.
We all hope to see Dale flying lots more in the years to come!
